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An excerpt from The Scottish Chiefs
by Jane Porter
1810

FROM CHAPTER XXXVI

...While the countess of Mar was devising her plans (for the gaining of Lord Buchan was only a preliminary measure), the despatches of Wallace had taken effect.  Their simple details, and the voice of fame, had roused a general spirit throughout the land; and in the course of a very short time after the different messengers had left Stirling, the plain around the city was covered with a mixed multitude.  All Scotland seemed pressing to throw itself at the feet of its preserver.  A large body of men brought from Mar by Murray, according to his uncle's orders, were amongst the first encamped on the Carse; and that part of Wallace's own particular band which he had left at Dumbarton, to recover their wounds, now, under the command of Stephen Ireland, rejoined their lord at Stirling.

Neil Campbell, the brave lord of Loch-awe, and Lord Bothwell, the father of Lord Andrew Murray, with a strong reinforcement, arrived from Argyleshire.  The chiefs of Ross, Dundas, Gordon, Lockhart, Logan, Elphinstone, Scott, Erskine, Lindsay, Cameron, and of almost every noble family in Scotland, sent theirs sons at the head of detachments from their clans, to swell the victorious ranks of Sir William Wallace.

When this patriotic host assembled on the Carse of Stirling, every inmate of the city, who had not duty to confine him within the walls, turned out to view the glorious sight.  Mounted on a rising ground, they saw each little army, and the emblazoned banners of all the chivalry of Scotland floating afar over the lengthened ranks.

At this moment, the lines which guarded the outworks of Stirling opened from right to left, and discovered Wallace advancing on a white charger.  When the conqueror of Edward's hosts appeared ­ the deliverer of Scotland ­ a mighty shout, from the thousands around, rent the skies, and shook the earth on which they stood...

Editor's Note:  There is no documented proof that "Camerons" were present with William Wallace at Stirling Bridge.  In the author's preface she stated: "I have spared no pains in consulting almost every writing extant which treats of the sister kingdom during the period of my narrative.  It would be tedious to swell this page with a list of these authorities; but all who are intimate with our old British historians must perceive, on reading the Scottish Chiefs, that in the sketch which history would have laid down for the biography of my principal hero, I have made no addition, excepting where, time having made some erasure, a stroke was necessary to fill the space and unite the outline.  Tradition has been a great assistance to me in this respect, and for much valuable information on the subject, I am indebted to the bard of Hope, my friend Mr. Thomas Campbell; he who has so nobly mingled the poet's bays with the laurels of his clan."

Was Ms. Porter simply, in her own words, using a "stroke," to "fill the space and unite the outline," or did she have another source that justified including the Camerons?  For while the written history of Clan Cameron does reach back to the days of Wallace, they would probably have simply been known as the Clan Mael-anfhaidh, the confederation of three tribes, namely the MacMartins of Letterfinlay, the Macgillonies and the MacSorlies of Glennevis.  Granted, a Cameron did sign the Declaration of Arbroath a few years later, but there is insufficient proof to make any "blanket statement" that the "Camerons" were with Wallace at Stirling, especially as a unified, organized clan.