Page:Robert the Bruce and the struggle for Scottish independence - 1909.djvu/441

1332 A.D.] Lord Wake, one of these very diversi homines whose action he had condemned.

Nevertheless King Edward was honorably determined to keep the peace as long as he could. He would not allow the Marches to be violated; so de Beaumont, having with him Edward de Balliol, 400 men at arms and 3000 infantry, adopted the expedient of embarking at the mouth of the Humber for the invasion of Scotland. The other barons with him were Gilbert de Umfraville, Thomas Lord Wake, Henry de Ferrers and his two brothers, David de Strathbogie, Richard Talbot, Henry, the brother of Edward de Balliol, four knights named de Moubray, Walter Comyn, Fulke Fitz Warine, and Roger de Swinerton.

The Regent, who was suffering grievously from stone, advanced at the head of an army to repel the invasion. He moved first to Cockburnspath, in East Lothian, but, hearing that the enemy was approaching by sea, he turned northward to protect the Forth. His malady grew worse, and he died at Musselburgh on July 20th. Barbour and Fordun allege that he died by poison, which, like much other idle contemporary gossip, was expanded by Boece into an elaborate story, to the effect that the poison was administered by a monk, who undertook to treat Moray for his painful malady. Having done so, the monk returned to Edward III., whose agent he was, to report that the slow poison was doing its work. This fable having thus found its way into Scottish history, was diligently repeated by one authority after another, till Lord Hailes exposed its baselessness,