AFTER SIX CENTURIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18711, 17 May 1924, Page 25 (Supplement)

AFTER SIX CENTURIES.

: : HONOUR TO A PATRIOT. r-' •*r ' . „ ! IN MEMORY OF WALLACE. Tablet at . Westminster,

*r - 0 ."A tablet is to be set in the floor oi ':"■ ■■' Westminster Hall, id: memory ot bur Wiliiaiu Wauace, die bcofcuslj patriot, :to jfe ■. mark tile piace where tie stood tor trial V over six aunOrea years . ago. ; Many a %i' schoolboy win want to see that taolet, yt - for it mere is one." man in history more fe- glorious and; heroic than another it is '(-' VvUliam Wallace. • , ... , ;•£ .Aoout Wallace numberless toy battles <k have be6n ioughtj.his mere name has been enough to create stnie. 1' or centimes tue ocots lad has doubled his lists and said Wallace was the- de lender of his country against a bloodthirsty enemy, which was England j and the English lad has squared up and said Wallace was the Rich-leader of a blood-thirsty eneijiy, which was Scotland. But in his heart, ' says the Children's Newspaper, the tuglish lad baa joined the bcottish lad in : his worship of Wallace, and we . have all of us, secretly, the blood-right to sing " Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled.'* What Would Wallace Think. We cannot help wondering, says the writer, what Wallace would think about W; : it all if he could come back from the shades and see polite and kindly gentlemen choosing the place for his name in our old Westminster ' Hall. Perhaps he would be angry., Perhaps, on the oCher hand, he may have done some travelling in the Silent Land and learned that Hate is an ugly creature. ' But he did not think so in his life- j time—which lasted qrnly about thirty j years, from 1272 to 1305. If there was one thing Wallace was more proud of than another, it' waa of being the deadliest foe of Edward the First of England. He would only have changed that honour for one other, and that was Edward's throne. Ip the meantime these two, the crowned against the uncrowned king, drew on armies to bitter death. It * seemed for a time that there was no withstanding the Scottish hero. Fate had weighted the balances in his favour; he was of a superb physique, almost a giant, and with a- giant's . strength. He' was a born commander he knew by instinct how to discipline troops and how to gain their loyalty. And his courage was fathomless. A Hero's Laurel Wreath. It Is not easy to understand how he came to •be taken in the end. Jealousy and treachery doubtless played their parts, but behind all was the money and power of the king. Enough that he was captured nnd brought to Westminster Hall for judgment on August 23, 1305. He was set on a platform at the south end of the building, with a laurel wreath on his head in mocking of his boast that Westminster he would wear a crowa; and there he was tried. V The very term 3 in which his death sentence ; was ; couched ■ seem a miracle 'of foarbarousness. .It was the ordinary doom for what was called treason. .Wallace* was. taken " from Westminster to the Tower, from the Tower to Aldgate, and so through the City to the y Elms at Smithfield." There he was executed, and • afterwards among • other' : terrible indignities ■ his head was placed on London Bridge, " in sight of both land and water travellers." . tfhera one day later his fellow-rebel Robert Bruce saw this ghastly sight.