Chapter XXIV
The Progress of the War
A mile or two after leaving Berwick the cart had left the main roadrunning by the coast through Dunbar to Edinburgh, and had struckwest by a country track. But few houses were met with, as thewhole of the country within many miles of the sea had been harriedand devastated by the various English armies which had advancedfrom Berwick. After proceeding for some miles they came to a pointwhere the track they had been following terminated at a little hamletamong the hills. Here they left the cart, making an arrangement withone of the villagers to drive it back on the morrow into Berwick.They were now beyond all risk of pursuit, and need fear nothingfurther until they reached the great north roads running fromCarlisle to Edinburgh and Stirling. Cluny therefore resumed maleattire. They had no difficulty in purchasing a couple of swordsfrom the peasants of the village, and armed with these they startedwith Marjory and the two women over the hills. It was early autumnnow; the weather was magnificent, and they made the distance inquiet stages, and crossing the Pentlands came down upon Aberfillywithout meeting with a single danger or obstacle.
It needs not to describe the joy of Archie's mother at his return.The news spread like lightning among the tenantry, and in an hourafter the wayfarers reached the castle men and women could be seenflocking over the hills at the top of their speed to express theirdelight and enthusiasm at their lord's return. By nightfall everytenant on the estate, save those prevented by age or illness, hadassembled at the castle, and the rejoicings which had taken placeat the marriage of their lord were but tame and quiet beside theboisterous enthusiasm which was now exhibited.
Although Marjory had at first been welcomed for the sake of herhusband, the fact that she was a Kerr had excited a deep thoughhidden hostility to her in the minds both of those who had beenher father's vassals at Aberfilly, and the old retainers of theForbeses at Glen Cairn. The devotion and courage which she had shownin the defence of the castle and in the enterprise for the rescueof their lord swept away every vestige of this feeling, and henceforthMarjory ranked in their affections with Archie himself, and therewas not a man upon the estate but felt that he could die for herif needs be.
After a week's stay at home Archie rode away and joined the king,taking, however, but four or five retainers with him. Bruce receivedhim with extreme warmth. He had heard of his capture, and the newsthat he was condemned to die at Berwick had also reached him, andhe had no doubt but Archie had shared the fate which had befallenhis own brothers and so many of his bravest friends. His pleasure,therefore, equalled his surprise when his brave follower rode intohis camp. Many of Archie's friends assembled as soon as it wasknown that he had arrived; and after the first greetings the kingasked him for a recital of the means by which he had escaped fromthe fate decreed him by Edward. Archie related the whole story,and at its conclusion the king called to his attendants to bringgoblets and wine.
"Sirs," he said, "let us drink to the health of Mistress MarjoryForbes, one of the bravest and truest of Scotch women. Would toHeaven that all the men of our country were animated by as noble andcourageous feelings! Our friend, Sir Archibald Forbes, has indeedwon a jewel, and I take no small credit to myself that I was thefirst who advised him to make Mistress Kerr his wife."
The toast was given with enthusiasm; but Archie afterwards protestedagainst the king assuming any credit to himself in the matter, since,although it was true that he had advised him to marry Mistress MaryKerr, he had wished him to abandon, for her sake, Mistress Marjory,the niece of Alexander MacDougall, who had set him free from heruncle's hold of Dunstaffnage.
"Now, Archie," the king said, when they were again alone together,"I suppose, seeing that you have come hither without your following,that you wish for a time to remain quiet at home, and seeing thatyou have suffered severe imprisonment and a grievous risk of deathin my cause, methinks you have well earned the right to rest quietfor a while with your brave lady. At present I can dispense withthe services of your retainers. Most of the low country is now inmy hands, and the English garrisons dare not venture out of theirstrong places. The army that the King of England collected to crushus has been, I hear, much disorganized by his death, and the baronswill doubtless wring concessions and privileges from his son beforethey spread their banners to the wind again. From all reports thenew king has but little of his father's ability and energy, andmonths may elapse before any serious effort is made against us.I am despatching my brother Edward to join Douglas in subduingGalloway, and during his absence I shall be content to remain herein the field with a small following, for the English governorsof the towns will, methinks, stand only on the defensive, until astrong army marches north from England. When Galloway is subduedthe lowlands will be all in my hands save for the English garrisons,and I shall on Edward's return set myself to punish the Comyns andthe other traitor nobles of the north, who are well nigh all handand glove with the English. So long as Scotland has such powerfulenemies in her midst she cannot hope to cope with the forces whichEngland can send against her. Alone and united the task is onewhich will tax her strength to the utmost, seeing that England isin wealth and population so far her superior, and Edward disposesof the force of Ireland, of Wales, and of Gascony; therefore myfirst task must be to root out these traitor nobles from among us.When I move north I shall need your company and your strength; butuntil Edward has cleared the English out of Galloway, captured thestrongholds, and reduced it to obedience, you can stop in Aberfilly,and there at times, when I have no enterprise on hand and can takea few days, I will come and rest if you will give me hospitality."
