Page:Life of Sir William Wallace.pdf/20

 mean to deliver my country from oppression and slavery, and to support a just cause which you have abandoned. You, my lord, whose right may entitle you to be king, you ought to protect the kingdom; it is because you do it not, that I must and will, while I breathe, endeavour the defence of that country I was born to serve, and if providence will have it so, to die for. As for you, who, in place of exerting your talents to turn the tide of battle in your country's favour, choose rather to live a slave, if with safety to your life and fortune, than free, with the hazard of losing the latter, you may remain in possession of what you so much value, while the hollow praises of your enemies blind you to the enormity of your conduct but remember, my lord, they whom you are thus aiding to bind the yoke of slavery on the necks of your countrymen, will not long consider that conduct praiseworthy in you, which they would condemn as infamous in themselves; and if they are successful in rivetting our chains, you will find your reward in the well-earned contempt of the oppressor, and the hearty execrations of the oppressed. Pause, therefore, my lord, and reflect: if you have but the heart to claim the crown, you win it with glory, and wear it with it justice; I can do neither, but what I can I will, live and die and freeborn subject."

Tradition has preserved many other circumstances relative to this battle, the remembrance of which is fondly cherished by every native of the northern part of this island. One may serve as an example. It is said Wallace, after the battle of Falkirk, hid himself in an oak tree in the Torwood, and this tree is in some degree held sacred. Pieces of it having been carried off, and preserved as relics; and some years ago, a snuffbox