Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 1.djvu/380

366 his allies the English barons, perceived this danger clearly-enough, and they suddenly crossed the river in the night, before they could be taken in the rear by March. They found the Scots, confident in their numbers, carelessly sleeping without sentries or outposts, and falling upon them in the dark, made a terrible slaughter amongst them. In the morning the Scots, who had fled in confusion, perceived the insignificant force to which they had yielded, and returned with fury to retrieve their character, but they again committed the crime of over-confidence, came on in groat disorder, and engaged without regard to the nature of the ground, which was greatly in favour of the enemy, and were once more defeated with huge slaughter. Many thousands of the Scots were driven into the river and wore drowned, wore actually smothered by tumbling over each other in the chaotic flight, or were cut to pieces. The regent himself, the Earl of Carrick, a natural son of Robert Bruce, the Earls of Atholl and Monteith, and the Lords Hay of Erroll, Seith, and Lindsey were slain. With them fell from 12,000 to 13,000 men, while Baliol lost only about thirty; a sufficient proof of the rawness of the Scotch forces, and the frightful panic amongst them. The battle of Dupplin Moor was one of the most sanguinary and complete defeats which the Scots ever suffered, and appeared to obliterate all the glories and benefits of Bannockburn.



The victorious army marched direct on Perth, which it quickly reduced. Baliol was rapidly pursued by the Earl of March and Sir Archibald Douglas, whose united armies still amounted to near 40,000 men. They blockaded Perth both by land and water, and proposed to reduce it by famine. But Baliol's ships attacked the Scottish ones, gained a complete victory, and thus opened the communication with Perth from the sea. This compelled the Scots to disband for want of provisions to maintain a long siege. The adherents of Baliol's family, and all those who in any such crisis are ready to fall to the winning power, now came flocking in; the nation was actually conquered by this handful of men, and Baliol, on the 24th of September, 1332, was crowned King of Scotland at Scone. David and his young betrothed queen were sent off for security to the castle of Dumbarton; the Bruce party solicited a truce, which was granted; and thus in little more than a month Baliol had won a kingdom.

But the success of Edward Baliol was as unreal as a dream; he was a mere phantom king. The Scottish patriots were in possession of many of the strongest places in the kingdom, while the adherents of Edward Baliol, each hastening to secure the property he was in pursuit of, the forces of the new monarch were rapidly reduced in number, and he saw plainly that he could only maintain the position of the throne of Scotland by the support of the King of England. He hastened, therefore, to do homage to him for the Scottish crown, and proposed to marry Joan, the sister of the king, the affianced bride of the dethroned David, if the Pope's of that marriage could be obtained. Edward listened to this, but the prompt removal of the royal pair from Dumbarton Castle to France, and the defeat of Baliol, which as promptly followed, annihilated that unprincipled scheme. No sooner were these scandalous proposals known in Scotland, than a spirit of intense indignation fired the minds of the patriotic nobles. The successors of those great men who had achieved the freedom of Scotland under Robert Bruce, John Randolph, second son of the regent; Sir Archibald Douglas, the younger brother of the good Lord James; Sir William Douglas, a natural son of the Lord James, possessor of the castle of Hermitage, in Liddesdale, and thence called the Knight of Liddesdale, a valiant and wealthy man, but fierce, cruel, and treacherous; and Sir Andrew Murray, of Bothwell, who had married Christiana, the sister of Robert Bruce, and aunt of the young King David, were the chiefs and leaders of the nation. They suddenly assembled a force, and attacked Bailol, who was feasting at Annan, in Dumfriesshire, where he had gone to keep his Christmas. On the night of the 16th