Without a pardon from the state; without
the signature of the regent; in contempt of court, which, having found
you guilty of high treason, had in mercy delayed to pronounce the
sentence on your crime, you have presumed to place yourself at the head
of the national troops, and to take to yourself the merit of a victory
won by their prowess alone! Your designs are known, and the authority
you have despised is now roused to punish. You are to accompany us
this day to Stirling. We have brought a guard of four thousand men to
compel your obedience."
Before the indignant spirit of Wallace could utter the answer his
wrongs dictated, Bothwell, who at sight of the regent's troops had
hastened to his general's tent, entered, followed by his chieftains:
"Were your guard forty thousand, instead of four," cried he, "they
should not force our commander from us--they should not extinguish the
glory of Scotland beneath the traitorous devices of hell-engendered
envy and murderous cowardice."
Soulis turned on him with eyes of fire, and laid his hand on his sword.
"Ay, cowardice!" reiterated Bothwell; "the midnight ravisher, the
slanderer of virtue, the betrayer of his country, knows in his heart
that he fears to draw aught but the assassin's steel.
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