“When the king advances next spring with his great army, Sir Archie, I will assuredly adopt the course which you point out, seeing that we could not hope to withstand so great an array in a pitched battle; but the case is different now.  In the first place all the castles and towns are in the hands of the English, and from them Pembroke can draw such provision as he needs.  In the second place his force is not so superior to our own but that we may fight him with a fair hope of victory; and whereas Wallace had never any cavalry with him, save at Falkirk when they deserted him at the beginning of the battle, we have a strong body of mounted men-at-arms, the retainers of the nobles with me, therefore I do not fear to give them battle in the open field.”

In pursuance of this determination Bruce sent a challenge to Pembroke to meet him with his army in the open field next day.  Pembroke accepted the challenge, and promised to meet his opponent on the following morning, and the Scotch retired for the night to the wood of Methven, near Perth.  Here many of them set out on foraging excursions, the knights laid aside their armour, and the army prepared for sleep.

Archie Forbes was much dissatisfied at the manner in which Bruce had hazarded all the fortunes of Scotland on a pitched battle, thereby throwing away the great advantage which their superior mobility and knowledge of the country gave to the Scots.  He had disarmed like the rest, and was sitting by a fire chatting with William Orr and Andrew Macpherson, who, as they had been his lieutenants in the band of lads he had raised seven years before, now occupied the same position among his retainers, each having the command of a hundred men.  Suddenly one who had been wandering outside the lines in search of food among the farmhouses ran hastily in, shouting that the whole English army was upon them.

A scene of the utmost confusion took place.  Bruce and his knights hastily armed, and mounting their horses rode to meet the enemy.  There was no time to form ranks or to make any order of battle.  Archie sprang to his horse.  He bade his lieutenants form the men into a compact body and move forward, keeping the king’s banner ever in sight, and to cut their way to it whenever they saw it was in danger.  Then, followed by his two mounted squires, he rode after the king.  The contest of Methven can scarce be called a battle, for the Scots were defeated before it began.  Many, as has been said, were away; great numbers of footmen instantly took flight and dispersed in all directions.  Here and there small bodies stood and fought desperately, but being unsupported were overcome and slain.  The king with his knights fought with desperate bravery, spurring hither and thither and charging furiously among the English men-at-arms.  Three times Bruce was unhorsed and as often remounted by Sir Simon Fraser.  Once he was so entirely cut off from his companions by the desperation with which he had charged into the midst of the English, that he was surrounded, struck from his horse, and taken prisoner.