Note 37 — Chapter V · STATE OF SCOTLAND AFTER THE RETURN OF EDWARD.—VARIOUS EXPLOITS OF WALLACE.—BALIOL DELIVERED OVER TO THE POPE.—THE SCOTS BESIEGE STIRLING CASTLE.—EDWARD RAISES AN ARMY FOR ITS RELIEF.—THE ENGLISH BARONS REFUSE TO ACCOMPANY HIM.—SURRENDER OF STIRLING CASTLE.—CONDUCT OF CUMYN.

It is very probable that Edward had evidence in his possession of the commission of regency he had granted to Wallace. The English monarch had too many secret emissaries in Scotland, to remain long ignorant of a matter of such importance. What Baliol might say to the contrary would therefore meet with little credit; and his apparent duplicity, no doubt, prompted the following remark, which, according to Walsingham, Edward made use of, on delivering him to the Nuncio. “I send him to the Pope as a perjured man, and a seducer of the people.”