[CHAPTER III]
Guerrilla Warfare
'Unus homo nobis cunctando restituit rem.'—
Enn. ap. Cic. Off. i. 24, 84.
'Now, for our consciences, the arms are fair,
When the intent of bearing them is just.'—
Shakespeare, Henry IV., Part i., v. 2.
'Thryldome is weill wer than deid.'—
Barbour, The Bruce, i. 269.
Apart from the Hazelrig and Ormsby episodes, the chroniclers plant Wallace at Stirling Bridge almost as if he had just started from the ground, or come down from the clouds, ready to command an army in the field. Yet they call him brigand, public robber, cut-throat, and other suchlike names, strangely inadequate as explanation of his command of the Scots against a mighty English host. Wallace's leadership really has to be accounted for on some more rational principle.