"Here," cried she, "once more kiss these lips! They have often kissed yours, when you were a babe; and as insensible to his love, as he is now to your sorrow." Wallace received the head in his arms; the long silver beard, thick with gouts of blood, hung over his hands.

He gazed on it, intently, for some minutes.

An awful silence pervaded the room; every eye was riveted upon him.
Looking round on his friends, with a countenance whose deadly hue gave a sepulchral fire to the gloomy denunciation of his eyes; "Was it necessary," said he, "to turn my heart to iron, that I was brought to see this sight ?" All the tremendous purpose of his soul was read in his face, while he laid the head back upon the bier.

His lips again moved, but none heard what he said.

He rushed from the hut, and with rapid strides, proceeded in profound silence toward the palace.
He well knew that no honest Scot could be under that roof.