Furiously driving him to a retrograde motion, they forced him back into
the town. But there all was confusion. Wallace, with his resolute
followers, had already put Cressingham and his legions to flight; and,
closely pursued by Kirkpatrick, they threw themselves into the castle.
Meanwhile, the victorious Wallace surrounded the amazed De Valence,
who, caught in double toils, called to his men to fight for their king,
and neither give nor take quarter.
The brave fellows too strictly obeyed; and while they fell on all
sides, he supported them with a courage which horror of Wallace's
vengeance for his grandfather's death, and the attempt on his own life
in the hall at Dumbarton, rendered desperate. At last he encountered
the conquering chief, arm to arm. Great was the dismay of De Valence
at this meeting; but as death was now all he saw before him, he
resolved, if he must die, that the soul of his enemy should attend him
to the other world.
He fought, not with the steady valor of a warrior determined to
vanquish or die; but with the fury of despair, with the violence of a
hyena, thirsting for the blood of his opponent. Drunk with rage, he
made a desperate plunge at the heart of Wallace-a plunge, armed with
execrations, and all his strength; but his sword missed its aim, and
entered the side of a youth, who at that moment had thrown himself
before his general.
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