So much grace I gave. This is the first day, and last night he fled. Pembroke. A sign of guilt. What will your Highness do? Edward I. With your good counsel, lords, doubtless the best! Percy. To horse, and take the knave alive or dead! Edward I. A speedy finish; but consider this: Comyn and Bruce divide the land of Scots; They now are mortal foes; why need we stir To fight two cocks who will each other slay Between the high walls of their Scottish pit? Yet Pembroke, Clifford, and bold Harry Percy Be ready at a word to lead your knights Across the border. Percy. Nor can that summons come Too soon for us. Edward I. I would your willing haste Were from the proof removed a farther cast: And so were Wallace wise as he is wight It would be. Twice I offered grace and love, If he would govern Scotland in my name. He thanked me for my grace and for my love, But at my terms he laughed as at a jest. Had he accepted them, I say again, As there is none so fit to rule the Scots, Your willing service had been hardly asked. Percy. Let me say this: had such a league been struck Between your Highness and the valiant Scot, You might have borne your banners through the world. Pembroke. What specious arguments could Wallace urge? Edward I. O, ask me not! My patience served me ill To hear him out. How can I then rehearse His saucy reasons, wasting breath and wrath! Within short space you all shall hear himself; A fortnight hence, I think, he will be tried. And now, Lord Clifford, James of Douglas comes To claim his father's lands, which you possess. Tell me, who knows, what kind of man he is, That we may judge how he will bear himself? Clifford. A man of men, although my mortal foe. I knew him well in Paris ere these broils. Unarmed, a gentle blitheness graced his style: A dainty lisp engaged his auditors With tickling pleasure; such a piquant touch Was in the Scottish Hector, as they called him, Tripping with helpless tongue, like rose-lipped girls. But when he armed his body, then his soul Was harnessed in a dress of adamant. In council-halls, o'er ladies' lutes, in war, Brave, courteous, wise, loyal to truth, he was: So is he: Douglas changes but for good. Edward I. You praise him highly. You shall answer him. He comes. Make room. Enter Sir James Douglas.