"Grievous has been the havoc of Scot on Scot!" cried the intrepid Graham, who had seconded the arm of Murray in the contest for his father’s body: "Your steadiness, Sir William Wallace, would have retrieved the day, but for the murderer of his country; that Bruce, for whom you refused to be our king, thus destroys her bravest sons.—Their blood be on his head!" continued the young chief, extending his martial arms towards heaven; "Power of Justice, hear! ,and let his days be troubled, and his death, covered with dishonour!"

Wallace saw that filial tenderness yearned for the moment, when it might unburden its grief unchecked by observation. He arose, and making a sign to his friends, withdrew towards his men. Having sent a detachment to guard the sacred enclosure of Dunipacis, he despatched Graham on the dangerous duty of gathering a reinforcements for the morning. Then sending Scrymgeour, with a resolute band across the Carron, to bring in the wounded (for Edward had encamped his army about a mile south of the field of action), he took his lonely course along the northern bank, towards a shallow ford; near which he supposed the squadrons of Lord Loch-awe must have fought, and where he hoped to gain accounts of him from some straggling survivor of his clan. When he arrived at a point where the river is narrowest, and winds its dark stream beneath impending heights, he blew the Campbell pibroch: the notes reverberated from rock to rock; but, unanswered, died away in distant echoes. Still he would not relinquish hope; and pursuing the path, emerged on an open glade. The unobstructed rays of the moon illuminated every object. Across the river, at some distance from the bank, a division of the Southron tents whitened the deep shadows of the bordering woods; and before them, on the blood-stained plain, bethought he descried a solitary warrior. Wallace stopped.—The man approached the margin of the stream, and looked towards the Scottish chief. The visor of Wallace being up, discovered his heroic countenance, bright in the moon-beams; and the majesty of his mien seemed to declare him to the Southron knight to be no other than the Regent of Scotland.

"Who art thou ?" cried the warrior, with a voice of command, that better became his lips, than it was adapted. to the man whom he addressed.

"The enemy of England!" cried the chief.

"Thou art Wallace !" was the immediate reply; "none else dare answer the Lord of Carrick and of Annandale, with such haughty boldness."

"Every Scot in this land," returned Wallace, inflamed with an indignation he did not attempt to repress;" would thus answer Bruce, not only in reference to England, but to himself ! to that Bruce, who, not satisfied with having abandoned his people to their enemies, has stolen, a base fratricide, to slay his brethren in their home! To have met them on the plain of Stanmore, would have been a deed his posterity might have bewailed; but what horror, what shame will be theirs, when they know that he came to ruin his own rights, to stab his people, in the very bosom of his country !—I come from gazing on the murdered body of the virtuous Earl of Bothwell! The Lords Bute and Fyfe, and perhaps Loch-awe, have fallen beneath the Southron sword, and your unnatural arm ; and yet do you demand, what Scot would dare to tell you, that he holds the Earl of Carrick, and his coadjutors, as his most mortal foes?"

"Ambitious man! Dost thou flatter thyself with belief, that I am to be deceived by thy pompous declamation? I know the motive of all this pretended patriotism. I am well informed of the aim of all this vaunted prowess; and I came, not to fight the battles of King Edward, but to punish the proud usurper of the rights of Bruce.—I have gained my point. My brave followers slew the Lord of Bothwell; my brave followers made the hitherto invincible Sir William Wallace retreat !—I came in the power of my birthright: and, as your lawful king, I command you, this hour, to lay your rebel sword at my feet.—Obey, proud knight, or to-morrow puts you into Edward’s hand; and, without appeal, you die the death of a traitor."

"Unhappy prince," cried Wallace, now suspecting that Bruce had been deceived; "is it over the necks of your most loyal subjects, that you would mount your throne?—How have you been mistaken ! — How have you strengthened the hands of your enemy, and weakened your own, by this day’s action !—The cause is now, probably, lost for ever :—and from whom are we to date its ruin, but from him to whom the nation looked as to its appointed deliverer! From him, whose once honoured name will now be regarded with execration!"

