"I will clear the narrow seas of this rover," said Wallace.

Then calling together some ten or twelve of his own followers, Boyd,
Kerlie, Seton, and others, to whom the dust of the most desperate
battle was like the breath of life, he commanded them to arm
themselves, and lie flat upon the deck, so as to be out of sight.
He ordered the mariners below, excepting such as were absolutely
necessary to manage the vessel; and he gave the master instructions,
upon pain of death, so to steer as that, while the vessel had an
appearance of attempting to fly, he should in fact permit the Red
Rover to come up with them and do his worst. Wallace himself then
lay down on the deck, that nothing might be seen which could intimate
any purpose of resistance. In a quarter of an hour De Longueville's
vessel ran on board that of the Champion, and the Red Rover, casting
out grappling irons to make sure of his prize, jumped on the deck
in complete armour, followed by his men, who gave a terrible shout,
as if victory had been already secured. But the armed Scots started
up at once, and the rover found himself unexpectedly engaged with
men accustomed to consider victory as secure when they were only
opposed as one to two or three. Wallace himself rushed on the pirate
captain, and a dreadful strife began betwixt them with such fury
that the others suspended their own battle to look on, and seemed
by common consent to refer the issue of the strife to the fate of
the combat between the two chiefs. The pirate fought as well as
man could do; but Wallace's strength was beyond that of ordinary
mortals. He dashed the sword from the rover's hand, and placed him
in such peril that, to avoid being cut down, he was fain to close
with the Scottish Champion in hopes of overpowering him in the grapple.
In this also he was foiled. They fell on the deck, locked in each