Page:Robert the Bruce and the struggle for Scottish independence - 1909.djvu/152

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116
Robert the Bruce.
[1299 A.D.-

de guerre). The garrison were warned to seek what shelter they could before the shot was fired.

Oliphant and his men were afterwards made to go through a humiliating mummery of contrition for the benefit of the ladies, with pretended tears (tremulos et quasi cum lacrymis), and then were shipped off to various castles in England as prisoners of war. Oliphant remained a prisoner till 1308, when he was released on giving security for good behaviour, and there is reason to believe he then entered the English service.

The earliest mention of Edward de Brus, the Earl of Carrick's brother, occurs in this campaign. His name appears in the roll of the Prince of Wales's army on April 6, 1304. It is not clear who "Monsieur Guillem de Breouse" was, whose name is included in the list of English nobility present with King Edward at the siege of Stirling,[1] but probably he belonged to one of the collateral branches of the family in the south.

All the fortresses of Scotland were now in English hands, but there was no security as long as Wallace remained at liberty. Extraordinary efforts, therefore, were made to capture him. The sentences of exile on John Comyn, de Lindsay, Graham, and Simon Fraser were remitted, on condition that, among them, they should take Wallace before December 20th; James the Steward, de Soulis, and de Umfraville were warned not to come within the King's power until that should be accomplished.

  1. Palgrave, 274.