Scotland -- History -- War of Independence, 1285-1371 -- Fiction
"Lady," said he, "I bless God you are revived." Her delicacy shrunk at
the situation in which she found herself; and raising herself, though
feebly, she thanked him, and requested a little water. It was given to
her. She drank some, and would have met the fixed and compassionate
gaze of the knight, had not weakness cast such a film before her eyes
that she scarcely saw anything. Being still languid, she leaned her
head on the turf seat. Her face was pale as marble, and her long hair,
saturated with wet, by its darkness made her look of a more deadly hue.
"Death! how lovely canst thou be!" sighed the knight to himself--he even
groaned. Helen started, and looked around her with alarm. "Fear not,"
said he, "I only dreaded your pale looks; but you revive, and will yet
bless all that are dear to you. Suffer me, sweet lady, to drain the
dangerous wet from these tresses?" He took hold of them as he spoke.
She saw the water running from her hair over his hands, and allowing
his kind request, he continued wiping her glossy locks with his scarf,
till, exhausted by fatigue, she gradually sunk into a profound sleep.
Dawn had penetrated the ruined walls of the hut before Lady Helen
awoke. But when she did, she was refreshed; and opening her
eyes--hardly conscious where she was, or whether all that floated in her
memory were not the departing vapors of a frightful dream--she turned
her head and fixed them upon the figure of the knight, who was seated
near her. His noble air; and the pensive expression of his fine
features, struck like a spell upon her gathering recollections; she at
once remembered all she had suffered, all that she owed to him. She
moved. Her preserver turned his eyes toward her; seeing she was awake,
he rose from the side of the dying embers he had sedulously kept alive
during her slumber, and expressed his hopes that she felt restored.
She returned him a grateful reply, in the affirmative; and he quitted
her, to rouse his men for their journey to the hermit's cell.
When he re-entered, he found Helen braiding up the fine hair which had
so lately been scattered by the elements. She would have risen at his
approach, but he seated himself on a stone at her feet. "We shall be
detained here a few minutes longer," said he; "I have ordered my men to
make a litter of crossed branches, to bear you on their shoulders.
Your delicate limbs would not be equal to the toil of descending these
heights, to the glen of stones. The venerable man who inhabits there
will protect you until he can summon your family, or friends, to
receive his charge."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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