ow returned home, and
was already on his march toward the borders at the head of a powerful
army. A body of English, which had landed in the north of Fife, led by
Aymer de Vallois, Earl of Pembroke, is said by the Scottish authorities
to have been attacked and routed by Wallace on June 12, 1298, in the
forest of Blackironside, in that county; but when the two main armies
met on July 22d, in the neighborhood of Falkirk--the Scots commanded by
Wallace, the English by their king in person--the former, after a
gallant and obstinate resistance, were at last forced to give way, and
the battle ended in a universal rout accompanied with immense slaughter.

This defeat did not put an end to the war; but it was taken advantage of
by the Scottish nobility to deprive Wallace of his office of guardian or
chief governor of the kingdom. The Scottish accounts say that he
voluntarily resigned the supreme power; it is certain, at any rate, that
Bruce, his rival Comyn, and Lamberton, Bishop of St. Andrew's, were now
appointed joint guardians of Scotland, still in the name of Baliol. For
some years after this our accounts of Wallace are slight and obscure;
but he appears to have returned with a chosen band of followers to the
practice of the desultory warfare in which he had originally
distinguished himself. The legendary histories continue to detail his
deeds of prowess performed in harassing the enemy both on their marches
and in their camps and strongholds. And to fill up the story, they also
make him to have paid two visits to France--the first in 1300, the
second in 1302. The next well-ascertained fact regarding him is that
when the Scottish leaders were at last obliged to submit to Edward at
Strathorde, on February 9, 1304, Wallace was not included in the
capitulation, one of the clauses of which (printed in the original
French in Ryley's "Placeta Parliamentaria") is to the effect that as for
Wallace (Monsieur Guillaume de Galeys), he might, if he pleased, give
himself up to the king's mercy ("quil se mette en la volunte et en la
grace nostre seigneur le Roy, si lui semble, que bon soit"). He was soon
after summoned to appear before a parliament or convention of Scotch and
English nobility, held at St. Andrew's; and upon their not presenting
themselves, he and Sir Simon Frisel, or Fraser, were pronounced outlaws.
For some time his retreat remained undiscovered, although his active
hostility still continued occasionally to make itself