Page:History of the Scottish patriot, Sir Wm. Wallace, Knight of Ellerslie.pdf/2



To few men is Scotland more indebted, and few have been more universally admired, than the renowned Sir W W, whose memory still continues to flourish in the annals of Scotland with unfading glory. His patriotism, generosity, penetration; knowledge of human nature, address, courage, fortitude, perseverance, and prudence, rank him among the first of heroes. To such a degree of military eminence did he arrive, that the task would be difficult, if not impossible, to select one from the list of modern heroes who can equal him in greatness. He was the youngest son of Sir Malcolm Wallace of Ellerslie, near Paisley, in Renfrewshire. The date of his birth is unrecorded, but it must have been previous to the death of Alexander III., King of Scotland, who met with an untimely end by falling from his horse in 1286. Alexander was the last of a succession of princes who had held the sceptre for nearly 800 years, and left it in the hands of his grand-daughter, called the Maid of Norway, who, dying in infancy, gave rise to the famous contest of Baliol and Bruce for the Crown. Both parties having referred to the decision of Edward I. of England, that ambitious and crafty monarch unjustly claimed it for himself, and vainly attempted to deprive Scotland of her glorious independence. To our noble hero it was reserved to be the first to vindicate her wrongs, and restore her to ancient splendour.

Though Wallace’s father was possessed of a small property, yet the energy, the grandeur, and the intrepidity of the mind of his son were formed in the school of adversity. Leaving his paternal home, he