1 10 1 https://scottishchapbooks.lib.uoguelph.ca/files/original/c550f6bfcd74ace2e4cdb0a8f00b5ad7.jpg 171b399769752a7954510586db9f9d87 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Hand-colored Illustration on title-page of a group of three entwined flowers. https://scottishchapbooks.lib.uoguelph.ca/files/original/6c17afb734ba02aa7da26d9f5c781d5a.pdf d319d1084c5692eddac0053de1201303 PDF Text Text ��TILLS; LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM WALLACE, T H E SCOTS PATRIOT. EDINBURGH: MINTED BY OLIVER & BOYP5 JSETIIERBOTr, 1808 t ��PREFACE. THE man does not exist, whose mind is not influenced b y intercourse with the vicious or the good in common life, b y contemplating the characters exhibited in the volume o f history, and even b y considering the imputed behaviour of those imaginary beings whom fiction often presents to the view in works of fancy. From this fact the maxim has been deduced, that example is more powerful than precept; and in my opinion, the principle is capable of being carried into frequent practice with the most salutary consequences. Tne philosopher may investigate and enunciate the doctrines of morality ; the ministers of religion may preach, the poet may declaim in favour of virtue; but he who acts well confers, I think, the most unquestionable benefit on mankind. It is for this reason that I have presumed to aim at giving a short account of an individual o f this last description. There is no name in the records of his country, perhaps in the annals of human greatness, which can be mentioned as superior to that of WALLACE. He was endowed with every virtue ef which humanity can boast as the attribute o f a nature 2 �i? that is immortal. Every quality of man that excites love, and admiration, and wonder, unites in the formation of his character; every feeling that is praise-worthy constituted the sanctifying source of his actions: and when w e peruse the page o f history in which his exploits ar£ recorded, we are engaged in an employment that is calculated to awaken emotions in our minds of the most e x alted description. I have been prompted, by these considerations, to compile, <*ind to present the following little Work to the public. I f the force of example is universal, if the contemplation of virtue is beneficial, and if the Life of Sir William Wallace is an interesting picture o f human excellence, it seems a justifiable proceeding to display, even though obscurely, the glory of his name. There is not* at the present day, any work descriptive of the deeds and character of Wallace, sufficiently disjoined from the general history of Scotland, and at the same time unpolluted with a mixture o f fable. A simple and authentic narrative of the Life of this wonderful Hero seems therefore much wanted in the present circumstances of our country. An attempt is now made to supply the deficiency. This little volume, however, is not calculated for the perusal of the learned and the fastidious ; it is a humble compilation from various historical writings, in which the events alluded to are more particularly detailed : it is presented to the youthful and unlettered part of our countrymen, for the purpose of communicating some knowledge of a man who cheerfully encountered danger, sufferings, and death, for the deliverance of his country. It is unnecessary to enumerate authorities in a preface to a popular compilation, or to load such a work with �y marginal references: it may be sufficient to say in general, that the most respectable historians have been consulted, and,that no fabulous circumstance has been admitted, that could be distinguished as such by the a p plication of the usual standards of historical truth to the annals of a remote period. I am aware o f very many imperfections in this my little production;—some o f them arising from the nature of the subject, and others from my own inability to do it justice. F o r those of the first class, I expect a rational indulgence; for those o f the latter, I presume to seek a refuge from severe blame in the propriety of my intentions. In particular, I expect that a generous forgiveness for many blemishes will readily be granted, when the probable utility o f such a publication as the present is considered. The times in which we live are awful. A tyrant has arisen from the ruins of liberty in his own country, and now waves his desolating sword over Europe. Endowed with talents, and borne upon a tide of fortune that might have enabled him to be the greatest benefactor o f his species, he has become the scourge and oppressor of mankind. Already are most of the nations of Europe prostrate before him. The lofty spirit o f Spain is degraded : without one struggle, noble though unsuccessful, she has submitted to the yoke o f Bonaparte. Portugal is the nest of monks and earthworms, who dare not even look as if they could meditate resistance to his dominion. Italy groans beneath his yoke. His banners float above the Capitol at R o m e , and tell us that there is now no Brutus to avenge the wrongs o f his country. The mountains o f Switzerland could not protect their sons from his perfidy : tha freedom which was consecrated by its origin, its gran* 3 �vi deur, and its utility, had no charm to guard it from his lawless violence. Germany has forgotten her ancient honour, and, half corrupted, half subdued, has sunk, by a single blow, beneath the arm of her adversary. Another mighty kingdom hath fallen : Prussia is no longer an independent nation : by the errors and misfortunes of one day she hath consummated at once the dominion of France and her own humiliation. Russia alone, on the continent of Europe, finds temporary security from ruin in the virtues of her sovereign, in the remoteness of her empire, and in the boundless extent of her wildernesses, which almost bid defiance to the wishes of ambition. Thus circumstanced, Bonaparte threatens ere long to turn against Britain all the engines of destruction, and to pour out on us all the phials of his wrath. Ileaven in mercy has spread the ocean around us ; and every billow stands a bulwark of defence against this destroyer of mankind. Y e t the power of Europe directed against us is tremendous and the day may come when the people o f this country must stand " a wall of fire around our " much-loved isle." Should that day ever come, may the flame which animated Wallace's bosom burn in every British heart: it will brighten our triumph, or illuminate our fall. EDINBURGH,? Feb, 130T. $ �INTRODUCTION. B E F O R E entering on the narrative of particulars connected with the Life of Wallace, it seems necessary to give a short view of the state of his country's affairs at the time he arose and struggled for her independence. This will enable the reader to keep in mind the justice of the warrior's cause, while he follows him in his high career ; and, as a contrast, it will present, in its native deformity, that political immorality which is ever practised by ambitious men, who seek dominion and fame at the expence of justice. The great enemy of Scotland's peace and freedom, whom it was Wallace's glory to oppose, was Edward I. of England. That monarch was the most politic, ambitious, and warlike of his age. During the feeble and tiu multuous reign of his father, Henry III. his �8 political craftiness had been fostered by the circumstances under which he appeared in public life. An unprincipled oligarchy invaded the privileges of the crown which he was one day to wear ; and before he could wield the regal sceptre, he was constrained to tear it from the hands of faction. The native ambition of his soul was inflamed by the martial spirit of the age in which he lived : it derived additional ardour from the enthusiasm w hich a crusade to the Holy Land communicated; and that desire to promote human happiness, which is the characteristic of truly great minds, and which makes ambition godlike, never seems to have animated his bosom. His ambition w as the narrow, selfish, and contemptible passion, which has its own aggrandisement alone in view: and it is a remarkable fact, that although he was one of the most arbitrary and cruel ruffians that ever disgraced royalty, he, to eiFect his own purposes, and perhaps unintentionally, established those laws and institutions which have been found to be the strongest bulwarks against arbitary and lawless power in Britain. 4 He took care (says Mr Hume) that 4 his subjects should do justice to each other; * buthe desired always to haye his own hands free �9 in all Ms transactions, both with them and with his neighbours.' Such was the man who formed the design of humbling an ancient and independent nation. The pretext, (and no villain wants a pretext for his iniquities), the pretext which he held out to the world for his invasion of the liberty of Scotland, will be very satisfactorily understood, by a perusal of the following extracts from Mr Hume's Ilistoryof England. They contain, at the same time, an admirable picture of the circumstances which called the genius of Wallace into action, and may with propriety, therefore, be adopted as a fit introduction to an account of his life. 4 Though the government of Scotland had been continually exposed to those factions and convulsions which are incident to all barbarous, and to many civilized nations, and though the successions of their kings, the only part of their history which deserves any credit, had often been disordered by irregularities and usurpations, the true heir of the royal family had still in the end prevailed ; and Alexander III. who had espoused the sister of Edward, probably inherited, after a period of about eight hundred years, and through a succession c c �10 ©f males, the sceptre of all the Scottish princes who had governed the nation since its first e« stablishment in the island. This prince died in 1286, by a fall from his horse, at Kinghorn, without leaving any male issue, and without any descendant, except Margaret, born of Eric king of Norway, and of Margaret, daughter of the Scottish monarch. This princess, commonly called the Maid of Norway, though a female, an infant, and a foreigner, yet being the lawful heir of the kingdom, had, through her grandfather's care, been recognised sue™ cessor by the states of Scotland: and on A« lexander's death, the dispositions which had been previously made against that event appeared so just and prudent, that no disorders, as might naturally be apprehended, ensued in the kingdom. Margaret was acknowledged queen of Scotland. Five guardians, the bishops of St Andrew's and Glasgow, the earls of Fife and Buchan, and James steward of Scotland, entered peaceably upon the administration : and the infant princess, under the protection of Edward her great uncle, and Eric her father, who exerted themselves on this occasion, seemed firmly seated on the throne ©f Scotland. The English monarch was natu- �11 rally led to build mighty projects on this incident ; and having lately, by force of arms, brought Wales under subjection, he attempted, by the marriage of Margaret with his eldest son Edward, to unite the whole island into one monarchy, and thereby to give it security both against domestic convulsions and foreign invasions. c The amity which had of late prevailed between the two nations, and which, even in former times, had never been interrupted by any violent wars or injuries, facilitated extremely the execution of this project, so favourable to the happiness and grandeur of both kingdoms ; and the states of Scotland readily gave their assent to the English proposals, and even agreed that their young sovereign should be educated in the court of Edward. Anxious, however, for the liberty and independence of their country, they took care to stipulate very equitable conditions, ere they entrusted themselves into the hands of so great and so ambitious a monarch. It was agreed, that they should enjoy all their ancient laws, liberties, and customs; that in case young Edward and Margaret should die without issue, the crown ®f Scotland should revert to the next heir- and �12 should be inherited by him free and independent ; that the military tenants of the crown should never be obliged to go out of Scotland, in order to do homage to the sovereign of the united kingdoms ; nor the chapters of cathedral, collegiate, or conventual churches^ in order to make elections ; that the parliaments summoned for Scottish affairs should always be held within the bounds of that kingdom; and that Edward should bind himself, under tha penalty of 100,000 merks, payable to the pops for the use of the holy wars, to observe all these articles. It is not easy to conceive that two nations could have treated more on a foot of equality, than Scotland and England maintained during the whole course of this transaction : and though Edward gave his assent to the article concerning the future independency of the Scottish crown, with a saving of his former rights, this reserve gave no alarm to the nobility of Scotland, both because these rights, having hitherto been little heard of, had occasioned no disturbance, and because the Scots had so near a prospect of seeing them entirely absorbed in the rights of their sovereignty. c But this project, so happily formed and so amicably conducted, failed of succcss, by th& �13 sudden death of the Norwegian princess, who expired on her passage to Scotland, (1291), and left a very dismal prospect to the kingdom. Though disorders were for the present obviated by the authority of the regency formerly established, the succession itself of the crown was now become an object of dispute; and the regents could not expect that a controversy, which