fled, "I shall be left here," continued the earl, "to assist you, Lord
Mar, in the severer duties attendant on being governor of this place."

No sooner did these words reach the ears of the countess than, struck
with despair, she hastened toward her husband, and earnestly exclaimed,
"You will not suffer this!"

"No," returned the earl, mistaking her meaning; "not being able to
perform the duties attendant on the responsibilities station with which
Wallace would honor me, I shall relinquish it altogether to Lord
Lennox, and be amply satisfied in finding myself under his protection."

"Ah, where is protection without Sir William Wallace?" cried she. "If
he go, our enemies will return. Who then will repel them from these
walls? Who will defend your wife and only son from falling again into
the hands of our doubly incensed foes?"

Mar observed Lord Lennox color at this imputation on his bravery, and
shocked at the affront which his unreflecting wife seemed to give so
gallant a chief, he hastily replied, "Though this wounded arm cannot
boast, yet the Earl of Lennox is an able representative of our
commander."

"I will die, madam," interrupted Lennox, "before anything hostile
approaches you or your children."

She attended slightly to this pledge, and again addressed her lord with
fresh arguments for the detention of Wallace. Sir Roger Kirkpatrick,
impatient under all this foolery, as he justly deemed it, abruptly
said, "Be assured, fair lady, Israel's Samson was not brought into the