Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 2.djvu/64

 Towards evening the king and his associates put to sea; and when night closed upon them, they were enabled to direct their course across the firth by the light of the beacon, which still continued to burn on the heights of Turnberry. On landing they were met by the messenger, Cuthbert, with the unwelcome intelligence, that there was no hope of assistance from the people of Carrick. "Traitor," cried Bruce, "why made you then the fire?" "I made no signal," replied the man, "but observing a fire upon the hill, I feared that it might deceive you, and I hasted hither to warn you from the coast." In the perilous dilemma in which he found himself placed, Bruce hesitated upon what course he should adopt; but, urged by the more precipitate spirit of his brother Edward, and yielding at length to the dictates of his own more considerate valour, he resolved to persevere in the enterprise which, under such desperate and unexpected circumstances, had opened upon him.

The greater part of the English troops under Percy were carelessly cantoned in the town, situated at some little distance from the castle of Turnberry. Before morning their quarters were taken by surprise, and nearly the whole body, amounting to about two hundred men, put to the sword. Percy and his garrison heard from the castle the uproar and tumult of the night attack; but ignorant alike of the enemy and their numbers, and fearing a similar fate, they dared not attempt the rescue of their unfortunate companions. Bruce made prize of a rich booty, amongst which were his own war-horses and household plate. When the news of this bold and successful enterprise became known, a detachment of above a thousand men, under the command of Roger St John, were despatched from Ayr to the relief of Turnberry; and Robert, unable to oppose such a force, and expecting to be speedily joined by succours from Ireland, thought proper to retire into the mountainous parts of Carrick.

The king's brothers, Thomas and Alexander, had been, previously to Robert's departure from Rachrin, sent over into Ireland and the adjacent isles to procure assistance. They succeeded in collecting a force of about seven hundred men, with whom they endeavoured to effect a landing at Loch Ryan in Galloway, intending from thence to march into the neighbouring district of Carrick, and join themselves to the king's standard. They fatally miscarried, in the accomplishment of this object; Macdowal, a powerful chieftain of Galloway, having hastily collected his vassals, attacked the invading party before they had time to form, routed, and put many of them to the sword. The two brothers of the king and Sir Reginald Crawfurd, all of them wounded, were made prisoners; and Malcolm Mackail, lord of Kentir, and two Irish reguli or chieftains were slain. Macdowal cut off the heads of the principal persons who had fallen; and along with these bloody tokens of his triumph, presented his prisoners to king Edward, then residing at Carlisle. The two brothers and their associate, supposed by some to have been a near relation of Wallace, were ordered to immediate execution.

This disaster, coupled as it was with the insured enmity of the Gallovidians, and the near approach of the English, rendered for a time the cause of Bruce entirely hopeless, and even subjected his individual safety to the extremest hazards. His partizans either fell off or were allowed to disperse themselves for safety; while he himself often wandered alone or but slightly accompanied, among woods and morasses, relying for defence or security, sometimes on his own great personal prowess, or his intimate knowledge of that wild district, in which he had been brought up, or on the fidelity of some old attached vassal of his family. Almost all the incidents relating to Bruce, at this period of his fortunes, partake strongly of the romantic; and were it not that the authority from which they are derived, has been found to be generally correct in its other par-