no sentinels; and, if you have a mind to make haste, we may surprise
them this very night.' Then there was nothing but mount and ride;
and, as the Scots came by surprise on the body of the English whom
Douglas had mentioned, and rushed suddenly into the village where they
were quartered, they easily dispersed and cut them to pieces; thus
doing their pursuers more injury than they themselves had received
during the long and severe pursuit of the preceding day."

On another occasion Bruce, with sixty men, was wandering in the county
of Galloway, awaiting the gathering of forces. Now the people of
Galloway are mostly friendly to the Lord of Lorn, and a large number
of them collected, determined to capture him. They felt sure of the
success of their enterprise, as they had a blood-hound to track the
king, and had such superior numbers.

33. "Now Bruce, who was always watchful and vigilant, had received
some information of this party to come upon him suddenly in the night.
Accordingly, he quartered his party of sixty men on the farther side
of a deep and swift-running river, that had very steep and rocky
banks. There was but one ford by which this river could be crossed in
the neighborhood, and that ford was deep and narrow, so that two men
could scarcely get through abreast; the bank on which they were to
land on the other side was steep, and the path that led upward from
the water's edge extremely narrow and difficult.

34. "Bruce caused his men to lie down and sleep, at a place about half
a mile distant from the river, while he, with two attendants, went
down to watch the ford, and thinking how easy the enemy might be kept
from passing there, providing it was bravely defended--when he heard
the distant baying of a hound, which was always coming nearer and