“About this time William Waleis, with five soldiers, went to the French country, to ask aid from the king of France. And when he had arrived at Amiens, it was told to the king, who gave orders that he should be apprehended. The king then wrote to the king of England, offering to send Waleis to him.”
Apparently, however, Philip, on further consideration, felt that it might not redound much to his honour to give up a man who had voluntarily taken refuge with him; and he therefore devised a middle course, by which he might get rid of the Scotch leader without putting him into the hands of his pursuers. He gave to Wallace a brief note, addressed to his representatives at Rome, recommending the rebel chief to their good offices, and through them to the pope. This note, strange to say, is now preserved among the ancient records in our national collection. A copy of it is given in the “Wallace Documents” (Edinb. 1841); and it is argued by the learned editor of that collection, that this note proves that Wallace went to Rome, and saw the pope. But surely it rather leads to an opposite conclusion. Had Wallace travelled into Italy, and seen the pope, we should probably have found some traces of him by the way, or in Rome itself. But no such foot‐marks have ever been found. And again—had Wallace actually reached Rome, and delivered that note to Philip’s agents, how should ever it have found its way to the Tower of London? Obviously, the more rational conclusion is, that the said note was a mere pretext on Philip’s part—a device for getting rid of Wallace; and that the Scotch leader, having no money, and knowing it to be useless to go to Rome without money, took the note, put it into his pouch, escaped back into Scotland, and was, at last, taken with the paper in his possession. So found, the document would naturally be sent to Edward, and thus it would find its way into the usual receptacle for the state‐papers of the time.
At all events, Wallace soon returned from France, and again betook himself to his forest‐haunts in Scotland. And now, seeing all Scotland once more quietly at rest under Edward’s authority, the obduracy of this violent man began to give way. For more than five years he had lived the life of an outlaw, “having no sustenance” but “robbing always.” He now approaches as near to the king as he may venture—still hiding in the forest, and he begs his friends to apply to the king on his behalf. But the application was made in a wrong spirit. Langtoft thus describes it:—
“Turn we now other ways, unto our own geste; (affairs)
And speke of the Waleys, that lies in the foreste;
In the forest he lendes, of Dumfermelyn:
He prayed all his frendes, and other of his kin,—
After that Yole (Christmas) they will beseke Edward;
That he might yield till him, in a forward (covenant)
That were honorable to kepe wod or beste;