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

SIR WILLIAM WALLACE.
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was considerably increasedby the subsequent pro¬
ceedings of Wallace and his partisans. Anexpress
hadjust reached Glasgow, announcing the fate of
the garrison of Gargunnock, when another made
its appearance, giving an account of the slaughter
of a party of the English in the neighbourhood
ofDoune. Sir Raynauld Crawfurd who had
been put under arrest on suspicion of being
concerned in the affair at Cathcart, was now or¬
dered before the council, and though he had been
able to establish an alibi with regard to the of¬
fence charged against him, yet, after being strictly
interrogated as to his knowledge of his Nephew’s
places of concealment, he was forced to take
an oath against affording shelter, or holding any
correspondence with him, directly or indirect¬
ly, so long as he remained under the bond of out¬
lawry ; he was also sworn to afford the Eng¬
lish all the information in his power in order
that means might be taken for bringing him to
punishment.
While Percy, Sir Aymer de Vallance, and
other noblemen were thus employed at Glasgow,
Wallace and his followers were concerting mea¬
sures, in the depths of Methven wood, for an
attack on a body of English troops which were
to leave St. Johnstone on the following day, in
order to proceed to Kincleven Castle, headed by