Bannockburn.]

sorrow of King Robert, who knew him well. Argentine was then deemed the flower of English knighthood, and had but lately returned from Palestine and the wars of Henry of Luxembourg. Sir Robert Clifford, renowned in the Scottish wars, and Sir Edward Mauley, Seneschal of England, were also killed; 200 knights and 700 esquires of high birth and blood, inheritors of the noblest names in England, with more than 30,000 of the common file, filled up the roll of slaughter.

Leaving his mighty host to its fate, Edward in his confusion, after making a great circuit, rode to Stirling, where he sought admittance to the castle; but De Mowbray was true to his pledge, and refused to open the gates. The unfortunate king was then compelled to take the road for England, pursued by Sir James Douglas on the spur, with sixty horse. At length the worn fugitive reached the castle of Dunbar, where he was hospitably received by the traitorous Earl of March, who sent him in a fishing skiff to Berwick, "leaving behind him the finest army a King of England ever commanded."

The Scottish loss was very small; Sir William Vipont and Sir Walter Ross were the only persons of consideration who fell. A list of the English lords and knights killed or taken will be found in Trivet's Annals, and the quantity of spoil gained by the victors was inestimable; while the ransoms for life and liberty paid by the prisoners added to the treasury of the long-impoverished Scots.

The Earl of Hereford with a few others fled to Bothwell, where they possessed themselves of the castle; but had soon to surrender.

The castle of Stirling capitulated on the day after the battle. Barbour records that two hundred ¦ pairs of gilded spurs were found on the English dead; many of whom lay long unburied, especially at a place called Polmaise, which signifies "the pool of rotting." Among the prisoners was taken Roger de Northburge, Keeper of the Privy Seal, with the seal itself, which Bruce sent to Edward, on condition that it should never more be used. Scottish historians narrate the great stores found in the English camp, the vessels of gold and silver, the splendid armour, rich apparel, sumptuous horse and tent furniture, and, though last not least, the chest of money for paying the troops.

"O day of vengeance and misfortune!" exclaimed William of Malmesbury; "odious and accursed day! unworthy to be included in the circle of the year, which tarnished the glory of England, and

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enriched the Scots with the plunder of the precious stuffs of our nation to the extent of two hundred thousand pounds (about two millions of our present money); how many illustrious nobles and valiant youths, what numbers of excellent horses and beautiful arms, precious vestments and golden vessels, were carried off in one cruel day!"

King Robert sent the body of the young Earl of Gloucester home; Clifford, Argentine, and others, he interred with the honour due to their rank-the latter in the church of St. Giles at Edinburgh. Sir Marmaduke Twenge, who handed his sword to Bruce, was released and sent home without

ransom.

Such was the memorable battle of Bannockburn, which, both in its immediate consequences and its more remote effects, even to the present hour, must be regarded as one of the most important events in the annals of our country. It ended for ever the English schemes of conquest; it taught the Scots never to despair "so long as one hundred of them remained alive." Their cities had been sacked, their archives destroyed, their noblest and best had been given to the axe and the gibbet without mercy; all these horrors were over now, and the throne of Scotland was established on as solid and permanent a basis as it had been left by Alexander III. "Dark times indeed succeeded these brilliant days," says Sir Walter Scott, "and none more gloomy than those during the reign of the conqueror's son. there could be no fear or doubt, there could be no thought of despair, when Scotsmen were hanging, like hallowed reliques, above their domestic hearths the swords with which their fathers served the Bruce at Bannockburn."

Relics of the field are rarely found now, but some of the pits dug by Bruce were opened lately. These were found to have been eighteen inches deep, very close together, with a sharp-pointed stake in each. The stakes were in a state of decomposition, and offered no resistance to the spade; but the bark was sufficiently entire to show that they were of hazel. Some fragments of swords, spear-heads, horseshoes, and horse-hair (the latter mixed with whitish matter like tallow), were found in them. In allusion to the suggestion of Sir Malcolm Drummond, that these pits and the calthrops should be adopted to protect the Scottish position, the armorial supporters of the Drummond family to this day are two naked men bearing clubs, standing on ground studded with spikes; and their significant motto is, "Gang warily."

