Chapter LXXXVIII.
Stirling.
The word of Bruce was as irreversible as his spirit was determined. No
temptation of indulgence could seduce him from the one, no mischance of
adversity could subdue the other. The standard of liberty had been
raised by him on the Carse of Gowrie, and he carried it in his
victorious arm from east to west, from the most northern point of
Sutherland to the walls of Stirling; but there, the garrison which the
treason of the late regent had admitted into the citadel gave a
momentary check to his career. The English governor hesitated to
surrender on the terms proposed, and while his first flag of truce was
yet in the tent of the Scottish monarch, a second arrived to break off
the negotiation. Whatever were the reasons for this abrupt
determination, Bruce paid him not the compliment of asking a wherefore,
but advancing his troops to the Southron outposts, drove them in with
great loss; and, approaching the lower works of the town by the road of
Ballochgeich, so alarmed the governor as to induce him to send forth
several squadrons of horse to stop his progress.
Vain was the attempt. They shrunk before the resolute prince and his
enthusiastic followers.
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