So until the following spring Archie Forbes remained quietly andmost happily at home. Several times the king came and stayed a fewdays at Aberfilly, where he was safe against surprise and treachery.Not long after Archie's return home, Father Anselm arrived, toArchie's satisfaction and the great joy of Marjory, and took uphis abode there.
In the spring Archie, with his retainers, joined the king, who wasgathering his army for his march into the north. During the winterGalloway had been subdued, and Douglas being left in the south ascommander there, Edward Bruce joined his brother, around whom alsogathered the Earl of Lennox, Sir Gilbert de la Haye, and others.The position in Scotland was now singular: the whole of thecountry south of the Forth was favourable to Bruce, but the Englishheld Roxburgh, Jedburgh, Dumfries, Castle Douglas, Ayr, Bothwell,Edinburgh, Linlithgow, Stirling, and Dumbarton. North of the Forthnearly the whole of the country was hostile to the king, and thefortresses of Perth, Dundee, Forfar, Brechin, Aberdeen, Inverness,and many smaller holds, were occupied by English garrisons.
The centre of hostility to Bruce, north of the Forth, lay in the twogreat earls, the Comyns of Badenoch and Buchan, and their allies.Between them and Bruce a hatred existed beyond that caused bytheir taking opposite sides. Comyn of Badenoch was the son of theman Bruce had slain at Dumfries, while Buchan hated him even more,since his wife, the countess, had espoused the cause of Bruce andhad crowned him at Scone, and was now shamefully imprisoned in thecage at Berwick. It must be supposed that Buchan's anger againsthis countess was as deep and implacable as that of Edward himself,for, as the English king's most powerful ally in Scotland, he couldsurely have obtained the pardon and release of his wife had hedesired it. On the other hand, Bruce had a private grudge againstComyn, for upon him had been conferred Bruce's lordship of Annandale,and he had entered into possession and even occupied the familycastle of Lochmaben.
The king and his army marched north, and were joined by Alexanderand Simon Frazer, with their followers. They marched to Inverness,which, with various other castles in the north, they captured. All ofthese castles were, when taken, destroyed, as Bruce had determinedto leave no strongholds in the land for the occupation of hisenemies. He himself could not spare men to hold them, and theircapture was useless if upon his retirement they could again beoccupied by the enemy. Returning southward they were encounteredby an army under Buchan, composed of his own retainers and a partyof
English. This force was completely defeated.
To the consternation of his followers Bruce was now attacked by awasting illness, which so enfeebled him that he was unable to siton his horse; it was the result of the many privations and hardshipswhich he had undergone since the fight at Methven. His brother,Lennox, the Frazers, and Archie Forbes held a council and agreedthat rest for some time was absolutely necessary for the king, andthat sea air might be beneficial to him. They therefore resolvedto move eastward to the Castle of Slaines, on the sea coastnear Peterhead. That such a step was attended by great peril theywell knew, for the Comyns would gather the whole strength of theHighlands, with accessions from the English garrisons, and besiegethem there. The king's health, however, was a paramount consideration;were he to die, the blow might be fatal to Scotland, accordinglythe little force marched eastward. They reached Slaines withoutinterruption, and as they expected the castle was soon surrounded andbesieged by the forces of Buchan, who had been joined by Sir JohnMowbray and Sir David de Brechin, nephew of the King of England. Forsome time the siege went on, but the assailants gained but littleadvantage, and indeed trusted rather to famine than force to reducethe castle.
Weeks passed on, and although his followers thought that he wassomewhat better, the king's health improved but slowly. Provisionsnow began to run very short. When they had come nearly to an endthe Scots determined to sally out and cut their way through thevastly superior strength of the enemy. The king was placed in alitter, his mounted knights and followers surrounded him, and roundthese the footmen formed a close clump of pikes; the hundred menfrom Aberfilly formed the front rank, as these could be best reliedupon to withstand the charge of the English horse. The gates werethrown open, and in close ranks the garrison sallied out, forming,as soon as they passed through, in the order arranged. So closeand serried was the hedge of spears, so quiet and determined theattitude of the men, that, numerous as they were, the men of Buchanand the English lords shrank from an encounter with such adversaries,and with the banner of the king and his knights flying in theircentre the little band marched on through the lines of the besiegerswithout the latter striking a blow to hinder their way.
