CHAPTER III.
STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE.
The Regency (1)—the Interregnum (2)—Council at Norham (3)—Edward's decision (4)—John (5)—his coronation (6)—French alliance (7)—Edward's first conquest (8)—English government (9)—Wallace's revolt (10)—surrender at Irvine (11)—battle of Stirling (12)—battle of Falkirk (13)—capture of Wallace (14)—attempted union (15)—Bruce's revolt (16)—his coronation (17)—Edward's proposed revenge (18)—Bruce's struggles (19)—battle of Bannockburn (20)—results of the victory (21)—Bruce's comrades (22)—summary (23).
1. Margaret, 1286-90. The Regency.—Within a month from Alexander's death the Estates met at Scone, and appointed six regents to govern the kingdom for Margaret, the Maiden of Norway, a child of three years old, who, on the death of her grandfather Alexander, succeeded to the throne. Three of these regents were for the old kingdom, the land north of the Scots Water, and three for Lothian with Galloway. This division seems to show that the different tenure of these provinces was still understood and acted on. The Scots of the original Celtic kingdom and the Englishmen of Lothian still kept aloof from one another. In the meantime Robert Bruce, a Norman baron whose forefathers had settled in Annandale in the twelfth century, made an attempt to seize the crown by force. He laid claim to it by right of his descent from Isabella, the second daughter of David Earl of Huntingdon, brother of William the Lion, and appealed to Edward the First of England as over-lord to support him in his supposed right. At the same time other appeals against him were made by the seven Earls of Scotland, by Fraser bishop of St. Andrews, and by the Community. Edward did not encourage Bruce, but on the contrary he agreed to the proposal of the Estates that the Lady Margaret should be married to his eldest son Edward. By the treaty of Brigham, in 1290, this agreement was accepted by the Clergy, Nobility, and Community of Scotland. This treaty provided that the rights and liberties of Scotland should remain untouched; that no native of Scotland was to be called on to do homage or to answer for any crime beyond the Border; in short, that Scotland was to keep all the rights and liberties which belong to a distinct national life. This union, if it had been carried out, would have been the best possible settlement for both kingdoms, but it was prevented by the death of the Maid of Norway on her way to Scotland, in one of the Orkneys, September 1290. Edward had himself sent a ship handsomely fitted out to fetch home the Maid.
2. Interregnum, 1290-92.—Margaret was the last of the legitimate descendants of William the Lion. The new King had to be sought among the heirs of William's brother David, Earl of Huntingdon. David had left three daughters, Margaret, Isabella, and Ada, and they being dead were represented by their nearest heirs,—Margaret by her grandson John Balliol, Isabella by her son Robert Bruce, and Ada by her son John Hastings. Besides these there were a host of smaller claimants whose pretensions were quite untenable; but there was one other who, though his claim was very shadowy, was first in power and position among the claimants. This was Florence, Count of Holland, the great-great-grandson of Ada, the daughter of David's son Henry, who was to have had Ross as her dowry. Bruce, supported by his son, by James the Steward and by other nobles, made a bond with Florence by which each pledged himself, in case he got the kingdom, to give the other a third of it. Edward, as over-lord, was appealed to to settle the matter, as it was feared by the regents that Robert Bruce would seize the crown by force, and all the competitors seem to have acknowledged Edward's right of superiority.
3. Council at Norham.—Edward accordingly summoned his barons, amongst whom most of the claimants could be reckoned, to meet him in a council at Norham, on the northern side of the Tweed, in June 1291, to decide this important case. The real contest lay between Bruce and Balliol. Bruce, Balliol, and indeed nearly all the claimants, were Norman barons holding lands of Edward. The family of Bruce came originally from the Côtentin and had been settled in Yorkshire by William the Conqueror, towards the end of his reign. David, who had granted to them the great tract of Annandale, had also granted to the Balliols a manor in Berwick. Bruce's plea was that, though he was the child of a younger sister, still his right was better than that of Balliol, as he was one degree nearer their common forefather, and he brought forward many precedents to prove that in such a case nearness in degree was to be preferred to seniority.
4. Edward's Decision.—Edward decided with perfect justice, according to the ideas of modern law, that Balliol, as the grandson of the eldest daughter, had the best right to the throne. In early times in Scotland no one would have thought of doubting Bruce's claim as next in degree. As Edward refused to divide the dominions among the heirs of the three daughters, it is clear that he looked on Scotland as a dependent kingdom, and not as an ordinary fief, which would have been shared among the three rivals. Judgment was given at Berwick, November 1292, eighteen months after the first meeting of the council. During this time the government had been nominally in the hands of the guardians of the kingdom; but Edward had the strongholds, twenty-three in number, in his own hands, and seems to have looked upon the two countries as really united. At the end of the suit he gave up the strongholds, and by so doing showed that he meant to act fairly.
