Meanwhile, as his representative, as your soldier and protector, I
shall be blessed in wearing out my life. My ancestors were ever
faithful to the blood of Alexander, and in the same fidelity I will
die."
The firmness with which he spoke, and the determined expression of his
noble countenance, convinced Loch-awe that he was not to be shaken; and
rising from his knee, he bowed in silence. March whispered to Buchan,
"Behold the hypocrite! But we shall unmask him. He thinks to blind us
to his towering ambition, by this affected moderation. He will not be
called a king; because, with our own crown certain limitations are laid
on the prerogative; but he will be our regent, that he may be our
dictator, and every day demand gratitude for voluntary services, which,
performed as a king, could only be considered as his duty!"
When the council broke up, these sentiments were actively disseminated
among the disaffected throng; and each gloomy recess in the woods
murmured with seditious meetings. But every lip in the country at
large breathed the name of Wallace, as they would have done a god's;
while the land that he had blessed, bloomed on every hill and valley
like a garden.
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