Scottish Text Society publications > Old series > Actis and deidis of the illustere and vailzeand campioun, Schir William Wallace, Knicht of Ellerslie

INTRODUCTION.
XXIX
regard to these early adventures of Wallace, we may sup¬
pose that they did take place, but they must have occurred,
not as Harry would place them in 1297, but in 1296; and
Wallace must have been, not a stripling of eighteen or
nineteen, but a grown man, probably over thirty years of
age.
In the second book of Harry’s poem we find Wallace
overpowered by the English in Ayr and put in prison.
There he gets for food “barrell herring and watter” (ii.
I37)> with the result that he is seized with a “flux” and is
thrown on a “ draff myddyn ” as being thought dead. His
nurse comes and takes him up for burial, but seeing some
“ flickerings ” of life in him, makes her daughter give the
national hero suck, which revives him, and thus his life is
saved. This is romantic enough, but not very probable.
Nor is it original, as there is an old Greek story in Valerius
Maximus somewhat similar, and the “Greek Daughter”
who behaves in the same way is the subject of a chap-book
which I have seen in my boyhood. The chief difficulty,
however, is chronological ; for if Wallace was infesting the
English quarters a month or two afterwards, he could
hardly have been lying sick unto death at this time. In
connection with this episode Harry introduces a famous
character—Thomas Rimour, the famous prophet of Ercil-
doun. He is represented as prophesying that Wallace
should thrice deliver Scotland from the English. That
“ true ” Thomas lived at this time is very probable, but
that he uttered such a prophecy about a comparatively
unknown young man of eighteen can only be credited
upon the supposition that he was a veritable prophet.
Yet there is one point to be noticed in this prophecy in
favour of Harry’s honesty. Mr Joseph Bain, the learned