they found none of the inhabitants, for they had retreated into forts and thick fotefts, whither they had driven all their cattle. In the king's army there were upwards of one hundred thou-fand men, and as many horfes. of course, great quantities of provifion were wanted} but, as they found none in Scotland, many flores fol-lowed them from England, by fea and land. When the king and his lords left Edinburgh they went to Dunfermline, a tolerably handfome town, where is a large and fair abbey of black inonks, in which the kings of Scotland have been kccuftomed to be buried. The king was lodged in the abbey, but after his departure the army feized it, and burnt both that and the town-They marched towards Stirling and crofted the river Tay,* which runs by Perth. They made a grand attack on the caftle of Stirling, but did not conquer it, and had a number of their men killed and wounded : they then marched away, burning the town and the lands of the lord de Verfy. The intention of the duke of Lancafter and of his brothers, as well as of feveral knights and fquires, was-to lay wafté all Scotland, and then purine the French ' and Scots, (for they had had information of their march to Carlifle) and by this means inclofe them between England and Scot-land, fo that they fhould have fuch advantage * There is a miftajte in geography here, for the Tay does not run near the road to Stirling. I fhould suppose he must mean the Forth. F 3 . • over • 5§