LIVES OF SCOTTISH WORTHIES, VOL. II., [Or the 34th volume of the
_Family Library_, is rife with interesting details of the proudest
areas of Scottish history; but more especially of the chivalric courses
of Robert Bruce and James the First. We quote half-a-dozen vividly
written pages, from the former, describing the memorable Siege of
Berwick, in 1319.]
Considering the importance of Berwick, and the care and expense with
which it had been fortified by the king, it was natural that any attempt
against it should be viewed with much interest; and when it was known
that the son-in-law of Bruce,--a young warrior, whose high rank was
rendered more conspicuous by the services he had already rendered to the
country,--had been selected as its governor, and that the whole army of
England, headed by king Edward, and under the command of the flower of
the nobility, had invested it by sea and land, the intense interest with
which the siege was watched by both countries may be easily imagined.
It concluded, however, in the complete triumph of the steward, and the
repulse of the English army; yet not before every device then known in
the rude engineering of the times had been essayed by the besiegers,
and effectually baffled by the ingenuity and persevering courage of the
enemy. After their earthen mounds had been completed, the English, on
St. Mary's eve, made a simultaneous assault both by land and by sea.
Whilst their force, led by the bravest of their captains, and carrying
with them, besides their usual offensive arms, the ladders, crows,
pick-axes, and other assistances for an escalade, rushed onwards to the
walls with the sound of their trumpets, and the display of innumerable
banners, a large vessel, prepared for the purpose, was towed towards the
town from the mouth of the river. She was filled with armed soldiers,
a party of whom were placed in her boat drawn up mid-mast high; whilst
to the bow of the boat was fixed a species of drawbridge, which it was
intended to drop upon the wall, and thus afford a passage from the
vessel into the town. Yet these complicated preparations failed of
success, although seconded by the greatest gallantry; and the English,
after being baffled in every attempt to fix their ladders and maintain
themselves upon the walls, were compelled to retire, leaving their
vessel to be burnt by the Scots, who slew many of her crew, and made
prisoner the engineer who superintended and directed the attack.
This unsuccessful attack was, after five days' active preparation,
followed by another still more desperate, in which the besiegers
made use of a huge machine moving upon wheels, and including several
platforms or stages, which held various parties of armed soldiers, who
were defended by a strong roofing of boards and hides, beneath which
they could work their battering-rams with impunity. To co-operate with
this unwieldy and bulky instrument, which, from its shape and covering,
they called a "sow," movable scaffolds had been constructed, of such a
height as to overtop the walls, from which they proposed to storm the
town; and, instead of a single vessel, as on the former occasion, a
squadron of ships, with their top castles manned by picked bodies of
archers, and their armed boats slung mast high, were ready to sail
in with the tide, and anchor beneath the walls. Aware of these great
preparations, the Scots, under the encouragement and direction of their
governor, laboured incessantly to be in a situation to render them
unavailing. By Crab, the Flemish engineer, machines similar to the Roman
catapult, moving on wheels, and of enormous strength and dimensions,
were constructed and placed on the walls at the spot where it was
expected the sow would make its approach. In addition to this, they
fixed a crane upon the rampart, armed with iron chains and grappling
hooks, and large masses of combustibles and fire-faggots, shaped like
tuns, and composed of pitch and flax, bound strongly together with tar
ropes, were piled up in readiness for the attack. At different intervals
on the walls were fixed the espringalds for the discharge of their heavy
darts, which carried on their barbed points little bundles of flaming
tow dipped in oil or sulphur; the ramparts were lined by the archers,
spearmen, and crossbows; and to each leader was assigned a certain
station, to which he could repair on a moment's warning.
Having inspected his whole works, the steward cheerfully and confidently
awaited the attack; to which the English moved forward in great
strength, and led by the king in person, on the 13th of September.
Irritated by their late repulse, and animated by the presence of their
nobility, the different squadrons rushed forward with an impetuosity
which at first defied all efforts to repel them; so that the ladders
were fixed, the ditch filled up by fascines, and the ramparts attacked
with an impetuous valour which promised to carry all before it. But the
Scots, who knew their own strength, allowed this ebullition of gallantry
to expend itself; and, after a short interval advanced with levelled
spears in close array, and with a weight and resolution which
effectually checked the enemy. Considerable ground, however, had been
gained in the first assault; and the battle was maintained, from sunrise
till noon, with excessive obstinacy on both sides; but it at last
concluded in favour of the resolution and endurance of the Scots, who
repulsed the enemy on every quarter, and cleared their ramparts of their
assailants. At this moment, by Edward's orders, the sow began its
advance towards the walls; and the cran, or catapult, armed with a mass
of rock, was seen straining its timbers, and taking its aim against the
approaching monster. On the first discharge the stone flew far beyond;
and, as its conductors hurried forward the immense machine, the second
missile fell short of it. A third block of granite was now got ready,
and an English engineer who had been taken prisoner was commanded, on
pain of death, to direct the aim; whilst the sow was moving forward with
a rapidity which in a few seconds must have brought it to the foot of
the walls. All gazed on for an instant in breathless suspense,--but only
for an instant. The catapult was discharged,--a loud booming noise in
the air accompanied the progress of its deadly projectile,--and, in a
moment afterwards, a tremendous crash, mingled with the shrieks of the
victims and the shouts of the soldiers from the walls, declared the
destruction of the huge machine. It had been hit so truly, that the
stone passed through the roofs, shivering its timbers into a thousand
pieces; and crushing and mangling in a frightful manner the unhappy
soldiers who manned its different platforms. As those amongst them who
escaped rushed out from its broken fragments, the Scottish soldiers,
imitating the witticism of black Agnis at the siege of Dunbar, shouted
out that the English sow had farrowed. Crab now cast his chains and
grappling-hooks over the ruins of the machine, and, dragging it nearer
the walls, poured down his combustibles in such quantity, that it was
soon consumed to ashes. The complete failure in this land attack seems
to have cast a damp over the naval operations; and, although the ships
attempted to move on to the walls at flood-tide, they were driven back
without difficulty; whilst a last effort to enter the city by burning
the gate of St. Mary's was repulsed by the steward in person. It was
now near night-fall; and, foiled on every side, the English entirely
withdrew from the assault.
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