[The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter]@TWC D-Link bookThe Scottish Chiefs CHAPTER XXXVI 3/11
Baffled abroad, an insurrection awaits him at home; the priesthood whom he has insulted, trample name with anathemas; the nobles whom he has insulted, trample on his prerogative; and the people, whose privileges he has invaded, call aloud for redress.
The proud barons of England are ready to revolt; and the Lords Hereford and Norfolk (those two earls whom, after madly threatening to hang,** he sought to bribe to their allegiance by leaving them in the full powers of Constable and Marshal of England), they are now conducting themselves with such domineering consequence, that even the Prince of Wales submits to their directions, and the throne of the absent tyrant is shaken to its center. **Edward intended to send out forces to Guienne, under the command of Humphrey Earl of Hereford, the constable, and Roger Earl of Norfolk, the Marshal of England, when these two powerful nobles refused to execute his commands.
A violent altercation ensued; and the king, in the height of his passion, exclaimed to the constable, "Sir Earl, by G-, you shall either go or hang." "By G-, Sir King," replied Hereford, "I will neither go nor hang." And he immediately departed with the marshal and their respective trains. "Sir William Wallace has rescued Scotland from his yoke.
The country now calls for her ancient lords--those who made her kings, and supported them.
Come, then, my cousin! espouse the cause of right; the cause that is in power; the cause that may aggrandize the house of Cummin with still higher dignities than any with which it has hitherto been blazoned." With these arguments, and with others more adapted to his Belial mind, she tried to bring him to her purpose; to awaken what ambition he possessed; and to entice his baser passions, by offering security in a rescued country to the indulgence of senses to which he had already sacrificed the best properties of man.
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