Scotland was singularly unready to meet invasion.  The regent Moray had died a few weeks earlier, and his successor, Donald, Earl of Mar, incompetent to carry on his vigorous policy, had perhaps already been intriguing with the adventurers.  The only resistance to Balliol’s landing, made by the Earl of Fife, was altogether unsuccessful.  The little army established itself easily in the enemies’ territory, and, after two days’ rest at Dunfermline, advanced over the Ochils towards Perth.  The regent had by that time gathered together an imposing army.  As the invaders approached Strathearn on their way northwards, they found Mar encamped on Dupplin Moor, on the left bank of the Earn, and holding in force the only bridge available for crossing the river.  There was some parleying between the two hosts.  “We are sons of magnates of this land,” declared the disinherited to Mar.  “We are come hither with the lord Edward of Balliol, the right heir of the realm, to demand the lands which belong to us by hereditary right.”  Mar returned a warlike answer to their words, and both armies made preparation for battle.

The disinherited, though few in number, were well trained in warfare, and from the beginning showed capacity to out-general the unwieldy host and feeble leader opposed to them.  At sunset, some of their forces crossed the Earn by a ford which the Scots had neglected to guard, and falling upon an outlying portion of the enemies’ camp, where the infantry were quartered, slaughtered the surprised Scots at their leisure.  Luckily for Mar, the whole of his knights and men-at-arms were far away, uselessly watching the bridge, over which they had expected the disinherited to force a passage.  Thus saved from the night ambuscade, the kernel of the Scottish army prepared next morning, August 12, to attack the disinherited.  Puffed up by the memory of Bannockburn and the consciousness of superior numbers, they marched to battle as if certain of victory.  All fought on foot, and the men-at-arms were drawn up in a dense central mass, supported at each side by wings.  The disinherited were sufficiently schooled in northern warfare to adopt the same tactics.  Save for a few score of horsemen in reserve, their heavily armed troops, leaving their horses in the rear, formed a compact column after the Scottish fashion.  But archers were distributed in open order on the right and left flanks, with both extremities pushed forward, so that they formed the horns of a half-moon.  Then the Scots advanced to the charge, and both sides joined in battle.  The irresistible weight of the Scottish main phalanx forced back the little column of the disinherited, and for a moment it looked as if the battle were won.  Meanwhile the archers on the flanks poured a galling shower on the collateral Scottish columns.  The unvisored helmets of the Scots made them an easy prey to the storm of missiles, and they were driven back on to the main body.  By this time the disinherited had rallied from the