I am Robert Bruce,
the eldest son of the Earl of Carrick and Annandale. Grieving over the
slaughter that his valor had made of his own people (although, till you
taught him otherwise, he believed they fought to maintain the
usurpation of an ambitious subject), he walked out in melancholy. I
followed at a distance; and I heard, unseen, all that has passed
between you and him. He has retired to his tent; and, unknown to him,
I hastened across the Carron, to avow my loyalty to virtue, to declare
my determination to live for Scotland, or to die for her; and to follow
the arms of Sir William Wallace, till he plants my father in the throne
of his ancestors."
"I take you at your word, brave prince!" replied the regent; "and this
night shall give you an opportunity to redeem to Scotland, what your
father's sword has this day wrested from her. What I mean to do must
be effected in the course of a few hours. That done, it will be
prudent for you to return to the Carrick camp; and there take the most
effectual means to persuade your father to throw himself at once into
the arms of Scotland. The whole nation will then rally round their
king; and as his weapon of war, I shall rejoice to fulfill the
commission with which God has intrusted me!" He then briefly unfolded
to the eagerly listening Bruce (whose aspiring spirit, inflamed by the
fervor of youth, and winged by natural courage, saw the glory alone of
the enterprise), an attack which he meant to make on the camp of
Edward, while his victorious troops slept in fancied security.
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