Note 15. Stanza xxvi. And must his word, at dying day, Be nought but quarter, hang, and slay! This alludes to a passage in Barbour, singularly expressive of the vindictive spirit of Edward I. The prisoners taken at the castle of Kildrummie had surrendered upon condition that they should be at King Edward's disposal. « But his will,» says Barbour, « was always evil towards Scottishmen.» The news of the surrender of Kildrummie arrived when he was in his mortal sickness at Burgh-upon-Sands. And when he to the death was near, Off him that through his felony, There was much truth in the Leonine couplet, with which Matthew of Westminster concludes his encomium on the first Edward: Scotos Edwardus, dum vixit, suppeditavit, Note 16. Stanza xxv. By Woden wild (my grandsire's oath). The Mac-Leods, and most other distinguished Hebridean families, were of Scandinavian extraction, and some were late or imperfect converts to christianity. The family names of Torquil, Thormod, etc. are all Norwegian. Note 17. Stanza xxix. While I the blessed cross advance, Bruce uniformly professed, and probably felt, compunction for having violated the sanctuary of the church by the slaughter of Comyn; and finally, in his last hours, in testimony of his faith, penitence, and zeal, he requested James Lord Douglas to carry his heart to Jerusalem, to be there deposited in the Holy Sepulchre. Note 18. Stanza xxxi. De Bruce! I rose with purpose dread, So soon as the notice of Comyn's slaughter reached Rome, Bruce and his adherents were excommunicated. It was published first by the Archbishop of York, and renewed at different times, particularly by Lambyrton, Bishop of St Andrews, in 1308; but it does not appear to have answered the purpose which the English monarch expected. Indeed, for reasons which it may be difficult to trace, the thunders of Rome descended upon the Scottish mountains with less effect than in more fertile countries. Probably the comparative poverty of the benefices occasioned that fewer foreign clergy settled in Scotland; and the interest of the native churchmen was linked with that of their country. Many of the Scottish prelates, Lambyrton the primate particularly, declared for Bruce, while he was yet under the ban of the church, although he afterwards again changed sides. Note 19. Stanza xxxi. -I feel within mine aged breast A power that will not be repress'd. Bruce, like other heroes, observed omens, and one is recorded by tradition. After he had retreated to one of the miserable places of shelter, in which he could venture to take some repose after his disasters, he lay stretched upon a handful of straw, and abandoned himself to his melancholy meditations. He had now been defeated four times, and was upon the point of resolving to abandon all hopes of further opposition to his fate, and to go to the Holy Land. It chanced his eye, while he was thus pondering, was attracted by the exertions of a spider, who, in order to fix his web, endeavoured to swing himself from one beam to another above his head. Involuntarily he became interested in the pertinacity with which the insect renewed his exertions, after failing six times; and it occurred to him that he would decide his own course according to the success or failure of the spider. At the seventh effort the insect gained his object; and Bruce, in like manner, held unlucky or ungrateful, or both, in one of the name persevered and carried his own. Hence it has been of Bruce to kill a spider. The archdeacon of Aberdeen, instead of the abbot of this tale, introduces an Irish Pythoness, who not only predicted his good fortune as he left the island of Rachrin, but sent her two sons along with him, to insure her own family a share in it. Need. Then in short time men might them see Shoot all their galleys to the sea, And bear to sea both oar and steer, And other things that mistir were. And as the king upon the sand Was ganging up and down, bidand Till that his men ready were, His host come right till him there, And when that she him halsed had, And privy speech till him she made; And said, Take good keep till my saw, For or ye pass I will ye show, Off your fortoun a greas party. But our all specially A wittering here I shall you ma, What end that your purposs shall ta. For in this land is none trewly Wots things to come so well as I. Ye pass now furth on your voyage, To avenge the harme, and the outrage, That Inglissmen has to you done; But you wot not what kind fortune Ye mon drey in your warring. But wyt he well, without lying, That from ye now have taken land, None so mighty, no so strentble of hand, Shall make you pass out of your country Till all to you abandoned be. Within short time ye shall be king, And have the land to your likeing, And overcome your foes all. But many anoyis thole ye shall, Or that your purpose end have tane; But he shall them outdrive ilkane. And, that ye trow this sekyrly, My two sons with you shall I * Abiding. Send to take part of your labour; For I wote well they shall not fail To be rewarded well at right, When ye are heyit to your might. «It likes you to say so,» answered his follower; « but you yourself slew four of the five,» « True,» said the king, « but only because I had better opportunity than BARBOUR'S Bruce, Book IV. p. 120, edited by you. They were not apprehensive of me when they saw J. Pinkerton, London, 1790. Note 20. Stanza xxxii. A hunted wanderer on the wild. me encounter three, so I had a moment's time to spring to thy aid, and to return equally unexpectedly upon my own opponents.»