5. John, 1292-96. Policy of Edward.—The great scheme of Edward's life was to unite Britain under one government, of which he himself was to be the head. He had already added to England the dependent principality of Wales. Hitherto his actions towards Scotland had been perfectly fair and upright. In placing John Balliol, the rightful heir, on the throne, he was doing no more than had been done by the King of England, acting as over-lord, in the cases of Malcolm Canmore and Eadgar: but his way of placing him there was not strictly just; the conditions which he required were such as he had no right to exact, nor John to accept. He made him do homage for his kingdom as though it had been an English fief. Now, though this was true as far as concerned Lothian, and partly true as concerned Strathclyde, as concerned Scotland it was untrue. Although Scotland had, since 924, been in some degree subject to the King of England, this dependence was no more than was implied by the "commendation," the very natural relation of the weaker to the stronger. But it must be remembered that three centuries had passed since that first commendation, and in that time the original simplicity of the feudal tenure had been altogether changed and in great measure forgotten. Edward looked on the three parts of Scotland as fiefs, and therefore subject to the same burthens as his other fiefs; the Scots knew that they were not thus subject, and they therefore argued that their kingdom was in no way dependent on England: thus both parties were partly right and partly wrong. Even the amount of dependence implied in the original commendation had, in the last reign, been refused by the Scottish King, and had not been insisted on by the English one. But John Balliol was weak and foolish, while Edward was wise, strong, and determined to rule the whole country indirectly through his submissive vassal.
6. Coronation of John.—John was duly crowned and enthroned on the Stone of Destiny, after which he renewed his homage to Edward, in 1292. He then summoned the Estates at Scone. This was the first meeting of the Estates which was called a parliament. John was not popular with his subjects, who looked on him as a tool in the hands of Edward. Before many months had passed Roger Bartholomew, a burgess of Berwick, being dissatisfied with a decision given against him in Scotland, appealed to Edward, who named a council at Newcastle to hear the case. This was a direct violation of the treaty of Brigham, and Edward obliged John to sign a discharge and renunciation of this treaty and of any other document then in existence which might call in question his superiority. Another appeal was made a few months afterwards against the decision of the Estates by a Scot of the old kingdom, Macduff, the grand-uncle of the Earl of Fife, and this was followed by appeals respecting the lands of the houses of Bruce and Douglas. John was summoned to appear before the Parliament of England, was voted a contumacious vassal, and commanded to give up the three principal strongholds of his kingdom into the hands of his over-lord till he should give satisfaction.
7. French Alliance.—In 1294 war broke out between France and England, and John, with the nobles and commons of his kingdom, entered into an alliance for mutual defence with Eric of Norway and Philip of France against Edward. This was the beginning of the foreign policy maintained in Scotland for several centuries, until the Reformation, when religious sympathy got the better of national hatred, and Roman Catholic France became more dreaded than Protestant England. In compliance with this treaty a Scottish army crossed the Border and swept and wasted the northern counties.
8. Edward's first Conquest.—Edward's dealings with Scotland now became those of a conqueror instead of a protector. The Scots had, without gainsaying, acknowledged his supremacy. It was the appeal of Scottish subjects which had tempted him to extend the incidents of that supremacy beyond legal limits, and now it was the Scots who began the war, and thus gave Edward the excuse, for which he was waiting, for conquering their country. He at once marched northwards with a great army, and besieged and took Berwick, a large and wealthy trading town. Provoked by the resistance and insults of the citizens, the King wreaked a fearful vengeance on them, and Berwick was reduced to the rank of a common market-town. While he was at Berwick, John's renunciation of fealty was sent to him by the party of independence, who were keeping their King in custody lest he should repent and submit. When Edward had secured Berwick, he marched to Dunbar, took the castle, and then went on to Edinburgh. He there took up his quarters in Holyrood, laid siege to the castle, took it, seized the crown jewels, and then passed on to Perth, taking possession of Stirling on the way. To crush out all idea of an independent kingdom, and to let the people see that they were conquered, he carried off from Scone the Stone of Destiny, with which the fate of the Scottish monarchy was supposed to be mystically joined. This stone was removed to Westminster, and was placed under the seat of the coronation-chair. He also took with him the Holy Rood of Queen Margaret, and obliged all the nobles who submitted to him to swear allegiance on this much valued relic. Edward did not go further north than Elgin, and he returned to Berwick in 1296, having marched all through Scotland in twenty-one weeks. All the nobles and prelates did personal homage to him. John submitted himself to Edward's pleasure, and was degraded and dispossessed. He was then sent as a prisoner to England, was afterwards made over to the keeping of the Bishop of Vicenza, the Pope's representative, and at last he retired to his own estates in Picardy, where he died in 1315. Edward treated his kingdom as a fief forfeited by the treason of the vassal who held it. This notion of the thirteenth century, that the fief was forfeited by treason, would not have occurred to anyone in the tenth century, when probably John would only have been deposed, and some one else set up in his stead. The seizure of Normandy from John of England by Philip of France was a case of the same kind, and quite as unprecedented.
