When they were arrived within a short distance from Paris, Wallace wrote a few lines to King Philip, informing him who were the companions of his journey, and that he would rest near the Abbey of St. Genevieve until he should receive his majesty’s greetings to Bruce; also the queen’s granted protection for the daughter of the Earl of Mar. Grimsby was the bearer of this letter. He soon returned with an escort of honor, accompanied by Prince Louis himself. At sight of Wallace he flew into his arms, and after embracing him again and again with all the unchecked ardor of youthful gratitude, he presented to him a packet from the king.

It expressed the satisfaction of Philip at the near prospect of his seeing the man whom he had so long admired, and whose valor had wrought him such service as the preservation of his son. He then added that he had other matters to thank him for when they should meet, and subjects to discuss which would be much elucidated by the presence of Bruce. “According to your request,” continued he, “the name of neither shall be made public at my court. My own family only know who are to be my illustrious guests. The queen is impatient to bid them welcome, and no less eager to greet the Lady Helen Mar with her friendship and protection.”

A beautiful palfrey, superbly caparisoned, and tossing its fair neck amid the pride of its gorgeous chamfraine, was led forward by a page. Two ladies, also, bearing rich apparel for Helen, appeared in the train. When their errand was made known to Wallace, he communicated it to Helen. Her delicacy indeed wished to lay aside her page’s apparel before she was presented to the queen; but she had been so happy while she wore it!

“Days have passed with me in these garments,” said she to herself, “which may never occur again!”

The laddies were conducted to her. They delivered a gracious message from their royal mistress, and opened the caskets. Helen sighed; she could urge nothing in opposition to their embassy, and reluctantly assented to the change they were to make in her appearance. She stood mute while they disarrayed her of her humble guise, and clothed her in the robes of France. During their attendance, in the adulatory strains of the court, they broke out in encomiums on the graces of her person; but to all this she turned an inattentive ear — her mind was absorbed in what she had enjoyed, in the splendid penance she might now undergo.

One of the women was throwing the page’s clothes carelessly into a bag, when Helen perceiving her, with ill-concealed eagerness, cried:

“Take care of that suit, it is more precious to me than gold or jewels.”

“Indeed!” answered the attendant, more respectfully folding it; “it does not seem of very rich silk.”

“Probably not,” returned Helen, “but it is valuable to me, and wherever I lodge, I will thank you to put it into my apartment.”

A mirror was now presented that she might see herself. She started at the load of jewels with which they had adorned her, and while tears filled her eyes, she mildly said:

“I am a mourner, and these ornaments must not be worn by me.”

The ladies obeyed her wish to have them taken off, and with thoughts divided between her father and her father’s friend, she was conducted toward the palfrey. Wallace approached her, and Bruce flew forward, with his usual haste, to assist her; but it was no longer the beautiful little page that met his view, the confidential and frank glance of a youthful brother — it was a lovely woman arrayed in all the charms of female apparel, trembling and blushing, as she again appeared as a woman before the eyes of the man she loved. Wallace sighed as he touched her hand, for there was something in her air which seemed to say, “I am not what I was a few minutes ago.” It was the aspect of the world’s austerity, the decorum of rank and situation — but not of the heart — that had never been absent from the conduct of Helen; had she been in the wilds of Africa, with no other companion than Wallace, still would those chaste reserves which lived in her soul have been there the guardian of her actions, for modesty was as much the attribute of her person, as magnanimity the character of her mind.

Her more distant air at this time was the effect of reflections while in the abbey where he had lodged her. She saw that the frank intercourse between them was to be interrupted by the forms of a court, and her manner insensibly assumed the demeanor she was so soon to wear. Bruce looked at her with delighted wonder. He had before admired her as beautiful, he now gazed on her as transcendently so. He checked himself in his swift step — he paused to look on her and Wallace, and contemplating them with sentiments of unmingled admiration, this exclamation unconsciously escaped him:

“How lovely!”

He could not but wish to see two such perfectly amiable and perfectly beautiful beings united as closely by the bonds of the altar as he believed they were in heart, and he longed for the hour when he might endow them with those proofs of his fraternal love which should class them with the first of Scottish princes.

“But how,” thought he, “can I ever sufficiently reward thee, Wallace, for what thou hast done for me and mine? Thy services are beyond all price; thy soul is above even empires. Then how can I show thee all that is in my heart for thee?”

While he thus apostrophized his friend, Wallace and Helen advanced toward him. Bruce held out his hand to her with a cordial smile.

“Lady Helen, we are still to be the same! Robes of no kind must ever separate the affections born in our pilgrimage!”

She put her hand into his with a glow of delight.

“While Sir William Wallace allows me to call him brother,” answered she, “that will ever be a sanction to our friendship; but courts are formal places, and I now go to one.”

“And I will soon remove you to another,” replied he, “where”— he hesitated — looked at Wallace and then resumed: “where every wish of my sister Helen’s heart shall be gratified, or I be no king.”

Helen blushed deeply and hastened toward the palfrey. Wallace placed her on the embroidered saddle, and Prince Louis preceding the cavalcade, it moved on.

As Bruce vaulted into his seat he said something to his friend of the perfectly feminine beauty of Helen.

“But her soul is fairer!” returned Wallace.

The Prince of Scotland, with a gay but tender smile, softly whispered:

“Fair, doubly fair to you!”

Wallace drew a deep sigh.

“I never knew but one woman who resembled her, and she did indeed excel all of created mold. From infancy to manhood I read every thought of her angelic heart; I became the purer by the study, and I loved my model with an idolatrous adoration. There was my error! But those sympathies, those hours are past. My heart will never throb as it has throbbed; never rejoice as it has rejoiced; for she who lived but for me, who doubled all my joys, is gone! Oh, my prince, though blessed with friendship, there are times when I feel that I am solitary!”

Bruce looked at him with some surprise.

“Solitary, Wallace! can you ever be solitary, and near Helen of Mar?”

“Perhaps more so then than at any other time; for her beauties, her excellences, remind me of what were once mine, and recall every regret. Oh, Bruce! thou canst not comprehend my loss! To mingle thought with thought, and soul with soul, for years; and then, after blending our very beings, and feeling as if indeed made one, to be separated — and by a stroke of violence! This was a trial of the spirit which, but for Heaven’s mercy, would have crushed me. I live, but still my heart will mourn, mourn her I have lost — and mourn that my rebellious nature will not be more resigned to the judgments of its God.”

“And is love so constant, so tenacious?” exclaimed Bruce; “is it to consume your youth, Wallace? Is it to wed such a heart as yours to the tomb? Ah! am I not to hope that the throne of my children may be upheld by a race of thine?”

Wallace shook his head, but with a placid firmness replied:

“Your throne and your children’s, if they follow your example, will be upheld by Heaven; but should they pervert themselves, a host of mortal supports would not be sufficient to stay their downfall.”

In discourse like this, the youthful Prince of Scotland caught a clearer view of the inmost thoughts of his friend than he had been able to discern before; for war, or Bruce’s own interests, having particul............