Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/84

112 Large flat plate of iron, and has a bag of meal fixed on horseback, behind him. When, by eating flesh cooked as before described, and without salt, they find their stomachs weakened and uneasy, they mix up some of the meal with water into a paste; and having heated the flat iron plate on the fire, they knead out the paste into thin cakes, which they bake or fire on these heated plates. These cakes they eat to strengthen their stomachs." Such an army would undoubtedly possess all the requisites adapted for desultory and predatory warfare; while, like the modern guerillas, the secrecy and celerity of their movements would enable them with ease and certainty to elude any formidable encounters to which they might be exposed from troops otherwise constituted than themselves.

The English army, upon which so much preparation had been expended, was at length, accompanied by the king in person, enabled to take the field. It consisted, according to Froissart, of eight thousand knights and squires, armed in steel, and excellently mounted; fifteen thousand men at arms, also mounted, but upon horses of an inferior description; the same number of infantry, or, as that author has termed them, sergeants on foot; and a body of archers twenty-four, thousand strong. This great force on its progress northward, soon became aware of the vicinity of their destructive enemy by the sight of the smoking villages and towns which marked their course in every direction; but having for several days vainly attempted, by following these indications, to come up with the Scots, or even to gain correct intelligence regarding their movements, they resolved, by taking post on the banks of the river Tine, to intercept them on their return into Scotland. In this, the English army were not more fortunate; and having, from the difficulty of their route, been constrained to leave their camp baggage behind them, they suffered the utmost hardships from the want of provisions, and the inclemency of the weather. When several days had been passed in this fruitless and harassing duty, the troops nearly destitute of the necessaries of life, and exposed, without shelter, to an almost incessant rain, the king was induced to proclaim a high reward to whosoever should first give intelligence of where the Scottish army were to be found. Thomas Rokesby, an esquire, having among others set out upon this service, was the first to bring back certain accounts that the Scots lay encamped upon the side of a hill, at about five miles distance from the English camp. This person had approached so near to the enemies' position as to be taken prisoner by the outposts; but he had no sooner recounted his business to Randolph and Douglas, than he was honourably dismissed, with orders to inform the English king, that they were ready and desirous to engage him in battle, whensoever he thought proper.

On the following day, the English, marching in order of battle, came in sight of the Scottish army, whom they found drawn up on foot, in three divisions, on the slope of a hill; having the river Wear, a rapid and nearly impassable stream, in front, and their flanks protected by rocks and precipices, presenting insurmountable difficulties to the approach of an enemy. Edward attempted to draw them from their fastness, by challenging the Scottish leaders to an honourable engagement on the plain, a practice not unusual in that age; but he soon found, that the experienced generals with whom he had to deal were not to be seduced by any artifice or bravado. "On our road hither," said they, "we have burnt and spoiled the country; and here we shall abide while to us it seems good. If the king of England is offended, let him come over and chastise us." The two armies remained in this manner, fronting each other, for three days; the army of Edward much incommoded by the nature of their situation, and the continual alarms of their hostile neighbours, who, throughout the night, says Froissart, kept sounding their horns, "as if all the great devils in hell had been there." Unable to force the Scots to a battle, the English