is not usually decided by reason and argument alone, would be peaceably settled by them, or even by the states of the kingdom, amidst so many powerful pretenders. The posterity of William king of Scotland, the prince taken prisoner by Henry II. being all extinct by the death of Margaret of Norway, the right to the crown devolved on the issue of David earl of Huntingdon, brother to William, whose male line being also extinct, left the succession open to the posterity of his daughters. The earl of Huntingdon had three daughters : Margaret, married to Alan lord of Galloway ; Isabella, wife of Robert Brus or Bruce lord of Annandale ; and Adama, who espoused Henry Lord Hastings. Margaret, the eldest of the sisters, left one daughter, Divergilda, married to John Baliol, by whom she had a son of the same name, one of the B �14 present competitors for the crown : Isabella, the second, bore a son, Robert Bruce, who was now alive, and who also insisted on his claim: Adama, the third, left a son, John Hastings, who pretended that the kingdom of Scotland, like many other inheritances, was divisible among the three daughters of the earl of Huntingdon, and that he, in right of his mother, had a title to a third of it. Balioland Bruce united against Hastings, in maintaining that the kingdom was indivisible ; but each of them, supported by plausible reasons, asserted the preference of his own title. Baliol was sprung from the elder branch : Bruce was one degree nearer the common stock : if the principle of representation was regarded, the former had the better claim j if propinquity was considered, the latter was entitled to the preference: the sentiments of men were divided : all the nobility had taken part on one side or the otheri the people followed implicitly their leaders : the two claimants themselves had great power and numerous retainers in Scotland : and it is no wonder that, among a rude people, more accustomed to arms than enured to laws, a controversy of this nature, which could »ot be decided by any former precedent among �15 them, and which is capable of exciting commotions in the most legal and best established governments, should threaten the state with the most fatal convulsions. J i c Each century has its peculiar mode in conducting business ; and men, guided more by custom than by reason, follow, without enquiry, the manners which are prevalent in their own time. The practice of that age, in controversies between states and princes, seems to frave been, to choose a foreign prince as an equal arbiter, by whom the question was decided, and whose sentence prevented those dismal confusions and disorders inseparable ait all times from war, but which were multiplied an hundred fold, and dispersed into every comer, by the nature of the feudal governments. It was thus that the English king and barons, in the preceding reign, had endeavoured to compose their dissensions by a reference to the king of France ; and the celebrated integrity of that monarch had prevented all the bad effects which might natiirally have been dreaded from so perilous an expedient. It was thus that the kings of France and Arragon, and afterwards other princes, had submitted their controversies to Edward's judgment; and 0 �16 the remoteness of their states, the great power of the princes, and the little interest which he had on either side, had indnced him to acquit himself with honour in his decisions. The parliament of Scotland, therefore, threatened with a furious civil war, and allured by the great reputation of the English monarch, as well as by the present amicable correspondence between the kingdoms, agreed in making a reference to Edward; and Fraser bishop of St Andrew's, with other deputies, was sent to notify to him their resolution, and to claim his good offices in the present dangers to which they were exposed. His inclination, they flattered themselves, led him to prevent their dissensions, and to interpose with a power which none of the competitors would dare to withstand. When this expedient was proposed by one party, the other deemed it dangerous to object to it: indifferent persons thought that the imminent perils of a civil war would thereby be prevented: and no one reflected 011 the ambitious character of Edward, and the almost certain ruin which must attend a small state, divided by faction, when it thus implicitly submits itself to the will of so powerful and encroaching a neighbour. �17 4 The temptation was too strong for the virtue of the English monarch to resist. He purposed to lay hold of the present favourable opportunity, and if not to create, at least to re» vi-ve- his claim of a feudal superiority over Scotland ; a claim which had hitherto lain in the deepest obscurity, and which, if ever it Itad been an object of attention, or had been so much as suspected, would have effectually prevented the Scottish barons from choosing Mm for an umpire. He well knew, that if this pretension were once submitted to, as it seemed difficult, in the present situation of Scotland, to oppose it, the absolute sovereignty ©f that kingdom (which had been the case with Wales) would soon follow; and that one great vassal, cooped up in an island with his liege lord, without resource from foreign powers4, without aid from any fellow vassals, could not long maintain his dominions against the efforts of a mighty kingdom, assisted by all the cavils which the feudal law afforded his superior against him. In pursuit of this great object, very advantageous to England, perhaps in the end no less beneficial to Scotland, but extremely unjust and iniquitous in itself, Edward busied himself Ip searching for proofs of his pretended supe. �18 riority ; and instead of looking into his own archives, which, if his claim had been real, must have afforded him numerous records of the homages done by the Scottish princes, and could alone yield him any authentic testimony, he made all the monasteries be ransacked for old chronicles and histories written by Englishmen, and he collected all the passages which seemed anywise to favour his pretensions. Yet even in this method of proceeding, which must have discovered to himself the injustice of his claim, he was far from being fortunate. He began his proofs from the time of Edward the Elder, and continued them through all the subsequent Saxon and Norman times ; but produced nothing to his purpose. The whole amount of his authorities during the Saxon period, when stripped of the bombast and inaccurate style of the monkish historians, is, that the Scots had sometimes been defeated by the English, had received peace on disadvantageous terms, had made submissions to the English monarch, and had even perhaps fallen into some dependence on a power which was so much superior, and which they had not at that time sufficient force to resist. His authorities from the Norman period were, if possible, �19 still less conclusive: the historians indeed make frequent mention of homage done by the northern potentate, but no one of them says that it was done for his kingdom ; and several of them declare, in express terms, that it was relative only to the fiefs which he enjoyed south of the Tweed; in the same manner as the king of England himself swore fealty to the French monarch, for the fiefs which he inherited in France. And to such scandalous shifts was Edward deduced, that he quotes a passage from Hoveden, where it is asserted that a Scottish king had done homage to England; but he purposely omits the latter part of the sentence, which expresses, that this prince did homage for the lands which he held in England. c When William king of Scotland, was taken prisoner in the battle of Alnwic, he was obliged, for the recovery of his liberty, to Swear fealty to the victor for his crown itself. The deed was performed according to all the rites of the feudal law: the record was preserved in the English archives, and is mentioned by all the historians : but as it is the only one of the kind, and as historians speak of this superiority as a great acquisition gained by the fortunate arms of Henry II. there can remain �20 no doubt, that the kingdom of Scotland was, in all former periods, entirely free and independent. Its subjection continued a very few years. King Richard, desirous, before his departure for the Holy Land, to conciliate the friendship of William, renounced that homage, which, he says in express terms, had been extorted by his father; and he only retained the usual homage which had been done by the Scottish princes for the lands which they held in England. < But though this transaction rendered the independence of Scotland still more unquestionable than if no fealty had ever been sworn to the English crown, the Scottish kings, apprized of the point aimed at by their powerful neighbours, seem, for along time, to have retained some jealousy on that head, and, in doing homage, to have anxiously obviated all such pretensions. When William, in 1200, did homage to John at Lincoln, he was careful to insert a salvo for his royal dignity : when Alexander III. sent assistance to his father-in-law, Henry III. during the wars of the barons, he previously procured an acknowledgment, that this aid was granted only from friendship, not from any right claimed by the English monarch: and �21 when the same prince was invited to assist at the coronation of this very Edward, he declined attendance, till he received a like acknowledgement. c But as all these reasons (and stronger could not be produced) were but a feeble rampart against the power of the sword, Edward, carrying with him a great army, which was to enforce his proofs, advanced to the frontiers, and invited the Scottish parliament, and all the competitors, to attend him in the castle of Norliam, a place situated on the southern banks of the Tweed, in order to determine that cause which had been referred to his arbitration. But though this deference seemed due to so great a monarch, and was no more than what his father and the English barons had, in . similar circumstances, paid to Lewis I X . the king, careful not to give umbrage, and determined never to produce his claim till it should be too late to think of opposition, sent the Scottish barons an acknowledgment, that, though at that time they passed the frontiers, this step should never be drawn into precedent, or afford the English kings a pretence for exacting alike submission in any future transaction. When the whole Scottish nation had �22 thus unwarily put themselves in his power, Edward opened the conferences at Norham. He informed the parliament, by the mouth of Roger le Brabancon, his chief justiciary, that he was come thither to determine the right among the competitors to their crown ; that he was determined to do strict justice to all parties ; and that he was entitled to this authority, not in virtue of the reference made to him, but in quality of superior and liege-lord of the kingdom. He then produced his proofs of this superiority, which he pretended to be unquestionable, and he required of them an acknowledgment of it; a demand which was superfluous, if the fact were already known and avowed, and which plainly betrays Edward's consciousness of his lame and defective title. The Scottish parliament was astonished at so new a pretension, and answered only by their silence. But the king, in order to maintain the appearance of free and regular proceedings, desired them to remove into their own country, to deliberate upon his claim, to examine his proofs, to propose all their objections, and to inform him of their resolution : and he appointed a plain at Upsettleton, on the northern banks of the Tweed, for that purpose. �23 c When the Scottish barons assembled in this place, though moved with indignation at the injustice of this unexpected claim, and at the fraud with which it had been conducted, they found themselves betrayed into a situation, in which it was impossible for them to make any defence for the ancient liberty and independence of their country. The king of England, a martial and politic prince, at the head of a powerful army, lay at a very small distance, and was only separated from them by a river, fordable in many places. Though by a sudden flight some of them might themselves be able to make their escape, what hopes could they entertain of securing the kingdom against his future enterprises ? Without a leader, without union among themselves, attached all of them to different competitors, whose title they had rashly submitted to the decision of this foreign usurper, and who were thereby reduced to an absolute dependence upon him ; they could only expect, by resistance, to entail on them* selves and their posterity a more grievious and more destructive servitude. Yet, even in this desperate state of their affairs, the Scottish barons, as we learn from Walsingham, one of the best historians of that period., had the cou- �26 rage to reply, tliat, till they had a king, they could take no resolution on so momentous a point. The journal of king Edward says that they made no answer at all ; that is, perhaps, no particular answer or objection to Edward's claim : and by this solution it is possible to reconcile the journal with the historian. The king, therefore, interpreting their si., lence as consent, addressed himself to the several competitors, and pevious to his pronouncing sentence, required their acknowledgment of his superiority. It is evident from the genealogy of the royal family of Scotland, that there could only be two questions about the succession; that between Baliol and Bruce on the one hand, and Lord Hastings on the other, concerning the partition of the crown ; and that between Baliol and Bruce themselves, concerning the preference of their respective titles, supposing the kingdom indivisible : yet there appeared on this occasion no less than nine claimants besides; John Comyn, or Cummin, lord of Badenoch, Florence earl of Holland, Patrio Dunbar earl of March, William de Vescey, Robert de Pynkeni, Nicholas de Soules, Patrie Galythly, Roger de Mandeville, Robert 6 �25 de Ross ; not to mention the king of Norway, who claimed as heir to'his daughter Margaret. Some of these competitors were descended from more remote branches of the royal family; others were even sprung from illegitimate children ; and as none of them had the least pretence of right, it is natural to conjecture, that Edward had secretly encouraged them to appear in the list of claimants, that he might sow the more division among the Scottish nobility, make the cause appear the more intricate, and be able to choose, among a great number, the most obsequious candidate. 