which movement Edward made a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. John of Beverley, whose consecrated banner he is supposed to have brought with him. By his laws, every man was compelled to arm according to his station, that is to say, according to the amount of his property-those who possessed land to the value of £15, and goods to the value of 40 marks, were required to have a hauberk, an iron cap, knife, and horse; those possessed of 40 shillings, a sword, bow, knife, and arrows.

In the month of June he entered Scotland by the eastern borders, the forces being led by himself in person. Under his immediate orders were Anthony de Beck, the famous fighting Bishop of Durham; Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex, and High Constable of England; Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, the Chief Marshal; the Earl of Lincoln; and Radulf, Lord Basset de Drayton, afterwards, in extreme old age, one of the first Knights of the Garter. At Roxburgh he reviewed his army, which consisted of 80,000 infantry, English, Welsh, and Irish, besides a powerful body of splendidly mailed, mounted, and disciplined cavalry, the veterans of his French wars; 3,000 of these rode horses completely armed from head to crupper, and 4,000 were light cavalry. In addition to these were 500 special gens de cheval from Gascony, nobly mounted and magnificently accoutred. His whole force mustered more than 90,000 helmets.

He poured these forces through the Lothians, where, after a brave resistance, the great castle of Dirleton, the stronghold of the Scoto-Norman family of De Vaux, was surrendered to Anthony Beck, whose troops suffered from a scarcity of provisions, and were compelled to subsist on the beans and peas in the fields—a circumstance, says Lord Hailes, in his Annals, which presents us with a favourable view of agriculture in Haddingtonshire so far back as the thirteenth century. Without meeting any other obstacle of importance, the great host marched onward till it reached the Priory of the Scottish Knights of the Temple, at Kirkliston, where Edward halted and encamped for a month, waiting for his supplies by sea, as he intended to march into the western counties and crush for ever the rebellion of the Scots, as he curiously termed their resistance of his armed invasion.

Indefatigable and undismayed, Wallace had meanwhile collected from amid the peasantry, of whom he was the guardian, and to whom he was an idol, a resolute force of 30,000 men. With these he marched to Falkirk in West Lothian, where, with great skill and perception, he chose a strong military position, having in its front a morass

through which no cavalry could approach, while he covered his flanks by rude field-works of palisades driven into the earth and bound together by ropes. Provisions soon became scarce in Edward's camp at Kirkliston; the fleet from Berwick was anxiously looked for. The surrounding country had been many times wasted by fire and sword; the soldiers complained bitterly of their scanty provender, and a change of quarters to Edinburgh was contemplated. A small supply was procured; but on the great body of the fleet being still detained by adverse winds, a dangerous mutiny broke out in the English army. Under his banner Edward had 40,000 Welsh, led by their chiefs, whom he had but recently subjected to his stern sway. These hardy mountaineers were not over-zealous in his service, and on them the famine was permitted to press hardest. A supply of wine sent to them by Edward brought on a crisis. Whether it was served too liberally is unknown now; but in a sudden paroxysm of national antipathy, they fell upon the English in their tents at night. Edward's trumpets sounded promptly to horse, and charging the Welsh he slew more than eighty of them, and restored order. Exasperated and sullen, the Welsh chiefs now openly threatened to join Wallace.

"Let them do so," said Edward, scornfully; "let them go over to my enemies. I hope soon to see the day when I shall chastise them both."

It was at this very crisis of the Welsh discontent that Wallace had ably planned a night assault upon the English camp, a movement which if properly executed might have ended, by panic and confusion, in the destruction of Edward's army; but his scheme was frustrated by two of those ignoble peers who, ever since the voice of the people had chosen him guardian of Scotland, had envied his power, as the son of a mere lesser baron, and took every opportunity of resisting his authority. These traitors were Gilbert de Umphraville, Earl of Angus, and Patrick, Earl of Dunbar; who in the dusk secretly sought the King of England, and informed him that "William Wallace, then encamped in a fortified position in the forest of Falkirk, had heard of his proposed retreat, and intended to surprise him by a night attack, and to hang upon and harass his rear."

