He then
informed the earl, that while the guard he had left him with would
escort the liberated Scots beyond the Forth, the remainder of the
troops should be thus disposed: Lord Andrew Murray was to remain chief
in command in Clydesdale; Sir Eustace Maxwell, to give up the wardship
of Douglas to Sir John Monteith; and then advance into Annandale, to
assist Sir Roger Kirkpatrick, who must now have begun the reduction of
the castles in the west of that province. At the close of this
account, Wallace added, that himself, with his brave band, were going
to traverse the English counties to the Tees' mouth; and should Heaven
bless his arms, he would send the produce round by the Berwick fleet,
to replenish the exhausted stores of the Highlands. "Next year,"
continued he, "I trust they will have ample harvests of their own."
And what Wallace said he hoped to do, he did.
The Southrons' country was panic-struck at the defeat of Percy, his
beaten army, flying in all directions before the conquering legions,
gave such dreadful and hyperbolical accounts of their might, and of the
giant prowess of their leader, that as soon as ever the Scottish spears
were seen rising the summit of any hill, or even gleaming along the
horizon, every village was deserted, every cot left without inhabitant;
and corn, and cattle, and every kind of property fell into the hands of
the Scots.
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