"Burden not my name, rash young man," replied Bruce, "with the charges belonging to your own mad ambition.—Who disturbed the peace, in which Scotland reposed after the battle of Dunbar, but William Wallace? Who raised the country in arms, but William Wallace? Who stole from me my birthright, and fastened the people’s love on himself, but William Wallace? Who affected to repel a crown, that he might the more certainly fix it on his head, but William Wallace! And who dares now taunt me with his errors and mishaps, but the same traitor to his lawful sovereign?"

"Shall I answer thee, Lord of Carrick," replied Wallace, "with a similar appeal ?—Who, when the Southron tyrant preferred a false claim to the supremacy of this realm, subscribed to the falsehood; and by that action, did all in his power to make a free people, slaves ?—Who, when the brand of cruelty swept this kingdom from shore to shore, lay indolent in the usurper’s court, and heard of these oppressions without a sigh? Who,—horror on horror! brought an army into his own inheritance, to slay his brethren, and to lay it desolate before his mortal foe? Thy heart will tell thee, Bruce, who is this man! and if honour yet remain in that iron region, thou wilt not disbelieve the asseverations of an honest Scot, who proclaims, that it was to save them, whom thou didst abandon, that he appeared in the armies of Scotland.. It was to supply the place of thy desertion, that he assumed the rule, with which a grateful people, rescued from bondage, invested him."

"Bold chieftain !" exclaimed Bruce, "is it thus you continue to brave your offended prince? But in pity to your youth; in admiration of a prowess, which would have been godlike had it been exerted for your sovereign, and not used as a bait to satisfy an ambition wild as it is towering; I would expostulate with you: I would even deign to tell you, that in granting the supremacy of Edward, the royal Bruce submits not to the mere wish of a despot but to the necessity of these times. This is not an era of so great loyalty, that any sovereign may venture to contend against such an imperial arm as Edward’s. And would you, a boy in years, a novice in politics; and though brave, and till this day suiccessful, would you pretend to prolong a war with the dictator of kingdoms. Can rational discrimination be united with the valour you possess, and you not perceive the unequal contest between a weak state, deprived of its head, and agitated by intestine commotions; and a mighty nation, conducted by the ablest and most martial monarch of his age? A man, who is not only determined to maintain his pretensions to Scotland, but is master of every resource, either for protracting war, or pushing it with vigour. If the love of your country be indeed your motive for perseverance, your obstinacy tends only to lengthen her misery. But if, as I believe is the case, you carry your views to private aggrandisement; reflect on their probable issue. Should Edward, by a miracle, withdraw his armies, and an intoxicated people elevate their minion to the throne, the lords of Scotland would reject the bold invasion, and with the noble vengeance of insulted greatness, hurl from his height the proud usurper of their rights and mine."

