But freeman; and a freeman he resolved to die. All his endeavours to rouse his countrymen were, however, in vain. The season of resistance was, for the present, past. Wallace perceived that there remained no more hope, and sought out a place of concealment, where, eluding the vengeance of Edward, he might silently lament over his fallen country. Nothing now remained in Scotland unconquered except the castle of Stirling, which was at length compelled to surrender. Wallace still lived; and while he existed, though without forces, and without an ostensible place of residence, his countrymen were not absolutely without hope, nor Edward without fear. Every exertion was made to discover his retreat; and at length he was betrayed into the hands of the English. He was brought to Westminster, and arraigned there as a traitor to Edward, and as having burnt villages, stormed castles, and slaughtered many subjects of England. 'I never was a traitor,' exclaimed Wallace indignantly. 'What injury I could do to Edward, the enemy of my liege sovereign and of my country, I have done, and I glory in it.' Sentence of death was pronounced against him, and immediately executed, with that studied rigour in the circumstances of the punishment which, while seeking to make impressions of terror, excites pity. His head was placed on a pinnacle at London, and his mangled limbs were distributed over the land. Thus cruelly perished a man whom Edward could never subdue, and whose only crime was an invincible attachment to freedom and independence. Who would not fight to the bitter end for such a noble purpose? Those ills that mortal men endure So long are capable of cure, But that denied, a grief, though small, As they of freedom may be sure; Shakes the whole roof, or ruins all.' EDWARD THE BLACK PRINCE. Our next warrior is Edward the Black Prince, a famous name in the French wars of England. He was the eldest son of Edward III., of whose great triumph on the field of Cressy we have already spoken in connection with the great deeds of famous monarchs. It is enough for the present to say that the Black Prince was born in 1330, and that in 1345 he accompanied his father in his expedition to France, and displayed unusual heroism when engaged with the enemy. We passover eleven years, and come to the year 1356. On the 19th of September, in that year, the battle of Poitiers, the second great battle fought by the English on French soil in pursuit of their chimerical claim to the crown of that country, was won by the Black Prince. Like the battle of Cressy, it was a victory in the face of an overwhelming supe riority in numbers. Whilst the army of the French king mustered 60,000 horse alone, besides foot soldiers, the whole force of Edward, horse and foot together, did not exceed 10,000 men. The engagement was not sought by the Black Prince, but was forced upon him, in consequence of his having come unexpectedly on the rear of the French army in the neighbourhood of Poitiers, to which town he had advanced in the course of a devastating expedition from Guienne, without being aware of the proximity of the French monarch. Finding that the whole of the surrounding country swarmed with the enemy, and that his retreat was effectually cut off, his first feeling seems to have been one of consternation. 'God help us!' he exclaimed, and then he courageously added: 'We must consider how we can best fight them.' A strong position amid hedges and vineyards was taken up by him; and as night was then approaching, the English troops prepared themselves for repose in expectation of the morrow's battle. In the morning, the French monarch, King John, marshalled his forces for the combat; but just as the engagement was about to commence, Cardinal Talleyrand, the Pope's legate, arrived at the French camp, and obtained a reluctant permission to employ his offices as mediator to prevent bloodshed. whole of that day--it happened to be a Sunday-was spent by him in trotting between the two armies; but he could effect no satisfactory arrangement. The English leader made a very liberal offer to John: he proposed to return all the towns and castles which he had taken in the course of his campaign, to surrender unransomed all his prisoners, and to bind himself by oath to refrain for seven years from bearing arms against the king of France. But the latter, confiding in his superiority of numbers, insisted on the Black Prince and a hundred of his best knights surrendering themselves prisoners, a proposition which Edward and his army indignantly rejected. more Next morning at early dawn the trumpets sounded for battle, and even then the indefatigable cardinal made another attempt to stay hostilities; but when he rode over to the French camp for that purpose, he was cavalierly told to go about his business, and bring no treaties or pacifications, or it would be the worse for himself. Thus repulsed, the worthy prelate made his way to the English army, and told the Black Prince that he must do his best, as it was impossible to make the French king modify his demands. Then God defend the right!' replied Edward, and prepared at once for action. The attack was commenced by the French. A body of their The cavalry came charging down a narrow lane with the view of dislodging the English from their position; but they encountered such a galling fire from the archers who were posted behind the hedges, that they turned and fled in dismay. The It was now Edward's turn to assail, and 600 of his bowmen suddenly appeared on the flank and rear of John's second division, which was thrown into irretrievable confusion by the discharge of arrows. English knights, with the prince at their head, next charged across the open plain upon the main body of the French army. A division of cavalry, under the constable of France, for a time stood firm, but ere long was broken and dispersed, their leader and most of his knights being slain. A body of reserve, under the Duke of Orleans, fled shamefully without striking a blow. King John did his best to turn the fortune of the day. Accompanied by his youngest son, Philip, a boy of sixteen, who fought by his side, he led up on foot a division of troops to the encounter. After having received two wounds in the face and been thrown to the ground, he rose, and for a time defended himself manfully with his battleaxe against the crowd of assailants by whom he was surrounded. The brave monarch would certainly have been slain had not a French knight, named Sir Denis, who had been banished for killing a man in a fray, and in consequence joined the English service, burst through the press of combatants, and exclaimed to John in French, Sire, surrender!' The king, who now felt that his position was desperate, replied, 'To whom shall I surrender? Where is my cousin the Prince of Wales?' 