Ayrshire > Volume 1

72 HISTORY OF AYRSHIRE
Some naked burned to ashes all away,
Some never rose, but smother'd where they lay.
Others attempting to get to the air,
With fire and sword were burnt and choked there.
Their nauseous smell none present could abide,
A just reward, for murder will not hide.
Some sought the door, endeavouring out to get,
But Scotsmen them so wisely did beset,
Out of the burning flames who ever got
Immediately was cut down on the spot ;
Or driven back with fury in the fire,
Such wages got these hangmen for their hire.
Thus the barns of Ayr burned weel. But the events of
that night of terror did not end there ; for the prior of
Ayr, Drumlaw, and his seven brethren, armed themselves
and went round to the various houses in which English
soldiery were lodged, and either slew them on the spot or
drove them into the Friars' well.
Thus slain and drowned were all that lodged there,
Men call it since, The Friar's Blessing of Ayr.
After the capitulation of Irvine in 1297, in which
Wallace bore no part, the patriot proceeded northward.
He recovered the castle of Forfar from the English,
reduced that of Brechin, and besieged the stronghold of
Dunottar in Kincardine. In Aberdeen he had a
successful encounter with the English, and then marched
to Dundee ; and he was engaged in storming its castle
when word was brought to him that the Earl of Surrey,
at the head of a powerful army, was advancing towards
Stirling. Raising the siege of the castle of Dundee, he
hastened to meet him, and encamped his troops at the
Abbey Craig. The battle of Stirling Bridge followed.
The Scots remained quiescent until about five thousand
of the enemy had crossed the narrow bridge, then by a
swift movement closed the narrow way. From that
moment victory was assured. The Scots fell fiercely
upon those who had reached the hither side of the
Forth, and when they had dealt with these in drastic
fashion, they crossed the river by a ford and completed
the rout. Then fell in succession into their hands the