Wherever the army of Edward now appeared, the chieftains were found anxiously waiting to tender their submission, and again repeat their oaths of allegiance. Some of the principal nobility, in order to claim the merit of an early repentance, even met the invader on the borders, and thus procured more advantageous terms than they otherwise would have obtained. Among those who thus started for the goal of slavery, few shared more largely in the wages of iniquity than Sir John Menteith. Having met Sir Aymer de Valence at Annan, he found means to acquire so much of his confidence, as to induce that favourite of Edward to obtain for him, not only a confirmation of the governorship of Dumbarton castle, but also an extension of his authority, over the whole of the district of Lennox. While affairs were in this situation, accounts were brought to the English camp, that the bugle of Wallace had been heard at midnight among the woods on the banks of the Tay; and a body of troops, under the command of Sir John Butler, were despatched in pursuit of him. This officer, two of whose relations had already fallen by the hand of Wallace, set forward with alacrity to execute the service assigned to him. But, after ranging the country in all directions, he was at last obliged to return without having once seen the object of whom he was in search, although the reports brought him by his scouts, as well as the evasive answers of the inhabitants, convinced him of the certainty of Wallace being in the country. In the early part of our narrative, we alluded to the admirable discipline which Wallace had introduced among his countrymen, and the facility with which, by the sound of his horn, he could rally them around him in cases of emergency. From the frequency with which these calls had been made, there was scarcely a district in Scotland where his war-note was not understood and obeyed with alacrity. Though this was the case, we do not mean to say, that all who attended its summons were animated by pure and disinterested patriotism. To the ears of many, it probably sounded only as an invitation to divide the property of their more wealthy enemies; whom--under so daring and fortunate a leader--they never doubted of being able to conquer; and it is likely that they would have obeyed the call with the same promptitude, had it summoned them to a foray against some neighbouring clan: but the generosity with which he divided his own share of the booty among those who had suffered most, or had borne themselves with the greatest gallantry in the conflict, gained him a complete ascendancy over the discordant materials of which his little armies were frequently composed; and rendered him more formidable to an invader, than all the jarring aristocracy put together. It is therefore not surprising that the report of his return should have caused alarm among the English.