Frasers of Philorth > Volume 1

THE FRASEES OF TOTJCH-FRASER, ETC., AND COWIE. 75
Providence to prolong their lives, the fate of Scotland in that age might have
been very different.
But, alas ! the good Sir James of Douglas fell on the field of battle in
Spain, whilst conveying his late sovereign's heart to the holy sepulchre, in
obedience to his last request ; and Sir Thomas Eandolph, the great Earl of
Moray, after a brief but wise regency, was cut off by illness, some say by
poison, in the month of July 1332.
About this time Edward de Baliol, the son of the former King John de
Baliol, with many of those nobles who had forfeited their lands in Scotland,
supported by the power of Edward in. of England, encouraged also by the
nonage of King David, the death of one guardian, and the approaching
decease of the other, determined to make an energetic attempt for the recovery
of the throne which his father had lost through his failure to preserve its
independence, and which he himself only proposed to hold as a vassal to the
English Crown.
Landing in Eife, he dispersed some troops hastily collected to oppose him,
and marching onward to the river Erne, found himself, near Dupplin, in
presence of a large force commanded by Donald, Earl of Mar, who, after the
Earl of Moray's death, had been appointed Eegent, and to whose incapacity
the fate of Scotland and her young King was then intrusted.
No order was maintained in the Scottish army ; feasting and drunkenness
prevailed throughout the camp, and being informed of this negligence and
misrule, Baliol decided on making a night attack, passed the river by a ford,
and advanced to the assault.
Some few only of the leaders of the Scottish army preserved discipline,
and kept watch as became the old soldiers of Eobert Bruce.
These were Thomas Eandolph, Earl of Moray, the son of the late Eegent,
Eobert de Bruce, Earl of Carrick, an illegitimate son of the late King,
Murdoch, Earl of Menteith, and Sir Alexander Fraser, 1 who, with such of
their men as they could assemble, not much exceeding three hundred, made
a desperate resistance ; but, unsupported and, indeed, overwhelmed by the
disorganised and panic-stricken remainder of the army, after having slain
many of the assailants, they fell overpowered by numbers, and on this field,
1 Buchanan, lib. ix. cap. vi.