which lay over the Forth; but he was soon convinced,
by fatal experience, of the error of his conduct. Wallace, allowing
such numbers of the English to pass as he thought proper, attacked them
before they were fully formed, put them to rout, pushed part of them
into the river, destroyed the rest by the edge of the sword, and
gained a complete victory over them.[*] Among the slain was Cressingham
himself, whose memory was so extremely odious to the Scots, that they
flayed his dead body, and made saddles and girths of his skin.[**]
Warrenne, finding the remainder of his army much dismayed by this
misfortune, was obliged again to evacuate the kingdom, and retire into
England. The Castles of Roxburgh and Berwick, ill fortified and feebly
defended, fell soon after into the hands of the Scots.

Wallace, universally revered as the deliverer of his country, now
received, from the hands of his followers, the dignity of regent or
guardian under the captive Baliol; and finding that the disorders
of war, as well as the unfavorable seasons, had produced a famine in
Scotland, he urged his army to march into England, to subsist at the
expense of the enemy, and to revenge all past injuries, by retaliating
on that hostile nation. The Scots, who deemed everything possible under
such a leader, joyfully attended his call. Wallace, breaking into the
northern counties during the winter season, laid every place waste with
fire and sword; and after extending on all sides, without opposition,
the fury of his ravages as far as the bishopric of Durham, he returned,
loaded with spoils and crowned with glory, into his own country.[***]
The disorders which at that time prevailed in England, from the
refractory behavior of the constable and mareschal, made it impossible
to collect an army sufficient to resist the enemy, and exposed the
nation to this loss and dishonor.

* Walsing. p. 73. Heming. vol. i. p. 127, 128, 129. Trivet,
p. 807.

** Heming. vol. i. p. 130.

*** Heming. vol. i. p. 131, 132, 136.

But Edward, who received in Flanders intelligence of these events, and
had already concluded a truce with France, now hastened over to England,
in certain hopes, by his activity and valor, not only of wiping off this
disgrace, but of recovering the important conquest of Scotland, which
he always regarded as the chief glory and advantage of his reign. He
appeased the murmurs of his people by concessions and promises:
he resto