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

SIR WILLIAM WALLACE.
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receive it with a proper degree of caution. It
has been the practice of some old writers to in¬
graft upon the history or character of the
subject of their biography, situations and actions
that had occurred to, or been done by, the old
worthies of the primitive ages, for the purpose
of astonishing their readers; but this appropri¬
ation is quite unnecessary in the present
instance, as all that the subject of our narrative
requires, to hand him down to latest posterity,
as a fit object for their love and admiration, is a
simple account of his actions, and of that gene¬
rous self-devotion that induced him to brave all
the savage ferocity of a crowned barbarian,
rather than relinquish for a moment, the claim
of his country to be reckoned a free and inde¬
pendent kingdom.
An act of outlawry followed this aggression;
and Wallace was hunted from covert to covert,
by the emissaries of the Constable; who, eager
to revenge the death of his son, offered great
rewards for hisapprehension. Having, however,
successfully eluded his pursuers, he reached the
neighbourhood of Ellerslie, where, lurking in a
wood till he had an opportunity of communicat¬
ing the knowledge of his precarious situation
to his friends, and procuring a disguise by which
he could make his way to his maternal uncle, at