The Story of William Wallace(5)

The battle began. Wallace’s men were at one side of the narrow bridge over the River Forth, the English were on the other. To reach the Scots, the English force had to cross the bridge. Wallace waited for half of them to cross, then ordered his men to attack. In a short time they had won. The English commander fled away, and some of Edward’s hated governors were killed. It was a GREat victory. Never before had men fighting on their feet overthrown（打倒） knights in armour. But in the battle, Andrew Murray was badly wounded. Soon afterwards, he died. Now Wallace was Guardian alone.

Still the man of action, he led his army into northern England. They destroyed towns and took back GREat quantities of plunder（掠夺） to Scotland. During all this time  King Edward was away in France, fighting in another war. England was strong enough and rich enough to fight the French and the Scots at the same time, but Edward now decided it was time to deal with Scotland himself. He brought a great army up into the south of Scotland, although it was composed more of Welshmen and Irishmen than Englishmen. But the armoured knights, on their huge war-orses, were English.

Wallace did not advance to give battle. He knew that there was not enough food in the countryside for Edward’s army to live on. He wanted to wait until the men were so tired and hungry that they would have to turn and go home. Then he would attack. His plan almost worked. Edward could not find Wallace’s army. His men were running short of food and beginning to fight among themselves. But at last Edward, who still had Scottish helpers, managed to find out where Wallace had placed his army. The English army set off quickly to find it, and there was a long, hard battle at Falkirk. In the end, Edward won the day. Many Scots were killed, and Wallace had to hide in the forest.