9. English Government.—Edward at once took measures for joining Scotland on as an integral part of the English kingdom. He took care that the strongholds should be commanded and garrisoned by persons without any Scottish connexion. He appointed John, Earl of Warrenne and Surrey, Guardian, Hugh of Cressingham, Treasurer, and Ormsby, Justiciar of the kingdom; sent them forms of writs to be used in the re-granting of lands; took measures for the establishment of Courts of Chancery and Exchequer at Berwick, and summoned a council of merchants to consider the best measures for the future conduct of the trade and commerce of the country. Cressingham was enjoined to raise all the money he could, for the maintenance of internal peace and order, and to put down the wicked rebels, homicides, and disturbers of the peace, who swarmed all over the land.
10. Wallace's Revolt.—The Celts in the North looked on this change in the government with apathy. To them it probably made little difference who sat on the Scottish throne, and Edward had not entered their district. The Norman nobles quietly agreed to it, for they were afraid of losing their estates in England. But it roused a spirit of defiance and opposition where resistance was least to be looked for, among the Lowlanders. They were the descendants of the earliest Teutonic settlers, and had remained more purely English in blood and speech than their kinsfolk on the southern side of the Border. This latent feeling of discontent gradually ripened into rebellion, and the standard of revolt was raised by William Wallace, a native of Clydesdale, who, unlike most of his countrymen, had not sworn allegiance to Edward. He surprised and cut to pieces the English garrison at Lanark, and slew William Haselrig, the newly appointed sheriff of Ayr. This outbreak was followed by similar attacks on detached bodies of the troops in occupation. His little band of followers gradually attracted more, and at length they surprised the Justiciar Ormsby, while holding a court at Scone, and, though he escaped out of their hands, they secured both prisoners and booty. Anthony Beck, Bishop of Durham, was next attacked in Glasgow, and forced to flee. After these successes Wallace was joined by William of Douglas, a renowned soldier, and by Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, grandson of the original claimant of the crown.
11. Surrender at Irvine.—But there was a want of system and of unity of purpose in the nation, and this noble effort on the part of the people was not seconded by the nobles. A large army under Henry, Lord Percy, was sent by Edward to put down the rising; those of the nobles who had joined the popular movement deserted it, and renewed their allegiance to Edward at Irvine, July 1297. But when Edward, who believed the revolt to be completely crushed, was absent in Flanders, Wallace mustered the people of the Lowlands north of the Tay and made himself master of the strongholds in that district.
12. Battle of Stirling.—The English army was now hastening northward under Cressingham and Warrenne, Earl of Surrey. Wallace resolved to give them battle on the Carse of Stirling, a level plain, across which the river Forth winds in and out among the meadows like the links of a silver chain. Wallace showed his skill as a general by the choice of the ground on which he posted his men. He drew them up within one of the links of the river, which swept round in front between them and the English, while a steep rocky hill, called the Abbey Craig, rose right behind them and protected the rear. The English had to cross the river by a narrow bridge. Wallace waited till half of them were over, and then attacked them. Taken thus at a disadvantage, they were easily routed. The panic spread to those on the opposite bank, who fled in disorder. In this action, called the Battle of Stirling, which was fought September 11, 1297, Cressingham was slain, and Surrey was forced to retreat to Berwick. After this victory the Scots recovered the strongholds south of the Forth, and Wallace acted as Guardian of the kingdom in the name of King John, and with the consent of the commons. Unhappily the Scots were not content with driving out the invaders, but carried the war over the Border, and wasted the northern counties of England with all the fierceness and cruelty of brigands.
