We had been companions in our boyish days, and friends after.

He saved my life once, in swimming; and now that a formidable nation menaces his, I seek to repay the debt.

For this purpose, a few nights ago I left my guardian's house by stealth, and sought my way to my friend.

I found the banks of the Mouse occupied by the English; but exploring the most intricate passes, at last gained the bottom of the precipice on the top of which Wallace is encamped; and as I lay among the bushes, watching an opportunity to ascend, I perceived two English soldiers near me.

They were in discourse, and I overheard them say, that besides Heselrigge himself, nearly two hundred of his garrison had fallen by the hand of Wallace's men in the contention at the castle; that the tidings were sent to Sir Richard Arnulf, the Deputy-governor of Ayr; and he had dispatched a thousand men to surround the Cartland Craigs, spies having given notice that they were Sir William's strongholds, and the orders were, that he must be taken dead or alive; while all his adherents, men and women, should receive no quarter.
"Such was the information I brought to my gallant friend, when in the dead of night I mounted the rock, and calling to the Scottish sentinel in Gaelic, gave him my name, and was allowed to enter the sacred spot.
Wallace welcomed his faithful Ker,** and soon unfolded his distress and his hopes.