In April, Balliol was again in Scotland, and, in May, Edward III began to besiege Berwick, which had been promised him by Balliol.  To defend Berwick, the Scots were forced to fight a pitched battle, which proved a repetition of Dupplin Moor.  Berwick had promised to surrender if it were not relieved by a fixed date.  When the day arrived, a small body of Scots had succeeded in breaking through the English lines, and Sir Archibald Douglas had led a larger force to ravage Northumberland.  On these grounds Berwick held that it had been in fact relieved; but Edward III, who lacked his grandfather’s nice appreciation of situations where law and fact are at variance, replied by hanging a hostage.  The regent was now forced to risk a battle in the hope of saving Berwick, and he marched southwards, towards Berwick, with a large army.  Edward, following the precedent of Dupplin, occupied a favourable position at Halidon Hill, with his front protected by a marsh.  He drew up his line in the order that had been so successful at Dupplin, and the same result followed.  Each successive body of Scottish pikemen was cut down by a shower of English arrows, before being able even to strike a blow.  The regent was slain, and Moray, his companion in arms, fled to France, soon to return to strike another blow for Scotland.

The victory of Halidon added greatly to the popularity of Edward III, for the English looked upon the shame of Bannockburn as avenged, and they sang: 

  “Scots out of Berwick and out of Aberdeen,
   At the Burn of Bannock, ye were far too keen,
   Many guiltless men ye slew, as was clearly seen. 
   King Edward has avenged it now, and fully too, I ween,
     He has avenged it well, I ween.  Well worth the while! 
     I bid you all beware of Scots, for they are full of guile.

  “’Tis now, thou rough-foot, brogue-shod Scot, that begins thy care,
   Then boastful barley-bag-man, thy dwelling is all bare. 
   False wretch and forsworn, whither wilt thou fare? 
   Hie thee unto Bruges, seek a better biding there! 
   There, wretch, shalt thou stay and wait a weary while;
   Thy dwelling in Dundee is lost for ever by thy guile."[51]

In Scotland, the party of independence was, for the time, helpless.  Edward and Balliol divided the country between them.  The eight counties of Dumfries, Roxburgh, Berwick, Selkirk, Peebles, Haddington, Edinburgh, and Linlithgow formed the English king’s share of the spoil, along with a reassertion of his supremacy over the rest of Scotland.  English officers began to rule between the Tweed and the Forth.  But the cause of independence was never really hopeless.  Balliol and the English party were soon weakened by internal dissensions, and the leaders on the patriotic side were not slow to take advantage of the opportunities thus given them.  It was, indeed, necessary to send King David and his wife to France, and they landed at Boulogne in May, 1334.  But from France, in