6 But he soon found them all equally obsequious on this occasion. Robert Bruce was the first who acknowledged Edward's right of superiority over Scotland; and he had so far foreseen the king's pretensions, that even in his petition, where he set forth his claim to the crown, he had previously applied to him as a liege-lord of the kingdom ; a step which was not taken by any of the other competitors. They all, however, with seeming willingness, made a like acknowledgment, when required; though Baliol, lest he should give offence to the Scottish nation, had taken care to be absent during the first days: and he was C �26 the last that recognized the king's title. Edward next deliberated concerning the method of proceeding in the discussion of this great controversy. He gave orders, that Baliol, and such of the competitors as adhered to him, should choose forty commissioners; Bruce and his adherents forty more : to these the king added twenty-four Englishmen. He ordered these hundred and four commissioners to examine the cause deliberately among themselves, and make their report to him : and he promised in the ensuing year to give his determination. Meanwhile he pretended that it was requisite to have all the fortresses of Scotland delivered into his hands, in order to enable him, without opposition, to put the true heir in possession of the crown ; and this exorbitant demand was complied with, both by the states and by the claimants. The governors also^of all the castles immediately resigned their command ; except Umfreville earl of Angus, who refused, without a formal and particular acquittal from the parliament and the several claimants, to surrender his fortresses to so domineering an arbiter, who had given to Scotland so many just reasons of suspicion. Before this assembly broke up, which had fixed such a mark of �27 dishonour on the nation, all the prelates and barons there present swore fealty to Edward ; and that prince appointed commissioners to receive a like oath from all the other barons and persons of distinction in Scotland. The king having finally made, as he imagined, this important acquisition, left the commissioners to sit at Berwick, and examine the titles of the several competitors who claimed the precarious crown, which Edward was willing for some time to allow the lawful heir to enjoy. He went southwards, both in order to assist at the funeral of his mother, queen Eleanor, who died about this time, and to compose some differences which had arisen among the principal nobility. Gilbert earl of Gloucester, the greatest baron in the kingdom, had espoused the king's daughter; and being elated by that alliance, and still more by his own power, which, he thought, set him above the laws, he permitted his bailiffs and vassals to commit violence on the lands of Humphrey Bohun earl of Hereford, who retaliated the injury by like violence. But this was not a reign in which such illegal proceedings could pass with impunity. Edward procured a sentence against the two earls, com- �28 mitted them both to prison, and would not restore them to their liberty till he exacted a fine of 1000 merks from Hereford, and one of 10,000 from his Son-in-law. 6 During this interval, the titles of John Baliol and of Robert Bruce, whose claims appeared to be the best founded among the competitors for the crown of Scotland, were the subject of general disquisition, as well as of debate, among the commissioners. Edward, in order to give the greater authority to his intended decision, proposed this general question, both to the commissioners, and to all the celebrated lawyers in Europe : Whether a person descended from the eldest sister, but further removed by one degree, wrere preferable, in the succession of kingdoms, fiefs, and other indivisible inheritances, to one descended from the younger sister, but one degree nearer to the common stock ? This was the true state of the case; and the principle of representation had now gained such ground every where, that a uniform answer was returned to the king in the affirmative. He therefore pronounced sentence in favour of Baliol ; and when Bruce, upon this disappointment, joined afterwards Lord Hastings, and claimed a third of the �29 kingdom, which he now pretended to be divisible, Edward, though his interest seemed more to require the partition of Scotland, a gain pronounced sentence in favour of BalioL That competitor, upon renewing his oath of fealty to England, was put in possession of the kingdom ; all his fortresses were restored to him ; and the conduct of Edward, both in the deliberate solemnity of the proceedings, and in the justice of the award, was so far unexceptionable. 6 Had the king entertained no other view than that of establishing his superiority over Scotland, though the iniquity of that claim was apparent, and was aggravated by the most egregious breach of trust, he might have fixed his pretensions, and have left that important acquisition to his posterity : but he immediately proceeded in such a manner, as made it evident, that, not content with this usurpation, he aimed also at the absolute sovereignty and dominion of the kingdom. Instead of gradually inuring the Scots to the yoke, and exerting his rights of superiority with moderation, he encouraged all appeals to England; required king J ohn himself, by six different summonses, on trivial occasions^ to come to Lon3 �30 don ; refused him the privilege of defending his cause by a procurator ; and obliged him to appear at the bar of his parliament as a private person. These humiliating demands were hitherto quite unknown to a king of Scotland : they are, however, the necessary consequence of vassalage by the feudal law ; and as there was no preceding instance of such treatment submitted to by a prince of that country, Edward must, from that circumstance alone, had there remained any doubt, have been himself convinced that his claim was altogether an usurpation. But his intention plainly was, to enrage Baliol, by these indignities, to engage him in rebellion, and to assume the dominion of the states as the punishment of his treason and felony. Accordingly, Baliol, though a prince of a soft and gentle spirit, returned into Scotland highly provoked at this usage, and determined at all hazards to vindicate bis liberty ; and the war which soon after broke out between France and England gave him a favourable opportunity of executing his purpose. ' Edward, conscious of the reasons of disgust which he had given to the king of Scots, informed of the dispositions of thatpeople, and �31 expecting the most violent effects of their resentment, which he knew he had so well merited, employed the supplies granted him by his people in making preparations against the hostilities of his northern neighbour. When in this situation, he received intelligence of the treaty secretly concluded between John and Philip ; and though uneasy at this concurrence of a French and Scottish war, he resolved not to encourage his enemies by a pusillanimous behaviour, or by yielding to their united efforts. He summoned John to perform the duty of a vassal, and to send him a supply of forces against an invasion from France, with which he was then threatened* He next required, that the fortresses of Berwick, Jedborough, and Roxborough, should be put into his hands, as a security during the war. He cited John to appear in an English parliament to be held at Newcastle : and when none of these successive demands were complied with, he marched northwards with numerous forces, 30,000 foot and 4000 horse, to chastise his rebellious vassal. The Scottish nation, who had little reliance on the vigour and abilities of their prince, assigned him a council of twelve noblemen, in whose hands the sovereignty was really lodged, �32 and who put tlie country in the best posture of which the present distractions would admit. A great army, composed of 40,000 infantry, though supported only by 500 cavalry", advanced to the frontiers; and after a fruitless attempt upon Carlisle, marched eastward to defend those provinces which Edward was preparing to attack. But some of the most considerable of the Scottish nobles, Robert Bruce, the father and son, the earls of March and Angus, prognosticating the ruin of their country, from the concurrence of intestine divisions and a foreign invasion, endeavoured here to ingratiate themselves with Edward, by an early submission : and the king, encouraged by this favourable incident, led his army into the enemy^ country, and crossed the Tweed, without opposition, at Coldstream. He then received a message from John, by which that prince, having now procured for himself and his nation Pope Celestine's dispensation from former oaths, renounced the homage which had "been done to England, and set Edward at defiance. This bravado was but ill supported by the military operations of the Scots. Berwick was already taken by assault: Sir William Douglas, the governor, was made prisoner, �33 above 7000 of the garrison were put to the sword : and Edward, elated by this great advantage, dispatched Earl Warrenne, with i2,000 men, to lay siege to Dunbar, which was defended by the flower of the Scottish nobility. c The Scots, sensible of the importance of this places which, if taken, laid their whole country open to the enemy, advanced with their main army, under the command of the earls of Buchan, Lenox, and Mar, in order to relieve it. Warenne, not dismayed at the great superiority of their number, marched out to give them battle, lie attacked them with great vigour ; and as undisciplined troops, when nuu merous, are but the more exposed to a panic upon any alarm, he soon threw them into confusion, and chaced them off the field with great slaughter. The loss of the Scots is said to have amounted to 20,000 men. The castle of Dunbar, with all its garrison, surrendered next day to Edward, who, after the battle, had brought up the main body of the English, and who now proceeded with an assured confidence &f success. The castle of Roxborough was yielded by James steward of Scotland ; and that nobleman, from whom is descended the �34 royal family of Stuart, was obliged to swear fealty to Edward. After a feeble resistance, the castles of Edinburgh and Stirling opened their gates to the enemy. All the southern parts were instantly subdued by the English : and to enable them the better to reduce the northern, whose inaccessible situation seemed to give them some more security, Edward sent for a strong reinforcement of Welsh and Irish, who, being accustomed to a desultory kind of war, were the best fitted to pursue the fugitive Scots into the recesses of their lakes and mountains. But the spirit of the nation was already Ibroken by their misfortunes; and the feeble and timid Baliol, discontented with his own subjects, and over-awed by the English, abandoned all those resources which his people might yet have possessed in this extremity. He hastened to make his submissions to Edward ; lie expressed the deepest penitence for his disloyalty to his liege-lord ; and he made a solemn and irrevocable resignation of his crown into the hands of that monarch. Edward marched northwards to Aberdeen and Elgin, without meeting an enemy : no Scotchman approached him but to pay him submission and do him homage : even the turbulent Highland- �35 p ers, ever refractory to their own princes, and averse to the restraint of laws, endeavoured to prevent the devastation of their country, by giving him early proofs of obedience : and Ed. ward, having brought the whole kingdom to a seeming state of tranquillity, returned to the south with his army. There was a stone, to which the popular superstition of the Scots paid the highest veneration : all thdr kings were seated on it when they received the rite of inauguration: an ancient tradition assured them, that wherever this stone was placed, their nation should always govern : and it was carefully preserved at Scone, as the true palladium of their monarchy, and their ultimate resource amidst all their misfortunes. Edward got possession of it, and carried it to England. He gave orders to destroy the records, and all those monuments of antiquity, which might preserve the memory of the independence of the kingdom, and refute the English claims of superiority. The Scots pretend, that he also destroyed all the annals preserved in their convents: but it is not probable that a nation so rude and unpolished should be possessed of any history which deserves much to be regretted. The great seal of Baliol was broken • and that �36 prince himself was carried prisoner to London^ and committed to custody in the Tower. Two years after he was restored to liberty, and submitted to a voluntary banishment in France, where, without making any farther attempts for the recovery of his royalty, he died in a private station. Earl Warrenne was left governor of Scotland : Englishmen were entrusted with the chief offices : and Edward, flattering himself that he had attained the end of all his wishes, and that the numerous acts of fraud and violence, which he had practised against Scotland, had terminated in the final reduction of that kingdom, returned with his victorious army into England. 