Allan Boyd

“ The day preceding the battle, a strong body of cavalry, to the number of eight hundred, was detached from the English camp, under the conmand of Lord Clifford, to the relief of that garrison These having marched through somes hollow grounds, upon the edge of the Carse, had passed the Scots army before there were observed. The King himself was the first that perceived them, and desiring Thomas Randolph Earl of Murray, to look towards the place where they were, told him, that a rose had fallen from his chaplet. ”

“ And come in under yoke;
Strangers may reign, and you destroy,
What likes him by sword’s stroke.
8 A foreign foe whom neither thy force,
Nor manners do approve,
Woe is to thee, by guile and slight,
Will only win above. ”

“ The Scots pursued; and great was the slaughter among the enemy, especially in passing the river, where they could keep no order, because of the irregularity of the ground. King Edward himself escaped with much difficulty, being closely pursued above forty miles, by Sir James Douglas, with a party of light horse. He was upon the point of being taken prisoner when he was received into the Castle of Dunbar by the Earl of March, who conveyed him to England by sea, in a fishers boat; his immense army being entirely discomfited. The Scots lost only four thousand men ”

“ Hereabout was the only place where the river could be crossed in any order.——— A large body of cavalry advanced to attack him in front, while another fetched a compass to fall upon his flank and rear, but before they could come to a close engagement, they fell into the snare that had been laid for them. Many of their horses where soon disabled by the sharp irons rushing into there feet, others tumbled into the concealed pits, and could not disentangle themselves. ”

“ The explication of the foregoing prophecy concerning Hemp being come and also gone, leaving Scotland and England joined in one, is fulfilled in the late king William, who came out of Holland, which, in old times, was vulgarly called the land of Hemp and the joining of the two nations together, signifies the union.
These things were foretold by the two Scots Prophets in the reign of King Arthur. First, by a devil, who ravished a young woman, his mother, in a wood near Coldstream, in the south of Scotland. ”

“ Not only in Fife, but the four chief rivers of the realm, there should be a battle on each of them, that should make the rivers run with blood, viz. Tweed, Clyde, Forth, and Tay.
Last of all, a bloody desperate battle in Northumberland, on the river Tyne. Also great havock and slaughter about the broad walls of Berwick. All these things are yet to come to pass; and when the first appears, the rest will soon follow after.
When Hemp is come and also gone,
Scotland and England shall be one. ”

“ Their Master’s and their Mistress’s command,
The Youngers all are warned to obey,
And mind their labours with a careful hand,
And ne’er tho’ out of sight, to lurk or play;
‘And O! be sure to fear the Lord always! ”

“ In the spring, 1314. he assembled the most numerous army that had ever crossed the borders, composed of different nations and amounting to above a hundred thousand effective men, beside a huge multitude of attendants, who came along in hopes of sharing in the plunder of a conquered enemy, At the head of these he marched northward, with an uncommon parade, and in full confidence of victory. ”

“ EDWARD II, of England, kept up the same claim upon Scotland, which his father had began; and after several unsuccessful attempts to establish it, he resolved to make a great effort and with one blow reduce that turbulent nation which had put so many signal affronts upon his father and himself. ”

“ Pass joyful days for ever.
But that the curious may be more fully informed concerning the aforesaid predictions, with respect, to their being, exactly fulfilled, they are referred to the Scottish Histories. ”

“ The pride of Spain, and the deceitful conduct of the French, as also concerning the Dutch, is all foretold.—Likewise the Scots battles at Torwood, Bothwelbridge, Malplackie, Killycrankie, Sheriffmure, Proud Preston, near Glad's-muir, Falkirk, Culloden, and the Camps in Morayshire, and on the Windmill brae at Aberdeen, by General Coup, and at Dunbar. ”