The Barns of Ayr.
Morning was spreading in pale light over the heavens, and condensing
with its cold breath the lurid smoke which still ascended in volumes
from the burning ruins, when Wallace, turning round at the glad voice
of Edwin, beheld the released nobles. This was the first time he had
ever seen the Lords Dundaff and Ruthven; but several of the others he
remembered having met at the fatal decision of the crown; and, while
welcoming to his friendship those to whom his valor had given freedom,
how great was his surprise to see, in the person of a prisoner suddenly
brought before him, Sir John Monteith; the young chieftain whom he had
parted with a few months ago at Douglas; and from whose fatal
invitation to that castle he might date the ruin of his dearest
happiness, and all the succeeding catastrophe!
"We found Sir John Monteith amongst the slain before the palace," said
Ker; "he, of the whole party, alone breathed; I knew him instantly.
How he came there I know not; but I have brought him hither to explain
it himself." Ker withdrew, to finish the interment of the dead.
Monteith, still leaning on the arm of a soldier, grasped Wallace's
hand. "My brave friend!" cried he, "to owe my liberty to you is a
twofold pleasure; for," added he, in a lowered voice, "I see before me
the man who is to verify the words of Baliol; and be not only the
guardian, but the possessor of the treasure he committed to our care!"
Wallace, who had never thought on the coffer, since he knew it was
under the protection of St. Fillan, shook his head. "A far different
need do I seek, my friend!" said he; "to behold these happy
countenances of my liberated countrymen is greater reward to me than
would be the development of all the splendid mysteries which the head
of Baliol could devise."
"Ay!" cried Dundaff, who overheard this part of the conversation, "we
invited the usurpation of a tyrant by the docility with which we
submitted to his minion. Had we rejected Baliol, we had never been
ridden by Edward. But the rowel has gored the flanks of us all! and
who amongst us will not lay himself and fortune at the foot of him who
plucks away the tyrant's heel?"
"It all held our cause in the light that you do," returned Wallace,
"the blood which these Southrons have sown would rise up in ten
thousand legions to overwhelm the murderers!"
"But how," inquired he, turning to Monteith, "did you happen to be in
Ayr at this period? and how, above all, amongst the slaughtered
Southrons at the palace?"
Sir John Monteith readily replied: "My adverse fate accounts for all."
He then proceeded to inform Wallace, that on the very night in which
they parted at Douglas, Sir Arthur Heselrigge was told the story of the
box: and accordingly sent to have Monteith brought prisoner to Lanark.
He lay in the dungeons of its citadel at the very time Wallace entered
that town and destroyed the governor. Though the Scots did not pursue
the advantage offered by the transient panic into which the retribution
threw their enemies, care was immediately taken by the English
lieutenant to prevent a repetition of the same disasters; and, in
consequence, every suspected person was seized, and those already in
confinement loaded with chains. Monteith being known as a friend of
Wallace, was sent under a strong guard toward Stirling, there to stand
his trial before Cressingham and the English Justiciary, Ormsby. "By a
lucky chance," said he, "I made my escape; but I was soon retaken by
another party, and conveyed to Ayr, where the Lieutenant-governor
Arnuf, discovering my talents for music, compelled me to sing at his
entertainments."
"For this purpose, he last night confined me in the banqueting-room at
the palace, and thus, when the flames surrounded that building, I found
myself exposed to die the death of a traitor, though then as much
oppressed as any other Scot. Snatching up a sword, and striving to
join my brave countrymen, the Southrons impeded my passage, and I fell
under their arms."
Happy to have rescued his old acquaintance from further indignities,
Wallace committed him to Edwin to lead into the citadel. Then taking
the colors of Edward from the ground (where the Southron officer had
laid them), he gave them to Sir Alexander Scrymgeour, with orders to
fill their former station on the citadel with the standard of Scotland.
This action he considered as the seal of each victory; as the beacon
which, seen from afar, would show the desolate Scots where to find a
protector, and from what ground to start when courage should prompt
them to assert their rights.
The standard was no sooner raised than the proud clarion of triumph was
blown from every warlike instrument in the garrison and the Southron
captain, placing himself at the head of his disarmed troops, under the
escort of Murray, marched out of the castle. He announced his design
to proceed immediately to Newcastle, and thence embark with his men to
join their king at Flanders. Not more than two hundred followed their
officer in this expedition, for not more were English; the rest, to
nearly double that number, being, like the garrison of Dumbarton, Irish
and Welsh, were glad to escape enforced servitude. Some parted off in
divisions to return to their respective countries, while a few, whose
energetic spirits preferred a life of warfare in the cause of a country
struggling for freedom, before returning to submit to the oppressors of
their own, enlisted under the banners of Wallace.
Some other necessary regulations being then made, he dismissed his
gallant Scots, to find refreshment in the well-stored barracks of the
dispersed Southrons, and retired himself to join his friends in the
citadel.