The letter was finished with a demand that the town and citadel of Berwick should be surrendered to England, as a gauge for the quiet of the borders till Edward should return.
Kirkpatrick scoffed at the audacious menace of the young prince.

"He should come amongst us, like a man," cried he; "and we would soon show him who it is that works mischief in Scotland! Ay, even on his back, we would write the chastisement due to the offender." "Be not angry with him, my friend," returned Wallace; "these threats are words of course from the son of Edward.

Did he not fear both our rights and our arms, he would not so readily accord with our propositions.

You see every Scottish prisoner is to be on the borders by a certain day; and to satisfy that impatient valor (which I, your friend, would never check, but when it loses itself in a furor too nearly resembling that of our enemies), I intend to make your prowess once again the theme of their discourse.

You will retake your castles in Annandale!" "Give me but the means to recover those stout gates of our country," cried Kirkpatrick, "and I will warrant you to keep the keys in my hand till doomsday." Wallace resumed: "Three thousand men are at your command.