Though persuaded to sheathe their half-drawn swords, they could not be
withheld from immediately quitting the field, and marching directly to
Wallace's tent. He was conversing with Edwin when they arrived; and,
in some measure, he had broken the shock to him of so dishonoring a
charge on his friend, by his being the first to communicate it. While
Edwin strove to guess who could be the inventor of so dire a falsehood
against the truest of Scots, he awakened an alarm in Wallace for Bruce,
which could not be excited for himself, by suggesting that perhaps some
intimation had been given to the most ambitious of the thanes,
respecting the arrival of their rightful prince. "And yet," returned
Wallace, "I cannot altogether suppose that; for even their desires of
self-aggrandizement could not torture my share in Bruce's restoration
to his country into anything like treason our friend's rights are too
undisputed for that; and all I should dread, by a premature
discovery of his being in Scotland, would be secret machinations
against his life. There are men in this land who might attempt it; and
it is our duty, my dear Edwin, to suffer death upon the rack, rather
than betray our knowledge of him.
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