The Scottish Chiefs Author:Jane Porter Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. LANARK. The darkness was almost impenetrable. Musing on what had passed with Monteith, Wallace rode on, till, crossing the bridge at Lanark, he... more » saw the rising moon, and then his meditations embraced a gentler subject. This was the time he had promised Marion he should be returned, and he had yet five long miles to go before he could reach the glen of Ellerslie. He thought of her watching, with an anxious heart, the minutes of his delay. Scotland and its wrongs he now forgot in the idea of her whose happiness was dearer than life. He could not achieve the deliverance of the one, but it was his bliss to preserve the peace of the other; and putting spurs to his horse, he hastened through the town. Abruptly turning an angle leading to the Mouse river, a cry of murder arrested his ear. He checked his horse and listened. The clashing of arms told him the sound had issued from an alley to the left. He alighted in an instant, and drawing his sword, threw away the scabbard; then, leaving his horse with one of his servants, hastened, with the other three, to the spot whence the noise proceeded. On arriving, he discovered two men in tartans, with their backs to the opposite wall, furiously assaulted by a throng of Edward's soldiers. At this sight, the Scots who accompanied Wallace were so enraged that, blowing their bugles to encourage the assailed, they joined hand to hand with their gallant leader, and attacking the banditti, each man cut his opponent to the ground. Such unexpected assistance reanimated the drooping strength of one of the two, from whom the cry had issued. He sprang from the wall with the vigor of a tiger, but at the moment received a wound in his back, which would have thrown him at the feet of his enemies had not Wallace caught him in his left ...« less