Page:Life and surprising adventures of that renowned hero, Sir Wm. Wallace.pdf/5

 Sir Richard Wallace of Riccarton, where his restless and patriotic averson to the English tyranny permitted him not long to remain. One day he went a fishing, and in the course of his pastime was interrupted by the insolent rapacity of some of Lord Percy’s followers who happened to pass the spot, where he saw the only weapon he had was his fishing staff, with this he beat one of them to the ground, and having wrested the sword from his hand he soon taught the crowd, by whom he was speedily assailed, that his individual strength, skill, and intrepidity, were superior to their united force; he killed several of the party, and the others fled, confounded at the matchless prowess of their single antagonist. He rode home triumphant to his uncle, on a horse left by the persons whom he killed or terrified, and now he was inspired with a just confidence in his own powers by these exploits. His residence with Sir Richard now becoming very insecure, he resolved to devote his mightiest exertions, and his life itself, to the deliverance of his country, or to the chastisement of its oppressors; and, accordingly, he destroyed as many Englsh as came in his way, sparing neither the dignified nor the mean. For these noble actions he was outlawed by the English, and compelled to