"After regaining, by a valor worthy of his
destiny, every fortress north of the Forth, his last and greatest
achievement was making himself master of Scone; but in storming its
walls a fragment of stone falling heavily, terribly rent the muscles of
his breast, and now--woe to Scotland!--he lies at Huntingtower reduced
to infant weakness. All this you would have known had you received his
letters; but villainy must have been widely at work, for none of yours
have reached his hands.
This intelligence respecting Bruce was a more mortal blow to Wallace
than all he had just sustained in his own person. He remained silent,
but his mind was thronged with thoughts. Was Scotland to be indeed
lost? Was all that he had suffered and achieved to have been done in
vain? and should he be fated to behold her again made a sacrifice to
the jealous rivalry of her selfish and contending nobles?
Bothwell continued to speak of the prince, and added, that it was with
reluctance he had left him, even to share the anticipated success at
Berwick. But Bruce, impatient to learn the issue of the siege (as
still no letters arrived from that quarter), had dispatched him back to
the borders.
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