"To usurp any man’s rights, and least of all, my king’s," replied Wallace, "never came within the range of my thoughts. Though lowly born, Lord Carrick, I am not so base as to require assumption to give me dignity. I saw my country made a garrison of Edward’s; I beheld its people, outraged in every relation that is dear to man. Who heard their cry? Where was Bruce? Where the nobles of Scotland; that none arose to extinguish her burning villages, to shelter the mother and the child, to rescue purity from violation, to defend the bleeding father and his son? The shrieks of despair resounded through the land, and none appeared! The hand of violence fell on my own house! the wife of my bosom was stabbed to the heart by a magistrate of the usurper! I then drew the sword !—I took pity on those who suffered, I had suffered! I espoused their cause ;—and never will I forsake it, till life forsake me. Therefore, that I became the champion of Scotland, Lord of Carrick, blame not my ambition; but rather the supineness of the nobility, and chiefly yourself: you, who, uniting personal merit to dignity of descent, had deserted the post, which both nature and circumstance called upon you to occupy !— Had the Scots, from the time of Baliol’s abdication, possessed such a leader as yourself, (for what is the necessity of the times, but the pusillanimity of those who ought to contend with Edward?) by your valour, and their union, you must have surmounted every difficulty under which we struggle; and have closed the contest, with success and honour. If you now start from your guilty delusion, it may not be too late to rescue Scotland from the perils which surround her. Listen then to my voice, prince of the blood of Alexander! forswear the tyrant who has cajoled you to this abandonment of your country, and resolve to be her deliverer. The bravest of the Scots are ready to acknowledge you their lord, to reign as your forefathers did, untrammelled by any foreign yoke. Exchange then a base vassalage, for freedom and a throne! Awake to yourself, noble Bruce, and behold what it is that I propose ! Heaven itself cannot set a more glorious prize before the eyes of virtue or ambition, than to join in one object, the acquisition of royalty, with the maintenance of national independence! Such is my last appeal to you. For myself, as I am well convinced that the real welfare of my country, can never subsist with the sacrifice of her liberties, I am determined, as far as in me lies, to prolong, not her miseries, but her integrity, by preserving her from the contamination of slavery. But, should mysterious fate decree her fall, may that power, which knows the vice and horrors which accompany a tyrant’s reign, terminate the existence of a people, who can no longer preserve their lives but by receiving laws from usurpation!" 

The truth and gallantry of these sentiments, struck the awakened mind of Bruce, with the force of conviction. Another auditor was nigh, who also lost not a syllable; "and the flame was conveyed from the breast of one hero, to that of the other."

Lord Carrick secretly repented of all that he had done; but being too proud to acknowledge so much, he briefly answered-—"Wallace, your words have made an impression on me, that may one day still more brighten the glory of your fame. Be silent respecting this conference:—be faithful to the principles you have declared, and ere long you shall hear royally of Bruce." As he spoke he turned away, and was lost among the trees.

[The jealousy of the lords against Wallace, and the particulars of the battle of Falkirk, with his discourse with Bruce on the banks of the Carron, are well-known events in Scottish annals; and the writer of this work has spared no researches to bring the account, here presented, as near the fact as possible. Since the first publication of this work, the inhabitants of Falkirk have erected a pillar to the memory of Wallace, on the hill where he drew up his army.]

Wallace stood for some minutes musing on what had passed, when, hearing a footstep behind him, he turned round, and beheld, approaching him, a young and graceful form, habited in a white hacqueton wrought in gold; with golden spurs on his feet, and a helmet of the same costly metal on his head, crested with white feathers. Had the scene been in Palestine, he might have mistaken him for the host’s guardian angel, in arms. But the moment the eyes of Wallace fell on him, the stranger hastened forward, and threw himself on one knee before him, with so noble a grace that the chief was lost in wonder what this beautiful apparition could mean. The youth, after an agitated pause, bowing his head, exclaimed, "Pardon this intrusion, bravest of men! I come to offer you my heart, my life! To wash out, by your side, in the blood of the enemies of Scotland, the stigma which now dishonours the name of Bruce ! "—"And who are you, noble youth ?" cried Wallace, raising him from the ground. "Surely my prayers are at last answered; and I hear these sentiments from one of Alexander’s race!"

"I am indeed of his blood," replied he; "and it must now be my study to prove my descent, by deeds worthy of my ancestor. I am Robert Bruce, the eldest son of the Earl of Carrick and Annandale. Grieving over the slaughter that his valiant arm has made of his own people, (although, till you taught him otherwise, he believed they fought to maintain the usurpation of an ambitious subject,) he walked out in melancholy. I followed at a distance; and I heard, unseen, all that has passed between you and him. He has retired to his tent; and, unknown to, him, I hastened across the Carron, to avow my loyalty to virtue; to declare my determination to live for Scotland, or, to die for her; and to follow the arms of Sir William Wallace, till he plants my father in the throne of his ancestors."

