(Dafe. 87 



wisdom and martial character of Edward, and how 

 impossible it was that a weak state, deprived of its head, 

 could long maintain such an unequal warfare. He told 

 him, that if the love of his country was his motive for 

 persevering, his obstinacy tended to prolong her woes ; 

 if he carried his views to personal aggrandisement and 

 ambition, he might remember from past experience, that 

 the proud nobles who constituted the aristocracy of 

 Scotland, had already refused to submit to personal 

 merit, although the elevation to which that merit 

 attained had been won by the greatest privations, and 

 by the consummate skill which had gained for them the 

 hard-earned victory of Cambuskenneth. 



Wallace was not slow to answer. He told young 

 Bruce, that if he had acted as the champion of his 

 country, it was solely because no leader had arisen, 

 beneath whose banner he could lead on his faithful men. 

 Why was not Bruce himself that leader ? He had 

 noble birth, and strength ; he was in the vigour of his 

 days, and yet, although uniting personal merit to dignity 

 of family, he had been induced to desert the post which 

 Heaven had assigned him. He told him that the Scots, 

 possessed of such a head, would gladly assemble to his 

 standard; that the proud nobles would submit to him, 

 because he was of more exalted birth than any of them, 

 being himself of royal descent; and that even now, 

 though many brave, and some greatly distinguished 

 men, had fallen on the battle-field at no great distance, and 