> In the mean while Lorn's party approached rapidly, This is not metaphorical. The echoes of Scotland and the king and his foster-brother betook themselves With the blood-hounds that bayed for her fugitive king, A very curious and romantic tale is told by Barbour upon this subject, which may be abridged as follows:When Bruce had again got footing in Scotland in the spring of 1306, he continued to be in a very weak and precarious condition, gaining, indeed, occasional advantages, but obliged to fly before his enemies whenever they assembled in force. Upon one occasion, while he was lying with a small party in the wilds of Cumnock, in Ayrshire, Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, with his inveterate foe John of Lorn, came against him suddenly with eight hundred Highlanders, besides a large body of men-at-arms. They brought with them a slough-dog, or blood-hound, which, some say, had been once a favourite with the Bruce himself, and therefore was least likely to lose the trace. to a neighbouring wood. Here they sat down, for Bruce was exhausted by fatigue, until the cry of the sloughhound came so near, that his foster-brother entreated Bruce to provide for his safety by retreating farther. « I have heard,» answered the king, « that whosoever will wade a bow-shot length down a running stream, shall make the slough-hound lose scent.-Let us try the experiment; for were yon devilish hound silenced, I should care little for the rest.>> Lorn in the mean while advanced, and found the bo dies of his slain vassals, over whom he made his moan, and threatened the most deadly vengeance. Then he followed the hound to the side of the brook, down which the king had waded a great way. Here the hound was at fault, and John of Lorn, after long attempting in vain to recover Bruce's trace, relinquished the pursuit. «Others," says Barbour, « affirm, that upon this occasion the king's life was saved by an excellent archer Bruce, whose force was under four hundred men, who accompanied him, and who, perceiving they would continued to make head against the cavalry, till the be finally taken by means of the blood-hound, hid men of Lorn had nearly cut off his retreat. Perceiving himself in a thicket, and shot him with an arrow. the danger of his situation, he acted as the celebrated which way,» adds the metrical biographer, «< this escape and ill-requited Mina is said to have done in similar cir-happened I am uncertain, but at that brook the king cumstances. He divided his force into three parts, ap- escaped from his pursuers.»> pointed a place of rendezvous, and commanded them to retreat by different routes. But when John of Lorn arrived at the spot where they divided, he caused the hound to be put upon the trace, which immediately directed him to the pursuit of that party which Bruce headed. This, therefore, Lorn pursued with his whole force, paying no attention to the others. The king again subdivided his small body in three parts, and with the same result, for the pursuers attached themselves exclusively to that which he led in person. He then caused his followers to disperse, and retained only his foster-brother in his company. The slough-dog followed the trace, and, neglecting the others, attached himself and his attendants to pursuit of the king. Lorn became convinced that his enemy was nearly in his power, and detached five of his most active attendants to follow him, and interrupt his flight. They did so with all the agility of mountaineers. <<What aid wilt thou make?» said Bruce to his single attendant, when he saw the five men gain ground on him. «The best I can,» replied his foster-brother. Then,» said Bruce, «here I make my stand.» The five pursuers came up fast. The king took three to himself, leaving the other two to his foster-brother. He slew the first who encountered him; but observing his foster-brother hardpressed, he sprung to his assistance and dispatched one of his assailants. Leaving him to deal with the survivor, he returned upon the other two, both of whom he slew before his foster-brother had dispatched his single antagonist. When