The great battle that established the freedom of Scotland was fought almost under Stirling rock. Indeed, to reach the castle itself was the object of the English invasion. The events leading up to the conflict are well known. In the spring of 1313, Edward Bruce, brother of King Robert, invested Stirling, but growing impatient with the long-protracted siege, he imprudently agreed to the one-sided bargain which Mowbray audaciously proposed. The compact was that the fortress should surrender if not relieved by June 24th, Saint John the Baptist’s Day, in the following year. Edward Bruce’s consent to this arrangement may have been given in the hope that it would terminate the war by bringing about a decisive pitched battle. Both nations, at any rate, prepared for the coming struggle; for it was clear that the duty of the English monarch was to succour his northern castle, while the Scottish King’s task was to block the way of any relieving army. [Illustration: STIRLING CASTLE FROM BANNOCKBURN.] On June 23rd, 1314, Edward II., with his vast feudal host, amounting, perhaps, to fifty thousand men, came in sight of Stirling Castle, but between him and his goal lay Bruce’s Scottish troops, relying not upon their numbers but upon their valour and the skill of their commanders. The main body of the English army apparently kept to the low ground near the Forth, while the advanced guard marched on the higher land to the south, and encountered the Scots on the border of the New Park. Here Bruce slew de Bohun in single combat, while Sir Robert Clifford, with a troop of horse, pushed on to relieve the Castle of Stirling. Randolph, with a company of spearmen, intercepted this English force, and after a stubborn engagement drove them back on their own lines. King Robert’s successful duel and the triumph of Randolph’s men caused the whole of King Edward’s advanced guard to retreat before the elated Scots. It was on the next day, the 24th of June, that the armies came fully into contact. The English had passed the night in the carse, which in those days, even in summer, was a marshy tract of country. Barbour, the author of _The Brus_, was told that the Stirling garrison assisted the movements of the Southrons by carrying doors and shutters from the castle, under cover of darkness, and laying them over the numerous pools.