43. The king, on his part, studied how he might supply, by address and
stratagem, what he wanted in numbers and strength. He knew the
superiority of the English both in their heavy-armed cavalry, which
were much better mounted and armed than those of the Scots, and in the
archery, in which art the English were better than any people in the
world. Both these advantages he resolved to provide against. With this
purpose, Bruce led his army down into a plain, near Stirling, called
the Park, near which, and beneath it, the English army must needs pass
through a boggy country, broken with water-courses, while the Scots
occupied hard, dry ground. He then caused all the hard ground upon the
front of his line of battle, where cavalry were likely to act, to be
dug full of holes, about as deep as a man's knee. They were filled
with light brushwood, and the turf was laid on the top, so that it
appeared a plain field, while in reality it was all as full of these
pits as a honeycomb is of holes. He also, it is said, caused steel
spikes, called calthrops, to be scattered up and down in the plain,
where the English cavalry were most likely to advance, trusting to
lame and destroy their horses.
44. When his army was drawn, the line stretched north and south. On
the south it was terminated by the banks of the brook called
Bannockburn, which are so rocky that no troops could come on them
there.
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