His little following dwindled away until but sixty men remained in arms.

Of these a portion were with the king's brother in Galloway, and with but a handful of men Bruce was lying among the fastnesses of Carrick when Sir Ingram de Umfraville, with a large number of troops sent by the Earl of Pembroke from Edinburgh, approached.

Wholly unable to resist so large a force, Bruce's little party scattered, and the king himself, attended only by a page, lay hidden in the cottage of a peasant.
The English in vain searched for him, until a traitorous Scot went to Umfraville and offered, for a reward of a grant of land to the value of 40 pounds annually, to slay Bruce.
The offer was accepted, and the traitor and his two sons made their way to Bruce's place of concealment.

As they approached, Bruce snatched his bow from his page and shot the traitor through the eye.

One son attacked him with an axe, but was slain with a blow from the king's sword.