imitated his example: their terror added alacrity and courage to
the Scots, who betook themselves to arms in every quarter; many of the
principal barons, and among the rest Sir William Douglas,[*] openly
countenanced Wallace's party: Robert Bruce secretly favored and promoted
the same cause: and the Scots, shaking off their fetters, prepared
themselves to defend, by a united effort, that liberty which they had so
unexpectedly recovered from the hands of their oppressors.

* Walsing. p. 70. vol. i. p. 118.

But Warrenne, collecting an army of forty thousand men in the north of
England, determined to reestablish his authority; and he endeavored,
by the celerity of his armament and of his march, to compensate for his
past negligence, which had enabled the Scots to throw off the English
government. He suddenly entered Annandale, and came up with the enemy
at Irvine, before their forces were fully collected, and before they
had put themselves in a posture of defence. Many of the Scottish nobles,
alarmed with their dangerous situation, here submitted to the English,
renewed their oaths of fealty, promised to deliver hostages for their
good behavior, and received a pardon for past offences.[*] Others, who
had not yet declared themselves, such as the steward of Scotland and
the earl of Lenox, joined, though with reluctance, the English army,
and waited a favorable opportunity for embracing the cause of their
distressed countrymen. But Wallace, whose authority over his retainers
was more fully confirmed by the absence of the great nobles, persevered
obstinately in his purpose; and finding himself unable to give battle
to the enemy, he marched northwards, with an intention of prolonging the
war, and of turning to his advantage the situation of that mountainous
and barren country. When Warrenne advanced to Stirling, he found Wallace
encamped at Cambuskenneth, on the opposite banks of the Forth; and being
continually urged by the impatient Cressingham, who was actuated both by
personal and national animosities against the Scots,[**] he prepared
to attack them in that position, which Wallace, no less prudent than
courageous, had chosen for his army.[***]

* Heming. vol. i. p. 121, 22.

** Heming. vol. i. p. 127.

*** On the 11th of September, 1297.

In spite of the remonstrances of Sir Richard Lundy, a Scotchman of birth
and family, who sincerely adhered to the English, he ordered his army
to pass a bridge