o live. The death of a traitor I protest against; for to the King of
England I am no subject, and in consequence no traitor! I have but done
that which every true and honorable man must justify, and in justifying
respect. I have sought with my whole heart the liberty of my country,
the interest of my lawful sovereign, and will die asserting the honor
and justice of my cause, even as I have lived. I plead not for mercy,
for were it offered, on condition of doing homage unto Edward, I would
refuse it, and choose death; protesting to the last that Robert Bruce,
and he alone, is rightful king of Scotland. My lords, in condemning me
to death as a captive taken in war, ye may be justified by the law of
battles, I dispute not the justice of your doom; but an ye sentence me
as traitor, I do deny the charge, and say my condemnation is unjust and
foul, and ye are perjured in its utterance. I have said. Now let your
work proceed."

He folded his arms on his breast, and awaited in unbroken silence his
doom. A brief pause had followed his words. The Earl of Gloucester, who,
from his rank and near connection with the king, occupied one of the
seats of honor at the upper end of the large hall, and had, during the
trial, vainly sought to catch the prisoner's eye, now reclined back on
his seat, his brow resting on his hand, his features completely
concealed by the dark drapery of his cloak. In that position he
remained, not only during the pause, but while the fatal sentence was
pronounced.

"By the laws of your country, and the sentence of your peers," so it
ran, "you, Nigel Bruce, by manifold acts of rebellion, disaffection, and
raising up arms against your lawful king, Edward, the sovereign of
England and Scotland, and all the realms, castles, and lordships thereto
pertaining, are proved guilty of high treason and _lese majeste_, and
are thereby condemned to be divested of all symbols of nobility and
knighthood, which you have disgraced; to be dragged on a hurdle to the
common gibbet, and there hung by the neck till you are dead; your head
to be cut off; your body quartered and exposed at the principal towns as
a warning to the disaffected and the traitorous of all ranks in either
nation, and this is to be done at whatsoever time the good pleasure of
our sovereign lord the king may please to appoint. God save King Edward,
and so perish all his foes!"

Not a muscle of the prisoner's face had moved during the utterance of
this awful