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The oppression and cruelty, however of the men left as governors of the different garrisons, roused the spirit of the people, who only wanted the presence of some enterprising leader to rise up in a body against the English, and recover the liberty of their country.
At this momentous period, such a leader rose in the person of SIR WILLIAM WALLACE, renowned in Scottish story.
This remarkable man was none of the high nobles of Scotland, but the son of a private gentleman called Wallace of Eller- slie, in Renfrewshire near Paisley.
The power and address which he dis- played,—his various rencounters,—his miraculous escapes,—and the almost univer- sal belief in the prediction of Thomas the Rhymer, that he was destined to deliver Scotland from the tyranny of the English, produced a wonderful sensation among his countrymen, and numbers flocked to him from all quarters.
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