patriotic feeling, although, as we have seen, he had
been one of the guardians who had maintained a semblance of
independence. The death of the Comyn had thrown against him the whole
influence of the Church; he was excommunicate, and it was no sin to slay
him. The powerful family, whose head had been cut off by his hand, had
vowed revenge, and its great influence was on the side of the English.
It is no small tribute to the force of the sentiment of nationality that
the Scots rallied round such a leader, and it must be remembered that,
from whatever reason the Bruce adopted the national cause, he proved in
every respect worthy of a great occasion, and as time passed, he came to
deserve the place he occupies as the hero of the epic of a nation's
freedom.

The first blow in the renewed struggle was struck at Methven, near
Perth, where, on the 19th June, 1306, the Earl of Pembroke inflicted a
defeat upon King Robert. The Lowlands were now almost entirely lost to
him; he sent his wife[47] and child to Kildrummie Castle in
Aberdeenshire, whence they fled to the sanctuary of St. Duthac, near
Tain. In August, Bruce was defeated at Dalry, by Alexander of Lorn, a
relative of the Comyn. In September, Kildrummie Castle fell, and Nigel
Bruce, King Robert's brother, fell into the hands of the English and was
put to death at Berwick. To complete the tale of catastrophes, the
Bruce's wife and daughter, two of his sisters, and other two of his
brothers, along with the Countess of Buchan, came into the power of the
English king. Edward placed some of the ladies in cages, and put to
death Sir Thomas Bruce and Alexander Bruce, Dean of Glasgow (February,
1306-7). Meanwhile, King Robert had found it impossible to maintain
himself even in his own lands of Carrick, and he withdrew to the island
of Rathlin, where he wintered. Undeterred by this long series of
calamities, he took the field in the spring of 1307, and now, for the
first time, fortune favoured him. On the 10th May, he defeated the
English, under Pembroke, at Loudon Hill, in Ayrshire. He had been joined
by his brother Edward and by the Lord James of Douglas (the "Black
Douglas"), and the news of his success, slight as it was, helped to
increase at once the spirit and the numbers of his followers. His
position, however, was one of extreme difficulty; he was still only a
king in name, and, in reality, the leader of a guerilla warfare. Edward
was marching northwards at the head of a