could disperse them, to seek more secure retreats,--or rally them around him, as circumstances might require. This mode of discipline, either by himself or his most trusty associates, he secretly extended over a great part of the Lowlands of Scotland; so that either amidst the fastnesses of Carrick, the deep recesses of Cartland, or on the shores of the Lomond, the rallying note of their country’s liberator was followed by the prompt appearance of well-armed warriors at their respective places of muster. The prowess which he had displayed in his encounters with the English--his almost miraculous escapes--and the prediction given out in the name of the Seer of Ercildowne,[64] of his being destined to deliver Scotland from the tyranny of England,--all conspired to excite the hopes, and gain him the confidence, of the less wealthy classes of his countrymen. His tactics were admirably fitted for harassing the foes he had to contend with. The fortresses in their possession were surrounded by secret enemies, ever on the watch to discover and convey to their leader any information that might enable him to way-lay their convoys, or surprise them in their strongholds. It was in vain the warders kept watch on their lofty stations: distant as the eye could reach, no enemy appeared, no foreboding sound met their ear, to warrant them in disturbing the tranquillity of the revellers within. Far in the woodlands, the sound of a horn might be heard; but it passed away unregarded, as proceeding from some lonely forester going his rounds. The drawbridge is let down to admit fuel or provisions for the garrison;--the loads are thrown in, the entrance of the gate;--the porter knocked on the head, and the burden-bearers bristle into resolute or well-armed assailants;--the wine-cup is dashed from the hands of the astonished governor, who is only made sensible of his situation by the carnage that ensues;--the castle demolished, and the spoil divided among his followers, who are now allowed to return home. Wallace, meanwhile, attended perhaps by a few select worthies, pursues his way, to call forth the avenging swords of his adherents, in some more remote part of the kingdom. Such were the fruits of that admirable system of warfare which Wallace was engaged in explaining and enforcing at the meetings of his nonjuring countrymen, during the winter of 1296, and which it has been thought proper to allude to at this stage of the history, in order that the reader may be able to comprehend the possibility of certain of those exploits which afterwards obtained for the heroic champion of the Scots, the applause and admiration of mankind.