Mar had seen the power of his arms; Murray had already drunk the
experience of a veteran from his genius; hence they were not surprised
on hearing that which filled strangers with amazement.
Lennox gazed on his leader's youthful countenance, doubting whether he
really were listening to military plans, great as general ever formed;
or were visited, in vision, by some heroic shade, who offered to his
sleeping fancy designs far vaster than his waking faculties could have
conceived. He had thought that the young Wallace might have won
Dumbarton by a bold stroke, and that when his invincible courage should
be steered by stroke, and that when his invincible courage should be
steered by graver heads, every success might be expected from his arms;
and saw that when turned to any cause of policy, "the Gordian knot of
it he did unloose, familiar as his garter," he marveled, and said
within himself, "Surely this man is born to be a sovereign!"
Maxwell, though equally astonished, was not so rapt. "You have made
arms the study of your life?" inquired he.
"It was the study of my earliest days," returned Wallace. "But when
Scotland lost her freedom, as the sword was not drawn in her defense, I
looked not where it lay.
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