It was only because Hector got away, when the horsemen were unable to follow him, that he escaped, seeing that, good dog as he is, speed is not his strong point, and that horsemen could easily gallop alongside of him even were he free.
What are you smiling at, Sir Archie?
The hound and you seem on wondrous friendly terms;" for Hector was now standing up with his great paws on Archie's shoulder.
"So we should be, sire, seeing that for eight days we have shared bed and board." "Ah! is it so ?" Bruce exclaimed.

"Was it you, then, that loosed the hound ?" "It was, sir," Archie replied; "and this is the history of it; and you will see that if I have done you and Hector a service in bringing you together again the hound has repaid it by saving my life." Entering the hut, Archie sat down and related all that had happened, to the king.
"You have done me great service, Sir Archie," Bruce said when he concluded his tale, "for assuredly the hound would have wrought my ruin had he remained in the hands of the English.

This is another of the long list of services you have rendered me.

Some day, when I come to my own, you will find that I am not ungrateful." The feats which have been related of Bruce, and other personal adventures in which he distinguished himself, won the hearts of great numbers of the Scotch people.

They recognized now that they had in him a champion as doughty and as valiant as Wallace himself.
The exploits of the king filled their imaginations, and the way in which he continued the struggle after the capture of the ladies of his family and the cruel execution of his brothers and so many of his adherents, convinced them that he would never desist until he was dead or a conqueror.