CHAPTER XXXVI.
The Carse of Stirling.
The fame of these victories, the seizure of Stirling, the conquest of above sixty thousand men, and the lord warden with his late deputy taken prisoners, all spread through the country on the wings of the wind.
Messengers were dispatched by Wallace, not only to the nobles who had already declared for the cause by sending him their armed followers, but to the clans who yet stood irresolute.

To the chiefs who had taken the side of Edward, he sent no exhortation.

And when Lord Ruthven advised him to do so, "No, my lord," said he, "we must not spread a snare under our country, and as they had the power to befriend her, they would not have colleagued with her enemies.

They remember her happiness under the rule of our Alexanders; they see her sufferings beneath the sway of a usurper; and if they can know these things, and require arguments to bring them to their duty, should they then come to it, it would not be to fulfill, but to betray.

Ours, my dear Lord Ruthven, is a commission from Heaven.