13. Battle of Falkirk.—Edward returned from Flanders and raised a large army for the subjection of Scotland, promising pardon to all vagrants and malefactors who would enlist in it. The King himself led the army. The Scots wasted the country and retreated before him through the Lothians; and Wallace, who knew well the weakness of his own force, tried to avoid a battle till the great army of Edward should be exhausted from want of food. But tidings were brought to Edward that Wallace was near Falkirk, and he marched northward in haste and forced his enemy to give battle. At Stirling Wallace had won the day by his happy choice of the ground; he now showed still greater skill by the way in which he drew up his little army. It was made up for the most part of footmen, who at that time were held of no account as soldiers. The genius of Wallace found out how they might be made even more formidable than the mounted men-at-arms, in whom at that time it was supposed that the strength of an army lay. He drew them up in circular masses; the spearmen without and the bowmen within. The spearmen with lances fixed knelt down in ranks, so that the archers within could shoot over their heads. When his men were thus placed, Wallace said to them, "I have brought ye to the ring—hop gif ye can;" that is, show how well you can fight. But, though they fought well and held their ground bravely, and the English horse were driven back by the spear-points, the Scots were at last beaten down by force of numbers, and the English won the day, 1298. After this victory Edward returned to Carlisle, and Wallace resigned the Guardianship. Edward held the country south of the Forth, but the northern Lowlands seem to have maintained their independence until the spring of 1303, when Edward marched north at the head of a great army and again subdued the whole country. He made Dunfermline, the favourite seat of the Scottish court, his head-quarters. Stirling Castle alone, under Olifant the valiant governor, held out for three months, but when it was taken the lives of the garrison were spared. All the leaders in the late rising were left unharmed in life, liberty, or estate, with the exception of William Wallace. He was required to submit unconditionally to the King's grace.
14. Capture of Wallace.—Wallace had been on the Continent ever since the battle of Falkirk. He now came back and was betrayed by his servant Jack Short to Sir John Menteith, governor for Edward in Dunbarton Castle, and was sent by him to London. He was there tried, by a special commission, for treason and rebellion against Edward. He pleaded in his own defence that he had never sworn fealty to Edward. In spite of this he was found guilty, condemned to death, and hanged, drawn, and quartered according to the barbarous practice which was then coming into use in England. His head was stuck up on London Bridge, and the four parts of his body were sent to Newcastle, Berwick, Stirling, and Perth, by way of frightening the people from such attempts in future.
15. Attempted Union.—Edward then set to work to complete the union of the two kingdoms. In the meantime Scotland was to be governed by a Lieutenant aided by a council of barons and churchmen. It was to be represented in the English parliament by ten deputies,—four churchmen, four barons, and two members of the commons, one for the country north of the Firths, one for the south. These members attended one parliament at Westminster, and an ordinance was issued for the government of Scotland. John of Bretayne was named Lieutenant for the King; justices and sheriffs were appointed; the strongholds were put under governors for the King, and an inquiry was ordered into the state of the laws in order to take measures for their amendment. Edward's policy in all this was to win favour with the people and the members of the council, although many of them, such as Bruce and Wishart, Bishop of Glasgow, had taken part in the last rising. The King's peace was now offered to all rebels who would profit by it. But the great difficulty in dealing with the Scots was that they never knew when they were conquered, and, just when Edward hoped that his scheme for union was carried out, they rose in arms once more.
16. Bruce's Revolt.—The leader this time was Robert Bruce, Lord of Annandale, Earl of Carrick in right of his mother, and the grandson and heir of the rival of Balliol. He had joined Wallace, but had again sworn fealty to Edward at the Convention of Irvine, and had since then received many favours from the English king. Bruce signed a bond with William Lamberton, Bishop of St. Andrews, who had also been one of Wallace's supporters. In this bond each party swore to stand by the other in all his undertakings, no matter what, and not to act without the knowledge of the other. The signing of such bonds became a prominent and distinctive feature in the after-history of Scotland. This bond became known to Edward; and Bruce, afraid of his anger, fled from London to Dumfries. There in the Church of the Grey Friars he had an interview with John Comyn of Badenoch, called the Red Comyn, who, after Balliol and his sons, was the next heir to the throne. He was the grandson of a younger sister of Balliol's mother, and the son of Balliol's sister. He had also a strong claim to the favour of the people in his alleged descent, through Donald Bane, from their ancient Celtic kings. What passed between them cannot be certainly known, as they met alone, but Bruce came out of the church saying he feared he had slain the Red Comyn. Kirkpatrick, one of his followers, then said, he would "mak sicker," and ran in and slew the wounded man. By this murder and sacrilege Bruce put himself at once out of the pale of the law and of the Church, but by it he became the nearest heir to the crown, after the Balliols. This gave him a great hold on the people, whose faith in the virtue of hereditary succession was strong, and on whom the English yoke weighed heavily.
