Snatching up a sword, and striving to
join my brave countrymen, the Southrons impeded my passage, and I fell
under their arms."
Happy to have rescued his old acquaintance from further indignities,
Wallace committed him to Edwin to lead into the citadel. Then taking
the colors of Edward from the ground (where the Southron officer had
laid them), he gave them to Sir Alexander Scrymgeour, with orders to
fill their former station on the citadel with the standard of Scotland.
This action he considered as the seal of each victory; as the beacon
which, seen from afar, would show the desolate Scots where to find a
protector, and from what ground to start when courage should prompt
them to assert their rights.
The standard was no sooner raised than the proud clarion of triumph was
blown from every warlike instrument in the garrison and the Southron
captain, placing himself at the head of his disarmed troops, under the
escort of Murray, marched out of the castle. He announced his design
to proceed immediately to Newcastle, and thence embark with his men to
join their king at Flanders. Not more than two hundred followed their
officer in this expedition, for not more were English; the rest, to
nearly double that number, being, like the garrison of Dumbarton, Irish
and Welsh, were glad to escape enforced servitude.
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