" "By G-, Sir King," replied Hereford,
"I will neither go nor hang." And he immediately departed with the
marshal and their respective trains.
"Sir William Wallace has rescued Scotland from his yoke. The country
now calls for her ancient lords-those who made her kings, and supported
them. Come, then, my cousin! espouse the cause of right; the cause
that is in power; the cause that may aggrandize the house of Cummin
with still higher dignities than any with which it has hitherto been
blazoned."
With these arguments, and with others more adapted to his Belial mind,
she tried to bring him to her purpose; to awaken what ambition he
possessed; and to entice his baser passions, by offering security in a
rescued country to the indulgence of senses to which he had already
sacrificed the best properties of man. She dispatched her letter by a
messenger, whom she bribed to secrecy; and added in her postscript,
"that the answer she should hope to receive would be an offer of his
services to Sir William Wallace."
While the Countess of Mar was devising her plans (for the gaining of
Lord Buchan was only a preliminary measure), the dispatches of Wallace
had taken effect.
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