Page 128 of Bound By Honor
Pausing on the other side of the river, the MacDoualls appeared to stare at the lone figure standing on the riverbank.
Suddenly, with a shout, they raced forward toward King Robert.
“What is he doing?” shouted Sir Robert Boyd. “They will kill him!”
The king’s knights leaned forward to move. Angus held out his hand. “Wait! The king knows what he is about.”
Forced to cross the river at the narrow ford, the MacDoualls moved forward one by one, giving King Robert time to cut them down as they approached him. After several had fallen to his sword, the king yelled to Sir Gilbert and the others to join him. “Come!”
Angus rushed forward into the fight to stand at the king’s right, slashing with both his sword and his dagger, felling the king’s enemies.
The single column of MacDoualls were now in disarray. Those they did not kill fled up the bank and back to whence they had come. Later, upon reflection, Angus understood why the king had done what he did, facing the MacDoualls alone. It was not only to entice them into a trap but to have his singular revenge for the death of his brothers. ’Twas a victory the king sorely needed, though a small one, for those faithful to him.
All celebrated.
By April, Angus had moved with his Islesmen and the king to Glen Trool, a narrow valley in the heart of Galloway’s forests, with the beautiful waters of Loch Trool at its head. Word reached them there that King Edward’s general, Aymer de Valence, knew of their location and was headed their way with fifteen hundred heavy cavalry.
Sitting on the hillside overlooking the dark waters of the loch below, eating the remains of the pike fish they had caught that morning, they discussed the possibilities. Angus pointed to the southern side of the glen at the eastern end of the loch. Above, a golden eagle soared into the blue sky. Angus followed its flight for a moment and then returned his attention to the far side of the loch. “See that track running between the mountain top and the marshy ground below?”
“Yes,” said the king. “I see it.”
“That will be where de Valence will enter. The track is too narrow for warhorses to charge, so he will be hemmed in and restricted. If we were to place our forces above that track, we could pelt them with rocks, forcing them down to the marshes at the loch’s edge where their warhorses laden down with armor will not gain a footing.”
The king looked to where Angus pointed. “I can see how it would happen and I believe it would work. Disabled by the rocks and mayhap arrows to follow, and forced to the water’s edge, de Valence’s warhorses would struggle to stand.”
“Aye. And we would follow them down with our swords and spears. It would be a rout.”
The king slapped Angus on the back. “Brilliant!”
“You would have thought of it, Rob, had you not been busy eating that last fish.”
Days later, when the king’s spy brought word of de Valence’s approach, Bruce led the men in prayer, as he always did before a battle, and positioned them on the crags and steep slopes above the southeast corner of the loch. There, they waited, aligned with huge granite rocks, like a broken wall strung across the hillside.
The lookout came running to the king. “My lord, Aymer de Valence’s troops have left their horses at a farm and are advancing on foot.”
“This calls for an adjustment,” said the king to Angus. “I will leave a third of the men on the hillside and position the rest out of sight at the end of the loch.” Angus’ brother, John, and his cousin, Duncan, were among those stationed on the hillside. Angus, Sir Edward and the king retired to the opposite slope with a few of his knights where they could watch and the king could control the battle.
De Valence led his men into the valley. Even on foot, they could not retain their formations and soon became ragged columns of single file. Strung out across the slope in disarray, they were ripe for the king’s plan.
Robert Bruce blew three blasts on his horn, the clear sharp sound ringing across the water. In response, the Islesmen and Highlanders sent huge rocks rolling down the hillside.
With loud cries, the English troops scattered. Some were struck and rolled into the loch where they drowned. Others were killed outright.
The king gave the signal for the archers to rain arrows on de Valence’s men. Some fell with those volleys. After that, Bruce’s warriors advanced with swords, spears, axes and daggers.
The helmeted English soldiers were now in full retreat. With their swords flapping and their boots slipping, they fled across the hillside overrun by King Robert’s army.
A great slaughter ensued. Only those in the rear escaped. One of them was the humiliated Aymer de Valence.
“It would seem,” Angus said to the king later that day as his knights and his brother, Sir Edward, gathered around him, “God is with us.”
“The prayers of our wives follow us,” said the king.
Angus had often observed the king’s gray eyes filled with longing, doubtless for his queen, as he stared into the distance. This was one of those times. “’Tis a great comfort.”
With this victory and news of Douglas’ triumph, the reputation of Angus’ friend as the successor to Wallace had grown. The army of Robert the Bruce doubled in size. Scots who had held back out of fear of King Edward now came forward to join the fight.
The king smiled more than he had in months.
