No, blessed God," cried he, stretching his clasped hands toward my
countrymen to liberty and happiness! Let me counsel with thy wisdom;
let me conquer with thine arm! and when all is finished, give me, O
gracious Father! a quiet grave, beside my wife and child."
Tears, the first he had shed since the hour in which he last pressed
his Marion to his heart, now flowed copiously from his eyes. The
women, the children, had aroused all his recollections but in so
softened a train, that they melted his heart till he wept. "It is thy
just tribute, Marion," said he; "it was blood you shed for me, and
shall I check these poor drops? Look on me, sweet saint, best-beloved
of my soul; O! hover near me in the day of battle, and thousands of
thine and Scotland's enemies shall fall before thy husband's arm!"
The plaintive voice of the Highland pipe at this moment broke upon his
ear. It was the farewell of the patriarch Lindsay, as he and his
departing company descended the winding paths of Craignacoheilg.
Wallace started on his feet. The separation had then taken place
between his trusty followers and their families; and guessing the
feelings of those brave men from what was passing in his own breast, he
dried away the traces of his tears, and once more resuming the
warrior's cheerful look, sought that part of the rock where the
Lanarkmen were quartered.
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