The issue of Ruthven's claims did not lessen Lord Athol's hatred of the
regent. Wallace simply stated the case to him, only changing the
situations of the opponents; he supposed Athol to be in the place of
Ruthven and then asked the frowning earl if Ruthven had demanded a
government which Athol had bravely won and nobly secured, whether he
should deem it just to be sentenced to relinquish it into the hands of
his rival? By this question he was forced to decide against himself.
But while Wallace generously hoped that, by having made him his own
judge, he had found an expedient both to soften the pain of
disappointment and to lessen the humiliation of defeat, he had only
redoubled the hatred of Athol, who thought he had thus been cajoled out
of even the privilege of complaint. He, however, affected to be
reconciled to the issue of the affair, and, taking a friendly leave of
the regent, retired to Blair; and there, amongst the numerous
fortresses which owned his power-amongst the stupendous strongholds of
nature, the cloud invested mountains and the labyrinthine winding of
his lochs and streams-he determined to pass his days and nights in
devising the sure fall of this proud usurper; for so the bitterness of
an envy he durst not yet breathe to any impelled him internally to
designate the unpretending Wallace.
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