4 Though England, as well as other European countries, was, in its ancient state, very ill qualified for makiug, and still worse for maintaining conquests, Scotland was so much inferior in its internal force, and was so ill situated for receiving foreign succours, that it was no wonder Edward, an ambitious monarch, should have cast his eye on so tempting an acquisition, which brought both security and greatness to his native country. But the instruments whom he employed to maintain his dominion over the northern kingdom were not �37 happily chosen, and acted not with the requisite prudence and moderation in reconciling the Scottish nation to a yoke which they bore with such extreme reluctance. Warrenne, retiring into England on account of his bad state of health, left the administration entirely in the hands of Ormesby, who was appointed justiciary of Scotland, and Cressingham, who bore the office of treasurer; and a small military force remained to secure the precarious authority of those ministers. The latter had no other object than the amassing of money by rapine and injustice; the former distinguished himself by the rigour and severity of his temper : and both of them treating the Scots as a conquered people, made them sensible too early of the grievous servitude into which they had fallen. As Edward required that all the proprietors of land should swear fealty to him, every one who refused or delayed giving this testimony of submission was outlawed and imprisoned, and punished without mercy ; and the bravest and most generous spirits of the nation were thus exasperated to the highest degree against the English nation,1' D ��LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM WALLACE. S I R W I L L I A M W A L L A C E was a descendant of an ancient and honourable family in the west of Scotland. In times when patrician birth was considered one of the chief circumstances by which a man was entitled to claim respect in the world, we need not wonder that this fact formed a subject of controversy between his admirers and his enemies. It is not, however, at the present day, one which can provoke the research of the dullest antiquary, or which would command the attention of the most time-killing reader; for whatever be the weaknesses of the present generation, they % �40 have the wisdom pretty generally to acknowledge, that there is no proper ground of distinction between one man and another, except that which arises from the personal qualitie of the individual. That we shall not enter very deeply into the investigation of the question, nor engage enthusiastically in the vindication of his claims to the character of a gentleman by descent, will not therefore be matter of surprise. We conceive that Wallace derived his honours from a higher source than any titled nobleman in existence : theirs is often the hereditary reward of wickedness, the badge of disgrace, and the distinction of infamy ; his honours were the purity and elevation of spirit that descends from heaven, the genuine applause that is due to genuine worth, and the celebrity that will perish only when the world shall decay. Under this impression, we shall only detail briefly the scanty particulars relative to his ancestry and birth which can be gleaned from the old controversial narratives. Wallace was the younger son of sir Malcolm Wallace of Ellerslie by his wife, who was a daughter of sir Ronald Crawford, sheriff of Ayr. This lady also had another son �41 to sir Malcolm. By some writers that son is named Malcolm, and by others John ; but whether the former or the latter be the right one is a matter not worth enquiring into. Sir Malcolm Wallace's father was a kinsman of ( Richard Wallace, who, in the reign of king Alexander II. possessed the lands of Achiiiroe ; and it is from this connection chiefly that the gentility of Wallace's blood seems to be inferred. The precise period of Wallace's birth is unknown, but it is highly probable that it must have been some time before the death of Alexander III. in 1286. This pro,bability is evinced, by considering, that about the year 1290 the political events occurred which tended to the subjugation of Scotland; and that the tyranny of Edward already festered deeply in her bosom, when the hand of Wallace was lifted up to heal her wounds, and to fight her battles. It is universally asserted, that Wallace be* gan his domestic life under very inauspicious worldly circumstances. Adversity in youth? unless it be extreme, is perhaps a blessing ; it strengthens the best and eradicates the worst tendencies of our nature ; it fits the man who &as been subjected to its discipline for dischar* 3 �42 ging the duties and encountering the severest vicissitudes of life. Wallace's frame of body , and of mind must have been materially influenced by circumstances that are calculated to affect constitutions of a less distinguished cast than his. Assuredly that athletic vigour of body which was afterwards impervious to the force of the elements, must have been nursed in the storm, unsheltered from its rigours by the habiliments of fortunate and luxurious life. The energy, the grandeur, and the dauntless intrepidity of his mind, were qualities formed by contemplating the struggles of life, with the eye of a man who felt himself often called on to join in the conflicts of adversity. Wallace's poverty was friendly to virtue ; it was not that penury which freezes the blood and unnerves the arm, which debases the spirit, and makes man a coward; it was that precious poverty which makes him despise the glittering trifles of life, which saves him from the contamination of enervating indigencies, and elevates his views to the best objects of human exertion. The mind of Wallace in his boyish days was directed, in its progress to maturity, we are told, by the hand of John Blair, a Benedict �43 tine monk at Dundee, who was afterwards his chaplain, and lived to record his exploits. Blair's work was written in Latin, but it perished in the flood of barbarism which since his day has often inundated Scotland. It was translated into Scottish verse in the reign of king James IV. by a poet of that age, now known to us by the appellation of u Blind Harry and its substance, though polluted and obscured by the fictions of Harry, is still familiar to many of the lower ranks of Scotland, in the paraphrase which Mr Hamilton wrote in more modern language about a century ago. The ardour of Blair's attachment to his youthful hero may be easily figured from the vehement execrations which he utters against his destroyers, as exhibited in some little fragments of his history still extant. It appears, that during the early period of his life, Wallace had resided chiefly in retirement. At what time he first emerged from the peace and the improvement of private life is uncertain ; but it is presumed to have been about the period of the battle of Dunbar, where the discipline of Edward's soldiers triumphed over the loose violence of the Scottish army, as much as his political finesse overcame the wis- �44 dom of the Scottish nobility in other spheres of contention. This calamitous defeat, which led to the submission of king John and his nobles, and established the power of Edward in Scotland, took place in the year 1296 ; and it is not impossible therefore, indeed it is said by some writers, that Wallace bore arms in this unfortunate campaign, although his extreme youth renders the supposition nothing more than probable. After the humiliation of Scotland, Wallace returned to Dundee, (if in fact he had been' engaged in the war), for the purpose of studying under the superintendance of his tutor, Blair. The success of Edward's schemes had filled Scotland with swarms of English governors and soldiers, and those vultures preyed upon the vitals of the conquered kingdom. Wallace was then at a period of life when the feelings are strong, and every pulse beats with a generous ardour. He beheld the oppression of his countrymen with horror and indignation, he sympathised in the sufferings of individuals, and he mourned the degradation of his native land. While these sentiments animated his bosom, he was, in an accidental rencounter, insulted by a young Englishman, son of �45 Selby the eonstable of Dundee. Wallace was not of a temper to brook insult from any man ; but when an Englishman dared to provoke him by his arrogant demeanour and foul contumelies, the emotions of patriotism mingled with his private resentments, arid stimulated him to inflict a terrible punishment. Tho ? a stripling, he possessed inconceivable bodily strength : he overcame young Selby in a scuffle which ensued, and killed him with his own dagger, in presence of a number of his followers. This action exposed him to the rage of the English, and compelled him to seek refuge in retirement from the punishment which would have followed. A circumstance is stated to have occurred whilst he was eluding the pursuit of his enemies, that deserves to be mentioned. Having slain all Selby's attendants who opposed his flight, and being still pursued very keenly, he went into an inn, exhausted with his exertions, He had formerly known a the gude* wife," (as the Scots were wont to term the hostess of an inn), and earnestly besought her protection. Women are seldom at a loss for expedients. Wallace was instantly dressed in the attire of a female, and was busily employ- �46 ed twirling his distaff and humming his song, when the pursuers searched the house which they had seen him enter. They were so completely outwitted by this device, that they did not discover him; and upon their retiring from the immediate pursuit, he found himself at leisure to concert and adopt measures for more effectually securing his retreat. Having left the roof of his kind and sagacious hostess, he bent his steps towards the residence of a paternal uncle at Dunipace. Wallace and his mother lived for some time with his uncle, who was a clergyman in opulent circumstances. During the period that Wallace remained with his uncle, that gentleman applauded the bent of his spirit : he cherished those feelings in his mind which nature had deeply implanted in it, and to the growth of which circumstances had so auspiciously contributed. But other and more important events were still in store, for maturing that glorious plant, that shall bloom in immortality, so long as earthly immortality can endure. Wallace and his mother, after a short stay at Dunipace, proceeded to Ellerslie. On their arrival, they learned from sir Ronald Crawford, the lady's father, that her husband and �47 elder son had been cruelly murdered at Lochmaben by the English, who now infested and tyrannized oyer the whole country without controul. The old lady got a promise of protection from Percy, Edward's lord-lieutenant; but Wallace scorned to accept of protection from the hands of those men who had become the tools of that tyrant's oppressions. His soul was roused, and he meditated vengeance, worthy of his country's sufferings, and the injuries which had fallen on his own blood. He could not longer remain under his mother's roof, and his uncle Crawford durst not give him shelter in his dwelling from the hatred of the English. In this situation of his affairs, he went to live in secrecy at the house of his paternal uncle, sir Richard Wallace of Riccarton, where his restless and patriotic aversion to the English tyranny permitted him not long to remain. One day he went a-fishing, and in the course of his pastime was interrupted by the irjsolent rapacity of some of lord Percy's followers, who happened to pass the spot where he was. Not fitted to yield to their demands, or to suffer their tauntings as one of the dishonoured Scots, Wallace, unarmed and alone, trusted his life to the fate of �48 a combat. When he began the fight, the only weapon he had was his fishing-staff. With this he beat one of the gang to the ground ; and having wrested the sword from his hand, he soon taught the crowd, by whom he was speedily assailed, that his individual strength, skill, and intrepidity, were superior to their united force: he killed several of the party, and the others fled, confounded at the matchless prowess of their single antagonist. He rode home triumphant to his uncle, on a horse left by the persons whom he had killed or terrified, and he was now inspired with a just confidence in his own powers by these exploits. His residence with sir Richard now becoming very insecure, he resolved to devote his mightiest exertions, and his life itself, to the deliverance of his country, or to the chastisement of her oppressors ; and accordingly he destroyed as many of the English as came in his way, sparing neither the dignified nor the mean. For these noble actions he was outlawed by the English, and compelled to live during the most inclement seasons of the year entirely in the open fields, the woods, and the mountains, where he often wandered, subjected to all the hardships that it is pos- �49 gifele for human nature to sustain, but animated by a spirit that enabled liim to bid defiance to the direst