B. vi. 793-5. “It is to be observed, that John Major expressly affirms the treachery of Menteth, as acting in concert with Aymer de Valloins, Earl of Pembroke. He says, that Menteth was considered as his most intimate friend; ‘ipsi Vallacco putatus amicissimus.’ Hist. Fol. lxxiii. Now, although he rejects many of the transactions recited by Blind Harry ‘as false,’ so far is he from insinuating the slightest hesitation as to this business, that he formally starts an objection as to the imprudence of Wallace in not being more careful of his person, and answers it by remarking, that ‘no enemy is more dangerous than a domestic one.’ He differs from the Minstrel in saying that Wallace was ‘captured _in_ the city of Glasgow.’ “It may be added, that Bower expressly asserts that Wallace, ‘suspecting no evil, was fraudulently and treacherously seized _at_ Glasgow by Lord John de Menteth.’ _Scotichron._ xii. 8. Bower again refers to the treacherous conduct of Menteth towards Wallace when afterwards relating a similar plan which he had laid for taking King Robert Bruce prisoner, under pretence of delivering up to him the Castle of Dunbarton, on condition of his receiving a hereditary right to the lieutenancy of the Lennox; v. Lib. xii. c. 16, 17, Vol. ii. 243. These two chapters are not in all the MSS., but are found in those of Cupar, Perth, and Dunblane. Now, Bower was born anno 1385; _Ibid._ ii. 401. The date assigned to the Scotichronicon, as published with his Continuation, is 1447, and that to the Minstrel’s Poem, 1470; v. Pinkerton’s Maitland Poems, Intr. lxxxvi-lxxxix. It is therefore impossible that Bower could have borrowed the account given of Menteth from Blind Harry. Bower was born, indeed, only eighty or eighty-one years after the fact referred to; and, considering the elevation of the character of Wallace, and the great attachment of his countrymen even to this day, as well as the multitude of his enemies, it is totally inconceivable that a whole nation, learned and unlearned, should concur in imputing this crime to one man, _without_ the most valid reasons. “Wyntown finished his ‘_Cronykil_,’ anno 1418. He, it is generally believed, was born little more than fifty years after the butchery of our magnanimous patriot. Sir David Dalrymple could not, one would suppose, reasonably object to his testimony. Let us hear it. A thousand thre hundyr and the fyft yhere Eftyr the byrth of oure Lord dere, Schyre John of Menteth in tha days Tuk in Glasgw Willame Walays, And send hym in-til Ingland swne. Thare wes he quartaryd and wndwne Be dyspyte and hat Inwy: Thare he tholyd this Martyry. _Cron._ viii. c. 20.