Although the Marshal of England had been stationed at Newcastle with a large body of troops, and the Earl of Hereford and Sir John Mowbray commanded at Carlisle with a strong garrison, the Scottish army had crossed the Tyne with such silence and rapidity, that the blazing villages of Northumberland were the first messengers which informed their enemies of their approach. From morning to night did the English for two days pursue these melancholy beacons, without being able to get a sight of their enemy, although they burnt and laid waste the country within five miles of their main army. But the English appear to have been little acquainted with the country, and obliged to march with great slowness and precaution through the woods, marshes, and mountainous passes with which it was intersected; whilst the Scots, veterans in this species of warfare, and intimately familiar with the seat of the war, drove every living thing from before their enemies, wasted the forage, burnt the granaries, and surrounded their army with a blackened and smoking desert, through which they passed without a sight of their destroyers.
After a vain pursuit of three days, through desert and rugged paths, the English army, exhausted with toil, hunger, and watching, determined to direct their march again to the Tyne, and, having crossed that river, to await the return of the Scots, and cut off their retreat into their own country. This object they accomplished towards nightfall with great difficulty, and the army was kept under arms, each man lying beside his horse with the reins in his hands, ready to mount at a moment's warning, with the vain hope that the daylight would show them their enemy, who, they conjectured, would return by the same ford which they had crossed in their advance. Meanwhile, this great host began to experience all those bitter sufferings which the Scottish mode of warfare was so surely calculated to bring upon them.* The rain poured down and swelled the river, so that its passage became perilous; their carriages and wagons, containing the wine and provisions, had been, by orders of the leaders, left behind; and each soldier had carried, strapped behind his saddle, a single loaf of bread, which the rain and the sweat from the horse, had rendered uneatable; the horses themselves had tasted nothing for a day and night; and the soldiers experienced the greatest difficulty in sheltering themselves from the weather, by cutting down the green branches, and making themselves lodges, whilst the horses supported themselves by cropping the leaves.
There was much suffering also from the want of light and fire, as the green wood would not burn, and only a few of the greater barons had brought torches with them; so that the army lay on the cold ground under a heavy rain, ignorant, from the darkness, of the situation which they occupied, and obliged to keep upon the alert, lest they should be surprised by the enemy. In this plight the morning found them, when they discovered from the countrypeople that their encampment was about fourteen leagues from Newcastle, and eleven from Carlisle, but could hear no tidings of the Scots. It was determined, however, to await their return; and for eight days they lay upon the bank of the Tyne, in the vain idea of cutting off the retreat of the enemy, while the rain continued to pour down in torrents, and their sufferings and privations to increase every hour, so that murmurs and upbraidings began to arise amongst the soldiers; and the leaders, alarmed by the symptoms of mutiny, determined to repass the river, and again march in search of the enemy.
Having accomplished this, proclamation was made through the host, that the king would honour with knighthood, and a grant of land, any soldier who would lead him to where he could cope on dry ground with the Scots ;* and sixteen knights and squires rode off on the adventure, which was quickly accomplished; for one of them, Thomas de Rokeby, was soon after taken prisoner by the advanced guards of the Scots, and carried before Douglas and Randolph. These leaders, confident in the strength of the position which they occupied, sent the squire back to his companions, with orders to lead the English army to the spot where they were encamped, adding, that Edward could not be more anxious to see them than they were to be confronted with him and his barons. Rokeby, who found the king with his army at Blanchland, on the river Derwent, informed them of his success; and next morning, the army, drawn up in order of battle, having marched, under the guidance of Rokeby, through Weardale, about mid-day came in sight of the Scots, strongly encamped on the slope of a hill, at the foot of which ran the rapid river Wear.-f- The flanks of the position were defended by rocks, which it was impossible to turn, and which overhung the river so as to command its passage; whilst the stream itself, full of huge stones, and swoln by the late rains, could not be passed without the greatest risk. Having halted and reconnoitred the position of the Scots, the English leaders considered it to be impregnable, and, in the chivalrous spirit of the times, heralds were sent with the proposal, that the two armies should draw up on the plain, renounce the advantages of ground, and decide the battle in a fair field.
The Scottish leaders were too well experienced in war to be moved by this bravado. "It is known," said they, in reply to the defiance, "to the king and barons of England, that we are here in their kingdom, and have burnt and wasted the country. If displeased therewith, let them come and chastise us if they choose, for here we mean to remain as long as we please."
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Provisions now began to fail in the Scottish eamp, which had hitherto been plentifully supplied, and the two Scottish commanders consulted together what was best to be done. Randolph recommended the hazards ing a battle; but Douglas, who, with all his keenness for fighting, was a great calculator of means, insisted that the disparity of force was too great, and proposed a retreat, which, from the nature of the ground, was nearly as dangerous as a battle. Behind the Scottish camp was stretched a large morass, which was deemed impassable for cavalry, and which had effectually prevented any attack in their rear. In the front was the river Wear, the passage guarded by the English army, which outnumbered the Scots by forty thousand nien; and on each flank were steep and precipitous banks. To have attempted to break up their camp, and retreat in the day-time, in the face of so superior an enemy, must have been certain ruin.
The Scottish leaders, accordingly, on the evening which they had chosen for their departure, lighted up their camp fires, and kept up a great noise of horns and shouting, as they had been wont to do. Meanwhile they had prepared a number of hurdles, made of wands or boughs, tightly wattled together, and had packed up in the smallest compass their most valuable booty. At midnight they drew off from their encampment, leaving their fires burning, and having dismounted on reaching the morass, they threw down the hurdles upon the softer places of the bog, and thus passed over the water-runs in safety, taking care to remove the hurdles so as to prevent pursuit by the enemy.
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