17. Coronation at Scone.—On March 27, 1306, Bruce was crowned with as near an imitation of the old ceremonies as could be compassed on such short notice. The actual crowning was done by Isabella, Countess of Buchan, who, though her husband was a Comyn, and, as such, a sworn foe of Bruce, came secretly to uphold the right of her own family, the Macduffs, to place the crown on the head of the King of Scots.
18. Edward's proposed Revenge.—Edward determined this time to put down the Scots with rigour. Aymer of Valence, Earl of Pembroke, succeeded John of Bretayne as Governor. All who had taken any part in the murder of the Red Comyn were denounced as traitors, and death was to be the fate of all persons taken in arms. Bruce was excommunicated by a special bull from the Pope. The Countess of Buchan was confined in a room, made like a cage, in one of the towers of Berwick Castle. One of King Robert's sisters was condemned to a like punishment. His brother Nigel, his brother-in-law Christopher Seton, and three other nobles were taken prisoners, and were put to death as traitors. This, the first noble blood that had been shed in the popular cause, did much to unite the sympathy of the nobles with the commons, who had hitherto been the only sufferers from the oppression of the conquerors. Edward this time made greater preparations than ever. All classes of his subjects from all parts of his dominions were invited to join the army, and he exhorted his son, Edward Prince of Wales, and 300 newly-created knights, to win their spurs worthily in the reduction of contumacious Scotland. It was well for Scotland that he did not live to carry out his vows of vengeance. He died at Burgh-on-the-Sands, July 30th. His death proved a turning-point in the history of Scotland, for, though the English still remained in possession of the strongholds, Edward the Second took no effective steps to crush the rebels. He only brought the army raised by his father as far as Cumnock in Ayrshire, and retreated without doing anything.
19. Bruce's Struggles.—For several years King Robert was an outlaw and a fugitive, with but a handful of followers. Their lives were in constant danger. Whenever an opportunity offered, they made daring attacks on the English in possession; at other times they saved their lives by hairbreadth escapes from their pursuit. The Celts of the west and of Galloway, who had been won over to the English interest, were against them, and the Earl of Buchan, husband of the patriotic Countess, and his kinsman, Macdougal of Lorn, were Bruce's most deadly enemies. At one time Bruce had met with so many defeats that he left Scotland and thought of giving up the struggle and going to the Holy Land. Tradition says that the example of a spider stirred him up to fresh courage and endurance. He was in hiding in the island of Rachrin, off the north coast of Ireland. As he lay one morning in bed in the wretched hut in which he had taken refuge, he saw a spider trying in vain to throw its web across from beam to beam of the roof above his head. The insect tried six times and failed. Bruce reckoned that he had been beaten just six times by the English. He watched eagerly to see if the spider would try again. "If it does," thought he, "so will I." Once more the spider made the attempt, and this time it was successful. Bruce took it as a happy omen, and went back to Scotland. He joined some of his followers in the Isle of Arran. From the island they went to the mainland, and from that time the tide of fortune seemed to turn, and to bring him good luck instead of bad. Still he had to go through many perils. The story of his exploits has been handed down to us by John Barbour, Archdeacon of Aberdeen. As he was born soon after Bruce's death, there may be some truth in the tales which he tells, though it must be borne in mind that they are but tales. He describes Bruce as a strong, tall man, so cheerful and good-humoured that he kept up the spirits of his followers no matter what mishaps befell them, always first in danger, and often owing his life to his own wit and daring. One of his best known feats happened in the country of John of Lorn. Three Highlanders, who had sworn to take his life, set upon him when he was quite alone. One seized his horse's bridle; another tried to take his foot out of the stirrup; the third, leaping on him from behind, tried to unhorse him. Bruce cut them all down and rode off triumphant. His brooch had come loose in the struggle, and was ever afterwards kept as a precious relic in the family of his enemy Macdougal of Lorn. The first decided success of Bruce was the defeat of his old enemy, the Earl of Buchan, who with his followers joined the English, and forced Bruce to right near Inverary. Bruce won the day, and his followers so spoiled the lands of the Comyn that this fray was long remembered as the "Herrying of Buchan." At length the clergy recognized Bruce as their King, and this virtual taking off the excommunication had a great effect upon the people. The little band of patriots increased by degrees. The strongholds were won back, till at last only Stirling was left to the English, and it was so sorely pressed that the governor agreed to give it up to the Scots if he were not relieved before St. John Baptist's Day, 1314. Roused by the fear of losing this, the most prized of all Edward the First's conquests, the English gathered in great force, and marched 100,000 strong to the relief of the garrison.
