tears. At this sight Lord Lennox, sufficiently disgusted with the
lady, taking Murray by the arm, withdrew with him from the apartment.

She approached Wallace: "You are come, my deliverer, to speak comfort
to the mother of this poor babe. My cruel lord here, and the Earl of
Lennox, say you mean to abandon us in this castle?"

"It cannot be abandoned," returned the chief, "while they are in it.
But if so warlike a scene alarms you, would not a religious sanctuary-"

"Not for worlds!" cried she, interrupting him; "what altar is held
sacred by the enemies of our country! O! wonder not, then," added she,
putting her face to that of her child, "that I should wish this
innocent babe never to be from under the wing of such a protector."

"But that is impossible, Joanna," rejoined the earl; "Sir William
Wallace has duties to perform superior to that of keeping watch over
any private family. His presence is wanted in the field, and we should
be traitors to the cause did we detain him."

"Unfeeling Mar," cried she, bursting into tears, "thus to echo the
words of the barbarian Kirkpatrick; thus to condemn us to die! You
will see another tragedy: your own wife and child seized by the
returning Southrons, and laid bleeding at your feet!"

Wallace walked from her much agitated.

"Rather inhuman, Joanna," whispered Lord Mar to her in an angry voice,
"to make such a reference to the presence of our protector! I cannot
stay to listen to a pertinacity as insulting to the rest of our brave