Without interruption the royalists proceeded to Strathbogie. Thesatisfaction of the king at the daring exploit by which he had beenrescued from such imminent peril did more for him than medicine orchange of air, and to the joy of his followers he began to recoverhis strength. He was then moved down to the river Don. Here Buchanand his English allies made a sudden attack upon his quarters,killing some of the outposts. This attack roused the spirit andenergy of the king, and he immediately called for his war horseand armour and ordered his men to prepare for action. His followersremonstrated with him, but he declared that this attack by hisenemies had cured him more speedily than medicine could have done,and heading his troops he issued forth and came upon the enemynear Old Meldrum, where, after a desperate fight, Buchan and hisconfederates were defeated with great slaughter on Christmas day,1307. Buchan and Mowbray fled into England. Brechin took refugein his own castle of Brechin, where he was afterwards besieged andforced to surrender.
Bruce now marched into the territory of Comyn, where he took a terriblevengeance for the long adhesion of his hated enemy to England. Thewhole country was wasted with fire and sword, the people well nighexterminated, and the very forests destroyed. So terrible was thedevastation that for generations afterwards men spoke of the harryingof Buchan as a terrible and exceptional act of vengeance.
The castle of Aberdeen was next invested. The English made greatefforts for its succour, but the citizens joined Bruce, and aunited attack being made upon the castle it was taken by assaultand razed to the ground. The king and his forces then moved intoAngus. Here the English strongholds were all taken, the castleof Forfar being assaulted and carried by a leader who was calledPhillip, a forester of Platane. With the exception of Perth, themost important fortress north of the Forth, and a few minor holds,the whole of the north of Scotland, was now in the king's hands.In the meantime Sir James Douglas, in the south, had again takenhis paternal castle and had razed it to the ground. The forests ofSelkirk and Jedburgh, with the numerous fortresses of the district,were brought under the king's authority, and the English were severaltimes defeated. In the course of these adventures Sir James cameacross Alexander Stewart, Thomas Randolph, the king's nephew,who, after being taken prisoner at Methven, had joined the Englishparty, and Adam O'Gordon. They advanced with a much superior forceto capture him, but were signally defeated. O'Gordon escaped intoEngland, but Stewart and Randolph were taken.
This was a fortunate capture, for Randolph afterwards became one ofthe king's most valiant knights and the wisest of his counsellors.After this action Douglas marched north and joined the king. Thelatter sternly reproached Randolph for having forsworn his allegianceand joined the English. Randolph answered hotly and was committedby his uncle to solitary confinement, where he presently came toa determination to renew his allegiance to Bruce, and henceforwardfought faithfully and gallantly under him.
Galloway had risen again, and Edward Bruce, with Sir Archie Forbes,was detached to reduce it. It was a hard task, for the localchiefs were supported by Sir Ingram de Umfraville and Sir John deSt. John; these knights, with 1200 followers, met the Scots on thebanks of the Cree, which separates the countries of Kirkcudbrightand Wigton, and although greatly superior in numbers, were completelydefeated by the Scottish pikemen, and compelled to take refuge inthe castle of Butele. Edward Bruce and Archie continued the taskof subjugating the country; but St. John having retired to England,returned with fifteen hundred men-at-arms, and with this strong forceset out in pursuit of the small body of Scots, of whom he thoughtto make an easy capture. Then occurred one of the most singular andbrilliant feats of arms that took place in a war in which deeds ofdaring abounded. Edward Bruce having heard from the country peopleof the approach of his adversaries, placed his infantry in a strongposition, and then, with Archie Forbes and the fifty men-at-armswho constituted his cavalry, went out to reconnoitre the approachof the English. The morning was thick and misty. Ignorant of eachother's position, the two forces were in close vicinity, when thefog suddenly lifted, and Edward Bruce and Archie beheld close tothem the overwhelming force of St. John, within bowshot distance.It was too late to fly. Edward Bruce exclaimed to Archie:
"There is nothing for it but to charge them."
"Let us charge them," Archie replied.
The two leaders, setting spurs to their horses, and closely followedby their fifty retainers, dashed like a thunderbolt upon the massof the English men-at-arms, before these, taken equally by surprise,had time to form, and burst clean through them, overthrowing andslaying many, and causing the greatest confusion and surprise.Riding but a short distance on, the Scots turned, and again burstthrough the English lines. Numbers of the English were slain,and many others turned rein. A third time the Scots charged, withequally fatal effect. The English were completely routed. Manywere killed and many taken prisoners, and the rest rode for Englandat their best speed. History scarcely recalls another instance of50 men routing in fair fight 1500. This extraordinary success wasfollowed by a victory over Sir Roland of Galloway and Donald ofthe Isles on the banks of the Dee, the Lord of the Isles being madeprisoner; and eventually the whole country was reduced to obedience,with the exception of one or two garrisons, no less than thirteencastles being captured, in addition to the victories gained in thefield.
