Edward, on leaving Carlaverock, now advanced into Galloway, and took several castles in that province. He appears to have been at Lochroieton on the 17th July, and at Kirkcudbright on the 22d of same month. On 29th August he returned to Carlaverock. He was at Dumfries on the 24th October, and again at Carlaverock on the 1st November.[44] His own operations appear, on this occasion, to have been in a great measure confined to the south of Scotland.[45] Detachments of his army, however, extended themselves in different directions; and various conflicts took place between them and the Scottish guerilla parties under Wallace. A strong division of the English army, commanded by the Earl of Warren, advanced also as far as Irvine, and came in contact with the Scottish forces, headed by the Regents. The field was keenly contested for some time; but the Scots were at last compelled to fall back before the repeated charges of their more numerous opponents. Another portion of the English army laid waste Clydesdale; and after destroying Bothwell, advanced to Lesmahago—to the Abbey church of which, a number of the inhabitants had fled for safety. This sanctuary, however, according to tradition, did not avail them. Their merciless invaders set fire to the sacred edifice, and many of the Scots perished miserably in the flames. During the perpetration of this tragic act, Wallace, who followed the tract of the destroyers, was forced, it is said, to conceal himself in a cave, four miles distant from the scene of barbarity, carefully watching, by his scouts, the motions of the enemy. This cave still goes by his name, and is pointed out by the country people as an object of curiosity to strangers.
While this warfare was carrying on by his detached squadrons, Edward was concerting measures for permanently annexing to his own dominions, the district he had overrun. For this purpose, he employed numerous bodies of his own subjects, in repairing and fortifying the different places of strength which had surrendered to his arms; and the reluctance of the Scots to assist in the subjugation of their country, appears evident from his being compelled to bring labourers, at a considerable expense, from the northern counties of England.[46]
A large portion of the provisions required for his troops he seems also to have been under the necessity of bringing from Ireland. Between Whitehaven and Carlaverock we find William de Torni, master of a vessel belonging to the Isle of Man, employed in carrying flour for the supply of the army. In the wardrobe account there is also an entry,[47] from which it may be inferred, that the destruction of the mills formed part of the system which the Scots resorted to for the annoyance of their enemies.[48]
As the campaign had hitherto been productive of no result adequate to the expense incurred, Edward now affected to listen to the remonstrances of Philip and Boniface, and agreed to a truce with the Scots in arms against him. The negociation took place at Paris between the English envoys and the Scottish commissioners at the French court, and was finally ratified by Edward at Dumfries on the 30th October 1300, when he expressed himself highly offended with the English envoys for allowing Baliol’s name, as King of Scotland, to appear in the treaty. This truce was to last from Hallowmas to Whitsunday;[49] and in consequence of it, all the English troops except those in garrison were withdrawn from Scotland and disbanded. Edward then summoned his parliament at Lincoln, and returned the answer to Boniface to which we have already alluded.
1301. After the conclusion of the treaty, Wallace is supposed to have gone on a visit to France, in consequence of the repeated invitations of Philip, who was no doubt anxious to behold a man whose name had become familiar at every court in Europe, and whose exertions in his own country had so often relieved himself from the hostile visits of the King of England.
On his way, the vessel in which he had embarked along with a few select friends, is said to have been attacked by a noted pirate of the name of Longueville, at that time the terror of the seas, and the Paul Jones of his day. After a desperate conflict, Wallace and his party succeeded in boarding the enemy; and Longueville, being vanquished in a personal combat with Wallace, surrendered at discretion. The gallant manner, however, in which he acted during the fight, gained him the esteem of our hero, who subsequently discovered that he was a French nobleman, and, at one time, high in favour at court, but who had fallen under the displeasure of the King, in consequence of having killed a knight in the royal presence; for which offence his estates were forfeited, and himself banished from the kingdom. Smarting under these indignities, he had commenced a system of piracy, for which he was outlawed, and every avenue to the royal clemency shut against him. Wallace, on arriving at Paris, found himself so well received by the French monarch—who no doubt expected his assistance against the English in Guienne—that he ventured to solicit, and, after some difficulty, obtained a pardon for Longueville, who had accompanied him to Paris in disguise.
Various stories are told of the adventures of Wallace in France; but as the histories of that country are in general silent regarding them, most of our authors have considered them fabulous; and some even carry their incredulity so far as to doubt of his ever having been there. But as he appears evidently, on one or more occasions, to have withdrawn himself from Scotland, and as those writers who doubt of his being in France have not accounted for the chasms that his absence naturally makes in his history, nor appear to have any thing to urge against his visits to that country but their doubts; we cannot allow unsupported misgivings to stand in opposition to the recorded testimony of ancient writers, who ought to have known more of transactions near their own days than authors who wrote many ages after them—particularly as the circumstance in question could serve no political or party purpose at the time; and of course, could afford no temptation for mis-statement. We may also remark, that the adventure with Longueville is corroborated by traditions still existing in the country, as well as by the fact of a family in Scotland, not long extinct, having derived their pedigree from that brave man; who, according to the law of arms in those days, thought himself bound to follow the fortunes of his conqueror. Longueville is said to have accompanied Wallace to Scotland, where he had lands assigned him; and the following notice in the Statistical Account of the parish of Kinfauns, goes a considerable way to establish the truth of what is here related:—“In the Castle of Kinfauns is kept a large old sword, probably made about five hundred years ago, and to be used by both hands. It is shaped like a broadsword, and is five feet nine inches long, two and and a half inches broad at the hilt, and of a proportionable thickness, with a round knob at the upper end, near eight inches in circumference. This terrible weapon bears the name of Charteris’s Sword, and probably belonged to Sir Thomas Charteris, commonly called Thomas de Longueville, once proprietor of the estate of Kinfauns. Sir Thomas Charteris, alias Longueville, was a native of France, and of an ancient family in that country. If credit can be given to accounts of such remote dates, when he was at the court of Philip le Bel, in the end of the thirteenth century, he had a dispute with, and killed a French nobleman, in the King’s presence. He escaped, but was refused pardon.
“Having for several years infested the seas as a pirate, known by the name of the Red Reiver, from the colour of the flags he carried on his ship, in May 1301 or 1302 (by Adamson’s chronology), Sir William Wallace, in his way to France, encountered and took him prisoner. At Wallace’s intercession, the French King conferred on him a pardon, and the honour of knighthood. He accompanied Wallace on his return to Scotland, and was ever after his faithful friend, and aiding in his exploits. Upon that hero’s being betrayed and carried to England, Sir Thomas Charteris retired to Lochmaben, where he remained till Robert Bruce began to assert his right to the crown of Scotland. He joined Bruce, and was, if we may believe Adamson, who refers to Barbour,[50] the first who followed that King into the water, at the taking of Perth, January 8, 1313.
“Bruce rewarded his bravery by giving him lands in the neighbourhood of Perth, which appear to be those of Kinfauns, and which continued in the family of Charteris for many years. It is to this ancient knight, and to the antique sword above-mentioned, that Adamson refers in these lines (Book VI.) of his ‘Muses Threnodie:’
——‘Kinfauns, which famous Longoveil
Sometime did hold; whose auncient sword of steele
Remaines unto this day, and of that land
Is chiefest evident.’—p. 158.