ome their allies were looking for him everywhere. Moreover,
those Scots who fell into the hands of the enemy could not hope for
mercy. If they were men of low degree and with no title of nobility
they were hanged. If they were of noble birth, they suffered the more
aristocratic fate of beheading.

Still further misfortunes were to follow Bruce. The Pope could not
forget his desecration of the church and passed on him what is known to
all followers of the Catholic faith as the sentence of excommunication.
This was a terrible punishment, for it meant that so far as the power
of the Church went--and that power was absolute in those far
days--Bruce could never be received in Heaven or even have the
privilege of repenting for his sins. He was cast out of the Church into
the outer darkness, and the hands of every priest and of all righteous
men were turned against him.

He was obliged to flee to a little island off the coast of Ireland,
where with a few followers he had a comparatively safe hiding place,
although the ships of King Edward were hunting for him high and low. In
the meantime his Queen and her ladies, whom he believed he had sent to
a safe refuge in a stronghold called Kildrummy Castle, were captured by
the English and kept in close confinement, being made to undergo many
indignities because Bruce himself had succeeded in eluding vengeance.

But all the time he lay in concealment Bruce considered how he could go
back to Scotland, whose shores he could see from his hiding place, and
he and his followers were constantly making desperate plans to return.
Chief among them was one James Douglas, who was a brave and noble
warrior, second only to Bruce himself in the strength of his arm and no
way inferior to him in the quality of his courage. After many a talk
with Douglas and the rest of his followers as to what would be best for
them in their extremity, Bruce decided to send a trusty messenger in a
small boat to the Scottish shore to learn if there was any discontent
under the British rule, and if the time for a second uprising had not
perhaps arrived. For Bruce knew he had many friends, if he could only
reach them and gather them to his side.

The messenger who made this dangerous journey was to signal to Bruce if
it was safe for him to return by lighting a beacon fire on the headland
that was most visible from the Island of Arran where Bruce was then
hiding. If Bruce saw the fire on the following night he and his