HALIDON HILL

BATTLE OF.—Fought July 19th, 1333.—“The Scots were rash enough to attack the English as they held the top of a bold hill, at the foot of which lay a marsh. The English archers, posted on the face of the hill, shot down the Scots, almost at their leisure, while they struggled heavily through the spongy ground. Under the deadly arrow flight, the Scots dragged themselves through the bog, and attempted, all breathle and exhausted, to charge up the hill against the fresh troops of England. They were forced down with great slaughter. Many more were slain as they struggled back through the fatal bog. The bloody le on, however, seems not to have been lost. Once and again King Edward made the savage apparition of war to pa through Scotland. But the Scots baffled him by following the wise policy of Bruce. He traversed a country completely deserted and laid waste. The inhabitants, with their cattle and all their property, had retired to the inacce ible fastne es of the mountains. Every advanced column and detached party of the English was a ailed, stragglers cut off, and alarms kept up. Famine and disease did the work. Captain Hunger was more than a match for Captain Sword. Edward made nothing by his invasions, though he marched through the country as far north as Inverne . He was compelled each time to fall back again on his own territory, with great lo of men from hardships and misery, and the hara ing attacks of the Scots, who sallied out from every glen, forest, and mountain defile.”