Wallace had adopted this manner of leaving the ground, in hopes, if it
were possible, to awaken the least spark of honor in the breasts of his
persecutors, to prevent the bloodshed which must ensue between his
friends and them, should they attempt to seize him. Edwin and Bothwell
immediately followed him; but Lockhart and Scrymgeour remained to take
charge of the remains of the faithful Ker, and to observe the tendency
of the tumult which began to murmur amongst the lower orders of the
bystanders.
Chapter LXXVIII.
Banks of the Eske.
A vague suspicion of the regent and his thanes, and yet a panic-struck
pusillanimity, which shrunk from supporting that Wallace whom those
thanes chose to abandon, carried the spirit of slavery from the
platform before the council tent, to the chieftains who thronged the
ranks of Ruthven, and even to the perversion of some few who had
followed the golden-haired standard of Bothwell. The brave troops of
Lanark (which the desperate battle of Dalkeith reduced to not more than
sixty men) alone remained unmoved; so catching is the quailing spirit
of doubt, abjectness, and fearful submission.
In the moment when the indignant Ruthven saw his Perthshire legions
rolling off toward the trumpet of Le de Spencer, Scrymgeour placed
himself at the head of the men of Lanark.
Pages:
1102
1103
1104
1105
1106
1107
1108
1109
1110
1111
1112
1113
1114
1115
1116
1117
1118
1119
1120
1121
1122
1123
1124
1125
1126