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,
But aye he fled into woodes and strayte forest,
And slew his men at staytes and dangers those,
And at marreys and mires was ay full prest
Englishmen to kyll without any rest ;
In the mountaynes and cragges he slew ay where,
And in the pyght his foes he frayed full sore :

The King Edward with hornes and houndes him sought,
With men on fote, through marris, mosse, and

myre,
Through wodes also, and mountains (wher thei fought,)
And euer the Kyng Edward higbt men great hyre,
Hym for to take and by myght conquere ;
But thei might hym not gette by force ne by train,
He satte by the fyre when thei were in the rain.

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
Has dranken of that blood the drink of Dan Waryn.
Dan Waryn he les towns that he held,
With he made a res, and misberying of scheld.
Sithen into the forest he gede naked and wode,
Also a wild beast, eat of the grass that stood,
Thus Dan Waryn in his book men read,
God give the King Robyn, that all his kind so speed.

Sir Robynet the Brus he durst none abide,
That made him restus, bath in moor and wood-side,
To while he made his train, and did umwhile outrage.”

PETER LANGTOFT's Chronicle, vol. II. p. 336,

ostavo, London, 1810,

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.

6 Alas ! deur youth, the unhappy time,”
Answer'd the Bruce," must bear the crime,

Since, guiltier far than you,
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,
Blooded were all his weapons and his weed;
Southeron lords scorn'd him in terms rude,
And said, Behold yon Scot eats his own blood.

Then rued be sore, for reason bad be known,
That blood and land alike should be his own;
With them he long was, ere he got away,
But contrair Scots, he fought pot 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,

that he acted as a guardian of Scotland, along with John Comyn, in the name of Baliol, and in 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 partizan 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 III. These are the savage wilds that lie North of Strathnardill and Dunskye.-St. XI. p. 96. 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 Maccallister of Strath-Aird, called Strathnardill by the Dean of the