mander to battle in the open field. Pembroke returned for answer, that the day was too far spent, but that he would be ready to join battle on the morrow. Satisfied with this acceptance, Robert drew off his army to the neighbouring wood of Methven, where he encamped for the night; parties were dispersed in search of provisions, and the others, throwing aside their armour, employed themselves in making the necessary arrangements for comfort and repose. By a very culpable neglect, or a most unwarrantable reliance on the promise of the English Earl, the customary watches against surprise were either altogether omitted, or very insufficiently attended to. Pembroke having, by his scouts, intelligence of this particular, and of the negligent posture of the Scottish troops, drew out his forces from Perth, towards the close of day; and gaining the unguarded encampment without observation, succeeded in throwing the whole body into complete and irremediable confusion. The Scots made but a feeble and unavailing resistance, and were soon routed and dispersed in every direction. Philip de Mowbray is said to have unhorsed the king, whom he seized, calling aloud that he had got the new made king; when Robert was gallantly rescued from his perilous situation by Chrystal de Seton his body esquire. Another account affirms that Robert was thrice unhorsed in the conflict, and thrice remounted by Simon Frazer. So desperate, indeed, were the personal risks which the King encountered on that disastrous night in the fruitless efforts which he made to rally his dismayed and discomfited followers, that, for a time, being totally unsupported, he was made prisoner by John de Haliburton, a Scotsman in the English army, but who set him at liberty on discovering who he was.
To have sustained even a slight defeat at the present juncture would have proved of incalculable injury to Bruce's cause: the miserable overthrow at Methven, seemed to have terminated it for ever; and to have left little else for Edward to do, unless to satisfy at his leisure the vindictive retribution which he had so solemnly bound himself to execute. Several of Robert's truest and bravest friends were made prisoners; among whom were Haye, Barclay, Frazer, Inchmartin, Sommerville, and Randolph. With about five hundred men, all that he was able to muster from the broken and dispirited remains of his army, Bruce penetrated into the mountainous country of Athole. In this small, but attached band, he still numbered the Earls of Athole and Errol, Sir James Douglas, Sir Neil Campbell, and his own brave brothers, Edward and Nigel.
Bruce and his small party, reduced indifferently to the condition of proscribed and hunted outlaws, endured the extremity of hardships among the wild and barren fastnesses to which they had retreated for shelter. The season of the year, it being then the middle of summer, rendered such a life, for a time, possible; but as the .weather became less favourable, and their wants increased in proportion, they were constrained to descend into the low country of Aberdeenshire. Here Robert met with his queen and many other ladies who had fled thither for safety; and who, with an affectionate fortitude resolved, in the company of their fathers and husbands, to brave the same evils with which they found them encompassed. The respite which the royal party here enjoyed was of brief duration. Learning that a superior body of English was advancing upon them, they were forced to leave the low country and take refuge in the mountainous district of Breadalbane. To these savage and unhospitable retreats they were accompanied by the queen and the other ladies related to the party and to their broken fortunes by ties, it would seem, equally strong; and again had the royalists to sustain, under yet more distressing circumstances, the rigorous severity of their lot. Hunting and fishing were the precarious, though almost the only means, which they had of sustaining life; and the good Sir James Douglas is particularly noticed by the minute Barbour for his success in these pursuits; and the devoted
