Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 7.djvu/278

414 able. From their Edinburgh friends there was no intelligence ; and when they drew up on the east side of the bridge, there was not a captain with the horse, save one, and the enemy were close at hand, marching for the same bridge. Wallace, however, was a man of singular resolution, and of great self-possession. Even in these distressing circumstances, he sent a party to occupy the bridge, and marched off the main body of his little army to a rising ground, where he awaited the enemy to give him battle.

It was at this critical juncture, that Lawrie of Blackwood paid him a second visit, not to assist, but to discourage him, by proposing a second time that he should disband his followers, and trust to an indemnity, which he assured him the duke Hamilton would exert himself to obtain for them. As he had no credentials to show, and seemed to be speaking merely his own sentiments, without the authority of either party, Blackwood's proposal excited suspicions of his motives. He, however, remained with the party, which had now moved on to Colling ton, all night; and in the morning was the bearer of a letter from colonel Wallace to general Dalzell, who sent it to the council, while he hastened himself to pursue the insurgents. Wallace, in the mean time, marched to Ingliston bridge, at the point of the Pentland hills, and was in the act of drawing up his little party to prevent straggling, when he learned that Dalzell, with the advance of the king's troops, was within half a mile of him. There had been a heavy fall of snow through the night, but it was succeeded by a clear frosty day ; and it was about noon of that day, the 28th of November, when the armies came in sight of each other. That of the insurgents did not exceed nine hundred, men, ill-armed, worn out with fatigue, and half starving. The royal army, which amounted to upwards of three thousand men, was in the highest order, and well provided in all respects. Wallace disposed his little army with great judgment upon the side of a hill, running from north to south. The Galloway gentlemen, on horseback, under M'Clellan of Barmagachan, were stationed on the south; the remainder of the horse, under Major Learmont, on the north; and the foot, who were exceedingly ill armed, in the middle. Dalzell seems to have been for some time at a loss how to proceed; having such a superiority, however, in numbers, he detached a party of horse, under general Drummond, to the westward, in order to turn Wallace's left wing. This detachment was met by the Galloway gentlemen, under captain Arnot and Barmagachan, and completely routed in an instant ; and had Wallace been in a condition to have supported and followed up this masterly movement, the king's army would inevitably have lost the day. A second attack was met by major Learmont, with equal spirit; and it was not till after sunset, when Dalzell himself charged the feeble unarmed centre with the strength of his army, horse and foot, that any impression was made upon them. This charge they were unable to resist, but were instantly broken and dispersed. The nature of the ground, and the darkness of the night, favoured their flight, and there were not more than one hundred of them killed and taken by the victors ; but they were in an unfriendly part of the country, and many of the fugitives were murdered by their inhumane countrymen, for whose rights and liberties they were contending.

Colonel Wallace after the battle left the field, in company with Mr John Welch, and, taking a north-westerly direction along the hills, escaped pursuit. After gaining what they conceived to be a safe distance from the enemy, they turned their horses loose, and slept the remainder of the night in a barn. Wallace for some time concealed himself in different parts of the country, and at length escaped to the continent, where he assumed the name of Forbes. Even there, however, he was obliged to wander from place to place for several