and a brother of the chief of the Frazers.
Other chiefs, kinsmen of the slain Comyn, among them Macdowal of Argyll,
banded to avenge the victim; Bruce's little force was defeated at Methven
Wood, near Perth, by Aymer de Valence, and prisoners of all ranks were
hanged as traitors, while two bishops were placed in irons. Bruce took
to the heather, pursued by the Macdowals no less than by the English; his
queen was captured, his brother Nigel was executed; he cut his way to the
wild west coast, aided only by Sir Nial Campbell of Loch Awe, who thus
founded the fortune of his house, and by the Macdonalds, under Angus Og
of Islay. He wintered in the isle of Rathlin (some think he even went to
Norway), and in spring, after surprising the English garrison in his own
castle of Turnberry, he roamed, now lonely, now with a mobile little
force, in Galloway, always evading and sometimes defeating his English
pursuers. At Loch Trool and at London Hill (Drumclog) he dealt them
heavy blows, while on June 7, 1307, his great enemy Edward died at
Borough-on-Sands, leaving the crown and the war to the weakling Edward
II.

Fortune had turned. We cannot follow Bruce through his campaign in the
north, where he ruined the country of the Comyns (1308), and through the
victories in Galloway of his hard-fighting brother Edward. With enemies
on every side, Bruce took them in detail; early in March 1309 he routed
the Macdowals at the west end of the Pass of Brander. Edward II. was
involved in disputes with his own barons, and Bruce was recognised by his
country's Church in 1310 and aided by his great lieutenants, Sir James
Douglas and Thomas Randolph, Earl of Murray. By August 1311 Bruce was
carrying the war into England, sacking Durham and Chester, failing at
Carlisle, but in January 1313, capturing Perth. In summer, Edward Bruce,
in the spirit of chivalry, gave to Stirling Castle (Randolph had taken
Edinburgh Castle) a set day, Midsummer Day 1314, to be relieved or to
surrender; and Bruce kept tryst with Edward II. and his English and Irish
levies, and all his adventurous chivalry from France, Hainault, Bretagne,
Gascony, and Aquitaine. All the world knows the story of the first
battle, the Scottish Quatre Bras; the success of Randolph on the right;
the slaying of Bohun when Bruce broke his battle-axe. Next day Bruce's
position was strong; beneath the towers of Stirling the Bannockburn
protected his front; morasses only to be crossed by