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 who accompanied 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, And syne to the wood him drew. 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 'Matched. 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 hym sought full sore, In the mountaynes and cragges he slew ay where, The King Edward with hornes and houndes him sought, 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. Also a wild beast, eat of the grass that stood. God give the King Robyn, that all his kind so speed. Sir Robynet the Brus he durst none abide, NOTES TO CANTO THIRD. Note I. For, glad of each pretext for spoil, A pirate sworn was Cormac Doil.-St. IV. p. 87. 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, maire 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 reivairs, 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 heritage."-Sir DONALD MONRO's Description of the Western Islands of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1805, p. 22. Note II. "Alas! dear youth, the unhappy time," Answer'd the Bruce," must bear the crime, Even I"-he paused; for Falkirk's woes Upon his conscious soul arose.———— -St. VII. p. 92. 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, Then rued he sore, for reason bad be known, But contrair Scots, he 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. There is full evidence that Bruce was not at that time on the English side, nor present at the battle of Falkirk; nay, |