Montgomerie, Sir Bryce Blair, and Crystal of Seaton.[1] Wallace, on hearing of this circumstance, instantly set forward towards Ayr, accompanied by his confederates; and, about midnight, surrounded the barns, where the English soldiers were cantoned, set them on fire, and either killed, or forced back to perish in the flames, all who endeavoured to escape. Many of the English soldiers who lodged in a convent, were, at the same time, attacked and put to the sword by the friars: and this is still proverbially called the Friar of Ayr's men, Wallace proposed to make an attack upon Glasgow, which was possessed by an English force of a thousand soldiers. With this purpose, he divided his band into two, giving the command of one of them to Boyd of Auchinleck,[2] with instructions to make a circuit and enter the town at an opposite point, while he himself would engage in the front Wallace came in contact with the English, near the present site of the college; a desperate and well-contested combat ensued: the leader of the English fell beneath the sword of Wallace; and, on the appearance of Boyd, the English were thrown into confusion, and pursued, with great loss, as far as Bothwell castle.
These, and similar gallant exertions in the cause of Scotland, at length roused the indignation of the English monarch, who had been at first inclined to treat them with disdain. Galling forth the military force on the north of the Trent, he sent Sir Henry Percy, nephew of the earl of Surrey, and Sir Robert Clifford, into Scotland to reduce the insurgents, at the head of an army of forty thousand foot, and three hundred fully caparisoned horse. The English army marched through Annandale to Lochmaben, where, during the night, their encampment was suddenly surprised, and attacked with great fury by Wallace and his party, who, however, in the end, were obliged to retire. At break of dawn, the English advanced towards Irvine, and soon discovered the Scottish squadrons drawn up on the border of a small lake. The force of the latter was unequal to a well-appointed army; but Wallace was among them, and under his conduct they might have made a successful resistance. Dissensions, however, arose among the chiefs as to precedency; and they were, perhaps, the more untractable from a conviction of their inferiority to the enemy. Sir Richard Lundin was the first to set the example. Exclaiming that he would not remain with a party at variance with itself, he left the Scottish camp, and went over with his retainers to the English. He was followed in this by Bruce, (afterwards the hero of Bannockburn,) who had lately joined the Scottish army; by the steward of Scotland, and his brother; by Alexander de Lindesay; William, lord of Douglasdale; and the bishop of Glasgow. All these acknowledged their offences, and for themselves and their adherents made submission to Edward. A treaty[3] to this effect, to which their seals were appended, was drawn up in Norman French, and a copy transmitted to Wal-
- ↑ Harbour, a credible author, says, (alluding to Crystal of Seaton,)
It wes gret sorrow sekyrly,
That so worthy persoune as he,
Suld on sic manner hanijyt be:
This gate endyt his worthynes,
And off Crawford ah Schyr Ranald wes,
And Schyr Bryce als the Blar,
Hangyt in till a barne in Ar.The Bruce, iii. 260. - ↑ The father of this warrior, in consequence of the gallantry he displayed at the battle of Largs, obtained a grant oflands in Cunningham from Alexander III.
- ↑ It is dated 9th July, 1297. See Rymer, Fœdera, vol ii. p. 774.