20. Battle of Bannockburn, June 24, 1314.—The Scots were posted so as to command the plain or carse of Stirling, which the English must cross to reach the Castle. They were greatly inferior to the English in numbers, and had scarcely any cavalry, in which the chief strength of the English force lay. Robert divided them into four battles or divisions. Their leaders were Sir James Douglas; Randolf, his nephew; James the Stewart, and Bruce's own brother Edward. Bruce himself commanded the fourth division, which was placed behind the others, as in it were the men he least trusted, and a small body of cavalry. One flank of the army rested on the Bannock, a small stream or burn, from which the battle took its name. Before the battle joined, as King Robert was reviewing his line, he was challenged to single combat by Henry of Bohun, an English knight, and raised the spirit of his followers by cleaving his adversary's skull. The English began the fight by a volley of arrows, but their archers were dispersed by the small body of the Scottish horsemen whom King Robert sent to charge them. The English cavalry then charged the Scots, but they tried in vain to break the compact bristling masses of the Scottish spearmen, and themselves fell into confusion. Some Highland gillies and camp-followers just then appeared on the brow of a neighbouring hill. The English took them for a reserve of the enemy, were seized with terror, fled in wild disorder, and the defeat became a total and shameful rout. The horsemen in their flight fell into the pitfalls which the Scots had cunningly sunk in the plain. King Edward and 500 knights never drew rein till they reached Dunbar, whence they took ship for Berwick. Great spoil and many noble captives fell that day to the share of the victors.
21. Results of the Victory.—By this battle, won against tremendous odds, the Saxons of the Lowlands decided their own fate and that of the Celtic people by whose name they were called, and to whose kingdom they chose to belong. On the field of Bannockburn they gave the English a convincing proof that they preferred sharing the poverty and turbulent independence of that half-civilized Celtic kingdom to rejoining the more wealthy, prosperous, and settled country from which three centuries before they had been severed. Three more centuries were still to pass before Edward the First's great idea of a Union could be carried out. Bannockburn is noteworthy among battles as being one of the first to prove the value of Wallace's great discovery that footmen, when rightly understood and skilfully handled, were, after all, better than the mounted men-at-arms hitherto deemed invincible. Like Morgarten and Courtray, the fields on which the Flemings and the Swiss about the same time overthrew their oppressors, this victory of the Scots stands forth as a bright example, showing how, even in that age of feudal tyranny, a few men of set purpose, fighting for their common liberty, could withstand a great mass of feudal retainers fighting simply at the bidding of their lords.
22. Bruce's Comrades.—The faithful friends of Bruce, those who had shared his dangers and helped him to win his crown, were no way behind their leader in courage and heroism. The most famous of them all was James of Douglas, son of that Douglas who had been the friend and supporter of Wallace. His own Castle of Douglas was the scene of one of his most daring deeds, hence called the Douglas Larder. The English held his castle, but on Palm Sunday, when the garrison were gone to church, Douglas attacked them suddenly, killed some, and took the rest prisoners. He and his men then went up to the castle, where they feasted merrily on the fare that was being made ready for the English. When they had dined, Douglas bade them bring forth all the provision of food and fuel and pile it up in the castle hall. He then killed the English prisoners and flung their bodies on the heap. Over them he poured their store of wine, which mingled with the blood that still streamed from their gaping wounds. The Scots then set fire to the whole and went off to the woods again, for the free vault of heaven was more to their minds than the constraint of castle walls. All these stories are only tales; but, whether true or not, they show the spirit of the time.
23. Summary.—In this chapter we have seen how Scotland lost her independence by the selfish quarrels of her nobles and the weakness of her King John Balliol; how the rising of Wallace, the first effort for regaining her ancient freedom, was confined solely to the people without the nobles; how it came to nothing from the want of unity of purpose in the nation; how Scotland, after the failure of this attempt, had lost her separate national life and had been united to England; how, when all hope seemed lost, the people rose under a leader who was really a Norman baron, and therefore as much a foreigner to them as any of the governors placed over them by Edward; and how by one great effort they shook off the yoke of the invaders and drove them from the soil.