His alarm was soon increased by a redoubled noise from the house; oaths and horrid bursts of merriment seemed to have turned that once abode of honor and of loveliness into the clamorous haunts of ribaldry and rapine.

In the midst of the uproar, he was surprised by seeing flames issue from the windows.
Soldiers poured from the doors with shouts of triumph; some carried off the booty, and others watched by the fire till the interior of the building was consumed and the rest sunk a heap of smoking ruins.
"The work completed, these horrid ministers of devastation left the vale to its own solitude.

Dugald, after waiting a long time to ascertain they were quite gone, crawled from the bushes, and, ascending the cliffs, he was speeding to the mountains, when, encountering our armed shepherds, they mistook him for an English soldier, and seized him.

The chief of ruined Ellerslie recognized his servant; and, with redoubled indignation, his followers heard the history of the moldering ashes before them." "Brave, persecuted Wallace!" exclaimed the earl; "how dearly was my life purchased! But proceed, Halbert; tell me that he returned safe from Lanark." Halbert now recounted the dreadful scenes which took place in that town; and that when the governor fell, Wallace made a vow never to mingle with the world again till Scotland should be free.
"Alas!" cried the earl, "what miracle is to effect that?
Surely he will not bury those noble qualities, that prime of manhood, within the gloom of a cloister!" "No, my lord; he has retired to the fastnesses of Cartlane Craigs." "Why," resumed Mar, "why did he not rather fly to me?
This castle is strong; and while one stone of it remains upon another, not all the hosts of England should take him hence." "It was not your friendship he doubted," returned the old man, "love for his country compels him to reject all comfort in which she does not share.

His last words to me were these: 'I have nothing now to do but to assert the liberties of Scotland, and to rid her of her enemies.