Page:Life of the celebrated Scottish patriot Sir Wm. Wallace.pdf/5

Rh gow. Five of the English turned aside, and tauntingly demanded the fish he had eaughtcaught [sic]. He eonsentedconsented [sic] to allow them part, but they insisted for the whole, and seized them from the boy who earriedcarried [sic] the fishing-basket. Provoked at their rapacity and insoleneeinsolence [sic], 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 attaekedattacked [sic], but they found that his individual strength, dexterity, and intrepidity, were superior to their united foreeforce [sic]. Three of them, by the powerful arm of WallaeeWallace [sic], lay weltering in their blood, and the other two escaped with difficulty, while Wallace rode home in triumph to his uneleuncle [sic] upon one of their horses. Persuaded that he eouldcould [sic] not remain here longer in safety, and being provided with money and other neeessariesnecessaries [sic], he set out with the determination of seizing every opportunity of destroying the enemy, and either deliver his eountrycountry [sic], or fall in the attempt. Firm to his resolution, he spared neither great nor small that fell in his way. For these heroieheroic [sic] actions he was ontlawedoutlawed [sic] by the English, and compelled, during the inelemeneyinclemency [sic] of the winter of 1297, to live in the woods and forests, where he wandered exposed to all the hardships that it is possible for human nature to endure. These rough blasts of adversity, however, only tended to braeebrace [sic] his nerves, and prepare him for performing greater achievements.

One day, WallaeeWallace [sic], ventured into Ayr in disguise, and, sauntering through the town, passed by when the steward of Lord PereyPercy [sic] was insulting the servant of the sheriff, and insisting that he should have for his lord what the servant had bought for his master. WallaeeWallace [sic] interfered, and said that the sheriff was a very good man, and therefore he should have his dinner. The steward gave Wallace a stroke over the shoulders with his hunting-cane, accompanied with