entered it secretly
in the night-time, with a body of two hundred determined soldiers, and
advanced to the royal tent, with a view of killing or carrying off the
king in the midst of his army. But some of Edward's attendants, awaking
in that critical moment, made resistance; his chaplain and chamberlain
sacrificed their lives for his safety; the king himself, after making
a valorous defence, escaped in the dark; and Douglas, having lost the
greater part of his followers, was glad to make a hasty retreat with the
remainder.[*] Soon after, the Scottish army decamped without noise in
the dead of night; and having thus gotten the start of the English,
arrived without further loss in their own country. Edward, on entering
the place of the Scottish encampment, found only six Englishmen, whom
the enemy, after breaking their legs, had tied to trees, in order to
prevent their carrying any intelligence to their countrymen.[**]

* Froissard, liv. iv. chap. 19. Heming. p. 265. Ypod. Neust.
p. 509. Knyghton, p 2552.

** Froissard, liv. iv. chap. 19.

The king was highly incensed at the disappointment which he had met
with in his first enterprise, and at the head of so gallant an army.
The symptoms which he had discovered of bravery and spirit gave extreme
satisfaction, and were regarded as sure prognostics of an illustrious
reign: but the general displeasure fell violently on Mortimer, who was
already the object of public odium; and every measure which he pursued
tended to aggravate, beyond all bounds, the hatred of the nation both
against him and Queen Isabella.

When the council of regency was formed, Mortimer, though in the
plenitude of his power, had taken no care to insure a place in it; but
this semblance of moderation was only a cover to the most iniquitous and
most ambitious projects. He rendered that council entirely useless, by
usurping to himself the whole sovereign authority; he settled on the
queen dowager the greater part of the royal revenues; he never consulted
either the princes of the blood or the nobility in any public measure;
the king himself was so besieged by his creatures, that no access could
be procured to him; and all the envy which had attended Gavaston and
Spenser fell much more deservedly on the new favorite.

{1328.} Mortimer, sensible of the growing hatred of the people, thought
it requisite on any terms to secure peace abroad; and he entered into
a negotiation with Robert Bruce f