THE SIEGE OF BERWICK (1296).
Source.—Chronicle of Lanercost (translated by Sir Herbert Maxwell in the Scottish Historical Review, vol. vii., pp. 383-384).
The King solemnly observed the thanksgiving services on Easter Day at his Castle of Wark, and tried to persuade the head men of Berwick to surrender, promising them safety in their persons, security for their possessions, reform of their laws and liberties, pardon for their offences, so that, had they considered their own safety, they would not have slighted the proffered grace. But they, on the contrary, being blinded by their sins, became more scornful, and, while he waited for three days, they gave no reply to so liberal an offer; so that when he came to them on the fourth day, addressing them personally in a friendly manner, they redoubled their insults. For some of them, setting themselves on the heights, ... reviled the King and his people; others fiercely attacked the fleet which lay in the harbour awaiting the King's orders and slew some of the sailors. The women folk, also, bringing fire and straw, endeavoured to burn the ships. The stubbornness of these misguided people being thus manifest, the troops were brought into action, the pride of these traitors was humbled almost without the use of force, and the city was occupied by the enemy. Much booty was seized, and no fewer that fifteen thousand of both sexes perished, some by the sword, others by fire, in the space of a day and a half, and the survivors, including even little children, were sent into perpetual exile. Nevertheless, this most clement Prince exhibited towards the dead that mercy which he had proffered to the living, for I myself beheld an immense number of men told off to bury the bodies of the fallen, all of whom, even those who began to work at the eleventh hour, were to receive as wages a penny apiece at the King's expense.