frew. Bruce could oppose no
effectual resistance in the field to so large a force, but he used
the tactics which Wallace had adopted with such success. The country
through which the English were advancing was wasted. Flocks and
herds were driven off, and all stores of grain burned and destroyed.
His adherents, each with their own retainers, hung upon the skirts
of the English army, cutting off small parties, driving back bodies
going out in search of provisions or forage, making sudden night
attacks, and keeping the English in a state of constant watchfulness
and alarm, but always retiring on the approach of any strong force,
and avoiding every effort of the English to bring on an engagement.

The invaders were soon pressed by want of provisions, and horses
died from lack of forage. The great army was therefore obliged to
fall back to Berwick without having struck a single effective blow.
After this Edward remained inactive at Berwick for eight months,
save that he once again crossed the Border and advanced as far as
Roxburgh, but only to retreat without having accomplished anything.
The Earls of Gloucester and Warrenne reduced the forest of Selkirk
and the district, and restored the English power there; while the
king's favourite, Piers Gaveston, Earl of Cornwall, went by sea to
Perth and tried to reduce the surrounding country, but the Scotch,
as usual, retired before him, and he, too, after a time, returned
to Berwick. The efforts of the defenders to starve out the invading
armies of England were greatly aided by the fact that at this time
a great famine raged both in England and Scotland, and the people
of both countries were reduced to a condition of want and suffering.
Not only did the harvest fail, but disease swept away vast numbers
of cattle and sheep, and in many places the people were forced to
subsist upon the flesh of horses, dogs, and other animals.

During the years which had elapsed since the battle of Methven,
Bruce had never been enabled to collect a force in any way worthy
of the name of an army. His enterprises had been a succession of
daring feats performed by small bodies of men. Even now, when the
nobles dared no longer openly oppose him, they remained sullenly
aloof, and the captures of the English strongholds were performed
either by the king or his brother Edward, with their retainers from
Annandale and Carrick; by Douglas with the men of Douglasdale; or
by some simple knights like Archie Fo