"
While he yet spoke, the Southrons uttered a great shout, and the Scots
looking up, beheld several high poles erected on the roof of the keep,
and the Earl of Mar, as before, was led forward. But he seemed no
longer the bold and tranquil patriot. He was surrounded by shrieking
female forms, clinging to his knees; and his trembling hands were
lifted to heaven, as if imploring its pity.
"Stop!" cried Wallace, in a voice whose thundering mandate rung from
tower to tower. "The instant he dies, Lord Aymer de Valence shall
perish!"
He had only to make the sign, and in a few minutes that nobleman
appeared between Ramsay and Kirkpatrick. "Earl," exclaimed Wallace,
"though I granted your life in the field with reluctance, yet here I am
ashamed to put it in danger. But your own people compel me. Look at
that spectacle. A venerable father, in the midst of his family; he and
they doomed to an ignominious and instant death, unless I betray my
country and abandon these walls. Were I weak enough to purchase their
lives at such an expense, they could not survive that disgrace. But
that they shall not die, while I have the power to preserve them, is my
resolve and my duty! Life, then, for life; yours for this family!"
Wallace, directing his voice toward the keep:
"The moment," cried he, "in which that vile cord presses too closely on
the neck of the Earl of Mar, or any of his blood, the ax shall sever
the head of Lord de Valence from his body!"
De Valence was now seen on the top of one of the besieging towers.
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