Page:History of the Scottish patriot, Sir Wm. Wallace, Knight of Ellerslie.pdf/23

Rh would; nor would he give obedience, or yield allegiance to any power, except to the King of Scotland, his rightful sovereign.” The noble virtue of an individual is severely matched with the base intrigue of a powerful monarch. Sir John Monteith, whose name deserves only a place among the basest of the human race, proved the traitor. Wallace having placed the most unbounded confidence in this man, he, the perfidious villain, conducted a party of Englishmen to the place of his lonely retreat at Robroyston, about three miles north-west of Glasgow, while our hero was accompanied by only his faithful friend Karle and a young man related to Monteith.

At the dead hour of midnight, while the two undaunted heroes lay fast asleep, this young traitor, whose turn it was to watch, cautiously removed the bugle from the neck of Wallace, and conveyed it, along with his arms, through an aperture of the wall; then slowly opening the door, two men at arms silently entered, and, seizing upon Karle, hurried him from the apartment. Wallace awoke with the noise, but finding himself armless and surrounded by, a great number of the enemy, he was induced, through a stratagem on Monteith’s part, to accompany him as a prisoner to Dumbarton, where, he said, he would undertake for the safety of his person on the morrow. Next day, however, no Monteith appeared to exert his influence to prevent the hero being carried from the fortress.

Thus the brave, the generous, the disinterested deliverer of his country was seized, and afterwards conveyed to London. As he passed through England, great multitudes of men, women, and children assembled from all quarters to gaze on the illustrious prisoner. Arriving in London, he was conducted to the house of William Deleet, in Fenchurch Street. The day following, August 23, 1305, he was brought on horseback to Westminster, accompanied by several knights, the mayor, sheriffs,