Another incursion into England followed the fall of Perth.  Hexham, Corbridge, and Durham were destroyed.  Douglas penetrated as far as Hartlepool and an immense spoil was carried off, until the people of the bishopric purchased a truce for the sum of 2000 pounds, and those of Northumberland, Cumberland, and Westmoreland bought off the invaders at a like price.

Carlisle was assaulted by Douglas, but unsuccessfully.  He also attempted to surprise Berwick by a night attack, and had placed his scaling ladders against the wall, when the garrison was alarmed by the barking of a dog, and the assailants were repulsed.  The Scots recrossed the frontier laden with an enormous booty.

The king himself now entered Galloway and reduced the four remaining strongholds held by the English there —­ the castles of Butele, Dalswinton, Lochmaben, and Tibbers.  He then proceeded to Dumfries, which he forced to surrender, and entered it as the victorious King of Scotland, just seven years after the time when he had commenced the war by expelling the English justiciary.

Archie Forbes did not accompany the king in this campaign.  He had indeed been summoned, but just before the army started on its raid into England Bruce was lamenting, in Archie’s hearing, that the continued possession of the strong castle of Dunottar on the east coast still afforded the English an opportunity for creating diversions in the north, by landing troops there.

“If you will permit me, sire,” Archie said, “I will undertake its capture with my retainers.  It is doubtless too strong to be captured by open assault with such a strength, but as Douglas has thrice taken Castle Douglas by stratagem, `tis hard if I cannot find some way for capturing Dunottar.”

“Be it so, Sir Archie,” the king said.  “If you succeed you will have done good service indeed; and as I know that though ever ready to buckle on your armour when I need you, you would yet rather live quiet at Aberfilly with your fair wife, I promise you that if you capture Dunottar, for a year and a day you and your retainers shall have rest, except if the English cross the Border in such force that the arm of every Scotchman able to wield a sword is needed in its defence.”

Having chosen a hundred of his most active and experienced men Archie set out for the north.  Crossing the Forth above Stirling, he marched through Perth and across the Carse of Gowrie through Forfar on to Montrose.  Here he left his band, and taking with him only William Orr, both being attired in peasants’ dress, followed the coast till he reached Dunottar.

The castle, which was of great strength, stood in a little bay with a fishing village nestled beside it. “’Tis a strong place, William, and, if well provisioned, might hold out against an army for months, and as supplies could be thrown in by sea it could only be captured by battering down its solid walls by machines.”

“’Tis indeed a strong place, Sir Archie,” William Orr replied, “and it were assuredly better to slip in by the gates than to climb over the walls; but after the captures of so many of their strongholds by sudden surprise, we may be sure that a careful watch will be kept.”