42. King Robert the Bruce summoned all his nobles and barons to join
him, when he heard of the great preparation which the king of England
was making. They were not so numerous as the English by many thousand
men. In fact, his whole army did not very much exceed thirty thousand
men, and they were much worse armed than the wealthy Englishmen; but
then Robert, who was at their head, was one of the most expert
generals of the time, and the officers he had under him were his
brother Edward, his nephew Randolph, his faithful follower the
Douglas, and other brave and experienced leaders, who commanded the
same men that had been accustomed to fight and gain victories under
every disadvantage of situation and numbers.

43. The king, on his part, studied how he might supply, by address and
stratagem, what he wanted in numbers and strength. He knew the
superiority of the English both in their heavy-armed cavalry, which
were much better mounted and armed than those of the Scots, and in the
archery, in which art the English were better than any people in the
world. Both these advantages he resolved to provide against. With this
purpose, Bruce led his army down into a plain, near Stirling, called
the Park, near which, and beneath it, the English army must needs pass
through a boggy country, broken with water-courses, while the Scots
occupied hard, dry ground. He then caused all the hard ground upon the
front of his line of battle, where cavalry were likely to act, to be
dug full of holes, about as deep as a man's knee. They were filled
with light brushwood, and the turf was laid on the top, so that it
appeared a plain field, while in reality it was all as full of these
pits as a honeycomb is of holes. He also, it is said, caused steel
spikes, called calthrops, to be scattered up and down in the plain,
where the English cavalry were most likely to advance, trusting to