484
castie-upon-lyne to the gates of Carlisle; for the
monks, canons regular, and other priests who were
ministers of the Lord, fled with the whole people from
the face of the enemy; nor was there any to oppose
them, except that now and then a few English who be-
longed to the castle of Alnwick, and other strengths,
ventured from their safe-holds, and slew some strag-
glers. But these were slight successes; and the Scots
roved over the country from the feast of St. Luke's
to St. Martin's Day, inflicting upon it all the miseries
of unrestrained rapine and bloodshed."1 All the
tract of country from Cockermouth and Carlisle
to the gates of Newcastle was laid waste; and it
was next determined to invade the county of Durham.
But the winter set in with such severity, and provi-
sions became so scarce, that multitudes of the Scots
perished through cold and famine, and Wallace was
obliged to draw off his army. It seems that he
endeavoured in vain to restrain many outrages of his
followers. The canons of Hexham, a large town in
Northumberland, complained to him that their mon-
astery had been sacrilegiously plundered and that
their lives were in danger. "Remain with me," he
said; "for I cannot protect you from my soldiers
when you are out of my presence." At the same
time he granted them a charter, by which the priory
and convent were admitted under the peace of the
King of Scotland; and all persons interdicted, on
pain of the loss of life, from doing them injury. This
curious document still exists. It is dated at Hexham
on the 8th of November, 1297.
After his return from England, Wallace proceeded
to adopt and enforce those public measures which
he considered necessary for securing the liberty of
his country. With the consent and approbation of
the Scottish nobility he conferred the office of con-
stabulary of Dundee on Alexander, named Skirmis-
chur, or Scrimgeour, and his heirs, "for his faithful
aid in bearing the banner of Scotland." 2 He divided
the kingdom into military districts, in order to secure
new levies at any time when the danger or exigency
of the state required them. He appointed an officer
or sergeant over every four men, another of higher
power over every nine, another of still higher autho-
rity over every nineteen; and thus in an ascending
scale of disciplined authority, up to the officer or
chiliarch, who commanded a thousand men. In
other respects his administration was marked by
justice and sound judgment. He was liberal in
rewarding those who deserved well of their country,
by their exertions during its late struggle for liberty;
and strict in punishing all instances of private wrong
and oppression. But the envy and jealousy of the
higher nobility, who could ill brook the elevation
of one whose actions had thrown them so much into
the shade, perplexed the councils and weakened the
government of the country, at a time when the po-
litical existence of Scotland depended on its unan-
imity.
Edward was in Flanders when the news reached
him that the Scots, under Sir William Wallace,
had entirely defeated Surrey, driven every English
soldier out of their country, invaded England, and,
in short, had thrown off effectually the yoke with
which he had fettered them. Inflamed against them
at this overthrow of his exertions and schemes, he
issued orders to all the forces of England and Wales
1 In retaliation, Lord Robert Clifford twice invaded Annan-
dale with an army of 20,000 men and 100 horse. In his second
inroad, the town of Annan, which belonged to Robert Bruce,
and the church of Gysborne, were burned and plundered.
This is said to have determined Bruce to desert the English
and join the party of Wallace.
2 This grant is dated at Torphichen, 29th March, 1298.
to meet him at York; and, concluding a truce with
France, hastened home to take signal vengeance on
the assertors of their liberty, and to make final con-
quest of a country which had proved so contumacious
and untractable. At York he held a parliament,
on the feast of Pentecost, 1298, where, to secure the
hearty co-operation of his subjects in his invasion of
Scotland, he passed several gracious and popular
acts, and came under a promise of ratifying more
should he return victorious. He soon found himself
at the head of an army, formidable in number, and
splendid in equipment. It consisted at first of 7000
fully caparisoned horse and 80,000 infantry; and these
were soon strengthened by the arrival of a powerful
reinforcement from Gascony. A large fleet, laden
with provisions, had orders to sail up the Frith of
Forth as the army advanced.
The English rendezvoused near Roxburgh; and
about midsummer advanced into the country by
easy marches. A party under Aymer de Valloins,
Earl of Pembroke, landed in the north of Fife.
Wallace attacked and routed them in the forest of
Black Ironside, I2th June, 1298. Among the Scots,
Sir Duncan Balfour, sheriff of Fife, was the only
person of importance who fell in this engagement.
This partial success, however, of the ever-active
guardian of his country, could not affect the terrible
array that was now coming against him. He had
no army at all able to compete with Edward; and
his situation was rendered more perilous by the mean
fears and jealousies of the nobility. Many of these,
alarmed for their estates, abandoned him in his need;
and others, who yet retained a spirit of resistance
towards the English supremacy, envied his elevation,
and sowed dissensions and divisions among his coun-
cil. Wallace, however, with a spirit equal to all
emergencies, endeavoured to collect and consolidate
the strength of the country. Among the barons who
repaired to his standard, only the four following are
recorded: John Comyn of Badenoch, the younger;
Sir John Stewart of Bonkill; Sir John Graham of
Abercorn; and Macduff, the grand-uncle of the young
Earl of Fife. Robert Bruce remained with a strong
body of his vassals in the castle of Ayr.3 As the
army of Wallace was altogether unequal to the
enemy, he adopted the only plan by which he could
hope to overcome it. He fell back slowly as Edward
advanced, leaving some garrisons in the most im-
portant castles, driving off all supplies, wasting the
country through which the English were to pass,
and waiting till a scarcity of provisions compelled
them to retreat, and gave him a favourable oppor-
tunity of attacking them.
Edward proceeded as far as Kirkliston, a village
six miles west of Edinburgh, without meeting any
opposition, except from the castle of Dirleton, which,
after a resolute resistance, surrendered to Anthony
Beck, Bishop of Durham. But a devastating army
had gone before him, and his soldiers began to suffer
severely from the scarcity of provisions. At Kirk-
3 The story told by Fordun of the interview between Wallace
and Bruce on the banks of the Carron, after the battle of
Falkirk, is not well borne out by the circumstances of the
Darties. Bruce was not present at the battle, and at that
period did not belong to the English interest; which is proved
jy the fact, that after that fatal engagement he fled from his
castle at Ayr on the approach of Edward. At the same time,
it must be confessed that he held a suspicious neutrality with
regard to Wallace; and if we can reconcile ourselves to the
probability of a meeting between these two heroes, it is not
difficult to suppose that it might be, in its general bearing, such
as it is represented. About 1817 or 1818 an expatriated Scots-
man offered a prize to any one who should write the best poem
on this heroic interview. Mrs. Hemans, who afterwards dis-
inguished herself by_ many beautiful effusions in verse, was
the successful competitor.