King Edward, attended by Valence, Despenser, Beaumont, Sir John de Cromwell, and some 500 men-at-arms, made for Stirling Castle. Mowbray, with the plainest commonsense--the suggestion of treachery is preposterous--begged him not to stay, for the castle must be surrendered; in any case, it would be taken. So the King was conducted in all haste round the Park and the Torwood towards Linlithgow; the Lanercost writer assigns as guide 'a certain Scots knight, who knew by what ways they could escape.' But for Bruce's anxious care to keep his men in hand in case of a rally, it seems quite certain that Edward would not have escaped at all. Douglas went in pursuit, but he had only some sixty horsemen. On the borders of the Torwood he met Sir Lawrence de Abernethy, who was coming to assist the English, but at once changed sides on learning the issue of the day, and joined Douglas in pursuit of the fugitive King. At Linlithgow Douglas came within bowshot of the royal party, but, not being strong enough to attack, hung close upon their rear, capturing or killing the stragglers. The pursuit was continued hot-foot through Lothian; Douglas 'was alwais by thame neir; He leit thame nocht haf sic laseir As anys wattir for to ma'-- till at last Edward found shelter in Earl Patrick's castle of Dunbar. The King, with seventeen of his closest attendants, presently embarked on a vessel for Berwick (Barbour says Bamborough), 'abandoning all the others,' sneers the Lanercost writer, 'to their fortune,' These others, according to Barbour, had not even been admitted to Dunbar Castle; but Douglas let them go on to Berwick unmolested, and with a drove of captured horses speedily rejoined Bruce at Stirling. Sir Thomas de la Moore attributes the King's escape 'not to the swiftness of his horse, nor to the efforts of men, but to the Mother of God, whom he invoked,' vowing to build and dedicate to her a house for twenty-four poor Carmelites, students of theology. This vow he fulfilled, in spite of the dissuasion of Despenser, and the house is now Oriel College, Oxford.