Part 77 (2/2)
”Can the man who would bribe me to betray a friend, be faithful in friends.h.i.+p? But that is not the weight with me. I was not brought up in those schools, my good baron, which teach that sound policy or true self-interest can be separated from virtue. When I was a boy, my father often repeated to me this proverb:
”Dico tibi verum, honestas, optima rerum, Nunquam servili sub nexu vivitur fili.”**
** This saying of the parental teacher of Wallace is recorded. It means, ”Know of a certainty that virtue, the best of possessions, never can exist under the bond of servility.”
”I learned it then; I have since made it the standard of my actions, and I answer your monarch in a word. Were all my countrymen to resign their claims to the liberty which is their right, I alone would declare the independence of my country; and by G.o.d's a.s.sistance, while I live, acknowledge no other master than the laws of St. David, and the legitimate heir of his blood!”
The glow of resolute patriotism which overspread his countenance while he spoke was reflected by a fluctuating color on that of Hilton.
”n.o.ble chief!” cried he; ”I admire while I regret; I revere the virtue which I am even now constrained to denounce. These principles, bravest of men, might have suited the simple ages of Greece and Rome; a Phocion or a Fabricius might have uttered the like, and compelled the homage of their enemies; but in these days, such magnanimity is considered frenzy, and ruin is its consequence.”
”And shall a Christian,” cried Wallace, reddening with the flush of honest shame, ”deem the virtue which even heathens practiced with veneration, of too pure a nature to be exercised by men taught by Christ himself? There is blasphemy in the idea, and I can hear no more.”
Hilton, in confusion, excused his argument by declaring that it proceeded from his observations on the conduct of men.
”And shall we,” replied Wallace, ”follow a mult.i.tude to do evil? I act to one Being alone. Edward must acknowledge HIS supremacy, and by that know that my soul is above all price!”
”Am I answered?” said Hilton, and then hastily interrupting himself, he added, in a voice even of supplication; ”your fate rests on your reply!
Oh! n.o.blest of warriors, consider only for the day!”
”Not for a moment,” said Wallace; ”I am sensible of your kindness; but my answer to Edward has been p.r.o.nounced.”
Baron Hilton turned sorrowfully away, and Le de Spencer rose.
”Sir William Wallace, my part of the emba.s.sy must be delivered to you in the a.s.sembly of your chieftains.”
”In the congregation of my camp?” returned he; and opening the door of the ante-room, in which his friends stood, he sent Edwin to summon his chiefs to the platform before the council tent.
Chapter LXXVII.
Wallace's Tent.
When Wallace approached his tent, he found not only the captains of his own army, but the followers of Soulis and the chieftains of Lothian.
He looked on this range of his enemies with a fearless eye, and pa.s.sing through the crowd, took his station beside the emba.s.sadors, on the platform of the tent. The venerable Hilton turned away with tears on his veteran cheeks as the chief advanced, and Le de Spencer came forward to speak. Wallace, with a dignified action, requested his leave for a few minutes, and then addressing the congregated warriors unfolded to them the offer of Edward to him, and his reply.
”And now,” added he, ”the emba.s.sador of England is at liberty to declare his master's alternative.”
Le de Spencer again advanced; but the acclamations with which the followers of Wallace acknowledged the n.o.bleness of his answer, excited such an opposite clamor on the side of the Soulis party, that Le de Spencer was obliged to mount a war carriage which stood near, and to vociferate long and loudly for silence before he could be heard. But the first words which caught the ears of his audience acted like a spell, and seemed to hold them in breathless attention.
”Since Sir William Wallace rejects the grace of his liege lord, Edward King of England offered to him this once, and never to be again repeated: thus saith the king in his clemency to the earls, barons, knights, and commonalty of Scotland! To every one of them, chief and va.s.sal, excepting the aforesaid incorrigible rebel, he, the royal Edward, grants an amnesty of all their past treasons against his sacred person and rule, provided that within twenty-four hours after they hear the words of this proclamation they acknowledge their disloyalty, with repentance, and laying down their arms, swear eternal fealty to their only lawful ruler, Edward, the lord of the whole island from sea to sea.” Le de Spencer then proclaimed the King of England to be now on the borders with an army of a hundred thousand men, ready to march with fire and sword into the heart of the kingdom, and put to the rack all of every s.e.x, age, and condition, who should venture to dispute his rights. ”Yield,” added he, ”while you may yet not only grasp the mercy extended to you, but the rewards and the honors he is ready to bestow.
Adhere to that unhappy man, and by to-morrow's sunset your offended king will be on these hills, and mercy shall be no more! Death is the doom of Sir William Wallace, and a similar fate to every Scot who after this hour dares to give him food, shelter, or succor. He is the prisoner of King Edward, and thus I demand him at your hands!”
Wallace spoke not, but with an unmoved countenance looked around upon the a.s.sembly. Edwin precipitated himself into his arms. Bothwell's full soul then forced utterance from his laboring breast:
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