success which arose out of that very disappointment, are too curious to be passed over unnoticed. The following is the narrative of Barbour. The introduction is a favourable speci. men of his style, which seems to be in some degree the model for that of Gawain Douglas :

This was in ver,' when winter tide,
With his blasts bideous to bide,
Was overdriven ; and birds sinall,
As turtle, and the nightingale,
Begouth? right sariolly 3 to sing ;
And for to make in their singing
Sweet notes, and sounds ser,4
And melodies pleasant to hear,
And trees began to mas
Burgeans, and bright blooms alsua,
To win the helying of their head,
That wicked winter had them revid, 8
And all grasses began to spring.
Into that time the noble king,
With his fleet, and a few mengye,
Three hundred I trow they might be,
Is to the sea, out of Arane,
A little forouth 10 even gone.
They rowed fast, with all their might,
Till that upon them fell the night,
That wax myrk" upon great maner,
So that they wist not where they were,
For they no needle bad, na stone;
But rowed always intill one,

Steering all time upon the fire,
That they saw burning light and schyr.'
It was but aneptur' them led :
And they in short time so them sped,
That at the fire arrived they,
And went to land but more delay.
And Cuthbert, that has seen the fire,
Was full of anger, and of ire;
For be durst not do it away;
And was also doubting aye
That his lord should pass to sea,
Therefore their coming waited he :
And met them at their ariving.
He was well soon brought to the king,
That speared at him how he had done.
And he with sore heart told him soon,
How that he found none well loving,
But all were foes, that he found.
And that the Lord the Persy,
With near three hundred in company,
Was in the castle there beside,
Fullfiled of dispite and pride.
But more than two parts of his rout
Were harboured in the town without;
“ And despite you more sir king,
« Than men may despite ony thing."
Than said the king, in full great ire,
“ Traitor, why made you the fire ?"
“A! Sir,” said he, 80 God me see!
6. The fire was never made by me.
“ No, or the night, I wist it not;
“ But fra I wist it, well I thought
“ That ye, and wholly your menzie
" In hy 3 should put you to the sea.

" Forth I come to meet you here, “ To tell perils that may appear.” The king was of his speech angry, And asked his priye men, in by,'' What at them thought was best to do, Sir Edward first answered thereto, His brother that was so hardy, And said; “ I say you sekyrly « There shall no peril, that may be, “ Drive me eftsoons? to the sea. * Mine adventure here take will I, " Whether it be easeful or angry," • Brother,' he said, since you will sua, "It is good that we same ta, · Disease or ease, or pain or play. After as God will us purvay3

And since men say that the Persy * Mine heritage will occupy; e And his menyie so near us lies, • That us despites many ways;

Go we, and venge + some of the dispite. * And that may we have done as tite;s

For they lie traistly, 6 but dreading Of us, or of our here coming. * And though we sleeping slew them all, • Reproof thereof no man shall. - For warior no force should ma, . Whether he might ourcome his fa * Through strength, or through subtility; ' But that good faith ay holden be.!

Note VI.
Now ask you whence that wond'rous light,
Whose fairy glow beguiled their sight -
It ne'er was known-

St. XVII. p. 196. The following are the words of an ingenious correspondent, to whom I am obliged for much information respecting Turnberry and its neighbourhood. “The only tradition now remembered of the landing of Robert the Bruce in Carrick, relates to the fire seen by him from the Isle of Arran. It is still generally reported, and religiously believed by many, that this fire was really the work of supernatural power, unassisted by the hand of any mortal being; and it is said, that, for several centuries, the flame rose yearly on the same hour of the same night of the year, on which the king first saw it from the turrets of Brodick castle ; and some go so far as to say, that if the exact time were known, it would be still seen. That this superstitious notion is very ancient, is evident from the place where the fire is said to have appeared, being called the Bogles’ Brae, beyond the remembrance of man. In support of this curious belief, it is said that the practice of burning heath for the improvement of land was then unknown; that a spunkie (Jack o' lanthorn) could not have been seen across the breadth of the Forth of Clyde, between Ayrshire and Arran; and that 'the courier of Bruce was his kinsman, and never suspected of treachery.”—Letter from Mr Joseph Train, of Newton Stuart, author of an ingenious Collection of Poems, illustrative of many ancient Traditions in Galloway and Ayrshire, Edinburgh, 1814.

Note VII.
They gain'd the Chase, a wide domain

Left for the Castle's sylvan reign.-St. XIX. p. 199. The Castle of Turnberry, on the coast of Ayrshire, was the property of Robert Bruce, in right of his mother. Lord Hailes mentions the following remarkable circumstance concerning the mode in which he became proprietor of it:“ Martha, Countess of Carrick in her own right, the wife of Robert Bruce, Lord of Annandale, bare him a son, afterwards Robert I. (11th July, 1274). The circumstances of her marriage were singular : happening to meet Robert Bruce in her domains, she became enamoured of him, and with some violence led him to her castle of Turnberry. A few days after she married him, without the knowledge of the relations of either party, and without the requisite consent of the king. The king instantly seized her castle and whole estates : She afterwards atoned by a fine for her feudal delinquency. Little did Alexander foresee, that, from this union, the restorer of the Scottish monarchy was to arise." -Annals of Scotland, vol. II. p. 180.

The same obliging correspondent, whom I have quoted in the preceding note, gives me the following account of the present state of the ruins of Turnberry :-“ Turnberry Point is a rock projecting into the sea; the top of it is about 18 feet