Braveheart Page #5

William is in the barn loft, shoveling corn down to feed the

hogs, while he glimpses something coming.

THE BOY'S POV

An ox cart is coming down the curving lane. Its driver is

Campbell, with MacClannough walking behind it. The farmers

glance up at William, their faces grim...

From his perch in the loft, William sees that the neighbors

have brought:
the bodies of his father and brother. The cart

stops; Campbell, with a bandage around his left hand where

more of his fingers are now missing, studies the back of the

ox, as if it could tell him how to break such news. The butt

of the ox seems to tell him to be matter-of-fact.

CAMPBELL:

William... Come down here, lad.

William looks away, he takes quick breaths, he looks back...

but the bodies are still there.

EXT. HOUSE - DAY

It's now surrounded by horses, wagons, and neighbors. The

undertaker arrives in his hearse.

INT. THE SHED - DAY

On a table the undertaker has laid out the bodies and is

preparing them. Cloths around the lower jaw and top of the

head bind their mouths shut; pennies cover their eyes.

Softly, William enters the shed, drawn to his father and

brother. Campbell follows him in, wanting to stop him -- but

what can he say now? The undertaker goes on with his work.

William approaches the table; the bodies don't look real to

him. He sees the wounds. The dried blood.

The undertake pours water from a bowl and scrubs off the

blood. But the wounds remain.

EXT. GRAVESIDE - DAY

CLOSE on a grave, with a headstone marked ANNE WALLACE. We

INCLUDE the two new graves freshly dug beside it, and see

the mourners gathered before them. The sight of the boy,

standing alone in front of the graves of his dead mother, as

the bodies of his father and brother are lowered with ropes

into the ground beside her, has all of the neighbors shaken.

The local parish PRIEST drones mechanically in Latin.

The farmers who were secretly gathered in Malcolm Wallace's

kitchen the previous night are now glancing at William; but

no one is anxious to adopt a grieving, a rebellious boy.

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