The morning of Monday the 22d of August favoured the design of the Scots. A dense fog hung over the country, and under cover of the mist the Scottish host rapidly advanced in unwonted order; for the commands of David were rigorous in prohibiting his men from firing the villages along their route, according to their usual practice. They had reached the Tees, and were already crossing, when they were accidentally discovered by an esquire, who galloped back to Thirsk, to warn the confederate barons of the rapid approach of the hostile army.[245] In the hope of yet averting the contest, perhaps also to gain time, Robert de Bruce and Bernard de Balliol,--names singularly associated as the emissaries of an English army to a Scottish king,--rode forward to hazard a last appeal, pledging themselves, in the joint name of the confederates, to obtain for Prince Henry the grant of Northumberland. Bruce, in particular, warned the king of the danger he was about to incur, in entering into a contest with the very men upon whose aid he most relied, for curbing the refractory Galwegians, or for repressing his own disaffected subjects; whilst, with tears in his eyes, he besought him to be mindful of his ancient friendship, and by accepting the conditions of peace, to put a stop to the frightful enormities of his followers. The easy and kindly nature of David was fast yielding to the entreaties of Bruce, who had been his friend from childhood, when William Fitz-Duncan, a man of high spirit and the chief promoter of the war, angrily interposed, and reproaching the latter with a breach of fealty to his lord, prevailed upon his uncle to break off the conference; on which the two barons, formally renouncing their allegiance to the Scottish king, turned their horses heads and rode back to share the fortunes of the confederate army. The delay was fatal to the attempted surprise; for it gave time to the army of the barons to clear the town of Northallerton, and to take up a favourable position, two miles further to the northward, upon Cutton Moor. A ship’s mast, bearing upon its summit the consecrated host, and surrounded by the banners of St. Peter of York, St. John of Beverley, and St. Wilfred of Ripon, was elevated upon a waggon, and marked the centre of the army, around which were grouped dismounted knights and men-at-arms; whilst from the immediate neighbourhood of the sacred standard, Bishop Ralph and his priests dispensed blessings, and absolution, throughout the host. The front of the position was covered by a line of archers, with a body of men-at-arms in support; all the horses were then removed to the rear under the charge of a mounted guard; and the remainder of the English forces--townsmen, apparently, and the array of the county--were ranged around the real strength of the army in the centre.[246]