Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 2.djvu/79

 and the only persons of note slain were Sir William Vipont and Sir Walter Ross. The last named was the particular friend of Edward Bruce, who, when informed of his death, passionately exclaimed, " Oh that this days work was undone, so Boss had not died." On the day after the battle, Mowbray surrendered the castle of Stirling, according to the terms of the truce, and thenceforward entered into the service of the king' of Scotland.

Such was the signal victory obtained by Robert at Bannockburn, than which none more important was ever fought, before or since, between the so long hostile nations of England and Scotland. It broke effectually and for ever tha mastery, moral and physical, which the one had so nearly succeeded in achieving over the other; and, while it once more re-established the liberties of Scotland, awakened or restored that passion for independence among her people which no after dangers or reverses could subdue. "We have only," as a late historian has well observed, "to fix our eyes on the present condition of Ireland, in order to feel the present reality of all that we owe to the victory at Bannockburn, and to the memory of such men as Bruce, Randolph, and Douglas."

We have, hitherto, thought it proper to enter with considerable, and even historical, minuteness into the details of this life; both as comprising' events of much interest to the general reader, and as introducing what may be justly called the first great epoch in the modern history of Scotland. The rise, progress, and establishment of Bruce, were intimately connected with the elevation, progression, and settled estate of his people, who as they never before had attained to a national importance so decided and unquestionable, so they never afterwards fell much short in the maintaining of it. It is not our intention, however, to record with equal minuteness the remaining events of king Robert's reign; which, as they, in a great measure, refer to the ordering and consolidating of the power which he had acquired, the framing of laws, and negotiating of treaties, fall much more properly within the province of the historian to discuss, than that of the biographer.

The Earl of Hereford, who had retreated after the battle to the castle of Bothwell, was there besieged and soon brought to surrender. For this prisoner alone, the wife, sister, and daughter of Bruce, were exchanged by the English, along with Wisheart bishop of Glasgow, and the young Earl of Marr. Edward Bruce and Douglas, leaving the English no time to recover from their disastrous defeat, almost immediately invaded the eastern marches, wasted Northumberland, and laid the bishopric of Durham under contribution. Proceeding westward, they burnt Appleby and other towns, and returned home loaded with spoil. "So bereaved," says an English historian, "were the English, at this time, of their wonted intrepidity, that a hundred of that nation would have fled from two or three Scotsmen." While the fortunes of Edward were in this state of depression, Bruce made advances towards the negotiating of a peace, but this war, now so ruinous on the part of the English, was yet far from a termination. Robert, however desirous he might be to attain such an object, was incapable of granting unworthy concessions; and Edward was not yet sufficiently abased by his ill-fortune in war, or borne down by factions at home, to yield that which, in his hands, had become but a nominal possession. England was again invaded within the year; and, during the winter, the Scots continued to infest and threaten the borders with predatory incursions.

In the spring of the ensuing year, 1315, while the English king vainly endeavoured to assemble an army, the Scots again broke into England, penetrated to the bishopric of Durham, and plundered the sea-port town of Hartlepool. An