Wallace had, we can easily perceive, many of the qualities which go to form a guerilla leader. He had great bodily strength and “violent passions;” he had learned, by frequent exercise, expertness in the use of both sword and cudgel; and such a gallant as this was sure to be followed by multitudes of young admirers. So prepared for the fray, he seems to have entered the arena of public life just at that critical period when the conquest of Scotland had been accomplished, and the English rule of Scotland had but just been begun. This English rule was, to one of his feelings, intolerable. We may look with some degree of allowance on prejudices of this kind; but our indulgence can hardly be extended so far as to justify the young Scotch‐Welshman in the course which his eulogist describes him to have adopted;—of killing every Englishman that fell in his way, so soon as he could find an opportunity.
After several homicides of this kind, it was inevitable that Wallace should be under the necessity of disappearing from the neighbourhood of his abode. He had been able, repeatedly, when an Englishman came in his way,
“To cut his throat, or stick him suddenly;”
but to such amusements there is always a natural limit. Mr. Tytler says, “He was driven to seek safety in the wilds and fastnesses. Here he collected, by degrees, a little band of men of desperate fortunes.” “In his attacks on straggling parties of the English, he was generally successful. Confidence came with success, and multitudes flocked round the standard of revolt.”[86] “Wallace and his men lived by plunder; retreating, when pursued, to the woods and fastnesses, whence they again issued forth to attack the English convoys. All the soldiers who fell into their hands were instantly put to death.” “Great numbers of the English were openly massacred in almost every district beyond the Frith of Forth.”[87] Mr. Tytler adds: “It was not uncommon for them, at these times, to drive before them troops of aged priests and nuns, whose hands were tied behind their backs; and while the brutal soldiery and their hard‐hearted leaders sat on the bridges, these unhappy wretches were cast down headlong, or compelled to precipitate themselves into the stream, while their drowning agonies were the subject of savage derision.”[88] These atrocities are recorded by Knighton and Trivet, two historians who lived at the time; and Knighton adds that he had received the description from the lips of a priest, who himself had been present at, and managed to escape from, one of these massacres.
Thus establishing a reign of terror, Wallace and his followers were rapidly clearing the country of the English; those who could not find safety in some fortified place, naturally taking to flight. News of these troubles reached England in June and July; but Edward had pledged himself to his allies to join them in Flanders; and to turn northwards instead, would have been a dishonourable abandonment of his friends, and a breach of his deliberate engagements. He could, therefore, only write to earl Warenne, urgently and repeatedly, to collect a force, and to put down these disturbances—spending, if needful, the whole revenues of Scotland in this duty. But Cressingham, the treasurer of Scotland, an arrogant and supercilious man, despised the insurgents, and thus brought on a terrible defeat and loss. The forces of Wallace continued to increase, and towards the end of the summer, one name of note was added to his array. Sir William Douglas, who had been governor of Berwick, and who had, on the surrender of that place, been readily admitted to the king’s peace—receiving his liberty and a new grant of his estates, and swearing fealty to the king—was the first man in Scotland to set the evil example of a disregard of a solemn oath. This perfidy and treachery subsequently spread, and became so common in Scotland as to drive the king, towards the end of his life, into a state of absolute exasperation; leading him to abandon that mild and generous policy, which, for the first thirty years of his reign, he had followed.
We have been describing the occurrences of the former half of the year 1297. The insurgent leader must be assumed to have been gradually becoming more obnoxious for weeks and months before his name occurs on any historic records. The date of his public appearance is not a matter of any doubt. One Scottish publication tells us that “he first appears in May, 1297.”[89] Another says that “he first began his operations in May, 1297.”[90] A third states that “he is first mentioned in May, 1297.”[91] It is evident, therefore, that after divers market brawls in the opening months of 1297, Wallace had arrived, in the May of that year, at the dignity of a known partizan leader.
Success, in such a quarrel, naturally begets success. All who disliked the English intruders, and had a delight in guerilla warfare, would eagerly gather themselves around this rising champion. He soon found himself at the head of a force to which the English authorities could oppose no similar array. The open country was in his hands; but he had none of the nobility on his side. Still, he had the only visible power in Scotland. The earl Warenne, however, had, in a few weeks, assembled a force of some 40,000 or 50,000 men in the southern counties and on the border, and was marching northwards in quest of Wallace and his followers. The rebel leader had about an equal power. About the beginning of September the two armies approached each other in the neighbourhood of Stirling. An overweening confidence was, as it is often found, a precursor of defeat. Lord Henry Percy brought to the earl a reinforcement of 8,000 men; but Cressingham, the treasurer, deeming this an unnecessary increase of the expenditure, dismissed them to their homes.
The English army came in sight of that under Wallace on the 11th of September. The Scotch force occupied a good position on the northern bank of the river, awaiting, as policy evidently suggested, the English attack. A narrow bridge spanned the river at that point, and offered the only visible means of crossing to the opposite bank. A Scottish knight, Sir Richard Lundin, who knew the country, and rode by the earl’s side, exclaimed to him: “If you attempt to cross the bridge, you throw away your lives! The men can only pass over by twos, and the Scotch command our flank, and will be instantly upon us. I will show you a ford, where you may pass by sixty at a time; give me five hundred horse, and I will secure it.”
Nothing else than fatuity could have disregarded such counsel. But Cressingham, contemptuous and overweening, exclaimed to the earl, “Why do we waste time? Let us pass on as becomes us, and do our duty!” The earl, nettled at this imputation of backwardness, gave the order to advance. As might have been expected, the result was disastrous. The Scotch allowed a considerable body of the English to pass, and then, while they were thus separated from the main force, and endeavouring to form, a fierce attack was made, and in an instant all was in confusion. One part of the Scotch army seized the bridge, while another part was engaged in the slaughter of the disordered English. Many of these leaped into the river and were drowned. Cressingham was among those who had crossed. “His body,” says Mr. Tytler, “was mangled, the skin torn from the limbs, and in savage triumph cut to pieces.” Wallace himself ordered as much to be reserved for him as would make a sword‐belt.