Their simple details, and the voice of fame, had
roused a general spirit throughout the land; and in the course of a
very short time after the different messengers had left Stirling, the
plain around the city was covered with a mixed multitude. All Scotland
seemed pressing to throw itself at the feet of its preserver. A large
body of men brought from Mar by Murray according to his uncle's orders,
were amongst the first encamped on the Carse; and that part of
Wallace's own particular band which he had left at Dumbarton, to
recover their wounds, now, under the command of Stephen Ireland,
rejoined their lord at Stirling.
Neil Campbell, the brave Lord of Loch-awe, and Lord Bothwell, the
father of Lord Andrew Murray, with a strong reinforcement, arrived from
Argyleshire. The chiefs of Ross, Dundas, Gordon, Lockhart, Logan,
Elphinstone, Scott, Erskine, Lindsay, Cameron, and of almost every
noble family in Scotland, sent their sons at the heads of detachments
from their clans, to swell the ranks of Sir William Wallace.
When this patriotic host assembled on the Carse of Stirling, every
inmate of the city, who had not duty to confine him within the walls,
turned out to view the glorious sight.
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