this hard encounter was over, with a courtesy, which in the whole work marks Bruce's character, he thanked his foster-brother for his aid. When the chasers rallied were, And John of Lorn had met them there, And syne to the wood him drew. BARBOUR's Bruce, p. 188. In The English historians agree with Barbour as to the mode in which the English pursued Bruce and his followers, and the dexterity with which he evaded them. The following is the testimony of Hardyng, a great enemy to the Scottish nation: The King Edward with host him sought full sore, In the mountaynes and cragges he slew ay where, Matched. Peter Langtoft has also a passage concerning the extremities to which King Robert was reduced, which he entitles De Roberto Brus et fuga circum circa fit. With be made a res, and misberying of scheld. Als a wild beast, eat of the grass that stood. God give the King Robyn, that all his kind so speed. That they made him restus, bath in moor and wood-side, octavo, London, 1810, CANTO III. Note 1. Stanza iv. For, glad of each pretext for spoil, A pirate sworn was Cormac Doil. A sort of persons common in the isles, as may be easily believed, until the introduction of civil polity. Witness the Dean of the Isles' account of Ronay. «At the north end of Raarsay, be half myle of sea frae it, layes ane ile callit Ronay, mair then a myle in lengthe, full of wood and heddir, with ane havin for Heiland galleys in the middis of it, and the same havein is guid for fostering of thieves, rugguairs, and revairs, till a nail, upon the peilling and spulzeing of poor pepill. This isle perteins to M'Gillychallan of Raarsay by force, and to the bishope of the iles be heretage.»-SIR DoNALD MONRO'S Description of the Western Islands of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1805, p. 22. Note 2. Stanza viii. Alas! dear youth, the unhappy time, E'en I be paused; for Falkirk's woes I have followed the vulgar and inaccurate tradition, that Bruce fought against Wallace, and the array of Scotland, at the fatal battle of Falkirk. The story, which seems to have no better authority than that of Blind Harry, bears, that having made much slaughter during the engagement, he sat down to dine with the conquerors without washing the filthy witness from his hands. Fasting he was, and had been in great need, But contrair Scots, be fought not from that day. The account given by most of our historians, of the conversation between Bruce and Wallace over the Carron river, is equally apocryphal. opposition to the English. He was the grandson of the competitor, with whom he has been sometimes confounded. Lord Hailes has well described, and in some degree apologized for, the earlier part of his life. " His grandfather, the competitor, had patiently acquiesced in the award of Edward. His father, yielding to the times, had served under the English banners. But young Bruce had more ambition and a more restless spirit. In his earlier years he acted upon no regular plan. By turns the partisan of Edward, and the vicegerent of Baliol, he seems to have forgotten or stifled his pretensions to the crown. But his character developed itself by degrees, and in maturer age became firm and consistent.»-Annals of Scotland, p. 290, quarto, London, 1776. Note 3. Stanza xii. These are the savage wilds that lie The extraordinary piece of scenery which I have here attempted to describe is, I think, unparalleled in any part of Scotland, at least in any which I have happened to visit. It lies just upon the frontier of the Laird of Mac-Leod's country, which is thereabouts divided from the estate of Mr Mac-Allister of Strathaird, called Strathnardill by the Dean of the Isles. The following account of it is extracted from a journal kept during a tour through the Scottish islands: << The western coast of Skye is highly romantic, and at the same time displays a richness of vegetation in the lower grounds to which we have hitherto been strangers. We passed three salt-water lochs, or deep embayments, called Loch Bracadale, Loch Einort, and Loch--, and about 11 o'clock opened Loch Slavig. We were now under the western termination of the high ridge of mountains called Cuillen, or Quillin, or Coolin, whose weather-beaten and serrated peaks we had admired at a distance from Dunvegan. They sunk here upon the sea, but with the same bold and peremptory aspect which their distant appearance indicated. They appeared to consist of precipitous sheets of naked rock, down which the torrents were leaping in a hundred lines of foam. The tops of the ridge, apparently inaccessible to human foot, were rent and split into the most tremendous pinnacles. Towards the base of these bare and precipitous crags, the ground, enriched by the soil washed down from them, is comparatively verdant and productive. Where we passed within the small isle