Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/83

Rh together an immense force, intending not only to revenge the infraction, but, by some decisive blow, recover the honour which his father's arms had lost in the revolted kingdom. The inexperience of the young monarch, however, ill seconded as that was by the councils of the faction which then governed England, could prove no match, when opposed to the designs of a king so politic as Robert, and the enterprise and consummate talent of such generals as Randolph and Douglas.

The preparations of England, though conducted on a great and even extravagant scale of expense, failed in the despatch essentially necessary on the present occasion; allowing the Scottish army, which consisted of twenty thousand light-armed cavalry, nearly a whole month, to plunder and devastate at will, the northern districts of the kingdom, before any adequate force could be brought upon the field to oppose their progress. Robert, during his long wars with England, had admirably improved upon the severe experience which his first unfortunate campaigns had taught him; and, so well had the system which he adopted, been inured into the very natures of his captains and soldiers, by long habit and continued success, that he could not be more ready to plan and dictate schemes of defence or aggression, than his subjects were alert and zealous to put them in execution. He was, besides, fortunate above measure, in the choice of his generals; and particularly of those two, Randolph, earl of Moray, and Sir James Douglas, to whose joint command, the army on the present occasion was committed. Moray, though equally brave and courageous with his compeer, was naturally guided and restrained by wise and prudential suggestions; while Douglas, almost entirely under the sway of a sanguine and chivalrous spirit, often, by his very daring and temerity, proved successful, where the other must inevitably have failed. One circumstance, deserving of particular commendation, must not be omitted, that while in rank and reputation, and in the present instance, command, these two great men stood, in regard to each other, in a position singularly open to sentiments of envious rivalry, the whole course of their lives and actions give ample ground for believing that feelings of such a nature were utterly alien to the characters of both.

Of the ravages which the Scottish army committed in the north of England, during the space above mentioned, we have no particulars recorded, but that they plundered all the villages and open towns in their route seems certain; prudently avoiding to dissipate their time and strength by assailing more difficult places. To atone somewhat for this deficiency in his narrative, Froissart, who on this period of Scottish history was unquestionably directed by authentic information, has left a curious sketch of the constitution and economy of the Scottish army of that day. "The people of that nation," says this author, "are brave and hardy, insomuch, that when they invade England, they will often march their troops a distance of thirty-six miles in a day and night. All are on horseback, except only the rabble of followers, who are a-foot. The knights and squires are well mounted on large coursers, or war-horses; but the commons and country people have only small hackneys or ponies. They use no carriages to attend their army; and such is their abstinence and sobriety in war, that they content themselves for a long time with half cooked flesh without bread, and with water unmixed with wine. When they have slain and skinned the cattle, which they always find in plenty, they make a kind of kettles of the raw hides with the hair on, which they suspend on four stakes over fires, with the hair side outmost, and in these they boil part of the flesh in water; roasting the remainder by means of wooden spits disposed around the same fires. Besides, they make for themselves a species of shoes or brogues of the same raw hides with the hair still on them. Each person carries attached to his saddle, a