calamities that assailed him. I t was upon the eagle's plundered store That Wallace far'd, when hunted from his home, A glorious outlaw* by the lawless p o w ' r O f Freedom's foil'd assassin, England's king. Along the mountain cliffs, that ne'er were clomb B y other footsteps than his own, 'twas 4:here The eagle-vision'd genius, towering, plann'd T h e grand emprise of setting Scotland free. lie long'dL to mingle in the storm of war ; And as the eagle dauntlessly ascends, Revelling amid the elemental strife, Mis mind sublime prefigur'd to itself Each circumstance o f future hard fought fields, T h e battle's hubbub loud, the forceful press, That from his victim hurries him afar, The impetuous close concentrated assault* That, like a billow broken an the rocks, Recedes, but forward heaves with doubled fury 4t The exploits of Wallace were soon generally known, and attracted the notice of many? who, dreading the stratagems of Edward to subvert their independence, had the courage to hazard their lives for the liberty of their country. At the head of men such as these Wal* The Birds of Scotland. E �50 lace performed such exploits, as posterity has surveyed with astonishment. He would frequently sally out of his lurking places, and, with a handful of men, defeat multitudes. His personal strength was extraordinary, and had often been tried ; but to this he did not so much trust as to stratagem. Expeditious and indefatigable, cautious though undaunted, he eluded the pursuits of his enemies, and never exposed himself to numbers, but when certain to frustrate their endeavours, if not to triumph in their destruction. The English having proclaimed a justice-aire to be held at the town of Ayr, (18th June 1296), many of the neighbouring landed gentry, as usual, attended, several of whom being accused of felony, were immediately condemned and executed. Among these were sir R o nald Crawford sheriff of Ayr, and uncle of Wallace, sir Bryce Blair, sir Neil Montgomery, and many of the barons of Kyle, Cunningham, Carrick, and Clydesdale. The few who escaped having informed Wallace of this dreadful catastrophe, with his usual intrepidity he immediately assembled fifty of his followers, secretly entered Ayr in the night, and set fire to the place where many of the �51 English were asleep. The garrison issuing forth from the castle, fell into an ambush laid for them, and were all put to the sword. The fort being immediately seized, Wallace marched next morning to Glasgow, where engaging a body of troops under the command of lord Henry Percy, he completely routed them, and quick, ly after took the castle of Stirling, recovered Argyle and Lorn, with the town of St Johnston, and adjacent country, and continued daily, in short, to do some signal mischief to the English and their friends. Travelling through Angus and Mearns, he arrived at Aberdeen, from which the English had just made their escape by sea, and made himself master of all the towns of consequence in the north. In the mean time, sir William Wallace was, by the majority of the kingdom, elected guardian of Scotland, and viceroy in the absence of Baliol. His future conduct manifested that he was neither ungrateful for the honour conferred on him; nor unfaithful to the trust committed to his charge. The castle of Dundee was the only place that withstood the arms of Wallace in the north. While besieging this fort he got intelgence of the approach of the English army, % �52 commanded by John earl of Surrey, and sir Hugh Cressingham, and joined by many disaffected Scots, to the number altogether of about forty thousand men; Wallace commanded the burghers, upon pain of death, to prosecute with vigour the siege he had begun, and he himself, with ten thousand faithful and resolute adherents, marched towards Stirling, and encamped in an advantageous situation upon a hill above the monastery of Cambuskenneth, on the north side of the Forth; which, having no fords at that place, was passable only by a wooden bridge. The English army lay on the south of the Forth; and their generals, desirous of bringing matters to an accommodation, sent two Dominican friars with overtures of peace to Wallace. These terms, insulting in the last degree to the honour and independence of Scotland, were rejected with disdain. u Tell your officers, (said Wallace), that we have not com© to this place to sue for peace, that now we are ready to find, and will immediately evince, that our country is still free." This answer exceedingly irritated the English generals, several of whom despising Wallace and his few followers, presumptuously exclaimed, u They are all our own, let us instantly charge them.'* �53 A Scotchman, name! Lundy, who had been induced early in the campaign to desert to the English, violently opposed this measure. He well knew that Wallace was too prudent to hazard a battle with such superior force, without having concerted measures to counterbalance the inequality of numbers. Lundy judged rightly. The bridge formerly mentioned, over which it behoved the army to pass, was both narrow and weak, and the Scottish carpenter who shortly before had been employ, ed to repair it, had, at Wallace's desire, cut the main beams of it half through, and thereby rendered it incapable of supporting a great weight. Urged by the impetuosity of Cressingham, Surrey gave orders to the army to march along the bridge; and sir Marmaduke rJTwenge, a gentleman distinguished for valour and resolution, led the van, and boldly advanced to the foot of the hill, on which the Scofe had drawn up their army in order of battle. Here Wallace remained till he saw as many of the English had got over as he thought he could safely encounter; but so far from making a formidable opposition, he gradually retreated as sir Marmaduke advanced. The English commander pursued with vigour; but soon dis3 �54 covered that their was not a standard of his countrymen in his rear. While some of the Scots seemed to flee before him, the greater part having taken an unfrequented road, completely intercepted his retreat; and the bridge having broken down by the immense weight of so many armed men, vast quantities were drowned in the river. All the English who had crossed the Forth, to the number of six or seven thousand, were put the sword, except sir Marmaduke and a very few, who made their escape by swimming across the river. Surrey, during all this time, stood on the south side of the water, and had the galling mortification of seeing his men drowned and slain, without being able to afford them the smallest relief. As soon as Twenge joined Surrey, he advised him to set on iire the remaining part of the bridge, to prevent the victorious Scots from pursuing and harassing their disheartened army. This expedient proved of little use; for the great steward of Scotland and the earl of Lennox having previously posted themsel ves in an ambush, at a short distance from the English, came from behind the mountains as soon as they ascertained the event of the day, charged the retiring earl, put him to flight, and pursued him with �55 such vigour, that with difficulty he escaped t® Berwick. Among the many English who were slain was the treasurer Cressingham. This man, though a priest, was of a most notorious cha« racter: the Scots held him in such detestation, that having found his dead body after the battle, they flead it, and cutting his skin into small pieces, shewed them in derision to their countrymen and friends. This glorious battle, so disastrous to the English army, was fought on the 13th September. Sir Andrew Murray was the only Scotsman of note that lost his life, although many of the English commanders fell this day. This victory was evinced to be complete in its effects and coirsequences. No Englishmen durst remain in Scotland ; and all those Scots, who, for reasons of policy or of baseness., had deserted to the English interest, now submitted to Wallace, and hailed him as the deliverer of their country. Although Berwick and Roxburgh; still held out, yet being soon deserted by their garrisons, they opened their gates to our heroV victorious army. And thusT in about fourteen months after the king had been deposed, and his kingdom subdued and obliged to own a foreign prince as their hereditary king, did �Wallace, till then a private obscure gentleman, unaccustomed to martial exploits, without money or arms but such as he took from the enemy, and with only a handful of men, restore the nation to its ancient liberty and independence. Although the plunder taken at the battle of Stirling was not inconsiderable, yet so many armies ranging through all parts of the kingdom occasioned a great scarcity, and a general famine was seriously apprehended. To prevent this calamity, Wallace issued orders, commanding all Scotsmen capable of bearing arms to be ready to join him by turns, at certain times and places agreed on ; and to secure their attendance, he not only had an exact list of all males in the kingdom between the age of sixteen and sixty, but in each village caused a gibbet to be erected, for the immediate execution of those who should presume, either to desert from their colours, or not to repair to the army when required. Some in Aberdeen at first hesitated to obey these commands; 011 which account, Wallace, leaving his army, then on its march to the frontiers of England, went to Aberdeen, caused the offenders to be executed, and immediately returned. He divided the �57 kingdom into districts, and these he subdivi* ded, so that he could draw out all the men c o n tained in each as soon as he pleased. His plans were conducted with the greatest regularity. The men thus raised w ere formed into regiments* and had officers appointed over them. Having thus arranged all domestic affairs, and collected as many men as he thought necessary for his purpose, he, under himself, as commander, appointed Andrew Murray, surnanied the noble,, son of Andrew Murray who shortly before feU at the battle of Stirling, and entered England on the eighteenth of October. The inhabitants of Northumberland, alarmed at his approach, leaving the country defenceless, fled with their families and effects to Newcastle. Upon this Wallace and his army halted, or rather seemed to retreat. The country people observing their retrograde motion, returned to their houses, and were all unawares surprised by parties of the Scottish army, who ravaged the whole country between Tyne and Dervent, for the space of twenty-three days. A body of fresh troops advancing now to the borders, some of the former were sent home, and had the peculiar satisfaction of carrying back with them to their friends the welcome news of their various �'58 successes, and particularly the plenty of food they had procured in the land of their enemies. Wallace directing his march to Carlisle, summoned that city to surrender on the llth November. But the place being strongly fortified, the magistrates refused to give it up, and he was obliged to desist from the want of battering engines, which at this season of the year could not be speedily nor conveniently procured. He therefore turning aside through the forest of Inglewood, laid waste Berland and Allerdale, and all that country as far as Cockermouth. The clemency of our hero appears conspicuous in those letters of protection and safety he issued to the religious houses: the tenor of one of them follows. c6 William Wallace and Andrew Murray, in name of the illustrious Prince J O H N , by the grace of God, King of Scotland, and with consent of the community of the said kingdom, Commanders of the army of the said kingdom of Scotland, to all the subjects thereof to whom these letters may come, greeting. Know, that in the name of the said King, we have taken into his protection, the Prior and Convent of Exseldesham in Northumberland, their lands, men, possessions, and goods, moveable and immove« �59 able; wherefore, we strictly forbid you to do any hurt, mischief, or injury whatever, to their persons, lands, or goods, under pain and forfeiture of your own goods and estates to the King, or to kill any of them, under pain of death. And we will that these letters be in force for a whole year, and no longer. Given at Exseldesham, 7th of November." From Cockermouth the army proceeded to Newcastle. When passing the village of R y ton, the inhabitants made them the objects of derision, and insulted them with the most opprobrious language. They were prompted to treat them in this manner, from the impracticability of the Scots attacking them, their situation being nearly insular. But Wallace and his followers peremptorily crossing the water, set the village on fire. The terrified inhabitants fled with precipitation, and the consternation became general; the province was filled with lamentation, and no man durst appear in the fields. The cities of Durham and Newcastle only made efforts of resistance: But Wallace did not think proper to attack them, or to push his successes farther : he had already done sufficient mischief to his enemies, and had, at an easy rate, obtained much glory �60 to his countrymen, and reflected distinguished lustre on the Scottish arms. The fame of Wallace, and the splendid victories which he had gained both in Scotland and in England, spread abroad, and attracted the attention of the courts of England and France. Philip the Fair, the French monarch, heard of his successes with j o y ; but Edward I. king of England observed them with decided and invidious displeasure: he felt much at being outstripped by one whom he accounted his inferior. He was therefore impatient to conclude the treaty lately proposed between him and Philip, by