from Ayr to Berwick; but at Berwick he encountered stout resistance from
a noble foeman, the Earl of Gloucester, who with his garrison yielded
only to starvation. Wallace, touched with their valour, permitted them
to march out with all the honours of war, and with the chivalrous earl
he formed a friendship that was never dimmed by the enmity of the
nations to which they belonged.

Soon there came a summons to Stirling. By a dishonourable stratagem of
De Valence's, Lord and Lady Mar and Helen had been seized and carried to
Stirling Castle, where Lord Mar was in danger of immediate death. Helen
was in the power of De Valence, who pressed his hateful suit upon her.
Wallace and his men marched hastily, and captured the town; once more De
Valence begged Wallace's mercy, and once more, unworthy as he was,
obtained it. But the ruthless Cressingham, commanding the castle, placed
Lord Mar on the battlements with a rope round his neck, and declared
that unless the attack ceased the earl and his whole family would
instantly die. Wallace's reply was to bring forward De Valence, pale and
trembling. "The moment Lord Mar dies, De Valence shall instantly
perish," he declared.

Cressingham agreed to an armistice, hoping to gain time until De
Warenne, with the mighty English host then advancing from the border,
had reached Stirling. Next morning this great army in its pride poured
across the bridge of the Forth; but the Scottish warriors, rushing down
from the hillsides, with Wallace at their head, swept all before them.
It was rather a carnage than a battle. Those who escaped the steel of
Wallace's men were thrust into the river, and land and water were
burdened with English dead.

That evening Stirling Castle surrendered, the Scottish prisoners were