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

SIR WILLIAM WALLACE
195
and, favoured by the denseness of the fog, the
gallant little band were soon lost to their pur¬
suers.
Though thus relieved from their perilous si¬
tuation, yet they are said to have suffered the
greatest privations in the wild and unfrequented
solitudes to which they were obliged to retire.
However, their indefatigable chief, ever fertile
in expedients, found means to preserve them
from actual starvation till Edward withdrew his
troops for the purpose of commencing his march
of subjugation through the kingdom.
The time which the English monarch thus
spent in the southern parts of Scotland, had
been employed in the chastisement of those who
had been most active in the late insurrection,
and in destroying those monuments of antiquity
which had escaped his fury in former invasions.
With a policy worthy of himself, he endeavoured
to obliterate the remembrance of all national in¬
dependence among the Scots, by ransacking the
monasteries, and carrying off, or committing to
the flames, all the ancient records they con¬
tained ; so that the Scots, in future, might have
no documents to produce to falsify his claims to
sovereignty over them.
In this proceeding he might have been partly
influenced by the discussion he had been en-