Respecting this battle, Scottish authors give a very different account from the preceding, which is chiefly taken from the pages of English historians. According to the former, the envy of the nobles towards Wallace, and the dissensions incident thereto, were the chief, if not the sole occasion of the disaster. The Scottish army, say they, consisted of three divisions of ten thousand men each, under the command of Sir John Cumyn, Lord of Badenoch, chief of the powerful clan of that name; Sir John Stewart, brother to the Lord of Bute, who, in addition to his own tenantry, headed those of his absent brother; and Sir William Wallace,--three of the most powerful men in the country, the two former from their birth and influence, the latter from the great fame acquired by his military achievements. On the brink of the engagement, an imprudent and unfortunate disagreement arose among the leaders. Stewart insisted upon taking command of the army, being, as he conceived, entitled to that honour, as the representative of his brother, who was Lord High Steward of Scotland; Cumyn claiming it, in his own right, on account of high birth, and near relationship to the crown; and Wallace, as Guardian of the kingdom, refused to admit the pretensions of either to a command which he, as representative of their absent sovereign, conceived himself every way entitled to, even though he had not earned that honour by former services. Stewart, in the heat of the altercation, is said to have upbraided Wallace with the lowness of his birth, and charged him with encroaching on the rights of the nobility, which reminded him, he said, “of the owl in the fable, who, having borrowed a feather from one bird, and a feather from another, became vain of his plumage, and endeavoured to lord it over his betters. The application is not difficult,” continued he; “for, if every nobleman in Scotland were to claim his part of those vassals which now follow your banners, your own personal retainers would make but a sorry appearance in support of your high-flown pretensions.” Wallace heard, with stern composure, those ill-timed remarks of the haughty chieftain. “I am not ignorant,” said he, “of the source whence this insulting language has proceeded; and since you, my Lord, condescend to utter their sentiments, you may be also induced to imitate their example: and even this,” glancing a look of indignation at Cumyn, “I am not altogether unprepared for. Your fable of the owl is not quite applicable; for I always showed myself in the face of day, asserting the liberty and independence of my country, while some others, like owls, courted concealment, and were too much afraid of losing their _roosts_, to leave them for such a cause. As to my followers, I wish no man to follow me who is not sound at the heart in the cause of his country; and either at the head or in the ranks of these, I will always consider it my glory to be found. In the mean