Nigel Tranter - The Path of the Hero King

Douglas looked down.

“No doubt, Sire, I should not be here.

Should not have come, myself. Should have sent couriers, letters.

But the news is urgent And … and I hungered to see Your Grace’s face again. It is a year and more …”

The King shook the other’s shoulder, and his own head-but understandingly, not censoriously.

“Aye, Jamie-we are flesh and blood, God knows! And God be thanked! Men, not graven images of duty and obedience and form. But… your urgent news?”

“Galloway has broken out in revolt again. Major revolt. MacDouall, once more. But with English aid. Too great a task for me.

He had Umfraville aiding him also-Sir Ingram. And an English force under Sir John de St. John. I had not the men to face them-have not sufficient, in truth, to hold what I have.”

“Galloway again! In Heaven’s name-am I never to be free of Galloway’s spleen? And not just Galloway. Umfraville -who was Guardian of the Realm, once! Still hating me. I’ faith-hate dies slow in this Scotland …!”

“The English still hold all the line of castles from Lochmaben to Caerlaverock—Tibbers, Dalswinton, Dumfries. Cutting off Galloway.

And Buittle in Galloway itself—a strong place. I dared not move against them, leaving the rest of the South bare. So I left Sir Alexander Lindsay and Sir Walter de Bickerton in charge, at Selkirk in the Forest which I have made my base, and hastened north.

I believed you to be assailing the Earl of Ross, in Moray and the Great Glen. But I learned in Atholl that you had come to terms with him which I could scarcely believe-and had turned south, by Lochaber, for the West. So I came hotfoot, by Tummel and Rannoch.”

Bruce’s expression had returned to normal-grim, guarded, narrow-eyed, calculating, the brief interlude of naturalness, of being himself over.

“So-o-o!” he breathed.

“The Scots remain … the Scots! Preferring far to fight each other than the enemy! What curse is there on this people, what devil’s seed sown in us, that we must ever stab our brother’s back rather than our foe’s?” He swung round to face the semi-circle of his leaders.

“My friends-have you heard? My lord of Douglas brings ill tidings.

Galloway is in open revolt again. With aid both Scots and English. Umfraville, no less. With the Comyn fall, he will now lead the Baliol faction. I had hoped him either tamed or tired! And Sir John de St. John-he who led me to Edward Longshanks at Linlithgow, and my wedding! One of the ablest of the English. This is no small MacDouall insurrection.”

“Christ God’s curse upon them all!” the Lord of the Isles exclaimed.

“I told you! I call all to witness-I told you! At Loch Doon. That we should lay Galloway low. Not any petty ride around the place, waving a flag and hanging a few scoundrels, as we did. But with our fullest power, and no quarter. Fire and sword, to the whole accursed province! As you have done with Buchan.

But you would have none of it. I had 500 Islesmen to avenge in Galloway!”

The King held in his own temper. Only Angus Og would have addressed him so. But Angus was Angus, and this no time to stress style and courtly manners.

“My lord, you did so advise,” he admitted.

“But it was not vengeance that was my great concern. It was the new King Edward’s plans. Which we did not know. I had to think of all my kingdom, not just Galloway. I conceived that a light lesson would serve. I was wrong. It has not done so. And now we must pay for my error, and do what should have been done a year ago.”

“It will be but the harder.”

“True. But we are the stronger.”

The Islesman looked bleak indeed.

“I will take my galleys to Galloway!” he said, almost whispering.

“They shall learn what it means to have insulted MacDonald!”

Eyeing him a little askance, the King said, “We shall see. This must be well considered …”

Edward Bruce had come up from a visit to Lennox in the rear, during the Douglas greeting. Now he broke in.

“We now abandon one savage for another? MacDougall for MacDouall!

Leave Lorn and fall on Galloway.”

“No!” Campbell cried.

“That would be folly. Lorn is at hand, Galloway far …”

“And MacDougall a menace to your Campbell lands in Argyll!

Have you thought of Carrick? Annandale? Which MacDouall and the English harass?”

“My lords-we are not fighting for lands or properties. Any more than for vengeance,” Bruce intervened.

“We fight for the freedom of a whole people, the saving of a kingdom. If you forget it, I do not. Let me hear no more of such talk. Win the kingdom, and all the lands therein shall be yours. But win the kingdom first!”

Sir Thomas Randolph spoke up.

“Sire-my lands of Nithsdale are near to Galloway, and so menaced. But

I say to strike at this Lorn first. “”You are uncommon noble,

nephew!” his uncle mocked, as Douglas looked up, interested in his late prisoner’s new role.

“But then, we can well understand that you would rather fight MacDougall’s Highlandmen than your late friends the English!”

Randolph flushed hotly, caught the King’s eye, and swallowed.

“You have other reason for urging that we hold to Lorn, Sir Thomas?”

“I have, Sire. Galloway stands alone. Even in successful revolt, it would not bring down all the South. But allow Lorn and Ross to join forces, and you could lose all the North again, truce or none.”

“You have it, nephew! That is as I myself see it. MacDougall is still the greater danger. I proceed to Lorn, therefore, as planned.

But Galloway -that wound must be staunched before it bleeds us white. I will think on this…”

So the great sprawling array straggled on across the Moor of Rannoch.

And now the King fretted again, at the slow rate of progress.

They won out of that terrible wilderness, and down towards the wooded shores of lovely Loch Tulla, as evening fell, with the mountains closing in again and the going becoming firmer, surer. Bruce decided to camp here, where there was shelter and fuel, and the possibility of deer in the woods for skilled hunters to kill-for the feeding of so large a host in empty country was an ever-present headache. He had been preoccupied, thoughtful, since Douglas’s appearance. Now he called his lords together, round him.

“I halt the main host here, early, although we have covered but little ground this day,” he told them.

“For tomorrow we shall be into Lorn, and it is best that the men be well rested and fed, in fighting trim. If may be. Out of this Loch Tulla flows the River Orchy, down to Loch Awe and the Western Sea. We follow it, tomorrow. Here then, we part Most to camp for this night. But some to push on swiftly.”

“Who?” Edward jerked.

“You, brother, for one. I have considered this thing well. In the campaign against MacDougall, the heavier Lowland cavalry will be of scant use. I fear. Wasted, in mountain warfare. I would have you take most of it-say 600 men-and ride hard for the South. By the mounth of Marlom,. Strathfillan, Loch Lomond, across Clyde, and so down to the Forest of Ettrick. And thence to Galloway.”

“Ha!” Edward breathed.

“So you have come to sense, Robert!”

“I have come to decision, my lord! You are strong for harrying and slaying! Here then is a task after your own heart. Collect what men Lindsay and Bickerton can spare you from Douglas’s force in the Forest. Gain as many as you may from our own lands of Carrick and Annandale.

You have my royal authority to call for all support wherever you may. Then descend upon Galloway with all speed. Waste no time on the English-held castles. Avoid set battles, if you may. But deal with Galloway!”

His brother was grinning, fiercely. They were very different men.

“It shall be so, by the Mass!” he declared.