"
Such language, while it covered the fugitives with confusion of face,
awoke emulation in all to efface with honorable deeds the memory of
their disgrace. With augmented forces he therefore marched into
Cumberland; and having drawn up his array between a river and a high
ground, which he covered with archers, he stood prepared to meet the
approach of King Edward.
But Edward did not appear till late in the next day; and then the Scots
descried his legions advancing from the horizon to pitch their vanguard
on the plain of Stanmore. Wallace knew that for the first time he was
now going to pit his soldiership against that of the greatest general
in Christendom. But he did not shrink from measuring him arm to arm
and mind to mind, for the assurance of his cause was in both.
His present aim was to draw the English toward the Scottish lines,
where, at certain distances, he had dug deep pits; and having covered
them lightly with twigs and loose grass, left them as traps for the
Southron cavalry; for in cavalry, he was told by his spies, would
consist the chief strength of Edward's army. The waste in which
Wallace had laid the adjoining counties, rendered the provisioning of
so large a host difficult; and besides, as it was composed of a mixed
multitude from every land on which the King of England had set his
invading foot, harmony could not be expected to continue amongst its
leaders.
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