A Child's History of England.76

The Scottish men did not forget this, next day when the battle raged. Randolph, Bruce's valiant [英勇的] Nephew, rode, with the small body of men he commanded, into such a host [大群] of the English, all shining in polished armour in the sunlight, that they seemed to be swallowed up and lost, as if they had plunged into the sea. But, they fought so well, and did such dreadful execution, that the English staggered [踉liang跄]. Then came Bruce himself upon them, with all the rest of his army. While they were thus hard pressed and amazed, there appeared upon the hills what they supposed to be a new Scottish army, but what were really only the camp followers, in number fifteen thousand: whom Bruce had taught to show themselves at that place and time. The Earl of Gloucester, commanding the English horse, made a last rush to change the fortune of the day; but Bruce (like Jack the Giant-killer in the story) had had pits dug in the ground, and covered over with turfs and stakes [pointed piece of wood]. Into these, as they gave way beneath the weight of the horses, riders and horses rolled by hundreds. The English were completely routed [彻底打败]; all their treasure, stores, and engines [战争工具], were taken by the Scottish men; so many waggons and other wheeled vehicles were seized, that it is related that they would have reached, if they had been drawn out in a line, one hundred and eighty miles. The fortunes of Scotland were, for the time, completely changed; and never was a battle won, more famous upon Scottish ground, than this great battle of Bannockburn.

Sod or turf is grass and the part of the soil beneath it held together by its roots or another piece of thin material.

Plague and famine succeeded in England; and still the powerless King and his disdainful [目无尊上的] Lords were always in contention [争斗]. Some of the turbulent [不安的,不宁的] chiefs of Ireland made proposals to Bruce, to accept the rule of that country. He sent his brother Edward to them, who was crowned King of Ireland. He afterwards went himself to help his brother in his Irish wars, but his brother was defeated in the end and killed. Robert Bruce, returning to Scotland, still increased his strength there.

As the King's ruin had begun in a favourite, so it seemed likely to end in one. He was too poor a creature to rely at all upon himself; and his new favourite was one Hugh le Despenser, the son of a gentleman of ancient family. Hugh was handsome and brave, but he was the favourite of a weak King, whom no man cared a rush [灯心草] for, and that was a dangerous place [地位,身份] to hold. The Nobles leagued against him, because the King liked him; and they lay in wait, both for his ruin and his father's. Now, the King had married him to the daughter of the late Earl of Gloucester, and had given both him and his father great possessions in Wales. In their endeavours to extend these, they gave violent offence to an angry Welsh gentleman, named John de Mowbray, and to divers [好几个] other angry Welsh gentlemen, who resorted [诉诸于] to arms, took their castles, and seized their estates. The Earl of Lancaster had first placed the favourite (who was a poor relation of his own) at Court, and he considered his own dignity offended by the preference he received and the honours he acquired; so he, and the Barons who were his friends, joined the Welshmen, marched on London, and sent a message to the King demanding to have the favourite and his father banished. At first, the King unaccountably took it into his head to be spirited, and to send them a bold reply; but when they quartered themselves around Holborn and Clerkenwell, and went down, armed, to the Parliament at Westminster, he gave way [放弃], and complied [听从] with their demands.

cared a rush for... 应该和give a rat's ass for意思差不多: to not care at all
unaccountably: used to say that sth is very surprising and difficult to explain, unfathomablely
take it into (one's) head (to do sth): to decide or become set on the idea to do sth, often sth 任性的
spirited: having energy and determination

六级/考研单词: rage, niece, polish, armour, swallow, plunge, dread, execute, stagger, thereby, amaze, pit, dig, treasury, wagon, fame, plague, famine, potent, contend, turbulent, ruin, handsome, noble, endeavor, offend, dive, dignity, march, bold, parliament, comply, rat, seldom