Then the ambuscade of Ramsay poured from his caves,
the earth seemed teeming with mailed warriors, and the Southrons,
seeing the surrounding heights and the deep defiles filled with the
same terrific appearances, fled with precipitation toward their second
division, which lay a few miles southward. Thither the conquering
squadrons of the Scots followed them. The fugitives, leaping the
trenches of the encampment, called out to their comrades: "Arm! arm!
Hell is in league against us!" Segrave was soon at the head of his
legions, and a battle more desperate than the first blazed over the
field. The flying troops of the slain Confrey, rallying around the
standard of their general-in-chief, fought with the spirit of revenge,
and, being now a body of nearly 20,000 men, against 8000 Scots, the
conflict became tremendous. In several points the Southrons gained so
greatly the advantage that Wallace and Bruce threw themselves
successively into those parts where the enemy most prevailed, and by
exhortations, example and prowess they a thousand times turned the fate
of the day, appearing as they shot from rank to rank to be two comets
of fire sent before the Scottish troops to consume all who opposed
them.
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