rbes, the Frazers, Boyle, and
a few others, each leading their own retainers in the field. The
great mass of the people still held aloof, and neither town nor
country sent their contingents to his aid. This was not to be wondered
at, so fearfully had all suffered from the wholesale vengeance of
Edward after the battle of Falkirk.

Great successes had certainly attended Bruce, but these had been
rendered possible only by the absence of any great effort on the
part of England, and all believed that sooner or later Edward would
arouse himself, and with the whole strength of England, Ireland,
and Wales again crush out the movement, and carry fire and sword
through Scotland. Still the national spirit was rising.

Archie Forbes divided his time pretty equally between the field and
home, never taking with him, when he joined the king, more than a
third of the entire strength of his retainers; thus all had time
to attend to their farms and the wants of their families, and
cheerfully yielded obedience to the call to arms when the time
came.

One day while the king was stopping for a few days' rest at Aberfilly,
a horseman rode in.

"I have great news, sire," he said. "Linlithgow has been captured
from the English."

"That were good news indeed," the king said; "but it can scarce be
possible, seeing that we have no men-at-arms in the neighbourhood."

"It has been done by no men-at-arms, my liege," the messenger said;
"but as Forfar was taken by Phillip the Forester and his mates,
so has Linlithgow been captured by a farmer and his comrades, one
William Bunnock."

It was indeed true. The castle of Linlithgow, forming as it did
a link between the two strongholds of Edinburgh and Stirling, was
a place of great importance and was strongly garrisoned by the
English. Naturally the whole country round suffered severely from
the oppressions of the garrison, who supplied themselves by force
with such provisions and stores as were needful for them. Payment
was of course made to some extent, as the country otherwise would
speedily have been deserted and the land left untilled; but there
was almost necessarily much oppression and high handedness. Bunnock,
hearing of the numerous castles which had been captured by the
king and his friends with mere handfuls of followers, determined at
last upon an attempt to expel the garrison of Linlithgow. He went
about among his friends and neighbours, and found many ready to
join his enterpr