occupied, Bruce, who was skilled in mountain warfare, turned their position in
the rear by a body of Highlanders and Islesmen, who scaled the precipices, and
unexpectedly came down upon the English while they were fully occupied with
Randolph and Douglas in front.
The Earl of Moray was now to combat the enemy upon a new field of battle, and with very different weapons, in the capacity of envoy to the court of Rome, by which his sovereign had been excommunicated for the murder of Comyn, and where envoys from England were busily employed in stirring up the pontiff against the Scots. It was a strange match, where an illiterate soldier had to confront a conclave—a blunt straightforward Scot to wage a controversy with Italian cunning and finesse—and it was a still stranger result that the ultramontane, the barbarian, the man of Thule, should have had the best of it. Perhaps the College of Cardinals thought it impossible that such a person could know anything of the "trick of fence" in a political conflict, and therefore did not think it worth while to "lie at their old ward." Be that as it may, Randolph managed the negotiation so wisely and dexterously, that in spite of the evil odour under which his master's reputation suffered at the papal court, and in spite of the intervention of wealthy powerful England—compared with which the interests of Scotland were of little price at Rome the pope accorded to Bruce a temporary absolution, by refusing the request of his enemies to ratify and publish, in due form, the sentence of excommunication—accorded to the Scots the right of electing their own bishops, although they had been accused of despising the authority of the church, slaughtering ecclesiastics, and subjecting them to capital trial and punishment, and showing, on not a few occasions, a strong leaning towards heresy and gave Bruce himself the title of King, thus recognizing his right to rule as a legitimate sovereign, notwithstanding his ecclesiastical offences, the claims of the house of Comyn to the Scottish throne, and the still more formidable pretensions of Edward II. himself, as lord paramount of Scotland. After having suffered these concessions to be extracted from him, the pope seems to have been astonished at his own facility ; and he wrote accordingly to the king of England an apologetic letter, in which he fully stated the inducements presented to him by the Scottish envoy. This missive is a most incontestable proof of the sagacity of Randolph, and shows that he was as fitted to excel in diplomacy as in war.
After having accomplished the emancipation of Scotland, the great work for which he had lived, and toiled, and suffered, Robert Bruce, prematurely worn out by his heroic exertions, and languishing under an incurable disease, retired to a castle on the banks of the Clyde, to spend in peace the few days that might be allotted him, and prepare for his departure. Still it was necessary, for the purpose of securing the advantages he had already won, to continue the war against England, until the independence of his country was fully recognized by the latter. This was the more necessary, as Edward III. had now succeeded to the English throne, and, although only sixteen years old, was already impatient to win his spurs, and giving promise that he might become as formidable a foe to Scotland as his grandfather, Edward I., had been. Bruce, therefore, from his sick-bed, dictated the plan of a formidable invasion into England, and intrusted the management of it to Randolph and Douglas, upon whose fitness for the undertaking he could now confidently rely, for hitherto they had been his right and left arms during the course of the eventful war. Seldom, indeed, have two military rivals been so completely at one in their joint undertakings, so that what the
