The Scalacronica. 59 



who had occupied the road before. Here was slain Piers de 

 Mountforth, knight, by the hand of Robert de Bruis, as it was 

 said. While the advance guard was trying that road, Robert, 

 Lord de Clifford and Henry de Beaumound, with 300 men-at- 

 arms, went round the wood on the other side towards the Castle, 

 and tarried in the open fields. Thomas Randolf , Earl of Murref, 

 the nephew of Robert de Bruys, who commanded the advance 

 guard of Scotland, hearing that his uncle had driven back the 

 advance guard of the English on the other side of the wood, and 

 thinking that he ought to have his share in the battle, issued from 

 the wood with his array and advanced over the open field 

 against the two Lords above-named. Sir Henr\- de Beaumound 

 said to his men : — " Let us retreat a little ; let them come on ; 

 give them the fields." Thomas Gray, knight, said to him: — 

 " Sire, I fear that you will not in the time give them so 

 much, because too soon they will have all." "Look here," 

 said the said Henry: "If you are afraid, flee." "Sire," said 

 the said Thomas, " from fear I shall not flee this day." So he 

 and William Dayncourt, knight, set spurs to their horses and 

 •charged straight into the midst of the enemy. William was slain, 

 and Thomas was taken prisoner, his horse being killed with the 

 lances. The enemy dragged him back with them on foot and 

 went openly to encounter the troops of the two Lords. Some 

 of these fled to the Castle, others to the King's army, which had 

 retreated from the road through the wood and had come into a 

 plain stretching towards the water of Forth, beyond Bannockburn, 

 a bad, deep, and rushy marsh. Thither the army of England 

 retreated and remained all night in deep dejection ; and on 

 account of the past day they were destitute of a good plan of 

 operations. The Scots in the wood thought that they had done 

 well enough on that dav, and were just on the point of removing, 

 in order to march in the night into the Lennox, a stronger country, 

 when Alexander de Setoun, knight, who wa.s in the ser\ice of 

 England and had come thither with the King, departed privily 

 out of the English army, and went to Robert de Bruys in the 

 wood, and said to him: "Now is the time, if ever, to think of 

 trying to recover Scotland. The English have lost heart ; for 

 they are defeated. They expect nothing but a sudden attack." 

 So he related their plan to him, and told him upon penalty of his 

 head and of being hanged and drawn, that if he were willing to 



