The Scots were strongly posted on a rising ground on the south bank: Froissart numbers them 24,000; Barbour, much more probably, 10,000. Douglas made a reconnaissance, and reported a strong army in seven divisions. 'We will fight them,' cried Randolph, 'were they more'; but Douglas counselled patience. Presently Edward sent heralds, offering to retire far enough to allow the Scots room to array themselves for battle on the north side on the morrow; or, if the Scots preferred, to accept like terms on the south side. It was an unconscious repetition of the offer of Tomyris, Queen of Massagetai, to Cyrus, on the Araxes river. But the Scots, evidently too weak to fight in a plain field, replied that they would do neither the one thing nor the other; that the King and his barons saw they were in his kingdom and had burnt and pillaged wherever they had passed, and that, if this displeased the King, he might come and amend it; for they would tarry there as long as they pleased.' That night the English lay on their arms. Part of the Scots also kept themselves in readiness, while the rest retired to their huts, 'where they made marvellously great fires, and, about midnight, such a blasting and noise with their horns that it seemed as if all the great devils from hell had been come there.'
The next two days the Scots and English lay watching each other across the Wear. On the first day, a thousand English archers, supported by men-at-arms, attempted to draw the Scots. Douglas, planting an ambush under the Earl of Mar (who had at length joined the Scots) and his own son Archibald of Douglas, rode forward, with a cloak over his armour, and gradually gave way to their onset, till he had enticed them within reach of the ambush. At Douglas's signal, the ambush broke upon the pursuers, and slew 300 of them. Next day, the English put 1000 horsemen in ambush in a valley behind the Scots position, and delivered a front attack. Douglas was advancing to repel the assailants when he was informed of the force in rear, and instantly drew back his men. 'They flee,' cried some Englishmen; but John of Hainault explained the manœuvre, and, according to Barbour, pronounced the Scots captain fit 'to govern the Empire of Rome.'
On the following morning—probably August 3—the Scots were gone. They had moved about two miles along the river, and occupied a still stronger position in Stanhope Park. In the afternoon the English were again facing them. About midnight, Douglas, with 200 horsemen—Barbour says 500—crossed the Wear, and rode boldly into the English camp. 'No guard, by St George!' he exclaimed, on being discovered, as if he were an English officer. He made right for the King's pavilion, and, shouting his war-cry, actually 'cut two or three of its cords.' The King most narrowly escaped capture or death. Douglas got clear with but insignificant loss, and, collecting his men by a prearranged note of his horn, he returned to camp. Randolph, who was waiting under arms, ready for rescue or aid, eagerly asked the news. 'Sir,' replied Douglas, 'we have drawn blood.'
The success of Douglas suggested to Randolph that a larger party might have inflicted defeat on the English. Douglas had his grave doubts. Randolph again proposed a pitched battle. Douglas objected, in view of the disastrous effects in case of defeat. No; better treat the English as the fox treated the fisherman. The fox had entered the fisherman's cottage and was eating a salmon. The fisherman discovered him, and stood on the threshold with a drawn sword in his hand. The fox, seeing the fisherman's cloak on the bed, dragged it into the fire. Thereupon the fisherman rushed to save his cloak, and the fox bolted out at the unguarded door. Douglas, in fact, had planned a mode of escape, and, though somewhat wet ('sumdele wat'), it would serve. Randolph gave way. So the Scots made merry in the day time, burnt great fires at night, and blew their horns 'as if all the world were theirs.' Occasional skirmishes took place, and the English drew round the Scots on both sides, leaving their rear open on a morass believed to be impassable. Meantime Douglas made his preparations.
It was probably on the night of August 6–7 that Douglas led the Scots army out of Stanhope Park. He took them across the morass, about a mile wide, over a causeway of branches, which the rear demolished as they passed. The men led their horses, and only a few baggage animals stuck fast. By daybreak the Scots were far on the way homewards. The English had been completely outwitted. On the day before, they had captured a Scots knight, who told them that orders had been issued 'for all to be armed by vespers and to follow the banner of Douglas,' he did not know where. The English lords suspected a night attack, and remained under arms. In the morning, two Scots trumpeters, who had been left to blow misleading blasts, were brought into camp. 'The Scots,' they said, 'are on the march home, since midnight; they left us behind to give you the information.' The English, fearing a ruse, continued to stand to their arms till their scouts confirmed the mortifying intelligence.
The Scots were soon met by a considerable body of their countrymen under the Earl of March and Sir John the Steward. They all hurried back to Scotland by the western march. The English retired to Durham, and then to York, where the army was disbanded on August 15. Edward is said to have shed bitter tears over the collapse of his expedition. Some of the chroniclers allege unsupported charges of treachery, and mistakenly accuse Mortimer of accepting a heavy bribe to wink at the escape of the Scots. But the plain fact is that the English were outgeneralled at every turn.
It was neither age nor sickness, as the chroniclers allege, that prevented King Robert from leading the Weardale foray. He was away in Ireland, creating a diversion. On July 12, at Glendun in Antrim, he granted a truce for a year to Henry de Maundeville, the English seneschal of Ulster, and his people, on condition of their delivering a certain quantity of wheat and barley at Lough Larne. The expedition does not seem to have been directly prosperous; the Irish, whom he had expected to rise and join him in Ulster, having apparently broken faith.
Immediately on the return of the Scots from Weardale, King Robert passed into Northumberland. He sent Randolph and Douglas to besiege Alnwick Castle; set down another division before Norham Castle; and, with a third body, himself overran the neighbourhood. He even granted away the English lands to his chief followers. The attempt on Alnwick was unsuccessful, and, the open country having bought a truce, the leaders concentrated on Norham. On October 1, while Bruce still lay before Norham, Edward appointed commissioners to treat with him for final peace. After negotiations at Newcastle and York, the treaty was signed by Robert at Edinburgh on March 17; confirmed by the English Parliament on April 24; and finally, on May 4, signed by Edward at Northampton. Edward conceded in the fullest terms the absolute independence of Scotland as the marches stood in the days of Alexander III., and agreed to deliver up all extant documents relating to the overlordship, and in any case to annul them; and he consented to aid Robert to obtain the revocation of the papal processes. Robert agreed to pay £20,000 sterling in three years. And the peace was to be cemented by the marriage of David, the Scots heir-apparent, a boy of four, with Joan, King Edward's sister, a girl of six. In England, the peace was freely stigmatised as 'shameful,' and the marriage as 'base'; partly on patriotic grounds, partly from dislike of Queen Isabella and Mortimer, who guided the policy of the King. The news of the death of the King of France no doubt gave an impulse to the English decision, for it would be necessary for Edward to have his hands free to assert his claim to the succession. The conditions were alike 'honourable for the Scots and necessary for England.'