Sir William Wallace made his way swiftly along the crags and across the river to the cliffs which overlooked the garden of Ellerslie. As he approached he saw his newly-wedded wife, the Lady Marion, leaning over the couch of a wounded man. She looked up, and, with a cry of joy, threw herself into his arms. Blood dropped from his forehead upon her bosom. "O my Wallace, my Wallace!" cried she in agony. "Fear not, my love, it is a mere scratch. How is the wounded stranger?" It was Wallace who had saved the stranger's life. That day he had been summoned to Douglas Castle, where he had received in secret from Sir John Monteith an iron box entrusted to him by Lord Douglas, then imprisoned in England; he had been charged to cherish the box in strictness, and not to suffer it to be opened until Scotland was again free. Returning with his treasure through Lanark, he had seen a fellow countryman wounded, and in deadly peril at the hands of a party of English. Telling two of his attendants to carry the injured man to Ellerslie, he had beaten off the English and slain their leader--Arthur Heselrigge, nephew of the Governor of Lanark. "Gallant Wallace!" said the stranger, "it is Donald, Earl of Mar, who owes you his life." "Then blest be my arm," exclaimed Wallace, "that has preserved a life so precious to my country!" "Armed men are approaching!" cried Lady Marion. "Wallace, you must fly. But oh! whither?" "Not far, my love; I must seek the recesses of the Cartlane Crags. But the Earl of Mar--we must conceal him." They found a hiding-place for the wounded earl, and Wallace went away, promising to be near at hand. Hardly had he gone when the door was burst open by a band of soldiers, and Lady Wallace was confronted by the governor of Lanark. "Woman!" cried he, "on your allegiance to King Edward, answer me--where is Sir William Wallace, the murderer of my nephew?" She was silent. "I can reward you richly," he went on, "if you speak the truth. Refuse, and you die!" She stretched her hands to heaven. "Blessed Virgin, to thee I commit myself." "Speak!" cried the governor, drawing his sword. She sank to the ground. "Kneel not to me for mercy!" "I kneel to heaven alone," she said firmly, "and may it ever preserve my Wallace!" "Blasphemous wretch!" cried the governor, and he plunged the sword through her heart. A shudder of horror ran through the English soldiers. "My friends," said Heselrigge, "I reward your services with the plunder of Ellerslie." "Cursed be he who first carries a stick from its walls!" exclaimed a veteran. "Amen!" murmured all the soldiers. But next day the governor, with a body of soldiers who had not witnessed his infamous deed, plundered Ellerslie and burnt it to the ground. During the day Lord Mar was brought from his hiding-place, and taken to Bothwell Castle; but the English seized him and his wife, and they were placed in strict confinement among the English garrison on the Rock of Dumbarton.