PROFOUND as was the rest of Wallace, yet the first clarion of the lark awakened him. The rosy dawn shone in at the window; and a fresh breeze wooed him with its inspiring breath, to rise and meet it. But the impulse was in his own mind; he needed nothing outward, to call him to action. Rising immediately, he put on his glittering hauberk; and issuing from the tower, raised his bugle to his lips, and blew so rousing a blast, that in an instant the whole rock was covered with soldiers.

Wallace placed his helmet on his head, and advanced towards them, just as Edwin had joined him, and Sir Roger Kirkpatrick appeared from the tower. "Blest be this morn!" cried the old knight: "My sword springs from its scabbard, to meet it :—and ere its good steel be sheathed again," continued he, shaking it sternly; "what deaths may dye its point!"

Offended at such savageness, but without answering him, Wallace drew towards Murray, and calling to Edwin, ordered him to march at his side. The youth seemed glad of the summons: and Wallace was pleased to observe it, as he thought that a longer stay with one: who so grossly overcharged the feelings of honest patriotism, might breed disgust in his innocent mind against a cause which had so furious, and therefore unjust a defender.

"Justice and mercy ever dwell together," said he to Edwin, who now drew near him; "for universal love is the parent of justice as well as of mercy. But implacable Revenge! whence did she spring, but from the head of Satan himself?"

The forces being marshalled according to the preconcerted order, the three commanders, with Wallace at their head, led forward.

They passed through the forest of Glenfinlass: and morning, and evening, still found them thridding its unsuspected solitudes, in unmolested security: night too, watched their onward march.

The sun had just risen, as the little band of patriots, the hope of freedom! emerged upon the eastern bank of Loch Lomond. The bases of the mountains were yet covered with the dispersing mist of the morning, and hardly distinguishable from the blue waters of the lake, which lashed the shore. The newly-awakened sheep bleated from the hills; and the umbrageous herbage, dropping dew, seemed glittering with a thousand fairy gems.

"Where is the man who would not fight for such a country!" exclaimed Murray, as he stepped over a bridge of interwoven trees, which crossed one of the mountain streams :—" this land was not made for slaves. Look at these bulwarks of nature! Every mountain-head which forms this chain of hills, is an impregnable rampart against invasion. If Baliol had possessed but half a heart, Edward might have returned even worse than Caesar ;.—. without a cockle to decorate his helmet."

"Baliol has found the oblivion he incurred," returned Wallace; "his son, perhaps, may better deserve the sceptre of such a country. Let us cut the way; and he who merits the crown will soon appear to claim it."

Then it will not be Edward Baliol !" rejoined Scrymgeour: "During the inconsistent reign of his father, I once carried a despatch to him from Scotland. He was then banqueting in all the luxuries of the English court; and such a voluptuary I never beheld! I left the scene of folly, only praying that so effeminate a prince might never disgrace the throne of our manly race of kings"

"If such be the tuition of our lords, in the court of Edward—and wise is the policy, for his own views!" observed Ker; "what can we expect from even the Bruce? They were ever a nobler race than the Baliol: but bad education, and luxury, will debase the most princely minds."

"I saw neither of the Bruce, when I visited London," replied Scrymgeour: "the Earl of Carrick was at his house in Cleveland; and Robert Bruce, his eldest son with the English army in Guienne. But they bore a manly character; particularly young Robert, to whom the troubadours of Aquitaine have given the flattering appellation of Prince of Chivalry."

"It would be more to his honour," interrupted Murray, "if he compelled the English to acknowledge him as Prince of Scotland. With so much bravery, how can he allow such a civet-cat as Edward Baliol, to bear away the title, which is his by the double right of blood and virtue?"

"Perhaps;" said Wallace, "the young lion only sleeps! The time may come, when both he, and his father, will rise from their lethargy, and throw themselves at once into the arms of Scotland. To stimulate the dormant patriotism of these two princes, by showing them a subject, leading their people to liberty, is one great end of the victories I seek. None other than a brave king, can bind the various interests of this distracted country into one; and therefore for fair Freedom’s sake, my heart turns towards the Bruces, with most anxious hopes."

