CHAPTER IV.
NOTICES RESPECTING SIR JOHN GRAHAM AND SIR JOHN STEWART.—CONDUCT OF CUMYN.—WALLACE RESIGNS THE GUARDIANSHIP.—EDWARD RETURNS HOME.—TRIUMPHANT PROCESSION OF THE LONDONERS IN HONOUR OF HIS VICTORY AT FALKIRK.—REVIEW OF THE CAMPAIGN.
The retreat of Wallace from the field of Falkirk, may justly be considered as a masterpiece of generalship. The formidable bodies of horse at the disposal of Edward, afforded him ample means of following up and cutting off the retiring army of the Guardian. That so large a body of the Scots, though deserted by their own cavalry, should however have effected their escape in presence of a force so powerful, so well appointed, and headed by one of the first generals of the age, is truly astonishing; and can only be accounted for by supposing, either that the English must have suffered severely in the action, or that the conduct displayed by Wallace was such as awed them from the attempt.
According to the Minstrel, the Guardian, after withdrawing his troops to a place of safety, returned to the field, accompanied by Malcolm Earl of Lennox, Ramsay of Auchterhouse, Sir Richard Lundin, Wallace of Riccarton, Sir Crytell Seton,[27] and a number of their followers, to seek for the body of Sir John Graham—the English being by this time removed to Linlithgow.
Considering the great affection our hero entertained for this gallant and accomplished warrior, the circumstance is not improbable. The high value he placed on his services was such, that, in speaking of Graham, he used to designate him as his “right hand.” The regret which he felt at his death, would no doubt have been embittered by the reflection, that his friend might easily, from the state of the wounds which he had received at the affair of Blackironside, have absented himself from the battle of Falkirk, without the slightest injury to his reputation. The distress of Wallace, on seeing the dead body, is thus finely depicted by the forementioned author:—
“Amang the ded men sekand the worthiast,
The corss off Graym, for quham he murned mast.
Quhen thai him fand, and gud Wallace him saw,
He lychtyt down, and hynt him fra thaim aw
In armyss vp; behaldand his paill face,
He kyssyt him, and cryt full oft, ‘Allace!
My best brothir in warld that euir I had!
My afald freynd, quhen I was hardest stad!
My hop, my heill, thow was in maist honour!
My faith, my help, my strenthiast in stour!
In the was wyt, fredom and hardines;
In the was treuth, manheid, and nobilness;
In the was rewll, in the was gouernans;
In the was wertu with outyn warians;
In the lawté, in the was gret largnas;
In the gentrice, in the was stedfastnas.
Thow was gret causs off wynnyng off Scotland;
Thocht I began, and tuk the wer on hand,
I wow to God, that has the warld in wauld,
Thi dede sall be to Sotheroun full der sauld.
Martyr thow art for Scotlandis rycht and me;
I sall the wenge, or ellis tharfor de.’
Was na man thar fra wepyng mycht hym rafreyn
For loss off him, quhen thai hard Wallace pleyn.
Thai caryit him with worschip and dolour,
In the Fawkyrk graithit him in sepultour.”
In this monody, we have a highly finished portrait of a warrior and a gentleman; and the assemblage of rare and shining virtues which are thus said to have met in this illustrious individual, have never been denied or depreciated by the most fastidious of our critics; while all our historians bear uniform testimony to the correctness of the character.[28] Having discharged this duty to his departed friend, Wallace rejoined his followers in the Torwood; and, on the following night, he is said to have broken into the English camp on Linlithgow muir, and, after killing a number of the enemy, and spreading alarm through the whole army, effected his retreat without loss.
Edward, incensed at the frequency with which these night attacks were repeated, now determined on pursuing the Scots with his whole forces. His nimble adversaries, however, retired before him, and, having burned Stirling, continued to waste the country as they went along; so that the enemy was put to the greatest inconvenience, from the want of forage for his numerous cavalry.
While the Guardian and his little army of patriots were thus engaging the attention of the invader, Cumyn and the partisans of Stewart were loud in their expressions of disapprobation at the conduct of our hero. The latter charged him with the loss of the battle, by his refraining to assist Stewart till it was too late; and the former, conscious of his own misconduct, in order to supply something like a pretext for having treacherously deserted his countrymen, accused the Guardian with an intention of usurping the sovereign authority; declaring, “that it was more honourable for men of birth to serve a great and powerful monarch, though a foreigner, than subject themselves to the tyranny of an upstart of yesterday.”