ABSTRACT
Wallace having turned abruptly away from his lamenting servants, struck into the deep defiles of the Pentland hills: and deeming it probable that the determined affection of some of his friends might urge them to dare the perils attendant on his fellowship, he hesitated a moment which path to take. Certainly not towards Hunting-tower, to bring immediate destruction on its royal inhabitant. Neither to any chieftain of the Highlands, to give rise to a spirit of civil warfare which might not afterwards be sanctioned by its only just excuse, the appearance and establishment of the lawful prince. Neither would he pursue the eastern track; for in that direction, as pointing to France, his friends would seek him. - He therefore turned his steps towards the ports of Ayr: the road was circuitous, but it would soon enough take him from the land of his fathers, from the country he must never see again.
