Volume 3

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did not stay to feel his spear. Dunbar and Percy made a precipitate retreat to
Cockburnspath, and thence to Berwick. Douglas closely followed them, and
almost entered the gates of Berwick with the fugitives (x). The English king
now rewarded the Earl of Dunbar with his followers, and received his son
Gavin into his service, as they had shewn their attachment to him and
their enmity to their country, by their recent inroad (y). The Douglases
obtained possession of Dunbar castle and its appropriate country. In 1402,
ensued alternations of inroads. Haliburton of Dirleton wasted Northumber-
land. Another incursion of Hepburn of Hailes, as it was more adventurous,
was less successful. The Earl of Dunbar, with the Northumbrian yeomen, and
his own adherents, pursued his countrymen to Nisbet in the Merse, where a
sharp encounter ensued. Hepburn made a gallant resistance ; but he was at
length slain with the youth of Lothian, leaving many prisoners in the hands
of his pursuers (z). This conflict was fought on the 22nd of June 1402; and
the bloody scene was thereafter called Slaughterhill, saith Godscroft. When the
Earl of Douglas heard of this disaster, he felt for his own fame. He imme-
diately collected the strength of Scotland, with the aid of Albany the governor.
He entered England with ten thousand spears, ravaged the country as far as
Newcastle ; but on his triumphant return, he was encountered near the
Northumbrian border by the Earl of Northumberland, his son Henry Percy,
and the Earl of Dunbar. The name of Douglas inflamed the proud heart of
Hotspur ; he was ready to rush into the bloody ranks. But he was prevented
by the prudent remonstrances of the Earl of Dunbar, who perceived that the
English archers would discomfit the Scottish spearmen. The Scots were thus,
by the circumspection of Dunbar, totally defeated at Homildon, on the 14th of
September 1402. The Earl of Dunbar saw, with malignant eyes, his rival,
Earl of Douglas, Murdoch, the son of Albany, and many of the chieftains of
Scotland, led captives to the Northumbrian castles. Hotspur tarnished the
lustre of his victory by assassinating the gallant Sir William Stewart, the
Sheriff of Teviotdale, on frivolous pretences, under the form of law (a).
Henry IV. claimed the captives from Hotspur and Dunbar (b). The expatri-
ated earl now supplicated the English parliament to restore to him his estates,
as they should be conquered. They seem to have admitted the reasonableness
(x)   Fordun, 1. xv., c. 10.                                  (y)  Rym., viii., 154, 212, 245.
(z)   Fordun, 1. xv., c.   13.
(a)  Fordun, ii., 434;   Wyntoun, ii., 401-2, who  was a  contemporary  writer.    Andr.  Stuart's
Supplement, 16-22.    This fact cannot hereafter be doubted.
(b)   Rym., viii., 278.
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