Types of Children's Literature: A Collection of the World's Best Literature for Children, For Use in Colleges, Normal Schools and Library Schools
General
Types of Children's Literature: A Collection of the World's Best Literature for Children, For Use in Colleges, Normal Schools and Library Schools
Children's literature
But the action which occasioned his finally rising in arms, is believed
to have happened in the town of Lanark. Wallace was at this time married
to a lady of that place, and residing there with his wife. It chanced,
as he walked in the market place, dressed in a green garment, with a
rich dagger by his side, that an Englishman came up and insulted him on
account of his finery, saying, a Scotsman had no business to wear so
gay a dress, or carry so handsome a weapon. It soon came to a quarrel,
as on many former occasions; and Wallace, having killed the Englishman,
fled to his own house, which was speedily assaulted by all the English
soldiers. While they were endeavoring to force their way in at the
front of the house, Wallace escaped by a back door, and got in safety
to a rugged and rocky glen, near Lanark, called the Cartland crags, all
covered with bushes and trees, and full of high precipices, where he
knew he should be safe from the pursuit of the English soldiers.
[Footnote: In the western face of the chasm of Cartland Crags, a few
yards above the new bridge, a cave in the rock is pointed out by
tradition as having been the hiding-place of Wallace.] In the meantime,
the governor of Lanark, whose name was Hazelrigg, burned Wallace's
house, and put his wife and servants to death; and by committing this
cruelty increased to the highest pitch, as you may well believe, the
hatred which the champion had always borne against the English usurper.
Hazelrigg also proclaimed Wallace an outlaw, and offered a reward to
any one who should bring him to an English garrison, alive or dead.
On the other hand, Wallace soon collected a body of men, outlawed like
himself, or willing to become so, rather than any longer endure the
oppression of the English. One of his earliest expeditions was directed
against Hazelrigg, whom he killed, and thus avenged the death of his
wife. He fought skirmishes with the soldiers who were sent against him,
and often defeated them; and in time became so well known and so
formidable, that multitudes began to resort to his standard, until at
length he was at the head of a considerable army, with which he
proposed to restore his country to independence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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