The certainty that the king would on the first possible occasion reinstate his favourite, and that their own lives might fall before his vengeance, determined them to put him to death, in disgraceful violation of the articles of capitulation, but in accordance with the ordinance passed by Parliament for his exile. Gaveston now stooped from his haughty insolence at the approach of death, and prayed for mercy from the Earl of Lancaster. It was useless; his enemies hurried him a-way on the road towards Coventry, and there, at a mile or more distant from the castle, on the 1st of July, 1312, they struck off his head on a rising ground called Blacklow Hill, where the Avon winds through a pleasant scene, suggestive of anything but such a tragedy.
The king, as was to be expected, was thrown into violent grief at the news of the bloody death of his beloved friend. He roused himself to something like energy; vowed deadly vengeance on all concerned, and proceeded to raise and march troops for the purpose. The barons stood in arms to receive him, and for the remainder of the year they maintained a hostile attitude, but fought no battle. The king's resentment, as evanescent as his better purposes, then gave way; the barons consented to solicit his pardon on their knees; and this pretended humility flattered him into compliance. The plate and jewels of Gaveston were surrendered into his hands, and he was implored to confirm their deeds by proclaiming the late favourite a traitor. Here, however, Edward stood firm; he not only refused, but declined also to confirm the ordinances they had passed. But they had accomplished the great object of destroying the hated favourite, and therefore were the more willing not to press the king too closely on other points. All classes in the nation now began to cherish hopes that they might be led to chastise the Scots, and to win back, if possible, the brilliant conquests of Edward I.
For seven years the feeble and inglorious Edward II. had now suffered the loss of his great father's acquisitions in Scotland, and the reverses and disgraces of the English arms to remain unavenged. Occupied with the society of his favourite, the effeminate pleasures of the court, and the consequent contentions with his barons, he had allowed Bruce to proceed, with all the activity and resources of a great mind, to reassure the people of Scotland, retake the castles and forts, and strengthen himself at all points against attack. He had gradually risen from a condition the most perilous and enfeebled to one of great strength. His soldiers now held every stronghold except that of Stirling; and the governor of that last remaining fortress, by the permission of Bruce himself, appeared in London to inform the king that he had stipulated that if the castle wore not relieved by the feast of St. John the Baptist, the 24th of June, it should be surrendered.
Thus the reign of this weak monarch was the rescue of Scotland. Had not this spiritless king interposed between two such monarchs as the Edwards First and Third, it is impossible to suppose that Scotland could have maintained its independence. But, with the golden opportunity of an incompetent enemy. Providence had also sent Scotland one of the greatest men which it ever produced. Robert Bruce, driven to seek refuge in the most inaccessible wilds and mountains during the dominion of Edward I., and even pursued there by some of his own countrymen, such as the Lord of Lorn, and the relatives of the Red Comyn, no sooner saw the incapable ruler who had succeeded the "Hammer of Scotland," as Edward I. is styled on his tomb in Westminster Abbey, than he seized every favourable opportunity for regaining the castles and strongholds from the English. As fast as he mastered them he laid them in ruins, for he could not afford garrisons to defend them, and he knew that the feeling of the country was with him.
In the spring of 1308, the year following the death of Edward I., Bruce appeared to be sinking under the effects of the hardships and exposures which he had endured, combined with the almost superhuman exertions he had long made. He was in such a state of debility that his life was despaired of. Yet an English force under Mowbray, an Englishman, and John Comyn, Count of Buchan, having approached Inverury, in Aberdeenshire, Bruce caused himself to be lifted from his bed, and held by two men on his horse, and in that condition charged and routed his enemies. What might not be expected from resolution like that! Castle after castle fell into his hands. Aberdeen and Forfar were surprised the same year and razed. In 1309 and 1310 truces were entered into, but badly kept on both sides. In the autumn of that year Edward made an expedition into Scotland, but could not find an enemy, Bruce and his followers having adroitly disappeared, and, as Edward described it in a letter to the Pope, hidden themselves after the manner of foxes. But no sooner had Edward returned to London the following July, than Bruce actually pursued in the track of his army, and laid waste Durham. Returning laden with spoil, he next besieged and took Perth in January, 1312. He then made another excursion into the north of England, burned the towns of Corbridge and Hexham, in Northumberland; afterwards destroyed a great part of the city of Durham; then marched upon Chester and Carlisle, and was only induced to return to his own country by a payment of £8,000, raised in the four northern counties.
On the 7th of March of that year the important castle of Roxburgh was surprised and taken by Lord James Douglas. This was the same James Douglas who in 1307 had surprised his own castle of Douglas, which was held by Lord Clifford. He had contrived to get in on Palm Sunday, when the soldiers were in church. Having cut them to pieces, he and his followers found only a few soldiers in the castle cooking the dinner. They ate the dinner, and finding great stores for the garrison, threw them on a heap in the middle of the floor, knocked out the heads of the wine barrels, slew the soldiers, flung them on the pile, and so set fire to the castle, casting dead horses into the well to spoil it. The castle being restored by the English, Douglas again took and destroyed it, and vowed that he would thus avenge himself on any one who took possession of his house. There is a romantic but true story of a great and very beautiful heiress in England, who told her lovers that she would accept the man who would defend this castle of Douglas, now called Perilous Castle. This enterpise a brave young officer. Sir John Wilton, undertook, and maintained the castle for some time; but at length was lured out by a stratagem of Douglas and slain, a letter of the lady being found in his pocket.
