Scotland -- History -- War of Independence, 1285-1371 -- Fiction
Such unexpected assistance reanimated the drooping strength of one of
the two, with whom the cry had issued. He sprung from the wall with
the vigor of a tiger, but at the moment received a wound in his back,
which would have thrown him at the feet of his enemies, had not Wallace
caught him in his left arm, and with his right, cleared the way, while
he cried to his men who were fighting near him-"To the Glen!" As he
spoke, he threw the now insensible stranger into their arms. The other
man, whose voice had first attracted Wallace, at the instant sunk,
covered with blood, on the pavement.
Two of the servants, obeying their master, carried their senseless
burden toward the horses; but the third, being hemmed in by the furious
soldiers, could not move. Wallace made a passage to his rescue, and
effected it; but one base wretch, while the now wounded Scot was
retreating, made a stroke which would have severed his head from his
body, had not the trusty claymore of Wallace struck down the pending
weapon of the coward, and received his rushing body upon its point. He
fell with bitter imprecations, calling aloud for vengeance.
A dreadful cry was now raised by the whole band of assassins:
"Murder!-treason!-Arthur Heselrigge is slain!" The uproar became
general. The windows of the adjoining houses were thrown open; people
armed and unarmed issued from their doors and pressed forward to
inquire the cause of the alarm. Wallace was nearly overpowered; a
hundred swords flashed in the torchlight; but at the moment he expected
they would be sheathed in his heart, the earth gave way under his feet,
and he sunk into utter darkness.
He fell upon a quantity of gathered broom; and concluding that the
weight of the thronging multitude had burst his way through the arch of
a cellar, he sprung to his feet; and though he heard the curses of
several wretches, who had fallen with him and fared worse, he made but
one step to a half-opened door, pointed out to him by a gleam from an
inner passage. The men uttered a shout as they saw him darken the
light which glimmered through it; but they were incapable of pursuit;
and Wallace, aware of his danger, darting across the adjoining
apartment, burst open a window, and leaped out to the foot of the
Lanark hills.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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