Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 8.djvu/245

Rh of one day with Sir Laurence Abernethy, a leader of the party of Baliol. On this occasion Sir William Douglas was four times defeated; but with unconquerable pertinacity he still returned to the charge, and in the fifth was completely victorious. It was by these exploits, and especially the last, that he worthily won the title of the "Flower of Chivalry." After this he was sent by the High Steward, now governor of Scotland, to France, to communicate the state of affairs to his young sovereign, David, and obtain assistance from the French king. In this mission he was so successful, that he soon returned with a squadron of five French ships of war, that sailed up the Tay to aid the Steward, at this time employed in the siege of Perth, which was held by the English. Sir William joined the besiegers, but was wounded in the leg by a javelin discharged from a springald, and unfitted for a time for further action. So opportune, however, was his arrival with the reinforcement, that the Scots, who were about to abandon the siege, resumed it with fresh vigour, and Perth was soon after taken.

The cause of Baliol was now at so low an ebb, and the country so cleared of the enemy, that little remained in their possession except the castle of Edinburgh, from which the knight of Liddesdale was eager to expel them. But the garrison were so numerous, and the defences so strong, that an open siege was hopeless, and he therefore had recourse to stratagem. He prevailed upon a merchant sea-captain of Dundee, named Walter Curry, to bring his ship round to the Forth, and pretend to be an Englishman pursued by the Scots, and desirous of the protection of the castle, offering at the same time to supply the garrison with provisions. The stratagem succeeded. The commander of the castle bespoke a cargo of victuals on the following morning, and Douglas, who was lurking in the neighbourhood, at the head of 200 followers, at this intelligence disguised himself and twelve of his men with the gray frocks of the mariners thrown over their armour, and joined the convoy of Curry. The gates were opened, and the draw-bridge lowered to give entrance to the waggons and their pretended drivers; but as soon as they came under the gateway, they stabbed the warder, and blew a horn to summon the rest of their party to the spot. Before these could arrive, the cry of treason rang through the castle, and brought the governor and his soldiers upon the daring assailants, who would soon have been overpowered, but for their gallant defence in the narrow gateway, while they had taken the precaution so to arrange the waggons that the portcullis could not be lowered. In the meantime, the followers of Douglas rushed up the castle hill, and entered the conflict, which they maintained with such vigour, that the whole garrison were put to the sword, except Limosin, the governor, and six squires, who escaped. After this important acquisition, the knight of Liddesdale placed the castle under the command of Archibald Douglas, one of his relatives.

Scotland was thus completely freed from the enemy, and the people were impatient for the return of their king from France, to which country he had been sent in boyhood, during the ascendancy of the Baliol faction. Accordingly, David II., now in his eighteenth year, landed at Innerbervie on the 4th of June, 1341, and was received with rapture by his subjects, who recognized in him the pledge of their national freedom, as well as the son of their "good king Robert." But this feeling was soon damped by the difficulties of the young sovereign's position, as well as the indiscretions of his government. As for the knight of Liddesdale, he, like his compatriots, had so long been accustomed to independent military command during the interregnum, that he was unwilling to V.