THE SCENE: Separated from his soldiers and grieving the loss of one of his friends, William Wallace is discovered by his enemies (i.e. Butler). It doesn’t take long, though, for Wallace to turn the table on these attackers, with bloody results.
THE TEXT: Butler, invited by the smiling scene,
Forsook his bed, and sought he plains unseen;
There view’d how pensive Wallace all alone
Incessant sigh’d, and made a piteous moan;
And rightly guessing that he was a foe,
Demands his business with contracted brow;
Nor stopp’d; but spurring quick his fiery horse,
With rapid aste precipitates his course.
Wallace unmov’d, the impetuous shock sustains,
And awful joy his gloomy brow serenes.
Straight rising to the blow, he aim’d a wound,
And brought his enemy stagg’ring to the ground.
Now seiz’d his horse, mounted, and with loose reins,
Forsook the place, and shot across the plains.
A soldier view’d his hapless leader’s far,
With ardent eyes, and kindling into hate,
Wing’d forth his spear, that whistled in the wind,
Drove o’er the knight, and miss’d the mark assign’d.
But now the enemy, with superior might,
Besets the roads, and intercepts his flight.
Collecting all himself, brave Wallace stood,
Saw how they rag’d and panted after blood,
And drew his sword, that with tempestuous sway,
Dealt fate around, and cut a sanguine way.
Three prostrate on the plain, of sense bereft,
And stiff’ning into death, the victor left:
The tained grass imbides the flowing blood.
That gush’d amain, and ting’d the ambient flood.
– The Life and Heroick Actions of the Renoun’d Sir William Wallace, Blind Harry, 15th Century AD
