Ayrshire > Volume 1

ROBERT THE BRUCE 97
wealth of spoil. In midsummer of 1312, he held a
Parliament at Ayr, and then sent his brother Edward on
a raid upon the English borders, which was productive
of good, tangible results. Stung at last into active
retaliation by the misfortunes that the Scots were
raining upon his country, by which they had for all
practical purposes rid themselves of his sovereignty, and
by which they had ruined his prestige, the English
monarch, at the head of a powerful army, marched upon
Scotland.
It does not fall within our province to deal with
the events that immediately preceded the Battle of
Bannockburn. nor with the battle itself. To the historic
field Bruce led a strong contingent of the men of the
south-western counties. It was in Ayrshire that he had
found the men to espouse his cause when that was at the
lowest ebb. They had stood by him in the most evil
report, and without flinching, against overwhelming
odds. King Robert was more to them than even the
rightful monarch of Scotland — he was the lord of
Turnberry as well. With a faithfulness to which there
are few parallels, they had refused to desert his fortunes
when his back was at the wall. They were the staunch
men and true who had repulsed the onslaught of the
English cavalry on the marshy lands of Loudoun. They
had marched with him to Ayr and delivered an ineffective
assault upon its castle. They had accompanied him in
his wanderings among the hills of Carrick, and among
the mosses and in the wilds of the high lands of Kyle.
And when Bruce arrayed his army on the field of
Bannockburn, they were still by his side, confident in
their chief and in the righteousness of his cause, ana
resolved as ever to do, if need be to die, for the gallant
son of ancient Turnberry. Tradition has it that he was
supported that memorable day by contingents from
Newton-on-Ayr and from Prestwick, and there is no
sufficient reason to doubt, not only that he was, but
that in the Scottish army, gathered from near and from
far — Highland clansmen, hardy sons of the Borders,