It seems about this time a report had been circulated among the English, that Wallace had been slain in a mutiny of his followers. This rumour, no doubt occasioned by the circumstances attending the death of Fawdon, had reached Percy, along with the accounts of the destruction of Kincleven Castle, and the slaughter of Butler and the other English officers; but though he did not give it implicit belief, there was a degree of credit attached to it, particularly by the English in the upper part of Clydesdale, that caused our hero to be less taken notice of when he appeared among them. This was particularly serviceable to him in the visits which he now made to Lanark. We have already alluded to an attachment which Wallace entertained for a young gentlewoman of that place. A degree of obscurity hangs over the history of this amour. It is supposed, by those writers who have taken notice of the subject, that the parties had been privately married shortly after the battle of Beg, during the time that he remained in the forest of Clydesdale, and that the ceremony was performed by John Blair, but whether in the church, or under the “Greenwood Tree,” is no where stated. Be that as it may, his situation was too precarious to allow him to remove her from her present residence. His visits were, therefore, made with the utmost secrecy, in such disguises, and at such hours, as would best enable him to escape the notice of his enemies. Meanwhile his sword was not allowed to rust. He and his companions were continually on the watch for stragglers from the English quarters; and as they always attacked them in situations where none could escape, their mysterious disappearance excited the greatest alarm among their countrymen. Various anecdotes are still in circulation among the peasantry of the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire, regarding exploits performed by him about this time. Among others, there is a story still handed down, of the severe retaliation he inflicted on a party of Englishmen, who, having come to the same inn at which he and his companions were refreshing themselves, had played off a barbarous attempt at waggery, by cutting the tails from the horses of the Scots. Blind Harry alludes to this circumstance; and the following address, which Wallace is represented as having made to their captain, before he cut him down, may be considered as no unfavourable specimen of the humour of the man: “Gud freynd, abid, Seruice to tak for thi craft in this tyde. Marschell, thou art with out commaund off me; Reward agayne, me think, I suld pay the; Sen I off laitt, now come owt off the west In this cuntré, a barbour off the best To cutt and schaiff, and that a wondyr gude; Now thow sall feyll how I oyss to lat blude.”