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LIFE OF WALLACE.
sook him; without deigning to breath a mur¬
mur either against the injustice of the tyrant
who condemned, or the unfortunate man who
betrayed him, he submitted to his fate with that
becoming dignity which extorted even from his
enemies expressions of unqualified admiration.
Several attempts have been made by his coun¬
trymen to erect a monument to his memory, but,
to their shame be it spoken, their apathy or par¬
simony have uniformly got the ascendancy of
their better feelings; and the man to whose
exertions their present enviable situation may,
in a great measure be traced, remains till this
day without a stone to record the gratitude of
his country or the nature of his actions: while
every age as it recedes throws around his name
the mist of fable, till, in the end, like those
heroes who figured in the early periods of our
history, his deeds will become obscured by their
own undefined greatness.