Wallace received the head in his arms; the long silver beard, thick
with gouts of blood, hung over his hands. He gazed on it, intently,
for some minutes. An awful silence pervaded the room; every eye was
riveted upon him.

Looking round on his friends, with a countenance whose deadly hue gave
a sepulchral fire to the gloomy denunciation of his eyes; "Was it
necessary," said he, "to turn my heart to iron, that I was brought to
see this sight?" All the tremendous purpose of his soul was read in
his face, while he laid the head back upon the bier. His lips again
moved, but none heard what he said. He rushed from the hut, and with
rapid strides, proceeded in profound silence toward the palace.

He well knew that no honest Scot could be under that roof. The
building, though magnificent, was altogether a structure of wood; to
fire it, then, was his determination. TO destroy all, at once, in the
theater of their cruelty; to make an execution, not engage in a warfare
of man to man, was his resolution; for they were not soldiers hew as
seeking, but assassins; and to pitch his brave Scots in the open field
against such unmanly wretches would be to dishonor his men, to give
criminals a chance for the lives they had forfeited.

All being quiet in the streets through which he passed, and having set
strong bodies of men at the mouth of every sallyport of the citadel, he
made a bold attack upon the guard at the barbican-gate; and, ere they
could give the alarm, all being slain, he and his chosen troop entered
the portal, and made direct to the palace. The lights which blazed
through the windows of the banqueting hall showed him to the spot; and,
having detached Graham and Edwin to storm the keep, where their fathers
were confined, he took the half-intoxicated sentinels at the