And thus I utter the gracious message with which his
Majesty has honored my mouth."
He then addressed Wallace; and in the king's name, accusing him of
rebellion, and of unfair and cruel devastations made in Scotland and in
England, promised him pardon for all if he would immediately disband
his followers and acknowledge his offense.
Wallace motioned with his hand for his friends to keep silence (for he
perceived that two or three of the most violent were ready to break
forth in fierce defiance of King Edward), and being obeyed, he calmly
replied to the herald: "When we were desolate, your king came to us as
a comforter, and he put us in chains! While he was absent, I invaded
his country as an open enemy. I rifled your barns, but it was to feed
a people whom his robberies had left to perish! I marched through your
lands, I made your soldiers fly before me; but what spot in all your
shores have I made black with the smoke of ruin? I leave the people of
Northumberland to judge between me and your monarch. And that he never
shall be mine or Scotland's, with God's blessing on the right, our
deeds shall further prove!"
"Vain and ruinous determination!" exclaimed Le de Spencer; "King Edward
comes against you, with an army that will reach from sea to sea.
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