Page:History of Sir William Wallace (1).pdf/118

 ( 118 ) innocence, the tyranny of Edward, and the treachery of Monteith. But cruel tyranny usually defeats her own purposes. The ignoble and barbarous manner in which Wallace was treated, and the fixing his divided body to the city gates of that country for which he had done so much, roused every latent spark of Scottish valour and independ- ence; exasperated the nation against Edward; animated them to revenge: and excited all the friends and admirers of Wallace to flock around the standard of Robert Brace; to avenge the death of Wallace: to shake off the yoke of such an inexorable tyrant, and to fill tho Scottish throne with a lawful sovereign. It may be attributed to the partiality of & Scottish pen but the candid reader is left to judge if any of the heroes of ant quity can be compared with Wallace. Compare their beginning, progress, and achievinents, with those of our Scottish warrior : Alexander governed the warlike kingdom of Macedon; soon had all Greece under his command; and when lie overcame the Persians, he only quished women and eunucus. Cesar had so encounter Romans; but he had Romans to leadagainst them, and a veteran and well- disciplined army against an indolent and jarrag Senute a volitptuous and effeminste youth, who instead of bemg inured to the sword, durst not look at the point of a spear, lest it should