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

SIR WILLIAM WALLACE. 203
lishmen, or such creatures among the Scots as
he found suitable for his purpose. Having
made these, and such other arrangements as his
policy suggested, he returned home in triumph,
carrying with him the celebrated chair of
Scone, on which the kings of Scotland, from
the earliest ages of the monarchy, had been
crowned.
Edward, however, had scarcely arrived in
London before accounts from the north con¬
vinced him of the uncertainty of his conquest, so
long as Wallace remained at large in the coun¬
try. And as neither threats nor promises could
subdue his inflexible fidelity to his country,
Edward offered large rewards for securing his
person dead or alive. Influenced by the greatness
of the promises held out, Ralph de Haliburton,
one of the Scotsmen whom Edward had carried
with him to England, undertook the perfidious of¬
fice, and for that purpose was allowed to return
to Scotland. Of his after proceedings, we have,
however, but a very imperfect outline; and from
all that we can collect, his exertions in his vil¬
lainous mission appear to have been limited to
one or two occasions; on the last of which,
from his knowledge of Wallace and his retreats,
he contrived to have him beset by a strong bo¬
dy of cavalry, in a situation where he had no