Wherever the army of Edward now appeared, the chieftains were found anxiously waiting to tender their submission, and again repeat their oaths of allegiance. Some of the principal nobility, in order to claim the merit of an early repentance, even met the invader on the borders, and thus procured more advantageous terms than they otherwise would have obtained. Among those who thus started for the goal of slavery, few shared more largely in the wages of iniquity than Sir John Menteith. Having met Sir Aymer de Valence at Annan, he found means to acquire so much of his confidence, as to induce that favourite of Edward to obtain for him, not only a confirmation of the governorship of Dumbarton castle, but also an extension of his authority, over the whole of the district of Lennox.
While affairs were in this situation, accounts were brought to the English camp, that the bugle of Wallace had been heard at midnight among the woods on the banks of the Tay; and a body of troops, under the command of Sir John Butler, were despatched in pursuit of him. This officer, two of whose relations had already fallen by the hand of Wallace, set forward with alacrity to execute the service assigned to him. But, after ranging the country in all directions, he was at last obliged to return without having once seen the object of whom he was in search, although the reports brought him by his scouts, as well as the evasive answers of the inhabitants, convinced him of the certainty of Wallace being in the country.
In the early part of our narrative, we alluded to the admirable discipline which Wallace had introduced among his countrymen, and the facility with which, by the sound of his horn, he could rally them around him in cases of emergency. From the frequency with which these calls had been made, there was scarcely a district in Scotland where his war-note was not understood and obeyed with alacrity. Though this was the case, we do not mean to say, that all who attended its summons were animated by pure and disinterested patriotism. To the ears of many, it probably sounded only as an invitation to divide the property of their more wealthy enemies; whom—under so daring and fortunate a leader—they never doubted of being able to conquer; and it is likely that they would have obeyed the call with the same promptitude, had it summoned them to a foray against some neighbouring clan: but the generosity with which he divided his own share of the booty among those who had suffered most, or had borne themselves with the greatest gallantry in the conflict, gained him a complete ascendancy over the discordant materials of which his little armies were frequently composed; and rendered him more formidable to an invader, than all the jarring aristocracy put together. It is therefore not surprising that the report of his return should have caused alarm among the English.
On the night referred to, Wallace had landed in Scotland, accompanied by Sir Thomas de Longueville, John Blair, Thomas Gray, and a few other friends who had attended him in France; and being near one of his old places of resort, he wished to gain some knowledge of the state of the country, to enable him to regulate his further proceedings; for this purpose he raised his bugle, and before the reverberations had died away among the woodlands, a rustling was heard among the underwood, and presently an unarmed Scot stood before him. From this ready adherent, who had been watching the landing of the party, Wallace learned the situation of the kingdom, the slaughters committed by Edward, the submission of the regency, and the terror that pervaded the nobility. Finding, from the number of the English that were in the neighbourhood, the necessity of betaking himself to some place of concealment, he and his party were conducted by their informer to a farm-house in a secluded part of the country, occupied by a relation of Wallace, of the name of Crawfurd. Here he was joyfully received, and a hiding-place artfully constructed in the barn, for him and his companions, where they lurked during the search made for them by Butler.
In this retreat they might have remained, till some favourable occurrence had enabled them to appear more openly; but it seems the unusual quantity of provisions which Crawfurd was obliged to purchase for the maintenance of his guests, awakened the suspicions of the English at Dundee; and on his return, having mentioned the examination he was subjected to, Wallace and his party thought it prudent to retire to a neighbouring thicket, and wait the result. They had not long adopted this precaution, before a body of the English made their appearance; and having surrounded the dwelling of Crawfurd, they discovered, in the course of search, the lair of the fugitives.
