**In memory of this circumstance, the crest of the family of
Kirkpatrick is a hand grasping a dagger distilling gouts of blood; the
motto, "I mak sikkar."
Before the catastrophe was known in the convent, Bruce and his friends
had left it some time, and were far on their road to Lochmaben. They
arrived before sunrise, and once more an inmate of his paternal castle,
he thence dispatched Fleming to Lord Ruthven, with a transcript of his
designs.
In the same packed he inclosed a letter for the Lady Isabella. It
contained this brave resolution--that, in his present return to
Scotland, he did not consider himself merely as Robert Bruce, come to
reclaim the throne of his ancestors, but as the executor of the last
dying will of Sir William Wallace, which was--that Bruce should confirm
the independence of Scotland, or fall, as Wallace had done, invincible
at his post. "Till that freedom is accomplished," continued the
virtuous prince, "I will never shake the steadfast purpose of my soul
by even once glance at thy life-endearing beauties. I am Wallace's
soldier, Isabella, as he was Heaven's! and, while my captain looks on
me from above, shall I not approve myself worthy his example? I wooed
you as a knight, I will win you as a king; and on the day when no
hostile Southron breathes in Scotland I will demand my sweetest reward,
my beloved bride, of her noble uncle.
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