which peace might be attained, and secured to both nations. In the mean time, he wrote from Flanders to his son, desiring him immediately to summon a great council of the nobility, with full powers to promise in his name whatever appeared necessary towards obtaining their consent to and concurrence in a vigorous war with Scotland. They accordingly met. The constable and marshall of England, the earls of Gloucester, Surrey, and Arundel, and a great majority of the earls and barons of the kingdom, agreed^ that a large army should be instantly raised, and that within eight days all �61 the forces they could collect should assemble at Newcastle. This meeting took place as appointed, and the army was found to consist of four thousand and five hundred cavalry, and upwards of a hundred thousand infantry. The prince and foresaid noblemen headed this immense body, marched against the Scots, relieved the castle of Roxburgh which Wallace was besieging, and took possession of Berwick, which the Scottish garrison had abandoned as untenable ; and having proceeded thus far, they received orders from Edward to halt, till he himself, having now settled his affairs abroad, should come home, and put an end to the disturbances in Scotland, It w$s politic in Edward to prevent the army from advancing farther, as, from Wallace's Inimitable and intrepid Conduct, he had reason to expect that they would most probably be again exposed to peculiar hardships, and afresh experience new disasters. Edward having arrived in England on the 21st March, immediately sent letters to Wallace, replete with insult and abuse. He told him, that he durst not have attempted a revolt in Scotland, far less an invasion on England, had he himself been present in the island. Sir F �62 William received Edward's messenger with that dignity which became his present situation, and replied, that he had more reason to take the advantage of Edward's absence to deliver his country from servitude, than he of the divisions of a free and independent people to enslave them : he added, that he had invaded England to repay the injuries done to Scotland ; that he meant to keep his Easter in the same country, and that he invited his highness to that feast. He punctually did what he promised. Edward had a great army to oppose him; for though the earl of Surrey and the foresaid noblemen had, upon receipt of his letters from Flanders, discharged the greater part of their numerous forces, yet they had still fifteen hundred cavalry and twenty thousand infantry, who seemed more than sufficient, not only to check the progress of Wallace in England, but to act on the offensive, and oblige him and his army to retreat to the mountains of Scotland. But sir William's courage, which had been conspicuous all along, did not fail him here: with his usual intrepidity, he collected his chosen troops, rallied, and came in view of the mighty monarch neat Stanmore. �63 Edward's army appeared to the Scots to be incredibly numerous, the armour of the soldiers glittering, the equipage of the officers rich and elegant, and the sound of their trumpets and noise of their drums pompous and terrible. Yet such was the ardour and bravery of many in the Scottish army, that they requested leave from the guardian to go a-pickering, and thus, by conspicuously evincing their undaunted intrepidity, to aim at the honour of knighthood. But this favour Wallace was by no means disposed to confer: he issued a proclamation, commanding all his men, upon pain of death, to keep their ranks, to march with gravity, and to attempt nothing without his orders. Edward observed, and admired the order, discipline, and formidable appearance of the same enemy he had been hitherto accustomed to despise. He now discovered that the men he had to encounter acted with subordination and concert, and that their leaders were completely versant in the art of war. His own veteran and experienced soldiers had not arrived from Flanders, and in this situation, he thought it improper to hazard at once his own glory, the lives *of his nobles, and the forfeiture of his claim, with 2 �64 a a undisciplined though numerous militia, a-i gainst a small but resistless army, in which every officer and every soldier acted the part of a hero. Edward therefore wisely retired, and Wallace, with no less prudence^ checked the impetuous courage of his men, who, seeing the enemy retreat, were eager to follow and charge their rear. But this would have endangered all; a general engagement might have been the consequence, which Wallace ever avoided, except when, by a preconcerted stratagem, he was confident of victory. He again, upon pain of death^ discharged every one from stirring from the ranks, and told his followers, " that they had done enough when they stood their ground, and kept their countenance, in the presence of such a power, which one would have thought was able to have swallowed them up: that this was in effect a victory, and so much the more glorious, that they had gained it without drawing their swords." This speech being circulated through the army, had an agreeable influence upon all their minds : the officers alighted from their horses, and the whole army prostrated themselves on the ground, while, according to the custom of the day, they sung the praises of �65 St Andrew, the patron of Scotland, and returned thanks to St Cuthhert, on whose feast, and in some measure by whose intercession, they attributed their courage having been roused, and their enemies put to flight. The glory of sir William Wallace was now at its height; and as, by his numerous and gallant exploits, he had become the admiration 6f Europe, the terror of England, and the darling of his countrymen; so he was the object of the envy, jealousy, and fear of the nobility. They considered the praises that were heaped upon him as so many reproaches cast upon them; and every glorious action which he performed Seemed to reflect disgrace on their cowardice that durst not, or their perfidy that would not imitate him. They had numerous dependants and immense estates, and consequently the means of asserting their own and their country's rights, yet they had never attempted it; and a private gentleman, a younger brother, of none of the most opulent families, destitute of every assistance but courage to liazard and wisdom to contrive, had taken their work in hand, and effected it so completely and successfully, that now he was become their superior. What might he not at3 �66 tempt afterwards, and whither might fortune carry a man of his spirit, no one could guess. John Cumine of Badenoch and Robert Bruce earl of Carrick, both of the blood-royal, and both of aspiring dispositions, were afraid that he would at length usurp the sovereignty, and seize' upon the crown, to which they had a just and legal title. These considerations made the one join openly with the enemy, and the other to act but faintly against him. Of these proceedings Edward could not be ignorant, and he was too prudent not to take advantage of them. He was not yet prepared to return to the borders, and to take the command in person, but he had still a considerable army there; and by his emissaries he prevailed with the leading men in Galloway to revolt in his favour, and at the same time persuaded Ay mere de Valence earl of Pembroke and John Psewart, two of his generals, to penetrate into Fife. But Wallace being apprised of their intention, overtook them at the then spacious and beautiful forest of Blackironside, and killed or took prisoners fifteen hundred and eighty of their men. In this encounter he lost very few of his own : the gallant sir John Graham was wounded, but none i ) ~ �67 of eminence fell, except the valiant Duncan Balfour sheriff of Fife, This victory did not intimidate the English army, or prevent them from making more attempts upon the inland country in the course of the same summer. The guardian was obliged to destroy the bridge of Perth, and in its Vicinity he defeated the English in no less than three engagements, in one of which their leader, sir John Withrington, with a great number of his party, were drowned in the river. It is probable that Edward had sent a fleet to the coasts of Scotland, with orders, when opportunities presented, to harass the inhabitants by making descents ; and while Wallace endeavoured to prevent or defeat these measures, the English army on the borders, assisted by the rebels of Galloway, seized upon some parts in the south an$ west. To punish and repel these formidable enemies, Wallace, with sir John Graham, sir John Monteith, and Alexander Scrymgeour constable of Dundee, marched southwards; and having got notice that they had stationed themselves in the vicinity of Ayr, and that the barns were filled with English soldiers, they advanced in the night with a party of fife hundred men, arid �68 set fire to their enemies lodging in so dexterous a manner, that such as awaked and escaped from the devouring flames immediately perished by the sword. u Thus (says Fordun) did Scotland, by the wonderful conduct and vigilance of its guardian, enjoy peace in the midst of war, and the people, guarded by repeated victories over their enemies, securely cultivated the formerly neglected soil, and dispersed plenty over the land ; while at the same time the more powerful nobles, inebriated with envy and jealousy, outwardly professed all the gratitude that was due to the admired atchievements of their deliverer, but secretly conspired his ruin; and in order to effect this, caused rumours to be spread abroad, intimating, that he designed to usurp the crown; and that if an usurper must reign, a great and mighty monarch, though a foreigner, was preferable to an upstart of yesterday. O strange infatuation! Wallace had no design to be king, but against his own will had been elected guardian of the kingdom; and at a time when, unhappy Scotland! thou hadst not a head to defend thee, he did it with the strength of his arm, and, in the day of tribulation, afforded relief. Odious envy! whence comes it thai �69 Scdlsmeii are thus over-ruled by thee 5 Alas t it is natural to most men to hate and depress one another; the best patriots especially, be^ cause the best: in this like to Cain, who en,. Vied Abel 5 to Rachel^ who hated Leah ; to Saul, who maltreated David; and to the Scots, who would not suffer themselves to be blessed by their Wallace V ' By this time, tjie formidable 4rmy whicl* Edward had left in Flanders was returned to England ; arid he, to strengthen it by the addition of all the forces which that kingdom, ivith Ireland and Wales, could rai§e, had gratified his nobles respecting the privileges for which they had long contended : and now their jealousies beipg completely removed, they marched with him against the Scots with courage and alacrity* Jlis army, wheij. scol* lee ted at Roxburgh, amounted in all tp three thousand select horsemen, armed cap-a-pe, besides four thousand light horsemen, and about eighty thousand foot, the greater part of whom were Irish and Welsh. To oppose this formidable power, Wallace had not above thirty thousand, both horse and foot; vet in * Fordtini Scotiehrofcicon, lib; 2. cap. 31. �70 that high state of discipline which they had attained, and animated with that patriotic ardour which had all along marked their conduct, they wrould doubtless have withstood their tmemies, had they been commanded by the guardian alone; but unfortunately two men, of acknowledged bravery indeed, (but, as were the greater part of the nobility and their immediate dependants, for the reasons already noticed, his secret enemies), divided with him the command. Sir John Cumine of Badenoch, and sir John Stewart of Bonkyll, the latter the brother of James lord high-steward of Scotland, and the former the grandson of Dervegild, the mother of king John, consequently, next to him and his children, a legal pretender to, if not the rightful heir of the crown. Both these determined to thwart the designs of Wallace, yet so far agreed with him upon the enemy's approach, as, by his advice, to seize upon an advantageous post, to rank their men regularly in three round bodies, to fill up the intermediate spaces with archers, to place their horse in the rear, and to fortify their front with pallisadoes fastened in th^ ground, and bound together with ropes. �71 In this position did they remain at Falkirk seven miles from Stirling, till the army of Edward appeared on the day of July, after having reduced several castles, and penetrated thus far into the heart of the kingdom. And now was the time that the animosities that unhappily subsisted between the commanders should have been entirely banished; but unfortunately for Scotland this was not the case. Each of them would have the honour of going first upon the head of the van; Wallace, because he was guardian of the kingdom; Cumine, on account of his more numerous vassalage and royal birth; and Stewart, because he acted that day in place of his brother, the lord high-steward himself, whose vassals or military tenants would obey no commands but wrhat he gave them; and he is said to have stood so much upon this punctilio of honour, that he upbraided Wallace to his face, charged him. with ambition and pride, and compared him to the owl in the fable, which had nothing that was originally its own, but begged a feather of every bird, and thus having acquired rich and gay plumage, pretended to beauty and superiority abovq all others. �n It is easy to conjecture what must be the Result of a battle begun at such a time, and irf such a manner. While the fatal debate was agitated with the greatest heat, Edward although he