Galloway being restored to order, Archie Forbes returned home, andremained for two or three months with his wife and mother. He wasthen summoned by the king to join him again, as he was about tomarch to reduce the region over which his deadly foes Alexanderand John of Lorne held sway. The country into which the royal armynow penetrated was extremely mountainous and difficult, but theymade their way as far as the head of Loch Awe, where Alexander andJohn of Lorne, with 2000 men, were gathered to dispute the passage.The position was an extremely strong one, and the Lornes wereconfident that i
t could not be forced. Immediately to the northof the head of the lake rises the steep and lofty mountain BenGruachan. From the head of the lake flows the river Awe connectingit with Loch Etive, and the level space between the foot of themountain and the river is only wide enough for two to ride abreast.This passage was known as the Pass of Brander, and the Lornes mightwell believe that their position was unassailable.
Before advancing into the pass Bruce detached Douglas, with SirAlexander Frazer, Sir William Wiseman, and Sir Andrew Grey, witha body of lightly armed infantry and archers. These, unnoticed bythe enemy, climbed the side of the mountain, and going far up it,passed along until they got behind and above the enemy. The kingordered his main body to lay aside all defensive armour so thatthey could more easily climb the hill and come to a hand to handconflict with the enemy. Then he moved along towards the narrowpass. As they approached it the men of Lorne hurled down a torrentof rocks from the hillside above.
With a few heavy armed men Bruce pushed forward by the water side,while Archie Forbes led the main body up the hillside. The climb wasstiff and difficult, and many were swept down by the rocks hurledby the enemy; but at last they came to close quarters with the foe,and a desperate struggle ensued.
In the meantime Douglas and his party had attacked the defendersfrom the other side, at first showering arrows among them, andthen falling upon them with sword and battleaxe. Thus attacked infront and rear, the men of Lorne lost heart and gave way. On bothsides the royalists pressed them hotly, and at last they brokefrom the hillside and fled down to the river, intending to crossby a wooden bridge and destroy it behind them, but before many hadpassed Douglas with his followers arrived upon the spot and seizedthe bridge, cutting off their retreat. Great numbers of the men ofLorne were slain, and the survivors made their escape up the mountainside again. The Lornes themselves were on board some galleys onLoch Awe, their intention having been to land in Bruce's rear whenhe was fairly entangled in the narrow pass. On witnessing the utterdiscomfiture of their followers they rowed rapidly away, and landedfar down the lake. Alexander fled to England, where he ended hislife.
Bruce now advanced through the country of Lorne, which, havingnever suffered from the English raids that had over and over againdevastated the rest of Scotland, was rich and flourishing, and largequantities of booty were obtained. Dunstaffnage was besieged andcaptured, and having received hostages from all the minor chiefsfor their good behaviour the king and his army returned to Glasgow.
In the following spring a truce was negotiated by the interventionof the King of France between the belligerents; but its duration wasbut short, for so long as English nobles held estates and occupiedcastles in Scotland breaches of the peace would be constantlyoccurring. Bruce besieged the castle of Rutherglen, near Glasgow;but Edward despatched the Earl of Gloucester to raise the siege,and as Bruce's army was still small he was forced to retire at hisapproach.
In February, 1309, the clergy of Scotland assembled in a provincialcouncil at Dundee, and issued a declaration in favour of Bruceas lawful king of Scotland. In this document they set forth thatalthough Baliol was made king of Scotland by the King of England,Bruce, the grandfather of the king, was always recognized by thepeople as being nearest in right; and they said: "If any one, onthe contrary, claim right to the aforesaid kingdom in virtue ofletters in time passed sealed, and containing the consent of thepeople and the commons, know ye that all this took place in factby force and violence, which could not at the time be resisted,and through multiplied fears, bodily tortures, and various terrors."
This document was sealed by all the bishops, as representing theclergy. A similar document was drawn up and signed by the estatesof Scotland. Therefore, henceforth Bruce could claim to be the kingnot only as crowned and by right, but by the approval and consentof the clergy and people of Scotland. A few months afterwards James,the Steward of Scotland, whose course had ever been vacillating, died,and his son Walter, a loyal Scotsman, succeeded him. He afterwardsmarried the king's daughter Marjory, and became the founder of theroyal line of Stuart.