On the entrance of the soldiers, Gloucester had retired into the shadow
of the room. He turned round on hearing these particulars. When the
captain ceased speaking, the stranger fearlessly threw up his visor and
exclaimed:
"Take me, not to our warden alone, but to your king; let me pierce his
conscience with his infamy--would it were to stab him ere I die!"
In this frantic adjuration, Gloucester discovered the gallant Bruce.
And hastening toward him to prevent his apparently determined exposure
of himself, with a few words he dismissed the officer and his guard;
and then, turning to the warden, "Sir Edward," said he, "this stranger
is not less my friend than he that was Sir William Wallace!"
"Then far be it from me, earl, to denounce him to our enraged monarch.
I have seen enough of noble blood shed already. And though we, the
subjects of King Edward, may not call your late friend a martyr, yet we
must think his country honored in so steady a patriot, and may surely
wish we had many the like in our own!" With these words the worthy old
knight bowed and withdrew.
Bruce, who had hardly heard the observation of the warden, on his
departure turned upon the earl, and, with a bursting heart, exclaimed:
"Tell me, is it true? Am I so lost a wretch as to be deprived of my
best, my dearest friend? And is it true, as I am told, that every
infernal rigor of the sentence has been executed on that brave and
breathless body! Answer me to the fact, that I may speedily take my
course!"
Alarmed at the direful expression of his countenance, with a quivering
lip, but in silence, Gloucester laid his hand upon his arm.
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