“See yonder folk kneel to ask for mercy!”

“Ay, sire,” the knight said, looking earnestly at the Scots, “they kneel and ask for mercy, but not of you; it is for their sins they ask mercy of God.  I know these men, and have met and fought them, and I tell you that assuredly they will win or die, and not even when death looks them in the face will they turn to fly.”

“Then if it must be so,” said the king, “let us charge.”

The trumpet sounded along the line.  First the immense body of English archers crossed the burn and opened the battle by pouring clouds of arrows into the Scottish ranks.  The Scotch archers, who were in advance of their spearmen, were speedily driven back to shelter beyond their line, for not only were the English vastly more numerous, but they shot much further and more accurately.  And now the knights and men-at-arms, on their steel clad horses, crossed the burn.  They were aware of the existence of Milton Bog, which covered the Scottish centre, and they directed their charge upon the division of Edward Bruce on the Scottish right.  The crash as the mailed horses burst down upon the wood of Scottish spears was tremendous.  Bruce’s men held firm, and the English in vain strove to break through their serried line of spears.  It was a repetition of the fight of the previous day, but on a greater scale.  With lance and battleaxe the chivalry of England strove to break the ranks of the Scotch, while with serried lines of spears, four deep, the Scotch held their own.  Every horse which, wounded or riderless, turned and dashed through the ranks of the English, added to the confusion.  This was much further increased by the deep holes into which the horses were continually falling, and breaking up all order in their ranks.  Those behind pressed forward to reach the front, and their very numbers added to their difficulty.

The English were divided into ten divisions or “battles,” and these one by one crossed the stream with banners flying, and still avoiding the centre, followed the line taken by the first, and pressed forward to take part in the fray.

Randolph now moved with the centre to the support of the hardly pressed right, and his division, as well as that of Edward Bruce, seemed to be lost among the multitude of their opponents.  Stewart and Douglas moved their division to the right and threw themselves into the fray, and the three Scottish divisions were now fighting side by side, but with a much smaller front than that which they had originally occupied.  For a time the battle raged furiously without superiority on either side.  The Scotch possessed the great advantage that, standing close together in ranks four deep, every man was engaged, while of the mounted knights and men-at-arms who pressed upon them, only the front line was doing efficient service.  Not only, therefore, was the vast numerical superiority of the English useless to them, but actually a far larger number of the Scottish than of themselves were