THE SCENE: William Wallace and one of his trusted lieutenants, Graham, bring blood and slaughter against their enemies: the military commanders Moreland and Graystock.
And now both sides assault, and proudly vie;
Thickens the combat, and resounds the sky.
Wallace, distinguish’d by his orby shield,
Rode thund’ring through the tempest of the field,
Where Moreland rag’d; and with a ponderous blow
Full on his neck, divides the bone in two.
No more the joints the dizzy head sustain,
The haughty chief rush’d headlong to the plain.
Seizing his horse, the knight, with active care,
Revives again the thunder of the war.
Inspir’d by Heaven, with more than human might,
His arm alone inclines the scale of fight;
Around, the verdant grass is sanguine dy’d,
And heaps on heaps expire on every side.
Meanwhile, despatched by heav’n, immortal Graham,
Back’d with his friends, a brave retinue came.
Thrice ten he led, a small but faithful train
Each could mark red the field with num’rous slain,
And the whole tempest of the war sustain.
Fierce Graystock, now abandon’d by his pride,
Nought but despair appear’d on every side.
Graham sought the haughty chief. And now on high,
His sword that flam’d and lighten’d in the sky,
With whirlwind sound descends, and cleaves his head:
No force of motion could the stroke impede.
The yawning chasm well’d out a purple flood;
Forth rush’d the soul effus’d with with gushing blood.
Wallace, meanwhile, dealt ruin all around.
And with dead corpses strew’d the blushing ground.
The enemy still experienc’d his pow’r,
And those who felt his arm harass’d the Scots no more.
– The Life and Heroick Actions of the Renoun’d Sir William Wallace, Blind Harry, 15th Century AD
