See you not the villages of your country burning around you?
the castles of your chieftains razed to the ground?
Did not the plains of Dunbar reek with the blood of your kinsmen; and even now, do you not see them led away in chains to the strongholds of the tyrant?
Are not your stoutest vassals pressed from your service, and sent into foreign wars?
And yet you exclaim, 'I see no injury--I spurn at the name of slave!'" Murray rose from his seat as he ended, and walking the room in agitation, did not perceive the confusion of his uncle, who, at once overcome with conviction and fear, again ventured to speak: "It is too sure you speak truth, Andrew; but what am I, or any other private individual, that we should make ourselves a forlorn hope for the whole nation?
Will Baliol, who was the first to bow to the usurper, will he thank us for losing our heads in resentment of his indignity?
Bruce himself, the rightful heir of the crown, leaves us to our fates, and has become a courtier in England! For whom, then, should I adventure my gray hairs, and the quiet of my home, to seek an uncertain liberty, and to meet an almost certain death ?" "For Scotland, uncle," replied he; "just laws are her right.

You are her son; and if you do not make one in the grand attempt to rescue her from the bloodhounds which tear her vitals, the guilt of parricide will be on your soul! Think not, sir, to preserve your home, or even your gray hairs, by hugging the chains by which you are bound.

You are a Scot, and that is sufficient to arm the enemy against your property and life.

Remember the fate of Lord Monteith! At the very time he was beset by the parasites of Edward, and persuaded by their flatteries to be altogether as an Englishman, in that very hour, when he had taken a niece of Cressingham's to his arms, by her hands the vengeance of Edward reached him-he fell!" Murray saw that his uncle was struck, and that he trembled.
"But I am too insignificant, Andrew!" "You are the brother of Lord Bothwell!" answered Murray, with all the dignity of his father rising in his countenance.

"His large possessions made him a traitor in the eyes of the tyrant's representatives.