Scotland/Scots > Life of Sir William Wallace, Knight of Ellerslie, and Guardian of Scotland

PREFACE.
be entitled to a larger portion of public faith
than a lesser one told in the more modern patois
of Scotland. When we fihd Walsingham, in
describing the battle of Falkirk, telling us that
the sharpness and strength of the English arrows
were such that <c they thoroughly penetrated
the men at arms, obscured the helmets, perfor-
rated the swords and overwhelmed the lances,”
(ut ipsus armatos omnino penetrarent, cassides
tenebrarent, gladios perforarent, lanceas funde-
rent). And another learned author, narrating
the same battle, and making the killed, wounded,
and prisoners amount to a greater number than
what were disposed of in the most sanguinary
conflicts between the Roman and Barbaric
worlds. We would naturally expect that when
such outrages upon our credulity are attributed
to the style of the age in which the writers lived,
that the same extenuation should be extended
to our Minstrel, even when he describes his
hero “ like a true knight errant cleaving his
enemies through brawn and brain down to the
shoulders.”
Considering the situation of this unfortunate