Page:History of the Scottish patriot, Sir Wm. Wallace, Knight of Ellerslie.pdf/4

4 himself unsafe beneath his mother’s roof, he went and lived secretly with his paternal uncle, Sir Richard Wallace, at Riccarton.

One day, while residing with his uncle, he went to fish in the Irvine, near Ayr; meanwhile, Lord Percy, with his armed suite, rode past on their way to Glasgow. Five of the English turned aside, and tauntingly demanded the fish he had caught. He consented to allow them part, but they insisted for the whole, and seized them from the boy who carried the fishing-basket. Provoked at their rapacity and insolence, he gave one of them a blow on the head with his fishing-staff, that brought him to the ground, and wrested the sword from his hand. The rest attacked, but they, to their experience, soon found that his individual strength, dexterity, and intrepidity were superior to their united force. Three of them, by the powerful arm of Wallace, lay weltering in their blood, and with difficulty the other two escaped, while Wallace rode home in triumph to his uncle upon one of their horses. Persuaded that he could not remain longer here in safety, and being provided with money and other necessaries, he set off on his English horse determined to seize every opportunity to destroy the enemy, and either deliver his country or fall in the praiseworthy attempt. Firm to his resolution, he spared neither great nor small that fell in his way. For these heroic actions he was outlawed by the English, and compelled, during the inclemency of the winter 1297, to live in the fields, the woods, the mountains, and the forests, where he wandered exposed to ail the hardships that it is possible for human nature to endure. These rough blasts of adversity, however, only tended to brace his nerves, and prepare him to perform greater achievements.

One day, Wallace, disguising himself, ventured into Ayr, and, sauntering through the town, passed by when the steward of Lord Percy was insulting the servant of the sheriff, and insisting that he should