Te Sir Thomas of Multon, gentil baron and free,
And to Sir Johan Jose be-take tho was he

To hand

He was y-fettered wele

Both with iron and with steel

To bringen of Scotland

"Soon thereafter the tiding to the king come,
He sent him to London, with mony armed groom,
He came in at Newgate, I tell you it on a-plight,
A garland of leaves on his head y-dight

"Y-fettered were his legs under his horse's wombe, Both with iron and with steel mancled were his hond, A garland of pervynk' set upon his heved,2

Much was the power that him was bereved,

In land.

So God me amend,

Little he ween'd

So to be brought in hand.

"This was upon our lady's even, forsooth I understand, The justices sate for the knights of Scotland,

Sir Thomas of Multon, an kinde knyght and wise,

And Sir Ralph of Sandwich that mickle is told in price

And Sir Johan Abel,

Moe I might tell by tale

Both of great and of small

Ye know sooth well

"Then said the justice, that gentil is and free,
Sir Simond Frizel the king's traiter hast thou be;
In water and in land that mony mighten see,
What sayst thou thereto, how will thou quite thee,
Do say,

So foul he him wist,
Nede war on trust

1 Periwinckle.

For to say nay.

* Head.

"With fetters and with gives' y-hot he was to-draw
From the tower of London that many men might know,
In a kirtle of burel, a selcouth wise,

And a garland on his head of the new guise.

Through Cheape

Many men of England

For to see Symond

Thitherward can leap.

Though he cam to the gallows first he was on hung,

All quick beheaded that him thought long;

Then he was y-opened, his bowels y-brend,2

The heved to London-bridge was send

To shende.

So evermore mote I the,

Some while weened he

Thus little to stand."

He rideth through the city, as I tell may,

With gamen and with solace that was their play,

To London-bridge he took the way,

Mony was the wives child that thereon lacketh a day,"

And said, alas!

That he was y-born

And so vilely forlorn,

So fair man he was.5

"Now standeth the heved above the tu-brigge,

Fast by Wallace sooth for to segge;

After succour of Scotland long may he pry,
And after help of France what halt it to lie,

I ween,

Better him were in Scotland,

With his axe in his hand,

To play on the green," &c.

The preceding stanzas contain probably as minute an account as can be found of the trial and execution of state criminals of the period. Superstition mingled its horrors with those of a ferocious state policy, as appears from the following singular narrative.

1 He was condemned to be drawn. - Burned. Meaning, at one time he little thought to stand thus. -4 viz. Saith Lack-a-day. -5 The gallant knight, like others in the same situation, was pitied by the female spectators as "a proper young man."

"The Friday next, before the assumption of Our Lady, King Edward met Robert the Bruce at Saint Johnstoune, in Scotland, and with his company, of which company King Edward quelde seven thousand. When Robert the Bruce saw this mischief, and gan to flee, and hov'd him that men might not him find; but S. Simond Frisell pursued was so sore, so that he turned again and abode bataille, for he was a worthy knight and a bolde of bodye, and the Englishmen pursuede him sore on every side, and quelde the steed that Sir Simon Frisell rode upon, and then toke him and led him to the host. And S. Symond began for to flatter and speke fair, and saide, Lordys, I shall give you four thousand markes of silver, and myne horse and harness, and all my armoure and income. Tho' answered Thobaude of Pevenes, that was the kinges archer, Now, God me so helpe, it is for nought that thou speakest, for all the gold of England I would not let thee go without commandment of King Edward. And tho' he was led to the King, and the King would not see him, but commanded to lead him away to his doom in London, on Our Lady's even nativity. And he was hung and drawn, and his head smitten off, and hanged again with chains of iron upon the gallows, and his head was set at London-bridge upon a spear, and against Christmas the body was burnt, for encheson (reason) that the men that keeped the body saw many devils ramping with iron crooks, running upon the gallows, and horribly tormenting the body. And many that them saw, anon thereafter died for dread, or waxen mad, or sore sickness they had."- MS. Chronicle in the British Museum, quoted by Ritson.

NOTE I.

I feel within mine aged breast

A power that will not be repress'd.— P. 78.

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, persevered and carried his own. Hence it has been held unlucky or ungrateful, or both, in one of the name 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 ensure her own family a share in it.

"Then in schort time men mycht thaim se
Schute all thair galayis to the se,

1

And ber to se baith ayr and ster,
And othyr thingis that mystir wer.
And as the king apon the sand
Wes gangand wp and doun, bidand
Till that his menye redy war,
His ost come rycht till him thar.
And quhen that scho him halyst had,
And priwé spek till him scho made;
And said, Takis gud kep till my saw
For or ye pass I sall yow schaw,
Off your fortoun a gret party.

Bot our all speceally

A wyttring her I sall yow ma,
Quhat end that your purposs sall ta.
For in this land is nane trewly
Wate thingis to cum sa weill as I.
Ye pass now furth on your wiage,
To wenge the harme, and the owtrag,
That Ingliss men has to yow done;
Bot ye wat nocht quhatkyne forton
Ye mon drey in your werraying.
Bot wyt ye weill, with outyn lesing,

1 Need. VOL. V. 22

* Abiding.

That fra ye now haiff takyn land,
Nane sa mychty, na sa strength thi of hand,
Sall ger yow pass owt of your countré

Till all to yow abandownyt be.

With in schort tyme ye sall be king,
And haiff the land at your liking,
And ourcum your fayis all.
Bot fele anoyis thole ye sall,

Or that your purposs end haiff tane :
Bot ye sall thaim ourdryve ilkane.
And, that ye trow this sekyrly,
My twa sonnys with yow sall I
Send to tak part of your trawaill;
For I wate weill thai sall nocht faill
To be rewardyt weill at rycht,
Quhen ye ar heyit to yowr mycht.'"

BARBOUR'S Bruce, Book iii., v. 856.

NOTE K.

A hunted wanderer on the wild,

On foreign shores a man exiled.

P. 78.

This is not metaphorical. The echoes of Scotland did actually

"ring

With the bloodhounds 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-atarms. They brought with them a slough-dog, or bloodhound, which, some say, had been once a favourite with the Bruce himself, and therefore was least likely to lose the trace.

Bruce, whose force was under four hundred men, continued to make head against the cavalry, till the men of Lorn had nearly