Series 1 > History of Greater Britain, as well England as Scotland

273
CHAP. XII.] OF GREATER BRITAIN
which was every way favourable, for it was upon a height;
while the supporters of David Bruce occupied a hillock,
whence they must go down into the valley and ascend the
other height in face of the enemy when it came to a battle. The
first indeed held the position of strength; and the more cautious
amongst the Scots were opposed to the risk of battle in that
place, and counselled rather an invasion of England, where,
with fire and sword, they might waste the surrounding country,
and thus force the English to withdraw from the blockade. In
the end, however, they followed the counsel of James Douglas,
the guardian, a man in such a case as this rashly daring rather
than brave; but, being guardian, they assented to him. The
battle then is begun; and as the armed men were striving to
climb the flank of the other hill, many of them fell, in the
shower of stones that were rolled down upon them; one of the
enemy indeed sufficed to bar the way to four who were climb¬
ing ; and so it was that in a bloodless battle the best men who
followed the fortunes of David Bruce lost their lives; and
among them the chief were these: Archibald Douglas, the The illustrious
guardian; James, John, and Alan Stuart, all brothers, and who were
cousins-german of David Bruce, as well as being cousins-
german of Robert Stuart, afterward king of the Scots; Hugh
earl of Ross, wearing the shirt of Saint Duthac1 (which, on
the death of the earl, is said to have been restored—an example,
this, of English courtesy—to the town of Tain); Kenneth,
earl of Sutherland ; Alexander Bruce, earl of Garrick ; Andrew,
James, and Simon Fraser, all brothers, with many other nobles.
After this battle Berwick was surrendered to the English; the Berwick surren-
earl of March and the lord Seton are forced to swear fidelity to g"^yto the
the English king and Edward Baliol; and so it came to pass
that almost all the supporters of David Bruce were destroyed,
or—if they happened to have saved their lives—were compelled
to desert him. Some of our countrymen, on the strength of
an old prophecy—I know not truly what or whence—declare
1 The shirt of Saint Duthac, to which marvellous powers were ascribed, was,
according to the Rev. W. Taylor {Researches into the History of Tain, 1882, p.
42), preserved in the Church of St. Duthac, and worn by the earl of Ross when
he went to war. The story, told by the Bollandists (March 8) of the burning
coal carried without injury in his bosom by Saint Duthach as a boy may have
given rise to the attribution of a peculiar virtue to his shirt.