Braveheart Page #17

WALLACE:

No matter how we go, they follow.

They have our scent. My scent.

FAUDRON:

Run! You must not be caught!

Faster now, faster. The barks are getting very close.

Wallace and his friends are starting to panic. The blood

beats in their ears, their breath scalds their lungs. And we

MOVE IN on Wallace's eyes. He stops, gasping.

STEPHEN:

We can't stop!

WALLACE:

They've tricked us.

STEPHEN:

What's the crazy man saying, Lord?

WALLACE:

The dogs have a scent. My scent.

Someone must have given it to them.

STEPHEN:

Who would do such a thing?

WALLACE:

Exactly.

Wallace pulls out his dagger...

THE DOGS:

bark frantically now; they smell a kill; they tug so hard at

their leashes that the handlers are almost dragged along.

HANDLER:

Be ready! We have them!

The soldiers grip their weapons, ready to take their

prisoners. They burst into the little clearing; the dogs

find a body, stabbed, his throat cut; the dogs plunge their

snouts into the gore, yipping wildly. The handlers must fight

furiously to tear the dogs from the body.

Lord Pickering approaches the body and looks down. It is

Faudron, mangled now but clearly identifiable -- with the

scarf he gave William, in place of William's own, tucked

into his shirt.

LORD PICKERING:

Damnation! Damnation!

As Pickering rants, his men look at the darkness all around.

LORD PICKERING:

After him! Get them going again!

HANDLER:

Their noses are drowned in new blood,

they'll follow nothing now!

And just as the realization hits Pickering that he can't

pursue Wallace any further, a cloaked figure mixed in among

his men leans in from behind him to whisper...

STEPHEN OF IRELAND

The Almighty says for you to give

His regards to the Devil.

Pickering's eyes go wide, then roll back as Stephen's dagger

slides expertly through his back ribs and into his heart. As

Pickering falls and his men realize what has happened, Stephen

has already run back into the trees.

Pickering's men freeze at this sudden turn of events. Even

the dogs whimper, picking up the rising fear of the men around

them. Then from the darkness all around them comes a chorus

of demonic, bloodcurdling yells --

WALLACE/HAMISH/STEPHEN

ARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHH!

Three wild men tear out of the darkness from different

directions, their swords slashing. Pickering's men panic and

run, their dogs yelping, and the other soldiers, evident by

their torches, fell with them in all directions.

Wallace, Hamish and Stephen are left alone in the heart of

the woods, howling, barking like dogs, snarling like wolves --

and then laughing like hyenas!

STEPHEN:

I thought I was dead when ya pulled

that dagger!

WALLACE:

No English lord would trust an

Irishman!

HAMISH:

Let's kill him anyway.

They laugh again; then Wallace's laughter leaks away, and he

stares into the trees, where he saw Marion in his dream.

VARIOUS SHOTS - THE STORY SPREADS THROUGH SCOTLAND...

Two men are talking in A VILLAGE...

VILLAGER:

...and William Wallace killed fifty

men! Fifty, if it was one!

The same tale is exchanged by two farmers AT A CROSSROADS...

FARMER:

A hundred men! With his own sword!

He cut a through the English like --

The tale is repeated IN A TAVERN...

DRINKER:

-- Moses through the Red Sea! Hacked

off two hundred heads!

DRINKER #2

Two hundred?!

DRINKER:

Saw it with my own eyes.

And the rumors are discussed even INSIDE THE PALACE GROUNDS

IN LONDON, where the Prince and his friends are trying on

elaborate attire presented them by fawning tailors, and the

Princess, ignored by her husband, strolls and chats with her

Handmaiden, Nicolette (in subtitled French).

NICOLETTE:

When the king returns he will bury

them in those new clothes. Scotland

is in chaos. Your husband is secretly

sending an army north.

PRINCESS:

How do you know this?

NICOLETTE:

Last night I slept with a member of

the War Council.

PRINCESS:

He shouldn't be telling secrets in

bed.

NICOLETTE:

Ah, Oui! Englishmen don't know what

a tongue is for.

The Princess blushes, whacks her with her fan, and smiles.

PRINCESS:

This Scottish rebel... Wallace? He

fights to avenge a woman?

NICOLETTE:

A magistrate wished to capture him,

and found he had a secret lover, so

he cut the girl's throat to tempt

Wallace to fight -- and fight he

did.

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