said to Sir Marmaduke, ‘Sir, we are betrayed, for our comrades do not follow, and the banners of the king and earl are not to be seen.’ Then looking back, they saw that many of our men, and among them the standard–bearers, had fallen, and said, ‘Our way to the bridge is cut off, and we are barred from our friends: it is better to make trial of the water, if it be that we may pass it, than to plunge into the columns of the enemy, and fall to no purpose. It is difficult, yea, impossible, for us to pass through the midst of the Scots.’ Then replied that valiant knight, Sir Marmaduke, ‘Surely, my dear friends, it shall never be said of me, that I drowned myself for nothing. Do not ye so either, but follow me, and I will clear a passage through them even to the bridge.’ Then spurring his charger, he plunged among the enemy, and dealing blows on either side, passed unhurt through the throng, and laid open a wide path for his followers. For he was tall, and stout of body. And as he fought thus valiantly, his nephew, who was wounded, his horse being slain, shouted after him, ‘Sir, save me.’ He replied, ‘Get up behind me.’—‘I cannot,’ he answered, ‘for my strength is gone.’ Presently his comrade, an esquire of the same Sir Marmaduke, came up, and descending from his horse, he placed the young man on it, and said to his master, ‘Sir, go where you will, I follow;’ and he followed him to the bridge, so that both were preserved. All who remained, to the number of one hundred horsemen, and five thousand foot, perished, except a few who swam the river. One knight, also, with much difficulty, passed the water upon his barded horse.”[60] The Earl of Surrey quitted the field as soon as he was rejoined by Twenge, giving orders for the destruction of the bridge. The Scots, therefore, did not cross to pursue their success: but notwithstanding, quantities of plunder fell into their hands, and the decisive nature of the defeat is evident from the consequences which attended it. In the words of Knighton, “This awful beginning of hostilities roused the spirit of Scotland, and sunk the hearts of the English.” In a short time not a fortress of Scotland remained in Edward’s possession. The castles of Edinburgh and Roxburgh were dismantled, and Berwick, being abandoned by the English upon the advance of the Scots, was occupied by Wallace, who resolved on an immediate expedition into England, with the view of providing sustenance for his troops, and lightening the horrors of famine, which now fell severely upon Scotland.