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

NOTES.
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demerits not a single effort was made to remove the
dishonourable stain from his character.
The following transaction, which we have alluded
to above, is quite consistent with the conduct ascribed
to him by the minstrel; it will also account for the
impunity which attended his crimes,
“ About this time there happened a passage not
unworthy to be related, in regard to the variety of
providences, in a narrow compass of time. John
Monteith, who betrayed his -friend Wallace to the
English, and was therefore deservedly hated by the
Scots, received, amongst other rewards, the govern¬
ment of Dumbarton Castle from the English. When
other forts were recovered, that only, or but very few
with it, held out for the English. And because it
was naturally impregnable, the king dealt with the
governor by his friends and kindred to surrender it.
He demanded the county or earldom of Lennox, as
the price of his treachery and surrender. Neither
would he ever so much as hear of any other terms.
In this case the king wavered and fluctuated in his
mind what to do. On the one side he earnestly de¬
sired to have the castle; yet, on the other, he did
not so much prize it,' as for its sake to disoblige the
Earl of Lennox, who had been his fast and almost
his only friend in all his calamities. But the Earl
of Lennox hearing of it, and coming in, soon decided
the controversy, and persuaded the king by all means
to accept the condition. Accordingly the bargain
was made as John Monteith would have it, and so¬
lemnly confirmed. But when the king was going