Learn,
brave earl, to discriminate between a warrior's glory and his shame;
between the defender of his country, and the unprovoked ravager of
other lands."
Montgomery blushed scarlet at these words; but it was not with
resentment. He looked down for a moment: "Ah!" thought he, "perhaps I
ought never to have drawn it here!" Then raising his eyes to Wallace,
he said: "Were you not the enemy of my king, who, though a conqueror,
sanctions none of the cruelties that have been committed in his name, I
would give you my hand, before the remnant of his brave troops, whose
lives you grant. But you have my heart: a heart that knows no
difference between friend or foe, when the bonds of virtue would unite
what only civil dissensions hold separate."
"Had your king possessed the virtues you believe he does," replied
Wallace, "my sword might have now been a pruninghook. But that is
past! We are in arms for injuries received, and to drive out a tyrant.
For believe me, noble Montgomery, that monarch has little pretensions
to virtue, who suffers the oppressors of his people, or of his
conquests, to go unpunished. To connive at cruelty, is to practice it.
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