Battle of Sark. 129 



g-ain and pressed hard upon the bi'oken foe. History has more 

 than once had somewhat to say of the long spears of Nithsdale and 

 Annandale. Here they played a distinguished part. Buchanan 

 tells that the enemy was discomfited by the long spears of the 

 Scots wielded both by horse and foot — long spears for which 

 Buchanan had ample warrant in Boece. Many were slain in the 

 thick of battle ; more in the flight. Then was seen the disadvan- 

 tage of the place which Percy, unused to Solway warfare, had 

 selected for his battle-line. The tide had risen , so that the English 

 were in a very real sense between the devil and the deep sea. The 

 water, as Pitscottie, after Boece as usual, quaintly records, 

 " boldinit with the filling of the sea, caused many to lose their 

 lyves and perisch in the watteris. Utheris, sieand this, doubted 

 quhidder they would fight and die with honour or live with schame, 

 and preferring the on to the other, were cruellie slaine ,'ipoun the 

 water bankis." 



The fight w^as very bitter — " foughten with great ciueltie." 

 On the defeated side the Asloan MS. states the slain at 1500 and 

 the drowned at 500 ; Law's MS. that the dead were 600 and the 

 captives 1500 ; Boece and those after him that the English lost 

 well nigh 3000, including 11 knights, besides whom were the 

 prisoners — " a great multitude of men whom sword and tide had 

 spared." Pennington, captain of the Welsh, and Haryngton, as 

 well as young Percy himself, were among the prisoners. The 

 elder Percy, Boece says, effected his escape through the gallant 

 devotion of his sou, who helped him to horse. The Scottish loss 

 was probably slight. According to the Asloan MS. it was only 

 26 ; according to Boece, 600. Wallace of Craigie received his 

 death-wound, though he survived long enough to grant a deed to 

 the Abbey of Paisley, which is the most interesting of documents 

 for the story of the battle. The Scotch made a rich spoil in gold 

 aud silver and furnishings — " so great a booty," says Boece, " as 

 scarce ever happened before within the memory of man." It was 

 divided, he adds, amongst the soldiers, according to the law of the 

 land, that law of custom, no doubt, of which a valuable part was 

 written down at the Lincluden conference — " the statutis, ordi- 

 nancis, and use of merchis that wes ordaiuit to be kepit in blak 

 Archibald of Douglas dais and Archibald his sonnis dais in tyme of 

 weirfare." Ormond returned in triumph to Lochmaben, where the 



