Page:Life and adventures of Sir William Wallace, General and Governor of Scotland (2).pdf/8

8 THE HISTORY OF where the Engliſhmen, after that fact, were ſecurely ſleeping, and ſuffered none to eſcape. The garriſon of the caſtle iſſued forth to quench the fire, an ambuſh, laid for the purpoſe, entered the houſe and made it ſure. The next morning Wallace came to Glaſgow, where the Lord Henry Piercy had retired from Air the day before; him he expulſed thence with great ſlaughter. The victory he ſo hotly purſued, that immediately thereafter he took the caſtle of Stirling, recovered Argyll, and Lorn, with the town of St. Johnſtoun, and country about; thence he travelled thro' Angus and Mearns, taking in all the ſtrengths until he came to Aberdeen, which he found forſaken by the Engliſh, who had fled by ſea, with the lord Henry Beaumount, an Engliſh lord, who had married the heretrix of the earldom of Buchan, named Cumming. Thus all the north country was reduced to the obedience of Wallace, except the caſtle of Dundee; while he lay at the ſiege thereof, news came of the approach of the Engliſh army, led by John earl of Warren and Surry, and Sir Hugh Creſſingham with a great number of Northumberland men and ſuch of the Scots as held with England, to the number of 30,000. Wallace having with him 10,000 men hardened in arms, met them beſide Stirling, on the north ſide of the Forth, which having no fords at that place, was paſſible only by a wooden bridge. This he on purpoſe had cauſed to be weakened, ſo that the one half of the hoſt being paſt, led by Creſſingham, the bridge broke with the great weight of their baggage Thoſe who were come over, Wallace charged ſuddenly, before they were put in order, and cut the moſt part in pieces, with their leader Creſſingham: the reſt ſeeking to eſcape were drowned in the water. The earl of Warren, and thoſe that eſcaped, were aſſailed by earl Malcom Lennox, captain of Stirling caſtle, and being hotly purſued by Wallace, hardly eſcaped, himſelf flying into Dumbar, a caſtle then belonging to the earl of March. In this battle, fought the 13th of September, 1297, there died no Scotſman of remark, but Andrew Murray of Bothwell. The Engliſh garriſons hearing of this diſcomfiture, fled from all places, ſo that before the laſt of September, all the ſtrengths of Scotland were recovered except Berwick and Roxburgh.

After thoſe victories he held a parliament at St. Johnſtoun, as warden of Scotland, and ſettled the whole coun-