The
villages were abandoned, and the land lay around in uncultivated
wastes. Sheep, without a shepherd, fled wild from the approach of man;
and wolves issued, howling, from the cloisters of depopulated
monasteries. The army approached Dumblane; but it was without
inhabitant; grass grew in the streets; and the birds which roosted in
the desert dwellings flew scared from the windows as the trumpet of
Wallace sounded through the town. Loud echoes repeated the summons
from its hollow walls; but no other voice was heard, no human face
appeared; for the ravening hand of Cressingham had been there! Wallace
sighed as he looked around him. "Rather smile," cried Graham, "that
Heaven hath given you the power to say to the tyrants who have done
this, 'Here shall your proud waves be stayed!'"
They proceeded over many a hill and plain, and found that the same
withering touch of desolation had burned up and overwhelmed the
country. Wallace saw that his troops were faint for want of food;
cheering them, he promised that Ormsby should provide them a feast in
Perth; and, with reawakened spirits, they took the River Tay at its
fords, and were soon before the walls of that well-armed city.
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