MORNING
was spreading in pale light over the heavens; and condensing with its cold
breath the lurid smoke which still ascended in volumes from the burning
ruins; when Wallace, turning round at the glad voice of Edwin, beheld the
released nobles. This was the first time he had ever seen the Lords
Dundaff and Ruthven; but several of the others, he remembered having met
at the fatal decision of the crown: and, while welcoming to his friendship
those to whom his valour had given freedom, how great was his surprise
to see, in the person of a prisoner suddenly brought before him, Sir John
Monteith; the young chieftain whom he had parted with a few months ago at
Douglas; and from whose fatal invitation to that castle, he might date the
ruin of his dearest happiness, and all the succeeding catastrophe!
"We found Sir John
Monteith amongst the slain, before the palace," said Ker; "he,
of the whole party, alone breathed; I knew him instantly. How he came
there, I know not; but I have brought him hither to explain it
himself." Ker withdrew, to finish the interment of the dead. Monteith,
still leaning on the arm of a soldier, grasped Wallace’s hand: "My
brave friend!" cried he, "to owe my liberty to you, is a twofold
pleasure; for:" added he, in a lowered voice, " I see before me,
the man who is to verify the words of Baliol; and be, not only the
guardian, but the possessor of the treasure he committed to our
care!"
Wallace, who had never
thought on the coffer, since he knew it was under the protection of St.
Fillan, shook his head :—" A far different meed, do I seek, my
friend!" said he: "to behold these happy countenances of my
liberated countrymen, is greater reward to me, than would be the
development of all the splendid mysteries which the head of Baliol could
devise."
"Ay!" cried
Dundaff, who overheard this part of the conversation, "we invited the
usurpation of a tyrant, by the docility with which we submitted to his
minion. Had we rejected Baliol, we had never been ridden by Edward. But
the rowel has gored the flanks of us all! and who amongst us, will not lay
himself and fortune at the foot of him who plucks away the tyrant’s heel
?"
"If all held our cause
in the light that you do:" returned Wallace, "the blood which
these Southrons have sown, would rise up, in ten
thousand legions, to overwhelm the murderers!"
"But how,"
inquired he, turning to Monteith, "did you happen to be in Ayr, at
this period? and how, above all, amongst the slaughtered Southrons at the
palace?"
Sir John Monteith readily replied:
"My advert fate accounts for all." He then proceeded to inform
Wallace that on the very night in which they parted at Douglas, Sir Arthur
Hesselrigge was told the story of the box; and accordingly sent to have
Monteith brought prisoner to Lanark; he lay in the dungeons of its
citadel, at the very time Wallace entered that town, and destroyed the
governor. Though the Scots did not pursue the advantage offered by the
transient panic into which this retribution threw their enemies, care was
immediately taken by the English lieutenant, to prevent a repetition of
the same disaster; and, in consequence, every suspected person was seized;
and those already in confinement loaded with chains. Monteith being known
as a friend of Wallace, was sent under a strong guard towards Stirling;
there to stand his trial before Cressingham, and the English Justiciary
Ormsby. "By a lucky chance," said he, "I made my escape;
but I was soon retaken by another party, and conveyed to Ayr; where the
Lieutenant-governor Arnulf, discovering my talents for music, compelled me
to sing at his entertainments. For this purpose, he last night confined me
in the banqueting room at the palace; and thus, when the flames surrounded
that building, I found myself exposed to die the death of a traitor,
though then as much oppressed as any other Scot. Snatching up a sword, and
striving to join my brave countrymen, the Southrons impeded my passage,
and I fell under their arms."
Happy to have rescued his
old acquaintance from further indignities, Wallace committed him to Edwin,
to lead into the citadel. Then taking the colours of Edward from the
ground (where the Southron officer had laid them,) he gave them to Sir
Alexander Scrymgeour, with orders to fill their former station on the
citadel, with the standard of Scotland. This action he considered as the
seal of each victory as the beacon which, seen from afar, would show the
desolate Seots where to find a protector; and from what ground to start,
when courage should prompt them to assert their rights.
The standard was no sooner
raised, than the proud clarion of triumph was blown from every warlike
instrument in the garrison; and the Southron captain placing himself at
the head of his disarmed troops, under the escort of Murray, marched out
of the castle. He announced his design to proceed immediately to
Newcastle, and thence embark with his men, to join their king in Flanders.
Not more than two hundred followed their officer in this expedition; for
not more were English: the rest, to nearly double that number, being, like
the garrison of Dumbarton, Irish and Welsh, were glad to escape enforced
servitude. Some parted off in divisions, to return to their respective
countries; while a few, whose energetic spirits preferred a life of
warfare in the cause of a country struggling for freedom, before returning
to submit to the oppressors of their own, enlisted under the banners of
Wallace.
Some other necessary
regulations being then made, he dismissed his gallant Scots, to find
refreshment in the well-stored barracks of the dispersed Southrons; and
retired himself, to join his Mends in the citadel.