Biggar and the House of Fleming

HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE FLEMING FAMILY. 473
in the enfeebled state in which he was at the time, was ruffled
by an incident which occurred a few minutes after he left the
town of Biggar. It is thus related by Lockhart . — " About a
mile from Biggar we overtook a parcel of carters, one of whom
was maltreating his horse ; and Sir Walter called to him from
the carriage window with great iudignation. The man looked
and spoke insolently ; and, as we drove on, he used some
strong expressions about what he would have done had this
happened within the bounds of his sheriffship. As he con-
tinued moved in an uncommon degree, I said, jokingly, that I
wondered his porridge diet had left his blood so warm, and
quoted Prior's
' Was ever Tartar fierce or cruel
Upon a mess of water-gruel'?'
He smiled graciously, and extemporized this variation on the
next couplet,
' Yet who shall stand the Sheriff's force
If Selkirk carter beats his horse ? '
Malcolm Fleming was succeeded by his son Malcolm, who
remained stedfast in his attachment to David, the youthful son
of Bruce, whom that monarch left to inherit his perilous and
unstable throne. Fleming, therefore, threw in his lot with
the Earl of Mar, the Douglases, Sir Andrew Murray, and others,
who, after the battle of Dupplin in 1332, refused to concur in
the usurpation of the Scottish throne by Edward Baliol.
Having succeeded his father as Governor of Dumbarton Castle,
he was able to afford a refuge in that fortress to David during
the disastrous state of his affairs that ensued from the loss of
that battle. The party with whom Fleming acted, having
attacked Baliol and his adherents at Annan, drove them across
the border. Edward III. of England, who favoured Baliol in
consequence of having received from him an acknowledgment
as his lord superior, proclaimed war against the friends of
Bruce, and having levied a large army, laid siege to Berwick.
This town was gallantly defended by the Earl of March and
Sir Alexander Seton. A stipulation was entered into with
Edward, that the Scots would deliver Berwick into his hands
unless they were able, before the 19th day of July 1333, to