After having displayed their efficiency in making a king, they would
prove their independence by striving to pull him down the moment he
made them feel his specter.
"Such would be the fate of this election. Jealousies and rebellions
would mark my reign; till even my closest adherents, seeing the
miseries of civil war, would fall from my side, and leave the country
again open to the inroads of her enemies.
"These, my friends and countrymen, would be my reasons for rejecting
the crown did my ambition point that way. But as I have no joy in
titles, no pleasure in any power that does not spring hourly from the
heart, let my reign be in your bosoms; and with the appellation of your
fellow-soldier, your friend! I will fight for you, I will conquer for
you-I will live or die!"
"This man," whispered Lord Buchan, who having arrived in the rear of
the troops on the appearance of Wallace, advanced within hearing of
what he said-"this man shows more cunning in repulsing a crown than
most are capable of exerting to obtain one."
"Ay, but let us see," returned the Earl of March, who accompanied him,
"whether it be not Caesar's coyness; he thrice refused the purple, and
yet he died Emperor of the Romans!"
"He that offers me a crown," returned Buchan, "shall never catch me
playing the coquette with its charms.
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