Graham and Edwin started on their feet; the seamen piled their oars;
the boat dashed into the breakers-and Wallace, leaping on shore, was
received with acclamations by his eager soldiers.

He no sooner landed, than he commenced his march. Murray joined him on
the banks of the Irwin; and as Ayr was no very great distance from that
river, at two hours before midnight the little army entered Laglane
Wood; where they halted, while Wallace, with his chieftains proceeded
to reconnoiter the town. The wind swept in gusts through the trees,
and seemed by its dismal yellings, to utter warnings of the dreadful
retributions he was about to inflict. He had already declared his plan
of destruction; and Graham, as a first measure, went to the spot he had
fixed on with Macdougal, his servant, as a place of rendezvous. He
returned with the man; who informed Wallace, that in honor of the
sequestrated lands of the murdered chiefs having been that day
partitioned by De Valance amongst certain Southron lords, a grand feast
was going on in the governor's palace. Under the very roof where they
had shed the blood of the trusting Scots, they were now keeping this
carousal!

"Now, then, is our time to strike!" cried Wallace; and ordering
detachments of his men to take possession of the avenues to the town,
he set forth with others, to reach the front of the castle gates, by a
less frequented path than the main street. The darkness being so great
that no object could be distinctly seen, they had not gone far, before
Macdougal, who had undertaken to be their guide, discovered by the
projection of a hill on the right, that he had lost the road.

"Our swords will find one!" exclaimed Kirkpatrick.