ith their shoes
inverted, that he might deceive those who should track his path over
the open fields or cross roads, through which he purposed to travel. He
arrived in a few days at Dumfries, in Annandale, the chief seat of his
family interest; and he happily found a great number of the Scottish
nobility there assembled, and among the rest, John Cummin, his former
associate.

The noblemen were astonished at the appearance of Bruce among them; and
still more when he discovered to them the object of his journey. He
told them that he was come to live or die with them in defence of the
liberties of his country, and hoped, with their assistance, to redeem
the Scottish name from all the indignities which it had so long suffered
from the tyranny of their imperious masters: that the sacrifice of the
rights of his family was the first injury which had prepared the way for
their ensuing slavery; and by resuming them, which was his firm purpose,
he opened to them the joyful prospect of recovering from the fraudulent
usurper their ancient and hereditary independence: that all past
misfortunes had proceeded from their disunion; and they would soon
appear no less formidable than of old to their enemies, if they now
deigned to follow into the field their rightful prince, who knew no
medium between death and victory, that their mountains and their valor,
which had, during so many ages, protected their liberty from all the
efforts of the Roman empire, would still be sufficient, were they worthy
of their generous ancestors, to defend them against the utmost violence
of the English tyrant: that it was unbecoming men, born to the most
ancient independence known in Europe, to submit to the will of any
masters; but fatal to receive those who, being irritated by such
persevering resistance, and inflamed with the highest animosity,
would never deem themselves secure in their usurped dominion but
by exterminating all the ancient nobility, and even all the ancient
inhabitants: and that, being reduced to this desperate extremity, it
were better for them at once to perish like brave men, with swords in
their hands, than to dread long, and at last undergo, the fate of the
unfortunate Wallace, whose merits, in the brave and obstinate defence
of his country, were finally rewarded by the hands of an English
executioner.

The spirit with which this discourse was delivered, the bold sentiments
which it conveyed, the novelty of Bruce's declaration, ass