Page:Life of the celebrated Scottish patriot Sir Wm. Wallace.pdf/20

20 where he was reinforced by the brave Hugh Hay, with 50, and Rutherford, with 60 men. While Wallace was thus engaged in defence of his native country, and rapidly effecting her deliverance, Edward, convinced of the impossibility of conquering Wallace by the sword, had recourse to other measures. In this attempt he employed every means in his power, nor did lie doubt that bribes, and promises, and honours, which gained the services and submission of others, would also, in time, prove successful with Wallace. He accordingly courted Wallace with large and magnificent promises of honour and wealth, places and pension, but all in vain. His constant reply to his friends and the emissaries of Edward who dared to address him on the subjcctsubject [sic], was, "That he owed his life to, and would willingly lay it down for his country; that should all Scotchmen but himself submit to the king of England, he never 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. When neither threats nor bribes; neither force nor stratagem, could effect his purpose, Edward remembered that one expedient yet remained to be tried. He calculated that the preferments and money which Wallace rejcctedrejected [sic] with disdain, might operate on the minds of some one of his followers to betray him, and he soon found an instrument in the person of Sir John Monteith, whose name only deserves a place among the basest of the human race. This traitor conducted a party of Englishmen to Wallace's retreat at Robroyston, about three miles north-west of Glasgow, and at midnight, while our hero was asleep, cautiously removed the bugle from his neck, and conveyed it, along with his arms, through an aperture of the wall; then slowly opened the door, and al-