Bannock beyond the left wing of the Scottish army, to make their
way across the carse, and so to reach Stirling. The ground was,
indeed, impassable for a large army; but the troops took with
them faggots and beams, by which they could make a passage across
the deeper parts of the swamp and bridge the little streams which
meandered through it.

As there was no prospect of an immediate engagement, Randolph,
Douglas, and the king had left their respective divisions, and had
taken up their positions at the village of St. Ninians, on high
ground behind the army, whence they could have a clear view of the
approaching English army. Archie Forbes had accompanied Randolph,
to whose division he, with his retainers, was attached. Randolph
had with him 500 pikemen, whom he had withdrawn from his division
in order to carry out his appointed task of seeing that the English
did not pass along the low ground at the edge of the carse behind
St. Ninians to the relief of Stirling; but so absorbed were knights
and men-at-arms in watching the magnificent array advancing against
the Scottish position that they forgot to keep a watch over the
low ground. Suddenly one of the men, who had straggled away into
the village, ran up with the startling news that a large party of
English horse had crossed the corner of the carse, and had already
reached the low ground beyond the church.

"A rose has fallen from your chaplet, Randolph," the king said
angrily.

Without a moment's loss of time Randolph and Archie Forbes set off
with the spearmen at a run, and succeeded in heading the horsemen
at the hamlet of Newhouse. The mail clad horsemen, confident in
their numbers, their armour, and horses, laid their lances in rest,
struck spurs into their steeds, and, led by Sir William Daynecourt,
charged down upon the Scotch spearmen. Two hundred of these consisted
of Archie Forbes' retainers, all veterans in war, and who had more
than once, shoulder to shoulder, repelled the onslaught of the
mailed chivalry of England. Animated by the voices of their lord
and Randolph, these, with Moray's own pikemen, threw themselves
into a solid square, and, surrounded by a hedge of spears, steadily
received the furious onslaught of the cavalry. Daynecourt and many
of his men were at the first onslaught unhorsed and slain, and those
who followed were repulsed. Again and again they charged down upon
the pikemen, but the dense array of spears was more than a match
for