Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 7.djvu/262

398 distress, a strong protector and deliverer of the oppressed and poor, and a great enemy to liars and cheats. Fordun and Buchanan also characterize him as superior to the rest of mankind in bodily stature, strength, and activity; in bearing cold and heat, thirst and hunger, watching and fatigue; valiant and prudent, magnanimous and disinterested, undaunted in adversity, modest in prosperity, and animated by the most ardent and unextinguishable love of his country. With these qualifications, arid with a band of followers who confided in him, and who were stimulated by the same wish of rescuing their country from the tyranny under which it groaned, he soon became a terror to the English, and performed many daring feats of valour. His early and desultory enterprises against the enemy were almost all successful; and the result was, that numbers who had looked with indignation at the usurpation of the crown by Edward, and who only waited for an opportunity of asserting the independence of their country, flocked to his standard, until he found himself at the head of a great body of men, all fired with the same patriotic spirit.

As Wallace's party grew stronger, several of the Scottish nobles joined him. Among these were, the steward of Scotland, and Sir Andrew Murray of Bothwell; Sir John the Grahame, who became Wallace's bosom friend and confidant; William Douglas, lord of Douglasdale, designated the Hardy; Sir Robert Boyd; Alexander de Lindesay; Sir Richard Lundin; and Wisheart, bishop of Glasgow. These either acted together, or engaged in separate expeditions, as circumstances allowed. Ormesby, the English justiciary, was about this time holding his court at Scone. Wallace attacked him there, killed some of his followers, and took many prisoners; but the justiciary had the good fortune to escape. While Wallace was engaged in this expedition, or some other equally daring, lord Douglas recovered the castles of Durisdeer and Sanquhar from the English. The manner of his taking the castle of Sanquhar, is thus described by Hume of Godscroft, in his History of the House of Douglas:—"There was one Anderson that served the castle, and furnished it with wood and fuel. The lord Douglas directs one of his trustiest and stoutest of his servants to deal with him, or to find some means to betray the castle to him, and to bring him within the gates only. Anderson, either persuaded by entreaty, or corrupted by money, gave my lord's servant, called Thomas Dickson, his apparel and carriages; who, coming to the castle, was let in by the porter for Anderson. Dickson stabbed the porter; and, giving the signal to my lord, who lay near by with his companions, set open the gates, and received them into the court. They, being entered, killed the captain, and the whole of the English garrison, and so remained masters of the place. The captain's name was Beauford, who had oppressed the country that lay near him very insolently. One of the English that had been in the castle, escaping, went to the other garrisons that were in other castles and towns adjacent, and told them what had befallen his fellows, and withal informed them how the castle might be recovered. Whereupon, joining their forces together, they came, and besieged it. Lord Douglas, finding himself straitened, and unprovided of necessaries for his defence, did secretly convey his man, Dickson, out at a postern or some hidden passage, and sent him to William Wallacefbr aid. Wallace was then in Lennox; and, hearing of the danger Douglas was in, made an the haste he could to come to his relief. The English, having notice of Wallace's approach, left the siege, and retired towards England, yet not so quickly, but that Wallace, accompanied by Sir John Graham, did overtake them, and killed five hundred of their number, bt fore they could pass Dalswinton. By these, and such like means, Wallace, with his assistants, having beaten the English from most parts of their strengths in Scotland, did commit the cure and custody of the whole country, from Drumlanrig to Ayr, to the charge of the lord Douglas."

About the same period, a memorable adventure in the history of Wallace,—the burning of the barns of Ayr,—is said to have taken place. According to prevalent tradition, the English governor of Ayr invited to a friendly conference many of the Scottish gentry, in some large buildings, called the Barns of Ayr, where, by a treacherous and premeditated stratagem, they were strangled to death. Among those slain in this base manner, were, Sir Raynauld Crawford, sheriff of the county of Ayr, and maternal uncle to Wallace; Sir Neil