Page:Essays and studies; by members of the English Association, volume 1.djvu/108

 Douglas's explanation, which impressed his comrades in Spain, must have impressed Harry too:

Of the picture of Wallace in retreat it is only necessary to cite again the Bruce as the explanation. Barbour likens the king, forced to retire when attacked by John of Lome, to Gaudifer,

No simile was sacred enough to be reserved for Bruce if Harry needed a decoration for Wallace.

Evidently, just as the battles and exploits of Wallace are so largely the battles and exploits of Bruce and Douglas, so in the central facts of portraiture and characterization the personal figure of the hero is but second-hand the shadow of Barbour's Douglas and Bruce.

In audacity possibly nothing exceeds that adaptive feat of Harry's by which in the battle of Falkirk Bruce is made to level his spear at Wallace, to ride full tilt at him but miss his blow, and as he thunders past, to receive full on his horse's neck the terrible down-stroke of Wallace's blade:

Were it not that the situation has a grave side one might be content to marvel at the whimsicality, the almost comical