Withdrawn from the world, he hoped to avoid the sight of
oppressions he could not redress, and the endurance of injuries beyond
his power to avenge.
Thus checked at the opening of life in the career of glory that was his
passion-secluded in the bloom of manhood from the social haunts of
men-he repressed the eager aspirations of his mind, and strove to
acquire that resignation to inevitable evils which alone could
reconcile him to forego the promises of his youth, and enable him to
view with patience a humiliation of Scotland, which blighted her honor,
menaced her existence, and consigned her sons to degradation or
obscurity. The latter was the choice of Wallace. Too noble to bend
his spirit to the usurper, too honest to affect submission, he resigned
himself to the only way left of maintaining the independence of a true
Scot; and giving up the world at once, all the ambitions of youth
became extinguished in his breast, since nothing was preserved in his
country to sanctify their fires. Scotland seemed proud of her chains.
Not to share in such debasement, appeared all that was now in his
power; and within the shades of Ellerslie he found a retreat and a
home, whose sweets beguiling him of every care, made him sometimes
forget the wrongs of his country in the tranquil enjoyments of wedded
love.
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