The innkeeper's wife, who had just come from the kitchen, and was serving the men rather unwillingly, for she had no love for the English, stood still and stared in amazement.
"God save us!" she said at last, as Wallace stopped and wiped his sword. "But are ye a man, or do you come from the Evil One himself?"
"I am William Wallace," said the stranger, "and I wish that all English soldiers who are in Scotland were even as these men are."
"Amen to that," said the old woman heartily, and then she dropped down on her knees before the embarrassed knight. "Hech, sirs," she said fervently, "to think that my eyes are looking on the Gude Wallace!"
"The Hungry Wallace, ye mean," said the knight with a laugh. "If ye love me, woman, get up from thy knees, and set on meat and drink, for I have scarce tasted food these three days, and my strength is well-nigh gone."
"That will I, right speedily," she cried, and, jumping up, she ran to her husband and told him who the stranger was.
With great goodwill they began to prepare a meal, but hardly had it been dished up, and placed upon the table, before another band of soldiers marched up and surrounded the house. The beggar man had gone into Perth, and told people about the mysterious knight who had bought his old cloak in order that he might go and see the English soldiers, and when the rest of the soldiers in the town got to hear of it, they had suspected at once who he really was, and had come to the help of their companions.
Their suspicions proved true when they caught sight of Wallace through one of the windows.
"Come out, come out, thou false knight," they cried exultingly, "and think not that thou canst escape out of our hands. The tod[1] is taken in his hole this time, and right speedily shall he die."
[1] Fox.