The Scottish sea to pass, if that he had neede;
That passage never was, he rode over on his steede.
The Scots they saw him coming, and fleeand fast they did,
Moors and mountains over, away they drive for dread.”
This plan of a pontoon‐bridge was not new to the king. The strong rings and bolts by which he proposed to make fast a bridge over the Menai Strait, twenty years before this period, are even now to be traced on the banks of that water.[121] He doubtless, therefore, was prepared to take a similar course again, if it should be needful; but he could scarcely have been left in ignorance of Sir Richard Lundin’s suggestion. And a ford having been pointed out, “the king,” says Mr. Tytler, “forded the river in person, at the head of his cavalry, and routed or dispersed the last remnant of a Scottish army.” Langtoft’s description, however, is the more picturesque of the two; it was written at the time, and it corresponds exactly with the flight—admitted on all hands—of the Scottish cavalry at Falkirk. To repeat his words:—
“The Scots they saw him coming, and fleeand fast they did,
Moors and mountains over, away they drive for dread.”
This was the last attempt at opposition in the open field. From Perth the king proceeded to Dundee, and Brechin, and Aberdeen. The castle of Brechin delayed him three weeks. It was naturally strong, and it had a stout commander—Sir Thomas Maule. But he was struck down by a stone from one of the king’s engines; and on his death the garrison at once capitulated.
From Aberdeen Edward marched on to Kinloss in Moray. Some English writers of the time assert him to have even reached Caithness. He may have embarked in some vessel of his fleet, and in that way have visited the coast; but lord Hailes’ remark seems a rational one, that in those days the country to the north of Ross‐shire was of small account, and it seems improbable that the king should have carried an army into those remote districts. But having thus traversed the land, and found no enemy to abide the push of lance, Edward returned, in the autumn, to Dunfermline, where he took up his quarters for the winter. The Scots were now pretty generally satisfied of the hopelessness of any further resistance. Wallace, indeed, was somewhere hidden; but we hear nothing of a single valorous deed done by him; and none of the Scotch appear to have expected anything from his sword. The barons and other proprietors were now rapidly making their submissions, and being “received to the king’s grace;” and, in the course of his residence at Dunfermline, this pacification became almost universal. Peter Langtoft says—
“The towns, and the counties, and the people all aboute,