The result of this affair with Fenwick was not less encouraging to the Scots, than prejudicial to the English. The valuable convoy, which the latter had been thus deprived of, was a subject of serious regret to Percy; more particularly, as it appeared irretrievable--his foraging parties having already exhausted the district under his controul, and reduced the inhabitants to the most wretched expedients, in order to maintain their miserable existence. The fields remained in a great measure uncultivated; and those among the commons who were fortunate enough to possess a cow, endeavoured to conceal her as their only resource. The poor starveling was bled as often as nature would permit; and the blood, boiled to a consistency, formed almost the sole repast of the unhappy owners. Percy, already aware of the impoverished situation of the country, had husbanded the resources of the garrison, in order to make them hold out till the arrival of the expected supplies. Under these circumstances, his disappointment may be easily conceived, when the disordered remains of Fenwick’s party arrived at Ayr without a leader, to give an account of their disaster, every man being at liberty to tell his own story; and, as might be expected, all of them agreed in exaggerating the number of the Scots, and the gigantic stature and strength of their chief. Percy, even from the most favourable view of the affair, could only see the embarrassing situation in which he was placed. The uncertainty of procuring supplies by land was but too evident; and to bring them by sea was equally precarious, as the Scottish ships were still numerous on the coast, and had not acknowledged the sovereignty of Edward, but in the unsettled state of the country, continued to capture all the English vessels that came in their tract. In this battle, which was fought at a place called Beg,[66] above Allanton, in the parish of Galston, few of any note among the Scots were slain. Of those present on the occasion, the following names have been handed down--Sir Andrew Murray, Sir William Douglas, Robert Boyd, Alexander Scrimgeor, Roger Kilpatrick, Alexander Auchinleck, Walter Newbigging, Stephen of Ireland, Hugh Dundas, John Kneland or Cleland, Ruthven, Sir David Barclay, Adam Curry, John Blair and Thomas Gray. In justice, therefore, to these brave and early confederates of our hero, we shall appropriate the remaining part of this chapter, to such notices of them as our scanty materials may afford. The following account of the first of those worthies is taken from the Peerage and Baronage of Scotland.