He Takes Perth
On his return, Bruce determined to besiege Perth, and sat down before it; but, owing to the strength of the fortifications, it defied for six weeks all the efforts of his army. It had been intrusted to the command of William Olifant, an Anglicised Scot, to whom Edward, in alarm for so important a post, had promised to send speedy succour; but a stratagem of the king's, well planned, and daringly executed, gave Perth into the hands of the Scots before such assistance could arrive.The care of Edward the First had made Perth a place of great strength. It was fortified by a high wall, defended at intervals by stone towers, and surrounded by a broad deep moat, full of water. Bruce, having carefully observed the place where the fosse was shallowest, provided scaling ladders, struck his tents, and raised the siege. Hb then marched to a considerable distance, and having cheated the garrison into security by an absence of eight days, he suddenly returned during the night, and reached the walls undiscovered by the enemy. The king in person led his soldiers across the moat, bearing a ladder in his hand, and armed at all points. The water reached his throat, but he felt his way with his spear, waded through in safety, and was the second person who fixed his ladder and mounted the wall.
A little incident, related by Barbour, evinces the spirit which the example communicated to his companions, and the comparative poverty of the Scottish towns in those times. A French knight was present in the Scottish army, and observing the intrepidity with which Bruce led his soldiers, he exclaimed, " What shall we say of our French lords, who live at ease, in the midst of feasting, wassail, and jollity, when so brave a knight is here putting his life in hazard to win a miserable hamlet So saying, he threw himself into the water with the gay valour of his nation, and having passed the ditch, scaled the walls along with the king and his soldiers. So complete was the surprise, that the town was almost instantly taken. Every Scotsman who had joined the English interest was put to the sword, but the English garrison were spared, and the king contented himself with the plunder of the place, and the total demolition of its fortifications.
In the midst of these continued successes of Bruce, the measures of the English king presented a striking contrast to the energetic administration of his father. They were entirely on the defensive. He gave orders, indeed, for the assembling of an army, and made promises and preparations for an invasion of Scotland. But the orders were recalled, and Edward, engrossed by disputes with his barons, took no decided part against the enemy. He wrote, however, to the different English governors of the few remaining castles in Scotland, who had represented their incapacity of standing out against the attacks of the Scots, without a reinforcement of men, money, and provisions ; he directed flattering letters to John of Argyle, the island prince, praising him for the annoyance which his fleet had occasioned to Bruce, and exhorting him to continue his services during the winter; and he entreated the pope to retain Wishart bishop of Glasgow, as a false traitor, and an enemy to his liege lord of England, in an honourable imprisonment at Rome, fearful of the influence in favour of Bruce, which the return of this able prelate to Scotland might occasion. These feeble efforts were followed up by an attempt to conclude a truce; but the King of Scotland, eager to pursue his career of success, refused to accede to the proposal, and a third time invaded England, with a greater force, and a more desolating fury than before.