The wife of Crawfurd having refused to answer their inquiries regarding the route of her visitors, they were proceeding, by violent measures, to compel her to disclose the place of their retreat, when Wallace, ascertaining the danger to which she was exposed, advanced from the thicket, and sounded a bold defiance to the enemy. The situation he had chosen was such as could only be assailed from three narrow and rugged paths. These he proposed to guard, by dividing his little party, which consisted only of about twenty men, into three divisions;--with the smallest of these he undertook to defend the path that was most exposed to the enemy’s attacks. Butler was not long in commencing the assault, which he did by a simultaneous movement on all those little parties of the Scots. The resistance, however, which he met with, aided by the rugged nature of the ascent, rendered all the ardour of his troops unavailing. As the evening advanced, he called them off; and having beat a chamade, he attempted to persuade Wallace to surrender, by representing the folly of continuing a resistance which must at last terminate in the ruin of himself and his friends. Our hero replied, by advising him to stand to his arms; for in place of surrendering, he intended, before morning, to become the assailant; and he gave him this warning, in return for the care which he had shown for himself and his companions. Irritated by this coolness, Butler determined to take every precaution to prevent his escape; and for this purpose kept his men under arms all night. Wallace, however, was as good as his word; for at daybreak, under cover of a thick mist, he descended at the head of his little band, and, before the enemy was aware of his approach, broke into that quarter where Butler had his station. The surprise occasioned by his sudden appearance, threw the English into confusion, which their uncertainty as to the number of their assailants greatly increased; and availing himself of the disorder into which they were thrown, Wallace pressed forward, and came in contact with Butler, who, after a slight resistance, fell beneath his arm. The Scots having forced their way through the enemy, Wallace now discovered that their faithful host Crawfurd had been left behind. Returning, therefore, to the charge, he was fortunately in time to save him from the spear of an English soldier, whom he slew; and grasping his wounded friend in one of his arms, he carried him off in triumph to his companions. Favoured, by the denseness of the fog, the gallant little band were soon lost to their pursuers. Though thus relieved from their perilous situation, they are said to have suffered the greatest privations in the wild and unfrequented solitudes to which they were now obliged to retire. However, their indefatigable chief, always fertile in expedients, found means to preserve them from actual starvation, till Edward withdrew his troops, for the purpose of resuming his march of