In the one thousand three hundred and third year after the birth of the only-begotten omnipotent king Jesus Christ, in the eighth year of pope Boniface, the eighth pope of this name, and in the thirty-first year of the reign of the noble king Edward of Winchester, the son of Henry king of the English, the Scots slew and treacherously manhandled the guardians and officers whom Edward put in charge of the kingdom of Scotland and its castles. So around the time of Pentecost Edward rode across Scotland with an army, and, when he had captured and killed some of the rebels and caused others to flee from the face of the sword to islands or underground hiding-places, he returned to England. After the king had gone away, the Scots came back from their lairs and their exile and laid siege to Stirling castle. The king had entrusted the safe-keeping of the castle to no more than forty Englishmen. When they had used up their food supplies and were eating horses, dogs, dormice and mice, they finally at last surrendered the castle, which they had defended for a long time, with their lives and limbs intact. They could not deal with both the Scots and that one thing which often on its own causes the capture of the strongest castles, namely hunger. Afterwards the king laid siege to Brechin castle and within twenty days took it by storm.