soldiers; he defeated a Scotch army at Dunbar, the Scots rushing down to attack what they thought to be a retreating force and being themselves routed, and soon overran the whole country. Balliol was deposed, and Edward took Scotland for himself, setting up Warenne, Cressingham, and Ormesby as regents. Scotland as an independent kingdom seemed to have come to an end.

XI. THE STORY OF SCOTTISH INDEPEN

DENCE.
BRUCE.

WALLACE

AND ROBERT

Yet when

No one had liked Balliol from the first. a king of England showed that he meant to conquer Scotland and make it part of his kingdom by force, the whole of Scotland determined to resist. Hitherto Edward had had, in the main, to deal with the Scottish barons; they, as we have seen, were largely Norman in blood. Now he had to encounter something quite different, the Scottish people in arms against him.

Wallace.

The hero round whom a national spirit gathered was Sir William Wallace. Wallace had engaged in a street brawl in the town of Lanark, had slain an English sheriff and had taken to the hills. He was joined by all to whom the English invaders were hateful, and soon found himself at the head of a considerable force. He advanced to meet the English near Cambuskenneth. Cressingham, who despised his enemy, tried to cross Battle of the Forth over a bridge so narrow that Cambuskenneth only two horsemen could ride abreast on or Stirling, 1297. it.

Wallace attacked him when a third of his force

was across, and routed him. Cressingham himself fell in the battle and his army scattered. All the fortresses fell, and the invaders were driven from Scotland. Wallace followed up this blow by leading an army into England and raiding the northern counties.

Edward was not the man to put up with this. He made up his mind to go to Scotland in person and crush Wallace. This did not seem easy. Wallace retreated, and Edward could not hear where the Scottish army lay. In the meanwhile he found it hard to feed his men, since the country had been laid waste around him. At last Wallace's situation was beBattle of trayed to him by two discontented ScotFalkirk, 1298. tish nobles. Edward instantly set out by night, and came on Wallace near Falkirk before he had time to retire. Two charges of the English knights were beaten off by the Scottish pikemen, but then Edward brought his archers into action. The Scots were shot down without being able to reply, and at last a third and final charge broke the Scottish array. It is said that at least 15,000 Scots fell.

For seven years Edward strove to complete his conquest. He led army after army into the country, but so long as Wallace was at large the resistance At length, in 1305, Wallace was betrayed Capture and by some of his followers to Sir John Menteith, who was acting as Edward's sheriff in Dumbarton, and by him handed over

went on.

Death of
Wallace.

to Edward. Menteith is generally called a traitor for this, and as a Scot he acted treacherously to his country. Still, he had taken Edward's side, was Edward's officer, and in capturing Wallace was so far doing his duty to the master he had chosen. Wallace was taken to England, and tried as a traitor

to King Edward. He denied that he could be a traitor, since he had never sworn to obey Edward. But the king had him condemned. He was hanged, and his body, cut into four pieces, was fixed on the gates of Newcastle, Berwick, Stirling, and Perth. Edward meant to warn the Scots against further risings, but he made a great mistake. His cruel treatment of Wallace only made the Scots hate him. the more.

Robert Bruce.

With Wallace dead, Edward might think that Scotland was subdued. In a year the Scots had found a fresh leader. Robert Bruce, the grandson of him who had been Balliol's rival, started up in Wallace's place. Edward was thunderstruck to learn that Bruce had murdered Comyn, one of his regents, in the church at Dumfries, and had been crowned at Scone.

Although Bruce was a king, he was a king without a kingdom or an army. His few followers were scattered in the battle of Methven, and Bruce had to flee to the Highlands. Even his countrymen sought his blood; the Lord of Lorn, a relation of Comyn, desired to avenge his murdered kinsman. Bruce, however, had great personal strength and good friends, chief of whom was Sir James Douglas, "the good Lord James". Still, so desperate were his fortunes that he had for a time to take refuge in the lonely island of Rathlin, near the Irish coast.

After a while he landed in Ayrshire, and fought numbers of small battles with the English forces. Often he was nearly captured or killed, Bruce returns but this continuous warfare taught his to Scotland. men to become good soldiers. One stroke of fortune befell Bruce, and that was the death of his old enemy, Edward I., while marching northward to invade Scot

land again. Even had Edward lived he could not have won in the end. He might have beaten Bruce, but he could not have conquered the Scottish nation and kept it down by force of arms. His plans, good as they were, had completely failed. He had wished to unite Scotland and England; all he had done was to divide them more deeply than they had ever been divided before.

99

When the old "Hammer of the Scots was gone, Bruce soon found his son, Edward II., to be a feeble foe. His armies were badly led, his plans badly made. One by one the castles in Scotland were wrested from English hands. Douglas surprised Roxburgh; Randolph captured Edinburgh by sending a daring body of men to climb the castle rock; Binning seized Linlithgow by driving a wagon of hay under the gateway, so that the portcullis could not be let down. By degrees Bruce became master of the whole land. In 1310 the Scottish Estates met at Dundee, and declared that Bruce was their lawful sovereign; they would fight for him and none other.

Battle of

1314.

Stirling Castle alone held out. In 1314 Edward II. led a huge army northward to relieve it. Bruce with far smaller forces determined to give battle. Bannockburn, It was daring, for the English were two to one, but Bruce's men were now fine soldiers, confident and experienced. The armies met at Bannockburn. Bruce had guarded his flank by digging pitfalls to check the charge of the English knights, while the marshy ground by the burn side also served to protect him. Edward II. threw away every advantage that his numbers gave him. He allowed his archers to be driven off by a charge of Scottish horse; he sent his knights to charge full on

the Scottish pikes. He was fighting against men who were determined to conquer or die; men who were burning to set their country free, who were fighting to protect their homes, their wives and children, and to pay back the terrible wrongs they had

suffered. The Scottish pikemen stood like rocks in a storm, casting back the charges of English knights time after time; now seeming overwhelmed, then appearing again unbroken. The English attack was beginning to waver, and the Scots themselves advanced crying, "On them, on them; they fail", when a body of Scottish camp-followers were seen pouring down from the Gillies Hill. They seemed to be a fresh Scottish force, arriving to support their com

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