had that tery morning got a fall from his horse, by which two of his ribs were broken, caused a charge to be sounded. The Septs were soon routed, and lost upwards of ten thousand men. Sir John Cumine with those under his command, went away without fight., fng at all: sit- John Stewart fought bravely and died honourably, as did all his dependents. And the guardian, (who in the beginning of the action, had just sufficient leisure to address this short speech to his men, 1 have brought you to the king fly if you can, did all that could be expected from the greatest commander in the world. Unable either to Rescue Stewart, or alone to withstand the prevailing enemy by whose numbers he was nearly surrounded, (for the earl pf Car rick had made a large circuit, and was ready to fall upon his rear), he imperceptibly retreated, and passed the little river Carron? which he knew they durst not attempt to ford in his presence. Thus he not only preserved his own men, and such of his colleagues as �73 fled to him, but, by keeping himself in the rear, and having his eye constantly fixed on those that were most active in the pursuit, he found means to cut off several of them, particularly one Frere Bryan Jay, a knight templar ; upon whom having turned, he killed in view of the greatest part of the victorious army. This intrepid action made others beware of coming, as the templar had done, within his reach. Thus Wallace, by the means to which we have already adverted, was obliged to retreat • on which account, and because of the nume*. rous forces he brought to the field, he was branded as the main author of all the losses which his country had sustained. While retreating from Falkirk, the earl of Car rick was one of his most active pursuers; and as the guardian stood on the one side of the river Carron, he advanced to the opposite bank, and, elevating his voice, he addressed him in the following manner: u l a m greatly surprised, sir William, that you should ever entertain thoughts, as it is generally believed you still do, of attaining the crown of Scotland ; and that, deceived with this chimerical view, you should thus expose yourself to fit* G �74 many dangers. It is not easy, you find, to resist the king of England, for he is one of the greatest princes in the world; and even supposing it were otherwise, do you entertain the idea, that the Scots would suffer you to reign over them?" The guardian did not allow him to proceed. u N o , " replied he, u my thoughts never soared so high, nor do I intend to usurp a crown, to wrhich, I am conscious, I have no right, and which my services cannot merit. I only mean to rescue my country from oppression and slavery, and to defend that just cause which you have abandoned. You, my lord, whose rights may entitle you to be king, it is your duty to protect the kingdom: it is because you fail in this respect, that I must, and will while I exist, endeavour to maintain the rights and liberties of that country I was born to serve • and, if it is the will of Providence, in defence of these I will lay down my life. As for you, who choose rather to live a slave, with the safety of your life and property, than to be free and independent, with the hazard of losing your fortune, you may continue in the possession of what you so highly esteem, your large estate; though had you but the spirit t# �75 claim the crown, you might both win it with glory, and wear it with justice. I can do neither; but this I will do, I shall live and die a free-born subject." This conversation is supposed to have left an indelible impression upon the mind of the aspiring earl; but the circumstances of time and place obliged them both soon to break it off: Bruce returned to the victorious Edward, and Wallace continued to lead off his men. This he performed with as much glory, in the opinion of those who were competent to judge, as when last year he gained a more decisive battle than that which was now lost. Notwithstanding, his enemies, who were ever on the alert, gave out, with a view to palliate the treachery of sir John Cumine, who was known to have fought none at all, that sir William behaved little better than sir John ; and even some Scots authors have asserted, that, sacrificing his honour and country to his resentment against sir John Stewart, he stood by an idle spectator, till he saw that brave man, and all about him, cut to pieces. This they consider as the only misconduct with which he can be charged during the whole caurse of his life; and doubtless all would �16 concur with them, had any good authority been produced to prove it. Blind Harry may talk what he will; ignorant people may mistake a necessary retreat for a giddy flight; and because sir William was not the first who engaged, that honour having been flatly refused him, and afterwards, when he saw that the day was lost, did not venture too far, prejudice may have reported that he stood by inactive and unconcerned. But as this is contrary to the assertion of Buchanan, and of the best Scottish authors, who all maintain, that, to use the words of Pere d'Orleans, a learned Frenchman, he did nothing derogatory to his character, was still himself, and that his valour appeared in the combat, while his prudence was conspicuous in the retreat; so no English historian mentions the circumstance, much less contradicts this statement; on the contrary, they always suppose him to have been general of the Scottish army, to have drawn it up with advantage, and to have urged his men to exhibit their ancient discipline and valour. Besides, it is remarkable, that as Macduif, the grand-uncle of Duncan earl of Fife, fell in that division which sir John Stewart commanded; so sir John Graham of �77 Abercorn or BandafF, a gentleman, who, on account of the similitude of his independent spirit and heroic qualifications with those of Wallace, inseparably attached himself to his interest, person, and fate, was killed on that , side which the guardian headed: this furnishes another proof that he was not merely an idle spectator. However, it must be acknowledged, that in so critical a conjuncture, Wallace stood too much upon the pre-eminence of his post. That was not the time to contend about leading the van, when the whole army was about to be attacked : his conduct would then have been more commendable, had he at once yielded to the ambition of his rivals, when lie found them willing to act as became their exalted rank and station. This line of conduct, however, he was soon after disposed to,follow : for by sir John Cumine's conduct, both before and at the battle, and by the conversation which he afterwards had with Robert Bauce earl of Carrie k, ha plainly understood that these great men were actuated by mere jealousy, a passion of all others the least easily checked; and that both having a view to the crown, would always oppose, at least would never heartily concur with 3 �78 one, who, in their apprehension, had merit and ambition enough to set it on his own head. To re-unite them, if possible, he resolved at once to undeceive them and the world, and for this purpose he called an assembly of the nobles at Perth, when, to the inexpressible grief of all who knew the sincerity of his intentions, and disinterestedness of his soul, he laid down his double commission of general of the army and guardian of the kingdom ; reserving nothing to himself of all the acquisitions he might have retained, except a small party of select friends, who, attached to him by the most endearing ties, and joined to his destiny, devoted themselves to the service of their country, and waged an eternal war with the English wherever they were to be found. Sir John Cumine, his greatest enemy, was, on account of his near relation to king John, whom the Scots still acknowledged as their lawful sovereign, appointed guardian in his room ; and we find from authentic records, that not only William bishop of St Andrew's, and Robert Bruce earl of Carriek, the next year, 1299, but also that sir J ohn Soules, in the tenth year of king John's reign, which must have been in 1303^ acted in conjunction �79 with him. Inspired by Wallace's example so long, probably much longer did these brave men, notwithstanding Edward's so much magnified victory at Falkirk, keep up the appearance of a government in Scotland, and maintain the unequal war in which they were engaged, against the united power of England, Ireland, Wales, and Gascony, though headed by one of the most intrepid princes of whom England can boast, and he too, at that time, at peace with France, and every other nation. But the Scots, not content with maintaining their independence in the northern, also made incursions into the southern .counties, which Edward imagined he had totally subdued. 6 John de Segrave, (says Mr Hume), whom Edward had left guardian of Scotland, led an army to oppose them; and lying at Roslin, near Edinburgh, sent out his forces in three -divisions., to provide themselves with forage and subsistence from the neighbourhood. One party was suddenly attacked by the regent and sir Simon Eraser, and being unprepared, was immediately routed, and pursued with great slaughter. The few that escaped, flying to the second division, gave warning of the ap* proach qf the enemy : the soldiers ran to their �80 arms, and were immediately led on to take revenge for the death of their countrymen. The Scots, elated with the advantage already obtained, made a vigorous impression upon them : the English, animated with a thirst of vengeance, maintained a stout resistance : the victory was long undecided betwixt them, but at last declared itself entirely in favour of the former, who broke the English, and chased them to the third division, now advancing with a hasty march to support their distressed companions. Many of the Scots had fallen in the two first actions, most of them were wounded, and all of them extremely fatigued by the long continuance of the combat; yet were they so transported with success and military rage, that, having suddenly recovered their order, and arming the followers of their camp with the spoils of the slaughtered enemy, they drove with fury upon the ranks of the dismayed English, The favourable moment decided the battle, which the Scots, had they met with a steady resistance, were not long able to maintain : the English were chased off the field : three victories were thus gained in one day : and the renown of these great exploits, seconded by the favourable dispositions �81 r 6f the people, soon made the regent master of all the fortresses in the south; and it became necessary for Edward to begin anew the conquest of the kingdom. 6 The king prepared himself for this enterprise with his usual vigour and abilities, He assembled both a great fleet and a great army, and entering the frontiers of Scotland, appear, ed with a force which the enemy could not think of resisting in the open field. The Eng. lish navy, which sailed along the coast, secured the army from any danger of famine, Edward's vigilance preserved it from surprises; and by this prudent disposition, they marched victorious from one extremity of the kingdom to the other, ravaging the open country, reducing ail the castles, and receiving the submissions of all the nobility, even those of Cu. mine the regent. The most obstinate resistance was made by the castle of Brechin, defended by sir Thomas Maule ; and the place opened not its gates, till the death of the governor, by discouraging the garrison, obliged them to submit to the fate which had overwhelmed the rest of the kingdom. ' Edward, having completed his conquest, which employed him during the space of near �82 two years, now undertook the more difficult work of settling the country, of establishing a new form of government, and of making his acquisition durable to the crown of England. He seems to have carried matters to extremity against the natives: he abrogated all the Scottish laws and customs; he endeavoured to substitute the English in their place ; he entirely rased or destroyed all the monuments of antiquity ; such records or histories as had escaped his former search were now burnt or dispersed ; and he hastened, by too precipitate steps, to abolish entirely the Scottish name, and to sink it finally in the English.' It is certain that sir William Wallace was not idle during all this period, but none of his exploits does any author with certainty relate. It is doubted also whether he resided at home or abroad. Some think he still continued in Scotland, and, though in a private and humble station, gave life and spirit to the distressed government. Others are of opinion that he retired to France, either at this time, or, according to Fordun after the glorious victory obtained in the beginning of the campaign 1302 by the Scots, in the vicinity of Roslio, when he had reason to conclude that * Scoticiironicon, cap. 11. �83 his country stood not so much in need of his service. It is said, that in his voyage to France, he fought with and made prisoner the famous French pirate, Thomas de Longueville, commonly called the Red-river ; and that he was heartily welcomed and very much caressed by Philip the Fair. It is even asserted by some, that Philip made him duke of Guienne, at least appointed him general of the army which he sent to that province to oppose the Engligh ; that as in Scotland, so in France, he performed wonders; that to perpetuate the intrepidity and number of his exploits, Gascon songs were composed, and long after sung to his praise; and that to confirm the truth of all these assertions, many domestic monuments of Thomas Longueville, (who, enamoured with his fortitude, followed