"
"Every man, sir," continued Murray, "who acts upon your principles,
must know himself to be a slave;-and to resent being called so, is to
affront his conscience. A name is nothing, the fact ought to knock
upon your heart, and there arouse the indignation of a Scot and a
Murray. See you not the villages of your country burning around you?
the castles of your chieftains razed to the ground? Did not the
plains of Dunbar reek with the blood of your kinsmen; and even now, do
you not see them led away in chains to the strongholds of the tyrant?
Are not your stoutest vassals pressed from your service, and sent into
foreign wars? And yet you exclaim, 'I see no injury-I spurn at the
name of slave!'"
Murray rose from his seat as he ended, and walking the room in
agitation, did not perceive the confusion of his uncle, who, at once
overcome with conviction and fear, again ventured to speak: "It is too
sure you speak truth, Andrew; but what am I, or any other private
individual, that we should make ourselves a forlorn hope for the whole
nation? Will Baliol, who was the first to bow to the usurper, will he
thank us for losing our heads in resentment of his indignity? Bruce
himself, the rightful heir of the crown, leaves us to our fates, and
has become a courtier in England! For whom, then, should I adventure
my gray hairs, and the quiet of my home, to seek an uncertain liberty,
and to meet an almost certain death?"
"For Scotland, uncle," replied he; "just laws are her right.
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