On July 22, Bruce himself invested Carlisle, which was held by the redoubtable Harcla. His army was amply supplied by forays into Allerdale, Coupland, and Westmorland. Every day an assault was delivered upon one of the three gates of the city, and sometimes upon all at once; but the besieged replied manfully with showers of stones and arrows. On the fifth day of the siege, the Scots brought into action a machine that hurled stones continuously at the Caldew gate and the wall, but without effect; and the defenders answered with seven or eight similar machines, as well as with springalds for hurling darts and slings for hurling stones, 'which greatly frightened and harassed the men without.' The Scots next erected a wooden tower overtopping the wall; whereupon the besieged raised over the nearest tower on the wall a similar wooden tower overtopping the Scots one. But the Scots tower proved useless, for its wheels stuck in the mud of the moat, and it could not be got up to the wall. Nor could the Scots use their long scaling ladders, or a sow they had prepared to undermine the wall; they could not fill up the moat with fascicles; and, when they tried to run bridges of logs on wheels across the moat, the weight of the mass, as in the case of the tower, sank the whole construction in the mud. On the ninth day, Bruce abandoned his engines, and delivered a general assault; but still the besieged made manful defence. Next day the attack was renewed with special vigour on the eastern side, while Douglas with a determined band attempted to scale the wall on the west, at its highest and most difficult point, where an assault would not be expected. His men mounted the wall under the protection of a body of archers; but the English tumbled down ladders and men, killing and wounding many, and baffling the attack. On the morrow (August 1), the siege was raised. The Lanercost chronicler, who writes as if he had been present, affirms that only two Englishmen were killed and a few wounded during the eleven days' investment. Whether Bruce was hopeless and disgusted, or had been informed of the approach of a relieving force under Valence, or had heard the false report of the defeat and death of Sir Edward in Ireland, at any rate he hurried back to Scotland. Harcla promptly sallied in pursuit, harassing flank and rear, and making two important captures--Sir John de Moray and Sir Robert Baird. Moray had been conspicuous at Bannockburn, and had been enriched by the ransom of twenty-three English knights, besides squires and others, who had fallen to his share. Baird is described as 'a man of the worst will towards Englishmen.' Harcla delivered the prisoners to Edward, receiving (November 8) a guerdon of 1000 marks; but the money was to be raised from wardships, and the accrual of it was spread over eight years. The King's treasury was low.