Page:Life of the celebrated Scottish patriot Sir Wm. Wallace.pdf/3



S W W, whose memory still continues to flourish in the annals of Scotland with unfading glory, was the youngest son of Sir Malcolm Wallace of ElderslicElderslie [sic], near Paisley, in Renfrewshire. The date of his birth is unrecorded, but it must have been previous to the death of Alexander III., king of Scotland, who met an untimely end, by a fall from his horse at Kinghorn, in 1286.

Alexander was the last of a suecessionsuccession [sic] of prineesprinces [sic] who had held the sceptre for nearly 800 years, and left it in the hands of his grand-daughter, ealledcalled [sic] the Maid of Norway, who, dying in infancy, gave rise to the famous contest of Baliol and Bruce for the crown. Both parties having referred to the decision of Edward I. of England, that ambitious and crafty monarch unjustly claimed it for himself, and vainly attempted to deprive Scotland of her independeneeindependence [sic]. To our noble hero it was reserved to be the first to avenge her wrongs, and restore her to ancient splendour.

Though Wallace's father was possessed of a littlolittle [sic] property, the energy, the grandeur, and the intrepidity of the mind of his son, were formed in the school of adversity. Leaving his paternal home, he went to Dundee, and was educated under John Blair, who was afterwards his chaplain, and lived to record his daring and unparalleled adventures.

The unfortunate battle of Dunbar having led to the abdication of John Baliol, the reigning monarch, Edward filled every part of Scotland with English