Betrothed, The

The, a novel by Sir Walter Scott. It was published in 1825. Lady Eveline Berenger is the heroine of the novel. She is the betrothed of Sir Hugo de Lacy, a middle-aged man of noble character, who has taken the vows of a Crusader. While he is absent in fulfilment of his vow, Eveline falls in love with Damian de Lacy, Sir Hugo's nephew. She shelters him when wounded and accused of treason, and, in consequence, her name is slandered. The supernatural element is introduced. Eveline is warned by a specter that she will be

She comes to regard the word "betrothed" as the keynote to her destiny. She endures many trials and sorrows but is made happy in the end. Although the twentieth of the Waverley novels in order of publication, in chronological order the story stands among the first, the time being the latter part of the twelfth century during the reign of Henry II. The Betrothed and The Talisman constitute the Tales of the Crusaders. The Betrothed pictures the social conditions resulting from the Crusader's long absence in Palestine. Scott says in his introduction to the edition of 1832, "The story was, therefore, less an incident belonging to the Crusades than one which was occasioned by the singular cast of mind introduced and spread wide by those memorable undertakings."