his fortune, and returned with him to Scotland), such as his sword, rights of his lands, <&c. are yet extant, and still preserved with great veneration by his posterity. It is impossible to say what credit should be given to these various reports ; yet for the reasons already given, and on account of the great cor* respondence maintained between the French and Scots from the year 1298 to 1303, and ©f �84 the silence both of Scots and English authors, who particularise none of his achievements, it is probable that he went over to France with the new guardians, as ambassadors, to treat for peace, as soon as they entered upon their office. If this was the case, nobody will doubt but that Philip would be highly pleased to have such a man beside him, a dauntless hero, and at the same time, by nature, education, and principle, an avowed and irreconcileable enemy to the English. It is therefore credible that the king of France might have intended to give him the command of his army in Guienne; but that he actually got that command, or performed those exploits in that province that are said to be recorded in their old songs, appears rather improbable ; for the English and French had no memorable wars during this period, the truce agreed to in the beginning of the year 1£298 having been from time to time prolonged, till about Whitsunday 1303, when a peace was finally concluded, to the inexpressible astonishment and regret of the Scots, who were not comprehended in it. It was at this time, when their services were most required, that sir William Wallace and �85 liis unconquerable friends appeared again in the field, in opposition to that irresistible army, upon the head of which king Edward marched triumphantly through, and a second time subdued nearly the whole kingdom of Scotland; insomuch, that had not Providence, highly favouring that country, ordained some inaccessible places and natural fortifications, where no armies could march or be maintained, the Scots would have probably, at this time, lost all their ancient liberties. To these retreats sir William did withdraw, as formerly, when nothing better could be done, but with a resolution to sally out as soon as an opportunity should offer ; and he had no hesitation in thinking that Providence had destined him once more to be the deliverer of his native country. King Edward had good reason to dread our hero : that prince did not think himself an absolute conqueror while he survived. But Wallace was not, as others, to be awed into submission by fines, forfeitures, or threats ; he therefore courted him with large and magnificent promises of honours and wealth, places and pensions; but in vain : his constant answer, both to his initiate friends, and to the emissaries of king �86 Edward, who addressed him on the subject, was, u That he owed his life to, and would willingly lay it down for his country ; that should all Scotsmen but himself submit to the king of England, he never would; nor would1 he give obedience or yield allegiance to any power, except to the king of Scotland, his rightful sovereign." Since, therefore, neither threats, nor bribes, nor example, neither open force nor secret stratagem, could conquer the invincible soul of our undaunted hero, Edward bethought himself of the only expedient that yet remained unattempted to subject him. That preferment and money which had been rejected by liim with disdain, he caused to be offered to some of his greatest friends, who well knew, by what means he could be surprised; and even among these a Judas was found I The traitor, sir John Monteith, one of those in whom he placed the most unbounded confidence, brought a party of Englishmen upon him as he lay concealed in the neighbourhood of Glasgow. These having immediately apprehended him, carried him to London, by ordejs of king Edward. As this misfortune, the greatest that, at this conjuncture, could �87 befal the kingdom of Scotland, was inexpressibly afflictive to all its sincere friends and honest defenders, so it gave joy and pleasure to all ranks of people in England. They now imagined the war was at an end : yet even the rabble could not but pity the hard fate of an enemy so renowned. Prodigious numbers of men, women, and children, run from all quarters, to gaze at their illustrious prisoner as he passed upon the road. When he arrived in London, he was conducted to and lodged in the house of one William Delect, in Fenchurch-street. The next day (23d August 1305) he was brought on horseback to Westminster, accompanied by several knights, the mayor, sheriffs, and aldermen of the city, with many other persons of eminence and rank; in presence of all whom he was placed on the south bench of the great hall; and either because they wished the people to believe that he had aspired to the crown of Scotland, or because it was reported that he had formerly boasted that he had deserved to wear a diadem, in that place they crowned him with laurel, while sir Peter Malory, the chief-justice, impeached him of treason. T o this charge he boldly replied? 46 That �% 88 a traitor he never was, nor could be, to the king of England." The other crimes for which he was indicted, as burning of towns, storming of Castles, killing the English, &c. he frankly acknowledged, but denied that they were crimes, unless mistaken loyalty to one's natural sovereign, with deference to whom, and in whose name he ever* acted,—zeal for the just rights and liberties of one's native country, by the community of which he was created a magistrate,—-and resisting the encroachments of a foreign government and tyrannical usurpation,—shall deserve to l)e branded with that odious name. However, these heroic virtues were voted crimes; and the prisoner, notwithstanding he had never acknowledged or submitted to the laws of England, was tried by them, and condemned to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, and, whilst alive, to have his bowels cut out; all which was executed with the utmost severity, or rather relentless barbarity. His head was fixed upon London Bridge, but his four quarters were sent into Scotland, and placed over the gates of as many of the principal cities of his native country. It is doubtful if any country ever produced a. hero similar to Wallace in every respect, �89' Most nations have had their Ca3sars and Alexanders, bold and fortunate usurpers, plunderers of the world, and scourges of mankind, who, with uncommon strength of body and extraordinary endowments of mind, both had favourable opportunities of undertaking, and powerful aids in effecting their ambitious designs. Alexander governed the warlike kingdom of Macedon, and had all Greece at his command; and when he overcame the Persians, he vanquished but women and eunuchs. Caesar, it is true, had to encounter Romans, but then he had Romans to assist him, a veteran and well-disciplined army against an indolent and divided senate and an effeminate youth ; beaux, who durst not look at the point of a spear, lest it should disfigure their faces. Both had men and money, Wallace had neither : the one was a king, the other something more, a citizen of Rome, and by fortune and birth, as well as wealth and authority, one of the first order; whereas Wallace was only a private gentleman, the second brother of a Scots laird, and he had martial England and Edward to encounter, and but few of the nobility and commonalty to support him : nor did these either espouse his cause, till, by ex- �90 ploits, incredible for their greatness and singularity, he wrought them into a belief, that, under his conduct, they would prove invincible. Wallace had that air and make of body that seem to give right to command. His stature was tall and majestic, his strength incredible, his health not to be impaired by hunger or toil. Though large and broad shouldered, he had a pleasant aspect, and a countenance always serene; nor was his bulk unwieldy. These bodily advantages made him superior in combat to most men, and it was ordinary for him to defeat three or four at a time. But the strength of his mind was superior even to that of his body : he had the true spirit of a soldier, and such an inclination to the military art, that he learned it without experience. No man ever attempted more than he, yet none was more cautious, or better understood ihe arts of stratagem. Untutored himself, he taught the whole nation to be soldiers, and disciplined them go admirably, that had it been thought proper to have carried on his plan, Scotland could always alford at least thirty thousand men ready for any enter prize whatever, and that too without being charge. 2 �91 able to the government, or depopulating the country. He was rigorously severe to offenders, but obligingly liberal to those under his command. With the immence booties which he gained from the enemy he enriched every man but himself, and, in the midst of death and devastation, introduced plenty from England to Scotland. Provident and cautious, he was never surprised but by the villain who betrayed him under trust. The English have taxed him with barbarous cruelty in his way of making war; but certainly could they perceive virtue in their enemies, they would have acknowledged that Wallace had much more of the patriot and the hero than of the robber and the vagabond. A widely different character is given us by John Blair, his chaplain, who was an eye-witness of most of his actions. According to him, he never harmed women or children, but, on the contrary, was a father to orphans, a protector of the widow, the poor, and the miserable, a severe punisher of robbers and thieves, a declared enemy to liars and cheats, had a great veneration for the church and for churchmen, and discovered a love to his country, which nothing could e^ual but Lis hatred to the English, It is to be regretted �92 that we have not a full account of his behaviour while upon his trial and at the scaffold. Scottish authors could not, and the English would not do that justice to his memory, which must have left an indelible stain upon that of Edward, by whose orders he was so cruelly and so imprudently executed; for his death did not, as that prince imagined, complete the subjection of Scotland, on the contrary, it exasperated the nation against him, animated them to revenge, and excited all the friends and admirers of Wallace to acknowledge and support the title of king Robert Bruce. The manner in which the nation resented the death of their champion is well expressed in the following verses. Invida mors tristi Gulielmum funere Vallam, Quse cuncta toljlit, sustulit: Et tarito pro cive cinis, pro feiibus urna est, Frigusque pro lorica obit. Ille quidem terras, loca se inferiora, reliquit: At fata factis supprimens, Parte sui meliore solum coelumqne pcrerrat | Hoc spiritu, illud gloria. 66 �93 At tibi si inscriptum generosa pectus honesto Fuisset, hostis proditi Artibus, Angle, tuis, iu poenas parcior isses, Nec oppidatim spargeres Membra viri sacranda adytis. Sed scin quid in ista Immanitate viceris ? Ut Vallae in cunctas oras spargantur et horas LaudSs, tuumque dedecus." Thus translated: Envious death, who ruins all, Hath wrought the sad lamented fall Of Wallace; and no more remains Of him, than what an urn contains. W e ashes for our hero have, He for his armour a cold grave. He left the earth, too low a state, And by his acts o'ercame his fate ; His soul death had not power to kill; His noble deeds the world do fill With lasting trophies of his name. O ! hadst thou virtue lov'd, or fame, Thou couldst not have exulted so, Over a brave, betray'd, dead foe2 u �/• 94 Edward, nor seen those limbs exposed T o public shame, fit to be clos'd, As relics, in an holy shrine : But now the infamy is thine, His end crowns him with glorious bays* And stains the brightest of thy praise.5* THE ENS* � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Woodcut 084_a: Title-page hand-colored Illustration of a group of three entwined flowers. Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Life of Sir William Wallace, The Scots Patriot. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1808 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context <a href="https://ocul-gue.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01OCUL_GUE/mrqn4e/alma9953133953505154">s0141b34</a> Description An account of the resource <span>Woodcut #84a: Hand-colored Illustration on title-page of a group of</span><span>three entwined flowers.</span> Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Chapbook #54 in a bound collection of 54 chapbooks Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Archival and Special Collections, University of Guelph Library, Guelph, Ontario, Canada Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In the public domain; For high quality reproductions, contact Archival & Special Collections, University of Guelph. libaspc@uoguelph.ca, 519-824-4120, Ext. 53413 Type The nature or genre of the resource biography Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource JPEGs and PDF derived from master file, which was scanned from the original book in 24-bit color at 600 dpi in TIFF format using an Epson Expression 10000XL scanner. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Archival & Special Collections, University of Guelph Library, Guelph, Ontario Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd Subject The topic of the resource Chapbooks - Scotland - Edinburgh Wallace, William, -1305 # of Woodcuts: 2 Bib Context: title-page Chapbook Date: 1801-1810 Chapbook Genre: biography Chapbook Publisher - Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd Nature: flower(s)