According to this opinion, he planted his emissaries in
favorable situations on the road, and then proceeded himself to
intercept his victim at the most probable places.
Not finding him at Bothwell, he was issuing forth to take the way to
Ellerslie, when the object of his search presented himself at the
opening of the wood. The evil plan too well succeeded.
Triumphant in his deceit, this master of hypocrisy left the barn, in
which he had seen Wallace and his young friend lie down on that ground
from which he had determined they should never more rise. Aware that
the unconquerable soul of Wallace would never allow himself to be taken
alive, he had stipulated with De Valence that the delivery of his head
should entitle him to a full reward. From Rutherglen to Lumloch no
place had presented itself in which he thought he could so judiciously
plant an ambuscade to surprise the unsuspecting Wallace. And in this
village he had stationed so large a force of ruthless savages (brought
for the occasion by Haliburton from the Irish island of Rathlin), that
their employer had hardly a doubt of this night being the last of his
too-trusting friend's existence.
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