'He is not here,' answered Sir Denis; 'but surrender to me, and I will conduct you to him.' 'But who are you?' rejoined the king. 'Denis de Morbecque,' was the reply, 'a knight of Artois; but I serve the king of England, because I cannot belong to France, having forfeited all I | had there.' 'I surrender to you,' said John, extending his right-hand glove. But this submission was almost too late to save his life, for the English were disputing with Sir Denis and the Gascons the honour of his capture, and the French king was in the utmost danger from their violence. At last Earl Warwick and Lord Cobham came up, and with every demonstration of respect, conducted John and his son Philip to the Black Prince, who received them with the utmost courtesy. He invited them to supper, waited himself at table on John, as his superior in age and rank, praised his valour, and endeavoured by every means in his power to diminish the humiliation of the royal captive. The day after the victory of Poitiers, the Black Prince set Edward the Black Prince died before his father: his end came in 1376. EARL OF WARWICK. short success with which he contrived to trouble the middle of the reign of Edward IV. King Henry vi. was shut up in the Tower, and Warwick engaged, with the assistance of the king of France and of the Lancastrians, to replace him upon the throne. suc His plans were formed in the summer of 1470. Edward received timely warning of the impending storm; but rendered over-confident by recent cesses, he made no preparation to resist it. Indeed, with singular incaution, he suffered himself to be decoyed north of the Trent, under a false pretext, thus leaving the south entirely open to an inroad. The fleet of Warwick and Clarence crossed the Channel, and a landing was effected on the 13th September, without opposition, at Portsmouth and Dartmouth. The men of Kent rose in arms, for Warwick's name had lost none of its old influence; and from every quarter people hastened to his standard with such eagerness, that he soon found himself at the head of 60,000 men. The Earl of Warwick, commonly called the king-maker, from the facility with which he created and deposed monarchs during the contest between the houses of York and Lancaster, lived in a style of magnificence and hospitality of which no period perhaps furnishes a more brilliant example. No less than 30,000 persons are said to have lived daily at his board, in the different manors and castles which he possessed; and the military, allured by his hospitality as well as his bravery, were strongly attached to his interests. Many passages might be selected from a life so full of interest: perhaps as charac-sible by the rapid defection of teristic a one as any was the Edward's adherents. The king As London and the southern counties seemed safe, Warwick proclaimed Henry, and set out to encounter Edward without delay. He turned his face towards Nottingham. It appeared certain that a great battle would be fought near that place. This, however, was rendered impos fled hastily to Lynn, in Norfolk, and embarked for Holland, while his queen, Elizabeth, took refuge in the sanctuary at Westminister. Warwick was once more a king-maker. He and Clarence made their triumphal entry into London on the 6th of October. Warwick proceeded to the Tower, and brought forth King Henry, who had now been in durance vile for five long years. The royal procession which attended the poor king to Westminister must have presented a strange contrast to that by which he had been led into the Tower. Then Warwick had ridden beside him, and had led him round the pillory, crying, 'Treason! Treason! Behold the Traitor!' Now he proclaimed him lawful king, and conducted him with great pomp through the streets of the metropolis, with the crown upon his head, attended by his prelates, nobles, and great officers to St. Paul's, where solemn thanksgiving was offered up for his restoration. Warwick fell at the battle of Barnet, in 1471, when, owing to the mistake of one part of his army falling upon the other during a fog, he was defeated by Edward the Fourth. In former battles, Warwick had always fought on horseback, that he might at once ride along the line and perceive the particulars of the action; but on this occasion he determined to fight on foot, that his soldiers might see that he was resolved to share with them the dangers of the day. It was this gallant resolution which was the great cause of his defeat; for could he have been personally present in those places where directions and assistance were wanted, the accident would, in all probability, not have happened. After having exerted himself as an officer and a hero in fruitless attempts to turn the tide of fortune in his favour, he rushed into the hottest part of the battle, and fell covered with wounds. His brother, Montacute, in endeavouring to save him, met with a similar fate. THOMAS HOWARD EARL OF Thomas Howard Earl of Surrey, and third Duke of Norfolk, will long be remembered as the victor of Flodden, an event which has thus been described :— On the evening previous to the memorable battle of Flodden, Surrey's head-quarters were at Barmoor Wood, and King James held an inaccessible position on the ridge of Flodden-hills, one of the last and lowest eminences detached from the range of Cheviot. The Till, a deep and slow river, wound between the armies. On the morning of the 9th of September 1513, Surrey marched in a north-westerly direction, and turning eastward, crossed the Till with his van and artillery at Twisel Bridge, nigh where the river joins the Tweed, the |