All this was done in an instant.
Wallace did not fall, but staggering, with the weapon sticking in the
wound, he was so surprised by the baseness of the deed, he could not
give the alarm till its perpetrator had disappeared.
The flying earl took his course through a narrow passage between the
works, and proceeding swiftly toward the south, issued safely at one of
the outer ballium gates-that part of the castle being now solitary, all
the men having been drawn from the walls to the contest within-and
thence he made his escape in a fisher's boat across the Clyde.
Meanwhile Wallace, having recovered himself, just as the Scots brought
in lighted torches from the lower apartments of the tower, saw Sir
Roger Kirkpatrick leaning sternly on his blood-dripping sword, and the
young Edwin coming forward in garments too nearly the hue of his own.
Andrew Murray stood already by his side. Wallace's hand was upon the
hilt of the dagger which the ungrateful De Valence had left in his
breast. "You are wounded! you are slain!" cried Murray in a voice of
consternation. Edwin stood motionless with horror.
"That dagger!" exclaimed Scrymgeour.
"Has done nothing," replied Wallace, "but let a little more blood.
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