66 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 hard pressed, 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. "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 you. They were not apprehensive of me when they saw 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 meanwhile Lorn's party approached rapidly, and the king and his foster-brother betook themselves to a neighbouring wood. Here they sat down, for Bruce was exhausted by fatigue, until the cry of the slough-hound 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 bodies 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 pur suit. 66 Others," says Barbour," affirm, that upon this occasion the king's life was saved by an excellent archer who accompa nied him, and who perceiving they would be finally taken by means of the blood-hound, hid himself in a thicket, and shot him with an arrow. In which way," adds the metrical biographer, "this escape happened I am uncertain, but at that brook the king escaped from his pursuers." "When the chasers rallied were, And John of Lorn had met them there, How that the king escaped was, And syne to the wood him drew. And said, "He is greatly to prise, On this wise spake Sir Aymery.” BARBOUR'S Bruce, p. 188. 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 Harding, 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, The King Edward with hornes and houndes him sought, * Matched. But thei might hym not gette by force ne by train, HARDYNG'S Chronicle, p. 303, 4 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. "And well I understood that the King Robyn With he made a res, and misberying of scheld. Thus Dan Waryn in his book men read, God give the King Robyn, that all his kind so speed. That they made him restus, bath in moor and wood-side, NOTES TO CANTO THIRD. Note I. For, glad of each pretext for spoil, A pirate sworn was Cormac Doil.-P. 91. 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 galeys in the middis of it, and the same havein is guid for fostering of theives, ruggairs, and revairs, till a nail, upon the peilling and spulzeing of poor pepill. This ile 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. |