Others, who were of easy faith to a
tale of malice, sat with them; and the rest of the assembly was filled
up with men of better families than personal fame, and whose names
swelled a list without adding any true importance to the side on which
they appeared. A few, and those a very few, who still respected
Wallace, were present; not because they were sent for (great care
having been taken not to summon his friends), but in consequence of a
rumor of the charge having reached them: and these were, the Lords
Lennox and Loch-awe, with Kirkpatrick, and two or three chieftains from
the western Highlands. None of them had arrived till within a few
minutes of the council being opened, and Wallace was entering at
one door as they appeared at the other.
At sight of him a low whisper buzzed through the hail, and a marshal
took the plumed bonnet from his hand, which, out of respect to the
nobility of Scotland, he had raised from his head at his entrance. A
herald meanwhile proclaimed, in a loud voice, "Sir William Wallace! you
are charged with treason; and, by an ordinance of Fergus the First, you
must stand covered before the representative of the majesty of Scotland
until that loyalty be proved, which would again restore you to a seat
amongst her faithful barons.
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