The Forgiven - Ian Mcluckie (best ereader for academics txt) 📗

INTRODUCTION

Scotland in the 13th century was a violent and hostile place to live , the English had crushed the scots intosubmission and humiliated there king John Baliol , and claimed Scotland as his own . Scotland then became a place that was leaderless and disunited , a place in turmoil and with no one who was willing to take up the fight to free the country , and put a scots king back on the throne . The scots lords fought and squabbled among themselves , over the scraps that were thrown from longshanks table that he was kind enough to give them , and they became lords that were easily bought with lands in the south and of course , some gold to feed and pay the peasants who worked the land . Any grumbling or rallying of arms was crushed on the spot by the english , but one man with the help from some like minded freedom fighters were starting to emerge , and the leader of this band was a man called William Wallace , a mighty man of great fighting ability , not brutally handsome but a magnificent fighter of incredible courage and talent and with a grudge to bear against a certain english knight who was just happening to be passing his way over the next few days .
Wallace planned to meet his enemy at a well known spot in ayrshire , it was to be at loudon hill on the main road from lanark to the garrison at ayr , by the sea . Wallace was a cunning fighter and had planned the battle well in advance , he new he was outnumbered by 4 to 1 but the area and surprise would be to his advantage . The english had about 200 fighters and weren,t expecting trouble on there journey from lanark . There lord and master was a knight that went by the name Fenwick whom wallace hated , as he had killed his wife and father after what had began as something peaceful and had turned ugly , and his father had been slaughtered and his wife and family without mercy , this he planned that day to put right and pay back the debt he felt he was owed .
On the day of the battle the ground was soggy and marshy , with only a small path for the english to pass loudon hill , this was wallaces advantage only a few of the english could fight at the one time .
The ambush went well with few deaths on the scots side but the english were demolished . Only a few of them were left and one was Lord Fenwick , but he was injured and his horse was on its last legs with the strain of the battle . Wallace himself had not gone uninjured and was bleeding badly from a wound in his side , but he now stood proud before Fenwick waiting his attack . The two just looked at each other , Wallace looked straight into his eyes with hatred and without fear he new he had won the battle , the english lay all around dying or dead but there was one thing left to do and that was finish Fenwick .
The lord sat on his horse exhausted and he knew finished , the horse was openly sweating and panicking with fear and on its last legs . It seemed like ages for the final battle to begin but eventually it did , Fenwick mustered his horse and into one last gallop it was forced and charged Wallace who stood proud and ready , sword in front of him . The horse and rider rushed towards him but wallace stood his ground and waited till he was nearly on him , and then at the last minute did he make his move .
As soon as the english lord was just within striking distance , Wallace fell to his knees and swung his great sword straight at the horses front legs and struck . The sword hit home , slicing into and through the front legs hitting flesh then bone and sending the horse and rider spilling to the marshy ground . Lord Fenwick was by now trapped under a horse which was finished and screaming in pain along with its rider trapped below . Wallace approached the lord and slashed aside his small attempt at defence , flinging aside the lords sword still held in his grasp he stood above him , forgetting that he was badly injured himself and in need of help soon or he himself might not survive the day of joy . Wallace muttered a few words to the finished lord who was by now pleading for mercy , and his words were to remind him that scotland would one day be free , and that his death was to revenge his fathers and his wifes and family that had died under his sword two years before . Quickly and without emotion he brought his sword down on fenwicks neck , removing it from its body and ending the battle for the day and satisfying a long sweet need for revenge , one of the others showing mercy , brought an end to the horses grief , showing more pity for the beast than for its rider . It was only then that wallace and his men looked around at the carnage and viewed there days work after all there planning it had finally shown some fruit , but they knew it would be short lived if they stayed in this place much longer , wallace decided they must disband and meet up at a later date and after some discussion it was decided when and where that would be , but everyone knew wallace was badly hurt and needed attention and quickly so , after some usual scots wrangling they decided what to do . In a month they would meet at Irvine and gather forces , and attack the english half built fort at ayr and take on and destroy the army , but they knew that would take some planning , something wallace was good at .
The small force departed the scene after taking a few trophies of the day as was custom , and wallace made his way into a local wood running along the river irvine and went deep into the forest to hide and seek help and protection , also safety as the english would soon be looking in numbers for him with a price . After a day of stumbling through the thick forest wallace came upon a clearing and a small stone house with smoke escaping from the roof . Wallace kept his distance hiding in the thick under growth just watching the small hamlet . Soon a women appeared carrying a bag of clothes , she was about his age and under the circumstances he found her to be kind looking and a pretty young girl , but he was still uneasy about approaching her for help . The girl stopped and put down the bag and stood up and looked around her having an uneasy sense that someone was watching her , wallace wondered what to do , whether to hide or show himself but he knew he badly needed help as his wound was bleeding , and infection would set in soon if something wasn’t done . His clothes were socked in blood so he had to decide and decide he did , he stood up with what strength he had left , he staggered out of the forest into the full view of the girl half expecting her to run and scream for help , but she just looked at him and recognised that this man was in a serious condition and needed help . The girl moved quickly towards him studying him closely , on reaching him she spoke softly and helped the big man by putting her arm under his and helped him toward the house , it was then that she spoke .
“ what happened to you “ , the girl asked kindly and softly .
“ The english “ , was all that wallace could mutter .
She shook her head and got him inside the small house , all he could later remember was the sweet perfume from the girl , and that she lay him down on a bed of moss and started to tend to his wounds for what seemed like ages , she dressed him with medicine and bandaged him together to stop the bleeding and made him drink a liquid which he later found out was opium , at that point he passed out with the pain and seemed to sleep for a long while , but dreamt of better days and knew he had found