vaging and slaughtering as far as Hexham.

16. =The Second Conquest of Scotland. 1298--1304.=--In =1298= Edward,
who had been unsuccessful on the Continent, made a truce with Philip.
Returning to England, he marched against Wallace, and came up with
him at Falkirk. The battle which ensued, like William's victory at
Senlac (see p. 96), was a triumph of inventive military skill over
valour content to rest upon ancient methods. The Scots were hardy
footmen, drawn up in three rings, and provided with long spears.
Against such a force so armed the cavalry of the feudal array would
dash itself in vain. Edward, however, had marked in his Welsh wars the
superiority of the long-bow drawn to the ear--not, as in the case of
the shorter bows of older times, to the breast of the archer--and
sending its cloth-yard shaft with a strength and swiftness hitherto
unknown. He now brought with him a large force of bowmen equipped in
this fashion. At Falkirk the long-bow was tried for the first time in
any considerable battle. The effect was overwhelming: a shower of
arrows poured upon a single point in the ring of the spearmen soon
cleared a gap. Edward's cavalry dashed in before the enemy had time to
close, and the victory was won. Wallace had had scarcely one of the
Scottish nobles with him either at Stirling or at Falkirk, and unless
all Scotland combined he could hardly be expected to succeed against
such a warrior as Edward. Wallace's merit was that he did not despair
of his country, and that by his patriotic vigour he prepared the minds
of Scotsmen for a happier day. He himself fled to France, but Scotland
struggled on without him. Some of the nobles, now that Wallace was no
longer present to give them cause of jealousy, took part in the
resistance, and only in =1304= did Edward after repeated campaigns
complete his second conquest of the country.

17. =The Incorporation of Scotland with England. 1305.=--In =1305=
Wallace, who had returned from France, but had taken no great part in
the late resistance, was betrayed to the English. His barbarity in his
raid on Northumberland in =1297= (see p. 221) had marked him out for
vengeance, and he was executed at Tyburn as a traitor to the English
king of Scotland, whose right he had never acknowledged. Edward then
proceeded to incorporate Scotland with England. Scotland was to be
treated very much as Wales had been treated before. There was to be as
little harshness as possible. Nobles who ha