Page:History of Sir William Wallace (2).pdf/11

                            11 they could form themselves on the plain to the north of the bridge, he rushed down upon them, and broke their ranks in a moment. Many thousands were slain on the field, or drowned in the river in their rlight; among the former was Cressingham, the treasurer. His dead body was treated with great indig- nity by the Scots, who justly hated him for his tyranny and rapacity, and who, it is said after his death, made use of his skin for girths to their saddles.

The remains of Warren's great army fled out of Scotland after this defeat; and the Scots, taking arms on all sides, attacked the Castles in which were English garrisons, and took most of them; but as a famine was now raging in Scotland, Wallace marched with his whole army into England, that he might in some measure relieve the neces- sities of his countrymen, and retaliate upon the enemy the miseries they had inflicted upon the Scots. Edward, learning that the Scots were