of Soa, we entered Loch Slavig, under the shoulder of one of these grisly mountains, and observed that the opposite side of the loch was of a milder character, the mountains being softened down into steep green declivities. From the bottom of the bay advanced a headland of high rocks, which divided its depth into two recesses, from each of which a brook issued. Here it had been intimated to us we would find some romantic scenery; but we were uncertain up which inlet we should proceed in search of it. We chose, against our better judgment, the southerly dip of the bay, where we saw a house which might afford us information. We found, upon inquiry, that there is a lake adjoining to each branch of the bay; and walked a couple of miles to see that near the farm-house, merely because the honest Highlander seemed jealous of the honour of There is full evidence that Bruce was not at that time on the English side, nor present at the battle of Fal-his own loch, though we were speedily convinced it was kirk; nay, that he acted as a guardian of Scotland, along with John Comyn, in the name of Baliol, and in not that which we were recommended to examine. It had no particular merit excepting from its neighbour Note 4. Stanza xix. Men were they all of evil mien, hood to a very high cliff, or precipitous mountain, sinks in a profound and perpendicular precipice down otherwise the sheet of water had nothing differing from to the water. On the left-hand side, which we traany ordinary low-country lake. We returned and re- versed, rose a higher and equally inaccessible mountain, imbarked in our boat, for our guide shook his head at the top of which strongly resembled the shivered crater our proposal to climb over the peninsula, or rocky of an exhausted volcano. I never saw a spot in which head-land which divided the two lakes. In rowing round there was less appearance of vegetation of any kind. the head-land we were surprised at the infinite number The eye rested on nothing but barren and naked of sea-fowl, then busy apparently with a shoal of fish. | crags, and the rocks, on which we walked by the side « Arrived at the depth of the bay, we found that the of the loch, were as bare as the pavements of Cheapdischarge from this second lake forms a sort of water- side. There are one or two small islets in the loch, fall, or rather a rapid stream, which rushes down to the which seem to bear juniper or some such low bushy sea with great fury and precipitation. Round this place | shrub. Upon the whole, though I have seen many were assembled hundreds of trouts and salmon, strug-scenes of more extensive desolation, I never witnessed gling to get up into the fresh water; with a net we any in which it pressed more deeply upon the eye and might have had twenty salmon at a haul; and a sailor, the heart than at Loch Corriskin, at the same time with no better hook than a crooked pin, caught a dish that its grandeur elevated and redeemed it from the of trouts during our absence. Advancing up this hud-wild and dreary character of utter barrenness.>> dling and riotous brook, we found ourselves in a most extraordinary scene; we lost sight of the sea almost immediately after we had climbed over a low ridge of crags, and were surrounded by mountains of naked rock, of the boldest and most precipitous character. The ground on which we walked was the margin of a lake, which seems to have sustained the constant ravage of torrents from these rude neighbours. The shores consisted of huge strata of naked granite, here and there intermixed with bogs, and heaps of gravel and sand piled in the empty water-courses. Vegetation there was little or none; and the mountains rose so perpendicularly from the water edge, that Borrodale, or even Glencoe, is a jest to them. We proceeded a mile and a half up this deep, dark, and solitary lake, which was about two miles long, half a mile broad, and is, as we learned, of extreme depth. The murky vapours which enveloped the mountain ridges obliged us by assuming a thousand varied shapes, changing their drapery into all sort of forms, and sometimes clearing off altogether. It is true, the mist made us pay the penalty by some heavy and downright showers, from the frequency of which, a Highland boy, whom we brought from the farm, told us the lake was popularly called the Waterkettle. The proper name is Loch Corriskin, from the deep corrie, or hollow, in the mountains of Cuillen, which affords the basin for this wonderful sheet of wa ter. It is as exquisite a savage scene as Loch Katrine is a scene of romantic beauty. After having penetrated so far as distinctly to observe the termination of the lake, under an immense precipice, which rises abruptly from the water, we returned, and often stopped to admire the ravages which storms must have made in these recesses, where