Twice
I beat the representatives of King Edward on the plains of Scotland;
and a few months ago I made him fly before me over the fields of
Northumberland! What then has befallen me, that my arm is to be too
short to meet this man? Has the oil of the Lord, with which the saint
of Dunkeld anointed my brows, lost its virtue, that I should shrink
before any king in Christendom? I neither tremble at the name of
Edward, nor will I so disgrace my own (which never man who bore it ever
degraded by swearing fealty to a foreign prince), as to abandon at such
a crisis the power with which Scotland has invested me. Whoever
chooses to leave the cause of their country, let them go; and so
manifest themselves of noble blood! I remain, and I lead the vanguard!
Scotsmen, to your duty."
As he spoke with a voice of unanswerable command, several chiefs fell
back into their ranks. But some made a retrograde motion toward the
town. Lord Bute hardly knew what to think, so was he startled by the
appeal of the accused regent, and the noble frankness with which he
maintained his rights. He stood frowning as Wallace turned to him, and
said, "Do you, my lord, adhere to these violent men? or am I to
consider a chief who, though hostile to me, was generous in his ire,
still faithful to Scotland, in spite of his prejudice against her
leader? Will you fight her battles?"
"I shall never desert them," replied Stewart; "'tis truth I seek;
therefore be it to you.
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