"Nor
could she be persuaded to leave the field till the armies were on the
point of engaging. The Scots have often been unfortunate in the great
pitched battles which they have fought with the English: even though
they commonly declined such engagements where the superiority of numbers
was not on their side; but never did they receive a more fatal blow than
the present. They were broken and chased off the field: fifteen thousand
of them, some historians say twenty thousand, were slain; among whom
were Edward Keith, Earl Mareschal, and Sir Thomas Charteris, Chancellor:
and the king himself was taken prisoner, with the Earls of Sutherland,
Fife, Monteith, Carrick, Lord Douglas, and many other noblemen." The
captive king was conveyed to London, and afterwards in solemn procession
to the Tower, attended by a guard of 20,000 men, and all the city
companies in complete pageantry; while "Philippa crossed the sea at
Dover, and was received in the English camp before Calais, with all the
triumph due to her rank, her merit, and her success." These indeed were
bright days of chivalry and gallantry.
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