The fiendish policy that instigated the massacre of the Minstrels of Wales, lest their strains should animate their countrymen to revolt, had also suggested the idea of depriving the Scots of the monuments[62] of their ancient glory. The nobility still remained tame spectators of this fresh outrage, and relaxed not in their supple assiduities to conciliate the favour of the tyrant. Thus abandoned by those who ought to have been her protectors, the distracted country, crushed and bleeding at every pore, lay convulsed within the _coils_ of this human _Boa_. But that Providence which “ruleth in the kingdoms of men,” had foreseen her calamity, and prepared a deliverer, with personal qualifications beyond the common lot of men, and a mind endowed with every requisite for the mighty undertaking. CHAPTER V. WALLACE AGAIN TAKES REFUGE IN THE WOODS.--ORGANIZES A SYSTEM OF WARFARE.--HARASSES THE ENGLISH IN THEIR CANTONMENTS.--CONFLICT OF BEG.--BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF HIS EARLY COMPANIONS.--HIS DRESS AND ARMOUR.--ANECDOTE OF THE RELATIVE PERSONAL PROWESS OF WALLACE AND BRUCE. Wallace, who had been stigmatized by the English as an outlaw and a robber, found it necessary, after the battle of Dunbar, to withdraw to his former mountainous retreat, from whence he would, no doubt, observe the gaudy pageant of the feudal power of England, as it traversed the devoted land in all the insolent security of conquest. And while the national distress deepened around, and every tale that reached him was fraught with tidings of the misery of his enslaved and degraded countrymen, the resources of the enemy, and the possibility of emancipating the beloved land of his nativity, formed the subject of his unceasing reflections. He had observed, that the reverses which the Scots had sustained in the field, arose more from a want of subordination and discipline among themselves, than from any superior valour on the part of their enemies. He was aware of, and deeply lamented, the jealousy and treachery which existed among the nobility, and their readiness to stoop in the most servile manner[63] to the will of the Usurper, if they might thereby obtain even a temporary exaltation for their party; and he justly conceived, that by banding together a few resolute spirits, allied to no faction, but, like himself, attached to the general good, that more could be done toward the restoration of his country’s independence, than by all the tumultuous hordes which the treacherous and disunited chieftains could bring together. Fully impressed with this conviction, his days and nights were passed in extending the number of his followers, and in organizing a system of warfare, which was soon destined to spread terror and dismay among the invaders. The _elite_ of every district were instructed and disciplined in a manner peculiarly his own. With the simple, but well-known sounds of his bugle-horn, he could regulate all their operations. At the appearance of danger, he