the reward of your virtue and your toil."

Wallace would now have sent him to respose himself; but animated by the
success of his adventure, and exulting in the honor which was so soon
to stamp a sign of this exploit upon him forever, he told his leader
that he felt no want of sleep, and would rather take on him the office
of arousing the other captains to their stations, the moon, their
preconcerted signal, being then approaching its rest.


Chapter XXIII.

The Fortress.



Kirkpatrick, Murray, and Scrymgeour hastened to their commander; and in
a few minutes all were under arms. Wallace briefly explained his
altered plan of assault, and marshaling his men accordingly, led them
in silence through the water, and along the beach, which lay between
the rock and the Leven. Arriving at the base just as the moon set,
they began to ascend. To do this in the dark redoubled the difficulty;
but as Wallace had the place of every accessible stone accurately
described to him by Edwin, he went confidently forward, followed by his
Lanarkmen.

He and they, being the first to mount, fixed and held the tops of the
scaling-ladders, while Kirkpatrick and Scrymgeour, with their men,
gradually ascended, and gained the bottom of the wall. Here, planting
themselves in the crannies of the rock, under the impenetrable darkness