Page:Three Years in Europe.djvu/81

Rh On the other side of the river we saw a magnificent monument built on the top of a high and craggy hill,—it was the monument of William Wallace! Well has the place been chosen for the great mountain-warrior, the defender of Scotland, and the martyr for her independence. A lofty column standing on a high and rugged rock, it seems to aspire to reach the skies, and is seen from places all round miles and miles afar; while at its foot stretches the field of Stirling, the scene of Wallace's first and most important victory.

The Stirling Castle is built on a high and precipitous rock and must have been impregnable before fire-arms and artillery were invented. There is a room in the castle called the Douglas room, where James II. invited a Douglas to a feast and then stabbed him there, and threw the corpse out of a window.

The very corner in which the murder took place as well as the window through which the body was thrown out were pointed out to us. We also saw the strong tower where, we were assured, Rhoderic Dhu was really imprisoned by James V. and where he breathed his last! But the chief interest lies not in the rooms within the castle but in the celebrated fields surrounding it. Standing on the highest point of the castle with your face to the south-east, you see on your left the field of Stirling,—the scene of Wallace's greatest victory while on your right, about three miles off, is the scene of Bruce's greatest victory,—the field of Bannockburn. Further off you