137.
**** Froissard, liv.i.chap.

138.
***** Froissard, liv.i.chap.

138.
Nor could she be persuaded to leave the field, till the armies were on the point of engaging.

The Scots have often been unfortunate in the great pitched battles which they fought with the English; even though they commonly declined such engagements where the superiority of numbers was not on their side: but never did they receive a more fatal blow than the present.

They were broken and chased off the field: fifteen thousand of them (some historians say twenty thousand) were slain; among whom were Edward Keith, earl mareschal, and Sir Thomas Charteris, chancellor: and the king himself was taken prisoner, with the earls of Sutherland, Fife, Monteith, Carrick, Lord Douglas, and many other noblemen.[*] Philippa, having secured her royal prisoner in the Tower,[**] crossed the sea at Dover; and was received in the English camp before Calais with all the triumph due to her rank, her merit, and her success.