176 SCOTLAND ILLt'STRATED. 



observing, that " it was not his wont to fly," rushed back to the field, 

 shouted his war-cry, galloped boldly against the victorious Scots, and died, 

 as he had resolved, vrith his face to the enemy. By a rapid flight through a 

 country in which his reverses must have changed many friends to enemies, 

 Edward at length gained the castle of Dunbar, where he was hospitably received 

 by the earl of March ; and thence, almost alone, escaped to Berwick in a 

 fishing-skiff, having left behind him the finest army a king of England ever 

 commanded. 



The loss sustained by the army of Bruce was very small : Sir William Vipont 

 and Sir Walter Ross were the only persons of consideration slain, but to the 

 latter of whom Sir Edward Bruce was so much attached, that he exclaimed, 

 " Would that the battle had remained unfought, so Ross had not died !" * 



Such, briefly, was the battle of Bannockburn, the " Marathon of the North," the 

 parallel between which is so remarkable, that it is surprising it has not been often 

 drawn. With the preliminary struggle at Thermopylae, observes Dr. Johnson,t 

 may be compared that between Randolph and Clifford on the left wing, where the 

 fourscore spearmen resisted and broke the cloud of cavalry that came galloping 

 forward to trample the earl of Moray and his little band in the dust. Randolph, 

 however, was more fortunate than Leonidas ; he lived to see the issue of the 

 grand struggle, where Bruce, Hke Miltiades, dispersed the southern host, 

 compelling Edward, like Xerxes, to fly for his hfe ; and like the Persian monarch, 

 too, to embark his broken fortunes in a soHtary skifi", in order to regain his own 

 dominions. 



In June, 1814, being the five hundredth anniversary of the battle, the Field 

 of Bannockburn was made the scene of a great national festival, 



• Sir Walter Scott. — Barbour. — Lord Hailes. And for an interesting description of the battle-field, 

 Chambers' " Picture of Scotland," and the " History of Stirling." 



t See the "Recess, a Tour to the Hebrides," by James Johiison, M.D. &c. 1835. 



END OF VOL. I. 



!t. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD-STREET-HILL. 



