Scotland -- History -- War of Independence, 1285-1371 -- Fiction
**Edward intended to send out forces to Guienne, under the command of
Humphrey Earl of Hereford, the constable, and Roger Earl of Norfolk,
the Marshal of England, when these two powerful nobles refused to
execute his commands. A violent altercation ensued; and the king, in
the height of his passion, exclaimed to the constable, "Sir Earl, by
G-, you shall either go or hang." "By G-, Sir King," replied Hereford,
"I will neither go nor hang." And he immediately departed with the
marshal and their respective trains.
"Sir William Wallace has rescued Scotland from his yoke. The country
now calls for her ancient lords--those who made her kings, and supported
them. Come, then, my cousin! espouse the cause of right; the cause
that is in power; the cause that may aggrandize the house of Cummin
with still higher dignities than any with which it has hitherto been
blazoned."
With these arguments, and with others more adapted to his Belial mind,
she tried to bring him to her purpose; to awaken what ambition he
possessed; and to entice his baser passions, by offering security in a
rescued country to the indulgence of senses to which he had already
sacrificed the best properties of man. She dispatched her letter by a
messenger, whom she bribed to secrecy; and added in her postscript,
"that the answer she should hope to receive would be an offer of his
services to Sir William Wallace."
While the Countess of Mar was devising her plans (for the gaining of
Lord Buchan was only a preliminary measure), the dispatches of Wallace
had taken effect. Their simple details, and the voice of fame, had
roused a general spirit throughout the land; and in the course of a
very short time after the different messengers had left Stirling, the
plain around the city was covered with a mixed multitude. All Scotland
seemed pressing to throw itself at the feet of its preserver. A large
body of men brought from Mar by Murray according to his uncle's orders,
were amongst the first encamped on the Carse; and that part of
Wallace's own particular band which he had left at Dumbarton, to
recover their wounds, now, under the command of Stephen Ireland,
rejoined their lord at Stirling.
Neil Campbell, the brave Lord of Loch-awe, and Lord Bothwell, the
father of Lord Andrew Murray, with a strong reinforcement, arrived from
Argyleshire. The chiefs of Ross, Dundas, Gordon, Lockhart, Logan,
Elphinstone, Scott, Erskine, Lindsay, Cameron, and of almost every
noble family in Scotland, sent their sons at the heads of detachments
from their clans, to swell the ranks of Sir William Wallace.
When this patriotic host assembled on the Carse of Stirling, every
inmate of the city, who had not duty to confine him within the walls,
turned out to view the glorious sight. Mounted within the walls,
turned out to view the glorious sight. Mounted on a rising ground,
they saw each little army, and the emblazoned banners of all the
chivalry of Scotland floating afar over the lengthened ranks.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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