"Thanks be to God, who hath hitherto extricated me from every peril!" exclaimed Edward, with stern triumph; "they shall not need to follow me, these Scots, since I shall go forth to meet them."

Accordingly, at three o'clock in the afternoon of the 20th July, he put his cavalry and infantry in motion, and marching to Linlithgow, encamped on the Burgh Muir, to the eastward of that town. The

rear-guard, with the pavilions and sumpter horses, not having come up, the troops lay for that night on the bare heath, the cavalry having no other forage than the furze and grass of the moor. Though a tyrant, and merciless to his enemies, Edward of England was every inch a soldier; so that night he slept in his armour, by his horse's side, with his sword and shield for a pillow.

Startled by some distant sound about midnight, the barbed charger trod heavily upon its royal master, and crushing his shirt of mail-perhaps the identical suit that is now preserved in the Tower of London-broke three of his ribs. Edward's cry of agony, and the trampling of hoofs, caused a panic in the bivouac, and there arose on all sides cries of "Treason! treason! The king is wounded; the Scots are upon us!"

But the dawn of the midsummer morning soon brightened on Torduff and the Pentland peaks. Edward mounted, and showing himself to his troops, dispelled their fears, after the bruises had been dressed by his surgeon, Monsieur Philip de Belvey. He then ordered his banners to be unfurled, the trumpets to sound, and once more his vast army resumed its march towards the forest of Falkirk, where the little town of that name, with its ancient church of St. Modan, rose on high and commanding ground.

As the English approached the hills of Muiravonside the flashing of steel was seen in front. These were the helmets and lances of some Scottish horse thrown forward by Wallace to reconnoitre, as Hemingford records, and they soon fell back on his main body. On gaining the summit of the heights of Maddiston and those south of Callender Wood, the whole English army halted, while mass was celebrated by the Bishop of Durham, Anthony de Beck, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and Lord of the Isle of Man, in full armour, with a sword by his side, and a shield slung at his back. Then, as now, the view which met the eyes of that English host from the heights of Callender was one of wonderful beauty. At their feet lay the fertile carse of Falkirk, and the vast oak forest known as the Torwood stretching away to where the towers and town of Stirling rose in the sunshine. The river Forth flowed between, like a thread of blue and silver between forests of natural wood in all the foliage of summer. In the background were the peaks of the Ochils-part of the dark and distant Grampians-that rose Alp on Alp, a barrier between the Lowlander and Celt; and in the immediate foreground, midway between Falkirk and the river of Carron, was the army of the Scottish patriot, their 30,000 helmets shining in the sun.

33

This was on St. Magdalen's-day, the 22nd of July.

Edward, who was as politic as he was brave, proposed to refresh his soldiers; but, confident in their overwhelming numbers, they clamoured to be led against the Scots. Edward consented, “in the name of the Holy Trinity," and the English advanced in three columns, each of 30,000 men.

The first was led by the Earl Marshal, having under his orders the Earls of Hereford and Lincoln; the second was led by the fighting Bishop of Durham, having under his orders Radulf Basset de Drayton, for a time English governor of Edinburgh Castle; and the third was led by Edward in person.

Wallace had drawn up the Scots in three schiltrons, or columns of less than 10,000 men each. These were almost entirely composed of peasantry; for, being keenly jealous of his increasing popularity, few knights and still fewer barons would join him. Under him, however, there served as leaders Sir John Stewart of Bonhill, who commanded the archers of Ettrick Forest, and the hardy Brandanes of Bute, or vassals of the Great Steward, of whom 1,200 were in the field; Sir John, the Graham of Abercorn and Dundaff, wearing the sword which his dying father had bequeathed to him on the fatal field of Dunbar; Duncan Macduff, eleventh Earl of Fife, a youth of twenty years of age; and John Comyn, son of the Lord of Badenoch. The three last-named led each a column drawn up in the ancient form of an orb, with the spearmen in front, having their long weapons levelled from the hip to repel cavalry. The immediate front ranks knelt on the right knee, against which the butt of the spear was planted, exactly as in the present mode of preparing to receive a charge of horse; and the circle was the simple old Scottish order of battle prior to the introduction of the solid square.

