Page:History of Sir William Wallace, the renowned Scottish champion.pdf/4

4 curity and happiness of his country during the reign of Alexander III, and now when she was degraded and oppressed by the tyrant Edward, his countrymen despoiled of their goods, and their wives and daughters wantonly insulted by his English followers, the contrast was of such a nature as to arouse the keenest feelings in a heart which from its earliest stirrings was animated by a love of liberty to his country, which nothing but death could extinguish. Whilst brooding In secret over his country’s wrongs, an event occurred which stimulated the powers of his mind and body into active existence and for ever banished all hope of conciliation betwixt him and the enslavers of his country. He had formed an attachment to a beautiful young woman in the town of Lanark, and when passing through that burgh, well armed and somewhat richly dressed, he was recognised by a troop of English soldiers, who surrounded and insulted him. Wallace at first would have prudently got clear of their insolence; but a contemptuous stroke which one of them made against his sword, provoked him to draw, and he laid the culprit dead at his feet. A tumult now arose, and, almost overpowered by numbers, he escaped with difficulty into the house of his sweetheart, and through it, by a back passage, into the neighbouring