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gave way to the greatest exaltation on the news of his capture; and multitudes of all descriptions, were collected to gaze at their illustrious prisoner. As the cavalcade approached London, the crowds became still more numerous; and though the joy at his captivity was not indulged in to the same degree as in those places where the effects of his invasions had been felt, yet the curiosity of the people to obtain a sight of a man who had maintained, for so many years, in a great measure by his own unaided energies, the drooping spirits of his countrymen amidst an almost unprecedented period of national calamity, became altogether uncontrollable: And every place which could command a view of him was crowded to excess.
Stow in his chronicle narrates the circumstances of Wallace's death thus:— "William Wallace, which oft-times set Scotland in great trouble was taken and brought to London, with great numbers of men and women wondering upon him. He was lodged in the house of William Deleet, a citizen of London in Fenchurch Street. On the morrow, being the eve of St Bartholomew, he was brought on horseback to Westminster. John Segrave and Geoffrey, knights, the mayor, shefiffs, and aldermen, of London, and many others, both on horseback and on foot accompanying him; and in the great hall at Westminster, he being placed in the south bench, crowned with laurel, for he said in times past, that he ought to bear a crown in that hall, as it was commonly reported, and being appeached for a traitor, by Sir Peter Malorie, the king's justice, he answered, "That he was neer a traitor to the king of England; "but for other things wherewith he was accused, he confessed them, and was after headed and quartered."
