As some atonement for the outrage committed, the Guardian granted to the monks of Hexceldsham a charter of protection for twelve months, from the 7th November 1297,[9] by which their lives and property were held sacred. “The prohibition,” says Lord Hailes, “to slay any ecclesiastic of the monastery of Hexceldsham, shows that the Scots had been guilty of uncommon barbarities.” Had his Lordship said that the conduct of the Scots was merely an humble imitation of the example which the English had set them in their “Good Friday” revelries at the sack of Berwick, he would have been nearer the truth. We find no such restraint put upon the English soldiery, who were allowed to murder their lay and clerical victims indiscriminately; not even excepting nuns, whose sex, independent of every other consideration, ought to have been their protection. If a shadow of humanity can be discovered in the mode of warfare carried on by the two nations, it certainly belongs of right to those who published a prohibition of such enormities. In the invasion by the Scots in 1296, there is no charge brought against them of killing priests. Langtoft says, vol. ii. p. 273, that in coming to Hexham and Leynertofte, they merely chased out the chanons, and took away their goods. Their subsequent severity must therefore have been forced upon them by their enemies.
English writers have lamented, with eloquence and pathos, the cruelties exercised in this invasion; and from their silence respecting the atrocities of their own countrymen, have endeavoured to fix the stain of exclusive barbarity on the arms of Scotland. This is all natural enough, and quite consistent with that national prejudice by which the people of every country are more or less imbued; but it is painfully mortifying, when we find Scotchmen of acknowledged talent and penetration forgetting what is due to themselves and to their country; and from a weak fear of being thought illiberal, following humbly in the train of such authors, and echoing their reflections; or favouringly assenting to their ex parte statements, in place of standing forward and showing the world, that their countrymen, in resorting to such severities, merely exercised a system of fair retaliation, for the purpose of repressing enormities of the deepest dye, committed in support of an aggression of the most unparalleled baseness.
During the time the Scottish army was engaged in ravaging the northern counties of England, Robert de Clifford, at the head of one hundred men-at-arms, and twenty thousand foot, left Carlisle, and proceeded to plunder in Scotland. His success, however, was not great, having killed three hundred and eight Scots, burned two villages, and taken a few prisoners, with whom he returned home about Christmas.
Whilst the Guardian was thus successfully prosecuting the cause of his country’s independence, his efforts, at the same time, were becoming daily more beneficial to the real liberties of the very people to whom he was opposed. Elated, first by the conquest of Wales, and afterwards by that of Scotland, Edward had already begun to stretch forth the iron road of oppression over the legitimate subjects of his own native kingdom; and, trusting to the assistance he should receive from the barons of his newly acquired conquests, who, he might naturally suppose would not be found reluctant to act as instruments in holding their late conquerors in subjection, he assumed, towards the nobles of England, an air of haughty superiority that awakened their jealousy, and alarmed their fears. But as the investigation of this subject would interrupt the course of our narrative, we shall reserve it till the end of the volume.[10]
CHAPTER II.
WALLACE RETURNS TO SCOTLAND.—- ENVIED BY THE NOBILITY.—EDWARD LANDS IN ENGLAND.—WALLACE MEETS HIS ARMY AT STANMORE.—BATTLE OF BLACKIRONSIDE.—LEGALITY OF WALLACE’S REGENCY.—EDWARD INVADES SCOTLAND.—TREACHERY OF TWO SCOTTISH NOBLEMEN.
During the time that Wallace remained in England, his army was occasionally renewed; for as soon as the quota of men belonging to one clan or parish had collected a sufficient share of booty, they were allowed to retire and secure it in the North, while their places were supplied by fresh hordes of not less hungry adventurers. By such means the spoil of England became pretty equally divided throughout the several districts of Scotland, and the inhabitants began to experience the benefits of returning plenty. Having, in this manner, enriched his own country at the expense of her enemies, the intrepid Guardian returned—poor it is true, in wealth, but rich in fame—to behold the prosperity he had so gallantly achieved.[11] This expedition, however, though it had increased his reputation among the common people, failed not to awaken the envy of the nobles, who could ill brook the popularity of one whose actions had thrown them so much into the shade; and his praise, which they heard on all sides, sounded in their ears like so many reproaches against themselves, who, possessing wealth and power, either could not, or from treachery would not, do what he, so much their inferior in wealth and influence, had taken in hand and finished, with glory to himself and honour to the country. Hence the private heart-burnings which arose among these noblemen, whose consciences whispered that they had been either traitors or sluggards when the liberty of their country was at stake.
1298. In the mean time, Edward having complied with the demands of his subjects, the Barons of England collected an army, and advanced towards the Border. On the 14th March, the King himself landed at Sandwich, and instantly summoned the Scottish barons to a Parliament at York. According to Abercrombie, he also addressed letters to the Guardian, and in a strain more impassioned than courteous, upbraided him for his audacity in disturbing the tranquillity of Scotland, and in presuming afterwards to invade England,—a line of conduct which, he observed, would not have been ventured upon, had he (Edward) been in the country; and concluded, by commanding Wallace to redeem his errors by an immediate submission to his authority. To these letters the Guardian replied, that in availing himself of the absence of Edward, in order to regain the liberty of his country, he had done no more than his duty, and that the baseness lay with the English monarch in taking advantage of the disunion of a free people to enslave them. As to invading England, he had done so in order to indemnify Scotland for the injuries she had so unjustly sustained; and in respect to submission, as he intended soon to be in England again, he would then give him his answer in person.
The active and undaunted Guardian was instantly at the heels of his messenger, and on the 20th March came in sight of the English army at Stanmore. Scottish historians say, that Edward’s force though much superior to that of Wallace, was composed chiefly of raw militia hastily raised, few or none of his veterans having been yet landed, and that the English monarch, struck with the appearance and admirable discipline of the Scots, and, unwilling to risk his fame in a conflict so doubtful,—when about five hundred paces from the enemy, turned his banners and marched off the field. Wallace, afraid of an ambush, restrained his soldiers from the pursuit, and repressed their ardour by telling them, that the victory they had already gained was the more glorious, as it was got without blood and against the first captain of the age, at the head of an army which, to all human appearance, was able, from its numbers, to have swallowed them up; concluding his address, by ordering thanksgivings to Heaven for so great an interposition in their favour.