re had no less than forty thousand men under his banners; but
the same hurry and impatience that made him collect a force, which, from
its greatness, was so disproportioned to the occasion, rendered all
his motions unskilful and imprudent. The River Erne ran between the two
armies; and the Scots, confiding in that security, as well as in their
great superiority of numbers, kept no order in their encampment.
Baliol passed the river in the night-time; attacked the unguarded and
undisciplined Scots; threw them into confusion, which was increased by
the darkness, and by their very numbers, to which they trusted; and he
beat them off the field with great slaughter.[**] But in the morning,
when the Scots were at some distance, they were ashamed of having
yielded the victory to so weak a foe, and they hurried back to recover
the honor of the day. Their eager passions urged them precipitately to
battle, without regard to some broken ground which lay between them
and the enemy, and which disordered and confounded their ranks. Baliol
seized the favorable opportunity, advanced his troops upon them,
prevented them from rallying, and anew chased them off the field with
redoubled slaughter. There fell above twelve thousand Scots in this
action; and among these the flower of their nobility; the regent
himself, the earl of Carrick, a natural son of their late king, the
earls of Athole and Monteith, lord Hay of Errol, constable, and the
lords Keith and Lindsey. The loss of the English scarcely exceeded
thirty men; a strong proof, among many others, of the miserable state of
military discipline in those ages.[***]

* Heming. p. 272. Walsing. p. 131. Knyghton, p. 2560.

** Knyghton, p. 2561.

*** Heming. p. 273. Walsing. p. 131. Knyghton, p. 2561.

Baliol soon after made himself master of Perth; but still was not able
to bring over any of the Scots to his party. Patric Dunbar, earl of
Marche, and Sir Archibald Douglas, brother to the lord of that name,
appeared at the head of the Scottish armies, which amounted still to
near forty thousand men; and they purposed to reduce Baliol and the
English by famine. They blockaded Perth by land; they collected some
vessels with which they invested it by water; but Baliol's ships,
attacking the Scottish fleet, gained a complete victory, and opened the
communication between Perth and the sea.[*] The Scotch armies were then
obliged to disband for want of pay and subsistence: the natio