Without interruption the royalists proceeded to Strathbogie.  The satisfaction of the king at the daring exploit by which he had been rescued from such imminent peril did more for him than medicine or change of air, and to the joy of his followers he began to recover his strength.  He was then moved down to the river Don.  Here Buchan and his English allies made a sudden attack upon his quarters, killing some of the outposts.  This attack roused the spirit and energy of the king, and he immediately called for his war horse and armour and ordered his men to prepare for action.  His followers remonstrated with him, but he declared that this attack by his enemies had cured him more speedily than medicine could have done, and heading his troops he issued forth and came upon the enemy near Old Meldrum, where, after a desperate fight, Buchan and his confederates were defeated with great slaughter on Christmas day, 1307.  Buchan and Mowbray fled into England.  Brechin took refuge in his own castle of Brechin, where he was afterwards besieged and forced to surrender.

Bruce now marched into the territory of Comyn, where he took a terrible vengeance for the long adhesion of his hated enemy to England.  The whole country was wasted with fire and sword, the people well nigh exterminated, and the very forests destroyed.  So terrible was the devastation that for generations afterwards men spoke of the harrying of Buchan as a terrible and exceptional act of vengeance.

The castle of Aberdeen was next invested.  The English made great efforts for its succour, but the citizens joined Bruce, and a united attack being made upon the castle it was taken by assault and razed to the ground.  The king and his forces then moved into Angus.  Here the English strongholds were all taken, the castle of Forfar being assaulted and carried by a leader who was called Phillip, a forester of Platane.  With the exception of Perth, the most important fortress north of the Forth, and a few minor holds, the whole of the north of Scotland, was now in the king’s hands.  In the meantime Sir James Douglas, in the south, had again taken his paternal castle and had razed it to the ground.  The forests of Selkirk and Jedburgh, with the numerous fortresses of the district, were brought under the king’s authority, and the English were several times defeated.  In the course of these adventures Sir James came across Alexander Stewart, Thomas Randolph, the king’s nephew, who, after being taken prisoner at Methven, had joined the English party, and Adam O’Gordon.  They advanced with a much superior force to capture him, but were signally defeated.  O’Gordon escaped into England, but Stewart and Randolph were taken.

This was a fortunate capture, for Randolph afterwards became one of the king’s most valiant knights and the wisest of his counsellors.  After this action Douglas marched north and joined the king.  The latter sternly reproached Randolph for having forsworn his allegiance and joined the English.  Randolph answered hotly and was committed by his uncle to solitary confinement, where he presently came to a determination to renew his allegiance to Bruce, and henceforward fought faithfully and gallantly under him.