The wife of Crawfurd having refused to answer their inquiries regarding the route of her visitors, they were proceeding, by violent measures, to compel her to disclose the place of their retreat, when Wallace, ascertaining the danger to which she was exposed, advanced from the thicket, and sounded a bold defiance to the enemy. The situation he had chosen was such as could only be assailed from three narrow and rugged paths. These he proposed to guard, by dividing his little party, which consisted only of about twenty men, into three divisions;—with the smallest of these he undertook to defend the path that was most exposed to the enemy’s attacks. Butler was not long in commencing the assault, which he did by a simultaneous movement on all those little parties of the Scots. The resistance, however, which he met with, aided by the rugged nature of the ascent, rendered all the ardour of his troops unavailing. As the evening advanced, he called them off; and having beat a chamade, he attempted to persuade Wallace to surrender, by representing the folly of continuing a resistance which must at last terminate in the ruin of himself and his friends. Our hero replied, by advising him to stand to his arms; for in place of surrendering, he intended, before morning, to become the assailant; and he gave him this warning, in return for the care which he had shown for himself and his companions. Irritated by this coolness, Butler determined to take every precaution to prevent his escape; and for this purpose kept his men under arms all night. Wallace, however, was as good as his word; for at daybreak, under cover of a thick mist, he descended at the head of his little band, and, before the enemy was aware of his approach, broke into that quarter where Butler had his station. The surprise occasioned by his sudden appearance, threw the English into confusion, which their uncertainty as to the number of their assailants greatly increased; and availing himself of the disorder into which they were thrown, Wallace pressed forward, and came in contact with Butler, who, after a slight resistance, fell beneath his arm. The Scots having forced their way through the enemy, Wallace now discovered that their faithful host Crawfurd had been left behind. Returning, therefore, to the charge, he was fortunately in time to save him from the spear of an English soldier, whom he slew; and grasping his wounded friend in one of his arms, he carried him off in triumph to his companions. Favoured, by the denseness of the fog, the gallant little band were soon lost to their pursuers. Though thus relieved from their perilous situation, they are said to have suffered the greatest privations in the wild and unfrequented solitudes to which they were now obliged to retire. However, their indefatigable chief, always fertile in expedients, found means to preserve them from actual starvation, till Edward withdrew his troops, for the purpose of resuming his march of subjugation throughout the kingdom.
The time which the English monarch spent in the southern part of Scotland, it appears had not altogether been employed in the chastisement of those who were most active in the late insurrection. With a policy worthy of himself, he endeavoured to obliterate the remembrance of national independence, by ransacking the monasteries, and carrying off, and committing to the flames, all the ancient records they contained; so that the Scots in future, might have no documents to produce which could falsify his claims to sovereignty over them.[57] In this proceeding he might have been partly influenced, by the discussion he had been engaged in with Boniface. Having, to his spiritual father, so solemnly asserted the justice of his claim, it was but natural that he should wish to possess or destroy every evidence which might establish his asseverations; and this object being, as he conceived, so far accomplished, he proceeded with his army, by slow marches, towards the North, exercising the same Gothic barbarity as he went along, and demolishing those fortresses which made any show of resistance.
According to Henry, a number of the old associates of Wallace, before his return from France, had fled for shelter to the islands and other places for security. Seton, Lauder and Lundy, retired to the Bass. Malcolm Earl of Lennox, and Sir Niel Campbell, had sought concealment along with Bishop Sinclair in Bute;[58] and these last mentioned worthies, on hearing of the arrival of Wallace, despatched a messenger to find him out, and explain the difficulties of their situation, and their readiness to join him as soon as he approached their present places of refuge. They had not to wait long, before our hero issued forth with his little band, and collected those who were still inclined to struggle for the liberties of Scotland. At the head of such he followed the invading army, and appearing now in front, and now in rear, made frequent and impressive attacks upon them as they struggled through the deep and rugged defiles of the country. But all his efforts could not retard the march of the invaders. They advanced to the extremity of the kingdom, unmolested by any save the hardy followers of our hero, who, however, as they had attended the motions of their foes in their laborious progress through the rough and mountainous regions of the North, now waited their return, and resumed the same harassing system of warfare. Often, from an eminence, Edward could distinguish the lofty plume of the Scottish leader, as he dashed forward to charge some isolated corps of the English army; and while he beheld the enthusiasm with which his conduct inspired his followers, and saw the disorder of his own soldiers, hurrying to gain the protection of the main body, his heart misgave him as to the stability of his conquest, while Scotland contained a man whose appearance alone was capable of inspiring his friends with so much confidence, and his enemies with so much dread.