"You ask too much," said Wallace, quietly. "You are welcome to a part of
the fish, but you cannot have them all."
"That we will," answered the soldiers.
"That you will not," retorted the youth. "I have other business than to
play fisherman for your benefit."
The soldiers insisted, and attempted to take the basket. The angler came
to the aid of his attendant. Words were followed by blows. The soldiers
laid hands on their weapons. The youth had no weapon but his
fishing-rod. But with the butt end of this he struck the foremost
Englishman so hard a blow under his ear that he stretched him dead upon
the ground. Seizing the man's sword, which had fallen from his hand, he
attacked the others with such skill and fury that they were put to
flight, and the bold angler was enabled to take his fish safely home.
The name of the courageous youth was William Wallace. He was the son of
a private gentleman, called Wallace of Ellerslie, who had brought up his
boy to the handling of warlike weapons, until he had grown an adept in
their use; and also to a hatred of the English, which was redoubled by
the insolence of the soldiers with whom Edward I. of England had
garrisoned the country. Like all high-spirited Scotchmen, the young man
viewed with indignation the conduct of the conquerors of his country,
and expressed the intensity of his feeling in the tragical manner above
described.
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