In his chronicle, Langtoft says that the Scots stood like a castelle, the spears poynt over poynt." Between each of these schiltrons was placed a band of border archers; while 1,000 well-armed and well-mounted horsemen all the Scottish chief could muster-formed a corp-dereserve under John Comyn, and remained in the rear for any emergency.

While the Bishop of Durham had been celebrating mass on the hill, the same solemn sacrament was performed, amid equal silence and awe, in the Scottish ranks; and all awaited steadily the advance of the foe. Hitherto the leaders of these unfortunate men had acted with pretended unanimity; but now, at this most critical moment, a dispute arose about the chief command. Sir John Stewart, as

The foe was still advancing, and still the dispute continued; but, sensible of the peril that menaced all, Wallace maintained his temper and with it his authority.

Led by the Earl Marshal, by Lincoln, and Hereford, the first column came furiously on; but not having reconnoitred the ground, their leading files rolled pell-mell into the morass, where horse and man, English and Gascon alike, were exposed to the arrows of the Scottish archers. Swerving a little to the left, however, they found firmer ground, and closing their files, charged.

"Now," exclaimed Wallace, with pleasant confidence, to his soldiers, "I haif brocht ye to the ring-hop gif ye can!" and at that moment the heavily-mailed English cavalry of the first line fell with a tremendous shock on the charged spears of his right flank, while sharp and sure-for there was then no smoke of arquebuse or musket to impede an aim-the archers of Bonhill plied their shafts obliquely among them. Perceiving the mistake made by the first column, the second, under the Bishop of Durham, avoided the morass, and wheeling to the right menaced the Scottish left; but so steady was its aspect that the warlike prelate, though his men were three to one, proposed a halt until the king came up with the reserves. On this Radulf Basset exclaimed, scornfully, "Stick to thy mass, thou Lord Bishop; we shall conduct the military operations of the day!"

"On, then; for this day we are all bound to do our duty as good soldiers," replied the bishop. And brandishing his sword, he led on his column, amid the glittering lances of which there floated no less than thirty-six banners of the noblest families in England, and fell thundering on the Scottish left, while the Earl Marshal assailed their right. At that very moment, to the astonishment of the English and the bewilderment of Wallace, Comyn drew off, some allege, 10,000 of his vassals, and with the utmost deliberation quitted the field. "That there was treachery among the Scottish nobles," says Tytler, "is satisfactorily proved by

Again and again the cavalry of the Earl Marshal and De Beck spurred in furious charges on the Scottish pikes. Stoutly they stood, shoulder to shoulder; and though infantry came up, and showers of cloth-yard shafts were shot point-blank into the ranks of Wallace, while with a storm of stones, the Welsh and Irish slingers plied their missiles securely from behind, they could not penetrate what an old historian calls "that wood of spears." As if to make up for his recent contumacy, the young Knight of Bonhill, who led the foresters of Ettrick, fought like a hero of romance, but was mortally wounded while in the act of giving orders, and, rolling from his horse, was instantly slain. The archers of Ettrick tried to save him, but in vain; there they all perished to a man: and their tall, athletic, and handsome figures drew forth even the praise of their enemies-at least so says Hemingford of Gisborough. Sir John the Grahame, of Dundaff, the friend and richt-hand of Wallace, and the young Earl of Fife, with nearly all their vassals, were slain and now the survivors, disheartened alike by the fall of their three principal leaders, began to lose heart, and fell into disorder. Deserted by their cavalry, and, after the destruction of their archers, left exposed to a pitiless storm of missiles from the English bows and slings, the Scottish infantry, with their long spears levelled over a breastwork of their own dead and dying, made a desperate attempt only to keep their ground; but their numbers were thining fast and becoming unsteady: and when the English cavalry once more dashed among them, with lance and sword, axe and mace, all was over.

Armed with that great two-handed sword which his fond countrymen superstitiously believed to have been a gift to him from St. Andrew of Bethsaida,

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