128 Battle of Sark. 



division and strife. By that lonely stone the Bng-lishmen stood 

 in battle array. It may have been au excellent place for their 

 encampment, but was ill fitted as fighting- ground. Did the tide 

 ebb or flow, were the waters of the Solway otherwise than at full 

 ebb, it is obvious that the spot selected by Percy to give battle — 

 wliether by deliberate choice or in consequence of some surprise 

 — was particularly unsafe. With the Kirtle on his left Hank, the 

 Sark on his right, and the Sark and the Solway itself at his I'ear, 

 he had the odds tremendously ag-ainst him in the event of a 

 reverse. It is perhaps not unfair to postulate that the Scots had 

 in some measure surprised him ; but even in that view it was 

 surely bad generalship to pitch camp on such a dangerous spot. 



Redmane took command of the right wing or vanguard. 

 Pennington, or Openeron as he is sometimes styled, had the rear- 

 guard, with a contingent of Welshmen. I'ercy himself had the 

 middle ward. There were many archers in the English ranks. On 

 the other side •' the Scotismen," says Pitscottie, " placed tham- 

 selfBs verie craftielie." Sir John Wallace of Craigie in Ayrshire 

 was on the right wing. Herbert, Lord Maxwell of Oarlaverock, 

 and Sir Adam Johnstone of Lochwood, with their tribesmen, not 

 yet divided by deadly feud, were in the left wing. Ormond him- 

 self had the middle ward. 



Ormond was in the midst of a few cheering words to his men 

 when the combat began in earnest with a hail of bolts and arrows 

 upon the Scots so deadly that the vanguard staggered beneath it 

 and was on the point of flight. But Wallace, woi"thy of the name 

 he bore, with a brief and strenuous appeal nerved the hearts of his 

 detachment with the consciousness of a good cause and a great 

 hope of victory. " His men," says Pitscottie, " war so iuraged 

 and rushed so furiouslie upoun tliair enemies with aixes, spearis, 

 and halbertis, and maid so great slauchter at the first to-cuming 

 that they pat the Inglismen cleane aback from thair standard and 

 compelled thame at the last to tak the tlyght." Redmane, deter- 

 mined to retrieve the impending disaster, dashed forward, too 

 daringly, says Boece, to assail Wallace, but, hemmed in by the 

 files of Scots, he was slain himself. A great triumph shout rose 

 amongst the Scots that he had fallen ; it echoed, carrying dismay 

 as it went, through the Eng'lish ranks. '' Thair cam sick fear and 

 dreadour upoun thame that they might not long susteane the preas 

 of the Scottismen bot gave backs." The Scots followed up their 



