This is the true statement of the case, and though I wish not
to make a subject outrage his sovereign, yet truth demands of you to
say to Edward, that to withdraw his pretensions from this exhausted
country, is the restitution we may justly claim-is all that we wish.
Let him leave us in peace, and we shall no longer make war upon him.
But if he persist (which the ambassadors from the Prince of Wales
announce), even as Samson drew the temple upon himself, to destroy his
enemies, Scotland will discharge itself upon the valleys of England;
and there compel them to share the fate in which we may be doomed to
perish."
"I will think of this discourse," returned Montgomery, "when I am far
distant; and rely on it, noble Wallace that I will assert the privilege
of my birth, and counsel my king as becomes an honest man."
"Highly would he estimate such counsel," cried Wallace, "had he virtue
to feel that he who will be just to his sovereign's enemies must be of
an honor that will bind him with double fidelity to his king. Such
proof give your sovereign; and, if he have one spark of that greatness
of mind which you say he possesses, though he may not adopt your
advice, he must respect the adviser.
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