Now,it was agreed with Gaveston that he should be taken to the Castle of Wallingford,and there kept in honourable custody.They travelled as far as Dedington,near Banbury,where,in the Castle of that place,they stopped for a night to rest.Whether the Earl of Pembroke left his prisoner there,knowing what would happen,or really left him thinking no harm,and only going (as he pretended)
to visit his wife,the Countess,who was in the neighbourhood,is no great matter now;in any case,he was bound as an honourable gentleman to protect his prisoner,and he did not do it.In the morning,while the favourite was yet in bed,he was required to dress himself and come down into the court-yard.He did so without any mistrust,but started and turned pale when he found it full of strange armed men.'I think you know me?'said their leader,also armed from head to foot.'I am the black dog of Ardenne!'The time was come when Piers Gaveston was to feel the black dog's teeth indeed.They set him on a mule,and carried him,in mock state and with military music,to the black dog's kennel-Warwick Castle-where a hasty council,composed of some great noblemen,considered what should be done with him.Some were for sparing him,but one loud voice-it was the black dog's bark,I dare say-sounded through the Castle Hall,uttering these words:'You have the fox in your power.Let him go now,and you must hunt him again.'
They sentenced him to death.He threw himself at the feet of the Earl of Lancaster-the old hog-but the old hog was as savage as the dog.He was taken out upon the pleasant road,leading from Warwick to Coventry,where the beautiful river Avon,by which,long afterwards,WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE was born and now lies buried,sparkled in the bright landscape of the beautiful May-day;and there they struck off his wretched head,and stained the dust with his blood.
When the King heard of this black deed,in his grief and rage he denounced relentless war against his Barons,and both sides were in arms for half a year.But,it then became necessary for them to join their forces against Bruce,who had used the time well while they were divided,and had now a great power in Scotland.
Intelligence was brought that Bruce was then besieging Stirling Castle,and that the Governor had been obliged to pledge himself to surrender it,unless he should be relieved before a certain day.
Hereupon,the King ordered the nobles and their fighting-men to meet him at Berwick;but,the nobles cared so little for the King,and so neglected the summons,and lost time,that only on the day before that appointed for the surrender,did the King find himself at Stirling,and even then with a smaller force than he had expected.However,he had,altogether,a hundred thousand men,and Bruce had not more than forty thousand;but,Bruce's army was strongly posted in three square columns,on the ground lying between the Burn or Brook of Bannock and the walls of Stirling Castle.
On the very evening,when the King came up,Bruce did a brave act that encouraged his men.He was seen by a certain HENRY DE BOHUN,an English Knight,riding about before his army on a little horse,with a light battle-axe in his hand,and a crown of gold on his head.This English Knight,who was mounted on a strong war-horse,cased in steel,strongly armed,and able (as he thought)to overthrow Bruce by crushing him with his mere weight,set spurs to his great charger,rode on him,and made a thrust at him with his heavy spear.Bruce parried the thrust,and with one blow of his battle-axe split his skull.
The Scottish men did not forget this,next day when the battle raged.RANDOLPH,Bruce's valiant Nephew,rode,with the small body of men he commanded,into such a host of the English,all shining in polished armour in the sunlight,that they seemed to be swallowed up and lost,as if they had plunged into the sea.But,they fought so well,and did such dreadful execution,that the English staggered.Then came Bruce himself upon them,with all the rest of his army.While they were thus hard pressed and amazed,there appeared upon the hills what they supposed to be a new Scottish army,but what were really only the camp followers,in number fifteen thousand:whom Bruce had taught to show themselves at that place and time.The Earl of Gloucester,commanding the English horse,made a last rush to change the fortune of the day;
But Bruce (like Jack the Giant-killer in the story)had had pits dug in the ground,and covered over with turfs and stakes.Into these,as they gave way beneath the weight of the horses,riders and horses rolled by hundreds.The English were completely routed;
All their treasure,stores,and engines,were taken by the Scottish men;so many waggons and other wheeled vehicles were seized,that it is related that they would have reached,if they had been drawn out in a line,one hundred and eighty miles.The fortunes of Scotland were,for the time,completely changed;and never was a battle won,more famous upon Scottish ground,than this great battle of BANNOCKBURN.
Plague and famine succeeded in England;and still the powerless King and his disdainful Lords were always in contention.Some of the turbulent chiefs of Ireland made proposals to Bruce,to accept the rule of that country.He sent his brother Edward to them,who was crowned King of Ireland.He afterwards went himself to help his brother in his Irish wars,but his brother was defeated in the end and killed.Robert Bruce,returning to Scotland,still increased his strength there.