As a signal of having succeeded,
they were to smother the flame on the top of the tower, and thence
descend toward the garrison to meet Wallace before the prison of the
Earl of Mar.
While the men of Lanark, with their eyes fixed on the burning beacon,
in deadly stillness watched the appointed signal for the attack,
Wallace, by the aid of his dagger, which he struck into the firm soil
that occupied the cracks in the rock, drew himself up almost parallel
with the top of the great wall, which clasped the bases of the two
hills. He listened; not a voice was to be heard in the garrison of all
the legions he had so lately seen glittering on its battlements. It
was an awful pause.
Now was the moment when Scotland was to make her first essay for
freedom! Should it fail, ten thousand bolts of iron would be added to
her chains! Should it succeed, liberty and happiness were the almost
certain consequences.
He looked up, and fixing his eyes on the beacon-flame, thought he saw
the figures of men pass before it-the next moment all was darkness. He
sprung on the walls, and feeling by the touch of hands about his feet
that his brave followers had already mounted their ladders, he grasped
his sword firmly, and leaped down on the ground within.
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