he cantonments, and showing the soldiers that he was in safety.

Next morning, July 22, 1298, the armies met. The Scottish infantry
were drawn up on a moor, with a morass in front. They were divided
into four phalanxes or dense masses, with lances lowered obliquely
over each other, and seeming, says an English historian, like a castle
walled with steel. These spearmen were the flower of the army, in whom
Wallace chiefly confided. He commanded them in person, and used the
brief exhortation, "I have brought you to the ring; dance as you best
can."

The Scottish archers, under the command of Sir John Stewart, brother
of the Steward of Scotland, were drawn up in the intervals between the
masses of infantry. They were chiefly brought from the wooded district
of Selkirk. We hear of no Highland bowmen among them. The cavalry,
which amounted to only one thousand men-at-arms, held the rear.

The English cavalry began the action. The Marshal of England led half
of the men-at-arms straight upon the Scottish front, but in doing so
involved them in the morass. The Bishop of Durham, who commanded the
other division of the English cavalry, was wheeling round the morass
on the east, and, perceiving this misfortune, became disposed to wait
for support. "To mass, Bishop!" said Ralph Basset of Drayton, and
charged with the whole body. The Scottish men-at-arms went off without
couching their lances; but the infantry stood their ground firmly. In
the turmoil that followed, Sir John Stewart fell from his horse and
was slain among the archers of Ettrick, who died in defending or
avenging him.

The close bodies of Scottish spearmen, now exposed without means of
defence or retaliation, were shaken by the constant showers of arrows;
and the English men-at-arms finally charging them desperately while
they were in disorder, broke and dispersed these formidable masses.
The Scots were then completely routed, and it was only the neighboring
woods which saved a remnant from the sword. The body of Stewart was
found among those of his faithful archers, who were distinguished by
their stature and fair complexions from all others with which the
field was loaded. Macduff and Sir John the Grahame, "the hardy wight
and wise," still fondly remembered as the bosom friend of Sir William
Wallace, were slain in the same disastrous action.

Popular report states this battle to have been lost by treachery; and
the communication between the earls of Dunbar and