Honor, brave earl, makes all men brethren;
and, as a brother, I open these gates for you, to repass into your
country. When there, if you ever remember William Wallace, let it be
as a man who fights, not for conquest or renown, but to restore
Scotland to her rights, and then resign his sword to peace."
"I shall remember you, Sir William Wallace!" returned De Monthermer;
"and, as a pledge of it, you shall never see me again in this country
till I come an embassador of that peace for which you fight. But
meanwhile, in the moment of hot contention for the rights which you
believe wrested from you, do you remember that they have not been so
much the spoil of my royal father's ambition as the traffic of your own
venal nobles. Had I not believed that Scotland was unworthy of
freedom, I should never have appeared upon her borders; but now that I
see that she has brave hearts within her, who not only resist
oppression, but know how to wield power, I detest the zeal with which I
volunteered to rivet her chains. And I repeat, that never again shall
my hostile foot impress this land."
These sentiments were answered in the same spirit by his soldiers; and
the Scots, following the example of their leader, treated them with
every kindness.
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