Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/86

114, that when the whole body had passed, these were carefully removed, that they might afford no assistance to the enemy, should they pursue them by the same track. Edward is said to have wept bitterly when informed of the escape of the Scottish army; and his generals, well aware how unavailing any pursuit after them must prove, next day broke up the encampment, and retired towards Durham.

This was the last signal service which Douglas rendered to his country; and an honourable peace having been soon afterwards concluded between the two kingdoms, seemed at last to promise a quiet and pacific termination to a life which had hitherto known no art but that of war, and no enjoyment but that of victory. However, a different, and to him, possibly, a more enviable fate, awaited the heroic Douglas. Bruce dying, not long after he had witnessed the freedom of his country established, made it his last request, that Sir James, as his oldest and most esteemed companion in arms, should carry his heart to the holy land, and deposit it in the holy sepulchre at Jerusalem, to the end his soul might be unburdened of the weight of a vow which he felt himself unable to fulfil.

Douglas, attended by a numerous and splendid retinue of knights and esquires, set sail from Scotland, in execution of this last charge committed to his care by his deceased master. He first touched in his voyage at Sluys in Flanders, where, having learned that Alphonso, king of Castile and Leon, was then at waged war with Osmyn, the Moorish king of Granada, he seems to have been tempted, by the desire of fighting against the infidels, to direct his course into Spain, with intention, from thence, to combat the Saracens in his progress to Jerusalem. Having landed in king Alphonso's country, that sovereign received Douglas with great distinction; and not the less so, that he expected shortly to engage in battle with his Moorish enemies. Barbour relates, that while at this court, a knight of great renown, whose face was all over disfigured by the scars of wounds which he had received in battle, expressed his surprise that a knight of so great fame as Douglas should have received no similar marks in his many combats. "I thank heaven," answered Sir James, mildly, "that I had always hands to protect my face." And those who were by, adds the author, praised the answer much, for there was much understanding in it.

Douglas, and the brave company by whom he was attended, having joined themselves to Alphonso's army, came in view of the Saracens near to Tebas, a castle on the frontiers of Andalusia, towards the kingdom of Grenada. Osmyn, the Moorish king, had ordered a body of three thousand cavalry to make a feigned attack on the Spaniards, while, with the great body of his army, he designed, by a circuitous route, unexpectedly, to fall upon the rear of king Alphonso's camp. That king, however, having received intelligence of the stratagem, prepared for him, kept the main force of his army in the rear, while he opposed a sufficient body of troops, to resist the attack which should be made on the front division of his army. From this fortunate disposition of his forces, the christian king gained the day over his infidel adversaries. Osmyn was discomfited with much slaughter, and Alphonso, improving his advantage, gained full possession of the enemy's camp.

While the battle was thus brought to a successful issue in one quarter of the field, Douglas, and his brave companions, who fought in the van, proved themselves no less fortunate. The Moors, not long able to withstand the furious encounter of their assailants, betook themselves to flight. Douglas, unacquainted with the mode of warfare pursued among that people, followed hard after the fugitives, until, finding himself almost deserted by his followers, he turned his horse, with the intention of rejoining the main body. Just then,