r of them, before they could lay hands on her.

When the four men lay dead before him, Wallace wasted no time over their
burial, but drawing their bodies under a bush, where they were somewhat
hidden from the passers-by, he hung the milk-can on a branch of a tree,
and walked quietly away in the gathering darkness. No one who met a
simple country girl walking out into the country ever dreamt of asking
her who she was, or where she was going, and ere morning came, I promise
you, her garments had been cast, and buried in a hole in the ground, and
Wallace was making his way northward as fast as ever he could.

He had to be very careful which way he travelled, for there were
soldiers quartered in many of the towns, who knew that there was a price
set on his head, and who were only too anxious to catch him.

So he dare not venture into the towns, or into the districts where there
were many houses, and it came to pass that, as he was nearing Perth, he
was like to famish for want of food.

He had eaten almost nothing for three days, nor had he money wherewith
to buy it.

Now, near to Perth there is a beautiful haugh or common, called the
North Inch, which stretches along the river Tay, and as he was crossing
that, he saw a pretty, rosy country girl washing clothes under a tree,
and spreading them out to bleach in the sun. She looked so kind and so
good-tempered that he thought he would speak to her, and mayhap, if he
found that she lived near, he would ask her to give him something to
eat.

So he went up to her, and greeted her pleasantly, and asked her what
news there was in that part of the world.

"News," said she, looking up at him with a roguish smile, for it was not
often that she had the opportunity of talking with such a gallant
knight. "Nay, by my troth, I have no news, for I am but a poor working
maiden, who toils hard for her living; but one thing I can tell thee,
an' if thou be a true Scot at heart, thou wilt do all in thy power to
shield him."

"To shield whom?" asked Wallace in surprise. "I know not of whom thou
speakest."

"Why! Sir William Wallace," answered the girl, "that gallant man who
will deliver this poor country of ours. 'Tis known that he is in these
parts; he hath been traced from Lanark, and 'tis thought that he is
making for the hills, where his followers are; and this very day a body
of these cursed English have marched into the town, in order to search
the country and take him. Look, see