Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 9.djvu/237

Rh sage rebuke, Randolph was sent into close and solitary confinement, to digest the lesson at leisure. How wisely such a punishment was inflicted, and how well it wrought, was attested not only in the future life of Randolph, but in the history of his country.

On being set at liberty, Randolph was not only restored to the king's favour, but invested with the earldom of Moray, which had large territories attached to it; and having set these in order, he repaired to that warfare in which he was to be surpassed by none except Bruce himself. It was now also, perhaps, that the generous rivalry commenced between him and his gallant captor, Sir James Douglas, which continued to the end of their lives. This noble contention was now signalized by the "good Lord James" undertaking the siege of Roxburgh Castle, and Randolph that of Edinburgh, the two strongest fortresses in the kingdom, and still in possession of the English. The garrison in Edinburgh Castle was commanded by Sir Piers Leland, a knight of Gascony, but the soldiers having suspected him of holding communication with the Scottish king, deposed and imprisoned him, and set one of their own countrymen in his place, who was both wight and wise. While Randolph beleaguered the well-defended castle, tidings reached him that Douglas had succeeded at Roxburgh; and perceiving that force was useless, he resolved, like his rival in arms, to have recourse to stratagem. A favourable opportunity soon occurred. One of his soldiers, William Frank, had in his youth been wont to descend from the apparently inaccessible ramparts by a secret way in the rock, aided by a ladder of ropes, to visit a woman in the town with whom he intrigued; and he now offered to be the foremost man in conducting a party up the same path, which he still distinctly remembered. The proposal was accepted, and Randolph, with thirty followers, and Frank for his guide, commenced at midnight this dangerous escalade. With the aid of a rope-ladder they ascended in file, one man following another in silence^ and by ways where a single false step might have precipitated the whole party to the bottom, or roused the sentinels above. They could even hear the footsteps of the guards going their rounds upon the ramparts. At this instant a stone came whizzing over their heads, with a cry from above, "Aha! I see you!" and they thought that all was over. "Now, help them, God," exclaims Barbour, at this point of the narrative, "for in great peril are they!" But the sentry who had thrown the stone and uttered the cry, saw and suspected nothing, and was merely diverting his companions. After waiting till all was quiet, they resumed their desperate attempt, but had scarcely reached the top of the wall, Randolph being the third man who ascended, than the alarmed garrison rushed out upon them, and a desperate fight commenced. It fared, however, with the English as is the wont of such strange surprisals; they were confounded, driven together in heaps, and unfitted either for safe flight or effectual resistance. The result was, that the governor and several of his soldiers were slain, others threw themselves from the ramparts, and the rest surrendered.

While the report of this gallant deed was still circulating throughout the country, those events occurred that led to the battle of Baunockburn. At this great assize of arms, which seemed to be the last appeal of Scottish liberty previous to the final and decisive sentence, the arrangements which Bruce made for the trial were such a master-piece of strategy as has seldom been equalled, even by the science of modern warfare. Among these dispositions, the command of the left wing was intrusted to Randolph, with strict charge to