"I take you at your word, brave prince !" replied the Regent; "and this night shall give you an, opportunity to redeem to Scotland, what your father’s sword has this day wrested from her. What I mean to do, must be effected in the course of a few hours. That done, it will be prudent for you to return to the Carrick Camp; and there take the most effectual means to persuade your father to throw himself at once into the arms of Scotland. The whole nation will then rally round their King; and as his weapon of war, I shall rejoice to fulfil the commission with which God has intrusted me !" He then briefly unfolded to the eagerly listening Bruce, (whose aspiring spirit, inflamed by the fervour of youth, and winged by natural courage, saw the glory alone of the enterprise,) an attack which he meant to make on the camp of Edward, while his victorious troops slept in fancied security.

He had sent Sir John Graham to Stirling, to call out its garrison; Ker, he had despatched on a similar errand; and expecting that by this time some of the troops would be arrived on the southern extremity of the Carse, he threw his plaid over the prince’s splendid garb, to conceal him from notice; then returning to the few who lay on the northern bank of the river, he asked one of the young Gordons to lend him his armour, saying, he had use for it,—and to seek another suit, in the heap that had been collected from the buried dead. The brave Scot cheerfully acquiesced; and, Wallace retiring amongst the trees with his royal companion, Bruce soon covered his gay hacqueton with this rough mail; and placing the Scottish bonnet on his head, put a large stone into the golden helmet, and sunk it in the waters of the Carron. Being thus completely armed like one of the youthful clansmen in the ranks (and such disguise was necessary), Wallace put the trusty claymore of his country, into its prince’s hand; and clasping him with a hero’s warmth to his heart—."Now it is," cried he, "that William Wallace lives anew, since he has seen this hour!"

On re-emerging from the wood, they met Sir John Graham, who had just arrived with five hundred fugitives from Lord Bute’s slaughtered division, whom he had rallied on the Carse. He informed his friend, that the Earl of Mar was within half a mile of the Carron, with three thousand more; and that he would soon be joined by other reinforcements, to a similar amount. While Graham yet spoke, a squadron of armed men approached from the Forth side. Wallace, advancing towards them, beheld the Bishop of Dunkeld, in his sacerdotal robes at their head, but with a corslet on his breast, and instead of his crosier, he carried a drawn sword [William Sinclair, the brave and patriotic Bishop of Dunkeld. was brother to the Lord of Roslyn.] :—"We come to you, champion of Scotland," cried the prelate, "with the prayers, and the arms of the church. The sword of the Levites of old, smote the enemies of Israel; and, in the same faith, that the God of Justice will go before us this night, we come to fight for Scotland’s liberties."

His followers were the younger brethren of the monastery of Cambus Kenneth, and others from the neighbouring convents; altogether making a stout and well-appointed legion.

"With this handful," cried Wallace, "Heaven may find a David, who shall yet strike yon Goliath on the forehead!"

Lord Mar, and Lord Lennox, now came up: and Wallace, marshalling his train, found that he had nearly ten thousand men. He gave to each leader, his plan of attack: and having placed Bruce, with Graham, in the van; before he took his station at its head, he retired to the ruins near Dunipacis, to visit the mourning solitude of Murray. He found the pious son, sitting silent and motionless by the side of his dead parent. Without arousing the violence of grief, by any reference to the sight before him, Wallace briefly communicated his project. Lord Andrew started on his feet;—"I will share all the peril with you! I shall again grapple with the foe, that has thus bereaved me !—This dark mantle: cried he, turning towards, the breathless corse, and throwing his plaid over it, "will shroud thy hallowed remains, till I return.—I go, where thou wouldst direct me.—Oh, my father!" exclaimed he, in a burst of grief, "the trumpet shall sound, and thou wilt not hear! But I go, to take vengeance for thy blood!" So saying, he sprang from the place; and accompanying Wallace to the plain, took his station in the silent, but swiftly moving army.