Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 7.djvu/274

 410 SIR WILLIAM WALLACE.

mains, that Sir William Wallace was at last treacherously betrayed and taken, through the agency of one of his own countrymen, and one who had served under him against the English, Sir John Menteith, a baron of high rank ; whose name, for this cause, is throughout Scotland, even unto this day, a bye- word of scorn and detestation. 21 Wallace was made prisoner at Robroyston, in the neighbourhood of Glasgow, on the 5th of August, 1305.

The fate of this great man was soon decided. He was first taken to Dumbarton castle, 23 then under the command of Menteith, and afterwards car- ried to London, heavily fettered, and guarded by a powerful escort. The people in the northern counties of England are said to have exulted greatly at the news of his capture ; and, as the cavalcade advanced, multitudes flocked from all quarters to gaze at its illustrious prisoner. On reaching London, he was lodged for the night in Fenchurch street, in the house of a citizen, by name William Delect ;* 3 and next day (23rd August,) carried to Westminster

81 Some attempt has been made (especially by lord Hailes, who seems to have sometimes opposed ordinary facts and notions, under the vulgar delusion of being philosophical and un- prejudiced,) to deny that Sir John Menteith was the captor of Wallace. i5ut no circum- stance in history could be belter corroborated than this. AH the English and Scottish writ- ers ;gree on the subject. The Chronicle of Lanercost Priory, a MS. of the thirteenth cen- tury, yrcsenred in the British Museum, has this passage : " Captus fuit Willelmus Waleis per unum Scotum, scilicet per Dominuin Johannemde Mentiphe, et usque London ad Regem adductus, et adjudicatum fuit quod traheretur, et suspenderetur, et decollaretur. '" Another ancient MS. (the Scala Chronicle) preserved at Cambridge, says, "Wylliam Wateys was taken of the Counts of Menteth about Glaskow, and sent to King Edward, and after was hangid, drawn, and quarterid, at London." Laiigloft's Chronicle (another English au- thority) is also conclusive.

Sir Jon of Menetest sewed William so nehi,

He took him when he wend lest, on nyght his leman bi ;

That was thought treson of Jak Short his man ; He was the encheson, that Sir Jon so him num.

From which it appears that Menteith prevailed on Jack Short, Wallace's servant, to betray him; and came under cover of night, and seized him in bed, " his leman by." Our Scot- tish historians, too, Forduu and Wynton, who flourished not a hundred years after Wallace, s-pcak in an equally decisive manner of his capture. " Anno Domini MCCCV.," says Ford un, " Wiftelmus Wallace per Johannem de Menteth fraudulenter et prodicionaliter cajii lur, Uegi Aiiglire traditur, Londinis demembratur." Wynton's chapter on the subject is headed thus :

Quken Jfton of Menteth in his dayis DisMuit gude WiUame Walays.

And, further, he says:

A thousand thre hunch r and the fyft yere Efter the byrth of our Lord dere, Schyre Jon of Menteth in tha dayis Tufc in Glatco \Villame Walays.

That Menteith was at one time a fellow soldier of Wallace, is proved by the following pas- sage from Bower, preserved in the Kelationes Arnaldi Blair: " In hoc ipso anno (1298) viz. 23 die mensis August!, Dominus Wallas, Scotise custos, cum Johanne Grahame, et Johannede Menteith, militibus; necnon, Alexandra Scrymgeour, constabulario villae de Dun- dee et vexillario Scotia, cum quinquagenlis militibus afmatis, rebelles Gallovidienses pu- nierunt, qui Regis Anglice et Cuminorum partibus sine aliquo jure steterunt." As to any further intimacy between Menteith and Wallace, there is no evidence beyond Blind Harry
 * in(l popular tradition.

22 A sword and mail are still shown in Dumbarton castle, as having belonged to Wallace.

M The following pas=age occurs in Stow's Chronicle: " William Wallace, which had oft- times set Scotland in great trouble, was taken and brought to London, with great numbers of men and women wondering upon him. He was lodged in the house of William Delect, ft citizen of London, in Fenchurch street. On the morrow, being the eve of St Bartholo- mew, he was brought on horseback to Westminster; John Segrave and Geffrey, knights the mayor, sheriffs, and aldermen of London, and many others, both on horseback and on