Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 1.djvu/167

 Stand into bataill them agayne; With all thair mycht, and all thair mayne, Thai layid on, as men out off wyt. And quhar thai, with full strak, mycht hyt, Thar mycht na armur stynt thair strak. Thai to fruchyt that thai mycht ourtak. And with axys such dusches gave, That thai helmys, and heds, clave. And thair fayis rycht bardely Met thaim, and dung on them douchtely, With wapyngs that war styth off stele. Thar wes the bataill strekyt weill. Sa gret dyn that wes off dynts, As wapyngs apon armur stynts; And off spers sa gret bresting; And sic thrang, and sic thrysting; Sic gyrning, granyng; and sa gret A noyis, as thai gan othyr beit: And ensenyeys on ilka sid: Gewand, and takand, wounds wid; That it wes hidwyss for to her.—Book xiii. l. 14 & 138.

The apostrophe to Freedom, after the painful description of the slavery to which Scotland was reduced by Edward, is in a style of poetical feeling very uncommon in that and many subsequent ages, and has been quoted with high praise by the most distinguished Scottish historians and critics:—