"For my part," cried Murray, "I have always thought, the lady we will not woo, we have no right to pretend to. If the Braces will not be at the pains to snatch Scotland from drowning, I see no reason for making them a present of what will cost us many a wet jacket, before we tug her from the waves. He that wins the day, ought to wear the laurel: and so, once for all, I proclaim him King of good old Albin [Albin was the ancient name of Scotland.—(1809.)], who will have the glory of driving her oppressors beyond her dykes."

Wallace did not hear this last sentiment of Murray’s, as it was spoken in a lowered voice in the ear of Kirkpatrick. "I perfectly agree with you;" was that knight’s reply; "and in the true Roman style, may the death of every Southron now in Scotland, and as many more as fate chooses to yield us, be the preliminary games of his coronation!"

Wallace, who heard this, turned to Kirkpatrick with a mild rebuke in his eye: "Balaam blest, when he meant to curse!" said he, "but some curse, when they mean to bless. Such prayers are blasphemy. For, can we expect a blessing on our arms, when all our invocations are for vengeance rather than victory ?"

"Blood for blood, is only justice !" returned Murray, "and how can you, noble Wallace, as a Scot, and as a man, imply any mercy to the villains who stab us to the heart?"

"I plead not for them," replied Wallace; "but for the poor wretches who follow their leaders, by force, to the field of Scotland: I would not inflict on them the cruelty we now resent. It is not to aggrieve, but to redress, that we carry arms. If we make not this distinction, we turn courage into a crime; and plant disgrace, instead of honour, upon the warrior’s brow."

"I do not understand commiserating the wolves, who have so long made havoc in our country," cried Kirkpatrick; "methinks, such maidenly mercy is rather out of place."

Wallace turned to him with a smile: "I will answer you, my valiant friend, by adopting your own figure. It is that these Southron wolves, may not confound us with themselves, that I wish to show in our conduct, rather the generous ardour of the faithful guardian of the fold, that the rapacious fierceness which equals them with the beasts of the desert. As we are men and Scots, let the burden of our prayers be, the preservation of our country, not the slaughter of our enemies! The one is an ambition, with which angels may sympathise: the other, a horrible desire, which speaks the nature of fiends.

"In some cases this may be;" replied Sir Roger, a little reconciled to the argument," but not in mine. My injury yet burns upon my cheek; and as nothing but the lifeblood of Cressingham can quench it, I will listen no more to your doctrine, till I am revenged. That done, I shall not forget your lesson."

"Generous Kirkpatrick !" exclaimed Wallace, "nothing that is really cruel can dwell with such manly candour. Say what you will, I can trust your heart, after this moment."

They had crossed the river Ennerie, and were issuing from between its narrow ridge of hills, when Wallace, pointing to a stupendous rock which rose in solitary magnificence in the midst of a vast plain, exclaimed, "There is Dumbarton castle !—that citadel holds the fetters of Scotland; and if we break them there, every minor link will easily give way."

The men uttered a shout of anticipated triumph, at this sight. And proceeding, soon came in view of the fortifications which helmeted the rock. As they approached, they discovered that it had two summits; being in a manner cleft in twain; the one side rising in a pyramidal forum; while the other, of a more table shape, sustained the ponderous buildings of the fortress.

It was dusk when the little army arrived in the rear of a close thicket which skirted the eastern dyke of the castle, and reached to a considerable length over the plain. On this spot, Wallace rested his men; and while they placed themselves under its covert till the appointed time of attack, he perceived through an opening in the wood, the gleaming of soldiers’ arms on the ramparts; and fires beginning to light on a lonely watch-tower, which crowned the pinnacle of the highest rock.

"Poor fools !" exclaimed Murray: "like the rest of their brethren of clay, they look abroad for evils, and prepare not for those which are even at their doors!"

"That beacon-fire," cried Scrymgeour, "shall light us to their chambers; and for once we thank them for their providence."

"That beacon-fire:" whispered Edwin to Wallace, "shall light me to honour! To-night, by your agreement, I shall call you, brother, or lie dead on the summit of those walls!"

"Edwin," said Wallace," act as you say; and deserve, not only to be called my brother, but to be the first banneret of freedom in arms!"