a written treaty, was now in his grave at Dunfermline; and his son, David II., a minor, was left under the care of his old comrade in arms, Randolph, Earl of Moray, as regent of the realm. About this time Edward Baliol, son of John, the whilom puppet King of Scotland, was discovered in a French prison by the Lord Beaumont, an English baron, who claimed the Scottish earldom of Buchan in right of his wife Alicia, daughter of John Comyn, the fourth earl, who had been Constable of Scotland; and deeming young Baliol a suitable instrument for his purpose, he induced him to revive his claim to the Scottish crown. Many other English nobles were in the same situation with Beaumont, having obtained grants of imaginary estates in Scotland,

he wished the enterprise well, he was ashamed to avow his approval of it. He was afraid that injustice would be imputed to him if he attacked with superior force a minor king-a boy and a brotherin-law-whose independent title had been so lately confirmed by solemn treaty and after such terrible bloodshed; but he secretly encouraged Balio in his lawless claim, connived at the muster of his forces in the north, and gave countenance to all who were disposed to join him: and with only 3,000 men this adventurer landed on the coast of Fife, and marching into the heart of the country, defeated the Earl of Mar, of whose force 12,000 are alleged to have been slain. Balio now made himself master of Perth, and at Scone was crowned by his

were

sunbeam," and every instant hundreds wounded or slain. Yet the four columns cleared the swamp, and with levelled lances, eighteen feet in length, made so furious an uphill charge upon the English, that for a few minutes the ranks of the latter were broken, and defeat seemed at hand till their reserve came on. Then, breathless and disordered by their ascent of the eminence, the illfated and ill-led Scots were unable to sustain the ground they had won.

After a brief but terrible struggle, they were borne down the hill towards the swamp. The Earl of Ross, in leading the reserve to attack the flank of the wing led by Baliol, was killed. Fighting in the van, the regent received

J.BR.

a mortal wound, and was taken prisoner, with the Earls of Sutherland and Menteith. The Scots gave way on all hands, and as the pages were the first to fly with the horses, very few of the nobles or men-atarms escaped in the bloody pursuit that ensued and was continued for some miles, chiefly by the Irish kerns, under Lord Darcy. Four thousand Scots and more lay dead on the field. Among these were the aged Malcolm, Earl of Lennox, one of the earliest adherents of Robert Bruce; Alexander Bruce, Earl of Carrick; John Campbell, Earl of Athole, nephew of the late king; John Graham, Alexander Lindesay, and other great barons; the two Frasers; and John, James, and Alan Stuart. "It may be remarked," says Lord Hailes, "that at Halidon two Stewarts fought under the banner of their chief-Alan of Dreghorn, the paternal ancestor of Charles I.; and James of Rosythe, the maternal ancestor of Oliver Cromwell." Rapin, from an old authority, states the Scots killed at 36,907 of all ranks, more than twice the number of men in the field.

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secure distance, incessantly annoyed the Scottish infantry." Aware that it had been provided by the treaty of capitulation "that Berwick should be considered as relieved in case 200 men-at-arms forced a passage into the town," the Scottish men-at-arms during the action had made a vigorous effort to achieve this, but were opposed by Edward in person, and repulsed with great loss; and after this disastrous battle, on the 20th of July, the town and castle of Berwick were surrendered according to the agreement.

SLUYS.

To unite in his own person the crowns of France and England was now the great aim of Edward's

policy. The three sons of Philip IV. had died without heirs, and Edward III. of England and Philip of Valois were rivals for the vacant throne. Edward's mother was a daughter of Philip IV., and Philip was a nephew of that monarch. The Salic Law, which enacts that no female can inherit the French throne, excluded Edward, so Philip was elected. The King of England, whose conduct to France was as lawless and unjustifiable as to his neighbours the Scots, seized all the wool and tar in his kingdom, pawned his crown and his jewels, quartered on his shield and banners the golden lilies of France, assumed "Dieu et mon Droit" as his motto, and sailed to the Continent for the purpose of asserting in battle what he conceived to be his rights; and the year 1340 witnessed a naval engagement which will bear comparison even with the most glorious achievements of more modern times. "The name of Edward III.," says Sir Harris Nicolas, "is more identified with the naval glory of England than that of any other of her sovereigns; for though the sagacious Alfred and the chivalrous Richard commanded fleets and defeated the enemy at sea, Edward gained in his own person two signal victories, fighting on one occasion until his ship actually sunk under him, and was rewarded by his subjects with the proudest title ever conferred on a British monarch-' King of the Sea.""