"Consider, my lord," continued she, "that Scotland is now entirely in the power of the English monarch.

His garrisons occupy our towns, his creatures hold every place of trust in the kingdom!" "And is such a list of oppressions, my dear lady, to be an argument for longer bearing them?
Had I, and other Scottish nobles, dared to resist this overwhelming power after the battle of our liberties, kept our own unsheathed within the bulwarks of our mountains, Scotland might now be free; I should not have been insulted by our English tyrants in the streets of Lanark; and, to save my life, William Wallace would not now be mourning his murdered wife, and without a home to shelter him!" Lady Mar paused at this observation, but resumed, "That may be true.
But the die is cast; Scotland is lost forever; and by your attempting to assist your friend in this rash essay to recover it, you will only lose yourself also, without preserving him.

The project is wild and needless.

What would you have?
Now that the contention between the two kings is past; now that Baliol has surrendered his crown to Edward, is not Scotland at peace ?" "A bloody peace, Joanna," answered the earl; "witness these wounds.

A usurper's peace is more destructive than his open hostilities; plunder and assassination are its concomitants.