Ayrshire > Volume 1

no HISTORY OF AYRSHIRE
succeeding Christmas Eve, the victor was surprised by
Randolph, and by a younger brother of Sir James
Douglas, and was driven into England ; and the new
Lord of Carrick, who had no great difficulty in
demonstrating that his fealty had been wrung from him
as the result of a combination of untoward circumstances
that he could not control, obtained pardon. He does not
seem to have enjoyed his honours long, however. In
July, 1333, the Scots encountered the English at Halidon
Hill, an eminence in Northumberland overlooking the
Tweed, and were again defeated, upwards of ten thousand
of them — according to some authorities, fourteen
thousand — being left on the field ; and among the slain
was the Earl of Carrick.
Thirteen years after the Battle of Halidon Hill, a
person styling himself Alexander Bruce, and claiming to
be the Earl of Carrick, appeared in Scotland. His story
was that he had fallen into the hands of the English
and been carried away captive by them, that he had
discreetly maintained his anonymity in their hands,
and that ultimately, under the guise of a citizen of
Aberdeen, he had succeeded in procuring his ransom.
Then, as now, apparently, a clever adventurer had no
great difficulty in obtaining credence for a plausible
story. This pretender obtained access to Court, and
was examined as to the truth of his narration, but,
finding his efforts resultless, he made his way into
Carrick, and appeared upon the scene of what he claimed
to be his paternal inheritance. He was forthwith
apprehended and put upon his trial as an impostor, and
he closed his career upon the scaffold at Ayr. But for
many years afterwards there were not wanting those
who believed him to have been the genuine Lord of
Carrick, and a victim to the wiles of those who were
directly interested in compassing his death.
As the result of the disastrous issues at Dupplin and
at Halidon Hill, Scotland for a time was, for most
practical purposes, largely at the mercy of England,
and overrun by troops of marauders, but, with that