King Edward on his throne never looked with
such a royal air. His very chains seemed given to be graced by him as
he moved through the parting crowd with the step of one who had been
used to have all his accusers at his feet. Though pale with loss of
blood, and his countenance bore traces of the suffering occasioned by
the state of his yet unhealed wounds, his head was now erect, and he
looked with undisturbed dignity on all around. The Earl of Gloucester,
whose life and liberty he had granted at Berwick, sat on the right of
the lord chancellor. Bishop Beck, the Lords de Valence and Soulis,
with one Monteith (who it seems was the man that betrayed him into our
hands), charged him with high treason against the life of King Edward
and the peace of his majesty's realms of England and Scotland.
Grievous were the accusations brought against him, and bitter the
revilings with which he was denounced as a traitor too mischievous to
deserve any show of mercy. The Earl of Gloucester at last rose
indignantly, and in energetic and respectful terms, called on Sir
William Wallace, by the reverence in which he held the tribunal of
future ages, to answer for himself!
"'On this adjuration, brave earl!' replied he, 'I will speak!' O! men
of Scotland, what a voice was that! In it was all honesty and
nobleness! and a murmur arose from some who feared its power, which
Gloucester was obliged to check by exclaiming aloud with a stern voice;
'Silence, while Sir William Wallace answers.
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