generally believed to have been owing principally to him that the English sustained the mortifying defeat. 1304. Early in the spring Edward discovered, that, through the exertions of Wallace and Frazer, a body of troops had been got together; in order to disperse which, before it became too formidable, he took the field, and proceeded towards Stirling, in the neighbourhood of which it had assembled. The force under the patriots, however, when compared with the enemy, was so very insignificant, that they prudently retreated to their former places of refuge. On the 21st April the siege of Stirling commenced, and continued without intermission till the 24th July; thus occupying Edward and his army for three months and three days, during which time every artifice was put in practice, and every piece of mechanism then known was directed against the besieged. The stubbornness of the garrison, however, seemed to increase as the means of annoyance multiplied around them; and the anxiety of Edward to gain this last stronghold of the liberties of Scotland was displayed, by his close and unremitting attendance on the details of the siege. Though now advanced in years, he is represented as exposing himself with all the imprudent gallantry of a youthful warrior; and on one or two occasions he had nearly fallen a victim to his temerity. While riding near the walls, a stone, from one of the engines at work on the rampart, struck the ground before him with so much violence, that his horse backed, and fell under him; and at another time, a javelin, thrown by a soldier on the wall, struck him on the breast, and stuck between the plates of his armour. The point of the missile, however, had not pierced the skin. Pulling it out with his hand, he shook it in defiance, and loudly proclaimed that he would hang the villain who had hit him. In the mean time, the engines belonging to the castle were so well managed, and the enormous stones which they threw, so skilfully directed, that great numbers of the besiegers were destroyed.