Scotland/Scots > Life of Sir William Wallace, Knight of Ellerslie, and Guardian of Scotland

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LIFE OF
promise, who, on finishing his studies, became a
benedictine monk, arid officiated as chaplain
to his heroic friend. The warmth of his regard
for his illustrious schoolfellow afterwards dis¬
played itself in a life of him, written in Latin,
with great purity and eloquence, in which,
all the leading circumstances are narrated, with
the fidelity of an eyewitness. Unfortunately,
there remains only a fragment of this interesting
detail; and if we may judge from the invective
it contains against the destroyer of his friend,
the pen of the monk would seem to have been
almost as keen as the sword of the warrior.
With this faithful companion, and other
youths of similar dispositions, Wallace used to
lament the degradations to which their country
was daily subjected: and, fired with indignation
at the insolence and oppression exercised by
the English soldiery over the inhabitants of
Dundee, formed an association among his fellow
students, for the purpose of protecting them¬
selves, and restraining the wantonness ofthe in¬
truders, bypunishingtheir aggressions whenever
they found them in convenient situations. This,
from the licentious habits of the soldiers, was
frequently the case, and they seldom allowed
them to escape, without experiencing the effects
of their vengeance. The companions of Wal-