And Sir William Maitland was not
less sincere in his gratitude, than Wallace was in joy, at having given
liberty to so near a relation of Helen Mar. The rest of the captive
Scots, to the number of several hundred, were ready to kiss the feet of
the man who thus restored them to their honors, their country, and
their friends, and Wallace bowed his happy head under a shower of
blessings which poured on him from a thousand grateful hearts.
In pity to the wearied travelers, he ordered tents to be pitched; and
for the sake of their distant friends, he dispatched a detachment to
the top of Langholm Hill, to send forth a smoke in token to the
Clydesdale watch, of the armistice being ended. He had hardly seen it
ascend the mountain, when Graham arrived from reconnoitering, and told
him that an English army of great strength was approaching by the foot
of the more southern hills, to take the reposing Scots by surprise.
"They shall find us ready to receive them," was the prompt reply of
Wallace; and his actions were ever the companions of his words.
Leaving the new-arrived Scots to rest on the banks of the Esk, he put
himself at the head of five thousand men; and dispatching a thousand
more, with Sir John Graham, to pass the Cheviots, and be in ambush to
attack the Southrons when he should give the signal, he marched swiftly
forward, and soon fell in with some advanced squadrons of the enemy,
amongst the recesses of those hills.
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