As soon as the truce was over Wallace again attacked the English.  For a time he abode with the Earl of Lennox, who was one of the few who had refused to take the oath of allegiance, and having recruited his force, he stormed the stronghold called the Peel of Gargunnock, near Stirling.  Then he entered Perth, leaving his followers in Methven Wood, and hearing that an English reinforcement was upon the march, formed an ambush, fell upon them, and defeated them; and pressing hotly upon them entered so close on their heels into Kincleven Castle, that the garrison had no time to close the gate, and the place was captured.  Great stores and booty were found here; these were carried to the woods, and the castle was burned to the ground, as that of Gargunnock had been, as Wallace’s force was too small to enable him to hold these strongholds.  Indignant at this enterprise so close to their walls the English moved out the whole garrison, 1000 strong, against Wallace, who had with him but fifty men in all.  After a desperate defence, in which Sir John Butler and Sir William de Loraine, the two officers in command, were killed by Wallace himself, the latter succeeded in drawing off his men; 120 of the English were killed in the struggle, of whom more than twenty are said to have fallen at the hands of Wallace alone.  Many other similar deeds did Wallace perform; his fame grew more and more, as did the feeling among the Scotch peasantry that in him they had found their champion and leader.

Archie eagerly drank in the tale of Wallace’s exploits, and his soul was fired by the desire to follow so valiant a leader.  He was now sixteen, his frame was set and vigorous, and exercise and constant practice with arms had hardened his muscles.  He became restless with his life of inactivity; and his mother, seeing that her quiet and secluded existence was no longer suitable for him, resolved to send him to her sister’s husband, Sir Robert Gordon, who dwelt near Lanark.  Upon the night before he started she had a long talk with him.

“I have long observed, my boy,” she said, “the eagerness with which you constantly practise at arms; and Sandy tells me that he can no longer defend himself against you.  Sandy, indeed is not a young man, but he is still hale and stout, and has lost but little of his strength.  Therefore it seems that, though but a boy, you may be considered to have a man’s strength, for your father regarded Sandy as one of the stoutest and most skilful of his men-at-arms.  I know what is in your thoughts; that you long to follow in your father’s footsteps, and to win back the possessions of which you have been despoiled by the Kerrs.  But beware, my boy; you are yet but young; you have no friends or protectors, save Sir Robert Gordon, who is a peaceable man, and goes with the times; while the Kerrs are a powerful family, able to put a strong body in the field, and having many powerful friends and connections throughout the country.  It is our obscurity which has so