all human witnesses were driven to places of more shelter and security. Stones, or rather large masses and fragments of rocks, of a composite kind, perfectly different from the strata of the lake, were scattered upon the bare rocky beach, in the strangest and most precarious situations, as if abandoned by the torrents which had borne them down from above. Some lay loose and tottering upon the ledges of the natural rock, with so little security, that the slightest push moved them, though their weight might exceed many tons. These detached rocks, or stones, were chiefly what is called plum-pudding stones. The bare rocks, which formed the shore of the lakes, were a species of granite. The opposite side of the lake seemed quite pathless aud inaccessible, as a huge mountain, one of the detached ridges of the Cuillen Hills, The story of Bruce's meeting the banditti is copied with such alterations as the fictitious narrative rendered necessary, from a striking incident in the monarch's history, told by Barbour, and which I will give in the words of the hero's biographer, only modernizing the orthography. It is the sequel to the adventure of the blood-hound, narrated in note 20. upon Canto II. It the Bruce escaped from his pursuers, but worn out will be remembered that the narrative broke off leaving with fatigue, and having no other attendant but his foster-brother. And the good king held forth his way, To trow in us any ill." None do I, said he; but I will We grant, they said, since ye will so." Till a waste husband-house; and there On no wise with them together be. In the end of the house they should ma' The king, that all for-travelled was; May I trust in thee, me to awake, Ya, sir." he said, till I may dree.» For he had dread of these three men, And sleeping thought they would him slay. And saw his man sleeping him by, And drew his sword out, and them met. 2 Alone. He helped him, in that bargain,' The Bruce, Book VII, line 105. Note 5. Stanza xxviii. And mermaid's alabaster grot, Deep in Strathaird's enchanted cell. Imagination can hardly conceive any thing more beautiful than the extraordinary grotto discovered not many years since upon the estate of Alexander MacAllister, Esq. of Strathaird. It has since been much and deservedly celebrated, and a full account of its beauties has been published by Dr Mac-Leay of Oban. The general impression may perhaps be gathered from the following extract from a journal already quoted, which, written under the feelings of the moment, is likely to be more accurate than any attempt to recollect the impressions then received. «The first entrance to this celebrated cave is rude and unpromising; but the light of the torches, with which we were provided, was soon reflected from the roof, floor, and walls, which seem as if they were sheeted with marble, partly smooth, partly rough with frost-work and rustic ornaments, and partly seeming to be wrought into statuary. The floor forms a steep and difficult ascent, and might be fancifully compared to a sheet of water, which, while it rushed whitening and foaming down a declivity, had been suddenly arrested and consolidated by the spell of an enchanter. Upon attaining the summit of this ascent, the cave opens into a splendid gallery, adorned with the most dazzling crystallizations, and finally descends with rapidity to the brink of a pool, of the most limpid water, about four or five yards broad. There opens beyond this pool a portal arch, formed by two columns of white spar, with beautiful chasing upon the sides, which promises a continuation of the cave. One of our sailors swam across, for there is no other mode of passing, and informed us (as indeed we partly saw by the light he carried) that the enchantment of Mac-Allister's cave terminates with this portal, a little beyond which there was only a rude cavern, speedily choked with stones and earth. But the pool, on the brink of which we stood, surrounded by the most fanciful mouldings, in a substance resembling white marble, and distinguished by the depth and purity of its waters, might have been the bathing grotto of a naiad. The groups of combined figures projecting, or embossed, by which the pool is surrounded, are exquisitely elegant and fanciful. A statuary might catch beautiful hints from the singular and romantic disposition of these stalactites. There is scarce a form, or group, on which active fancy may not trace figures or grotesque ornaments, which have been gradually moulded in this cavern by the dropping of the calcareous water hardening into petrifactions. Many of those fine groups have been injured by the senseless rage of appropriation of recent tourists; and $ Fatigued. So securely situated. 1 Fray or dispute. 10 Nevertheless. 2 Much afflicted. 3 Cursed. 4 The place of rendezvous appointed for his soldiers. |