Page:Life and surprising adventures of that renowned hero, Sir Wm. Wallace.pdf/19

 was not the case. Each of them would have the honour of going first upon the head of the van; Wallace, because he was guardian of the kingdom; Cumine, on account of his more numerous vassalage and royal birth; and Stewart, because he acted that day in the place of his brother, the Lord High Steward himself, whose vassals or military tenants would obey be commands but what he gave them; and he is said to have stood so much upon this punctilio of honour, that he upbraided Wallace to his face, charged him with ambition and pride, and compared him to the owl in the fable, which had nothing originally of its own, but begged a feather of every bird, and thus having acquired rich and gay plumage, pretended to beauty and superiority above all others.

It is easy to conjecture what must have been the result of a battle begun at such an unfortunate period, and in such a manner. While the fatal debate was agitated with the greatest heat, Edward, although he had that very morning got a fall from his horse, by which two of his ribs were broken, caused a charge to be sounded. The Scots were soon routed, and they lost upwards of ten thousand men. Sir John Cumine, with those under his command, went away without fighting at all: Sir