FORGOTTEN HISTORY

Otago Witness, Issue 3495, 8 March 1921, Page 23

FORGOTTEN HISTORY

DISCOVERY AT MELROSE ABBEY. A TALE OF OLD CHIVALRY. Robert Bruce’s heart, enclosed in a casket, was discovered during the course of excavations at Alelrose Abbey. In these bald words a London cable re- ! calls a fourteenth century tale of daring and valour, and in tho days when Scotland ; and England were constantly at war, but j when the great victory of Bannockburn ! had brought Scotch respite for a time. The story of the mad expedition of the Scottish ; nobles towards Falestine, in response to the dying wish of their famong King, • Robert the Bruce, is told in stirring language by Sir Walter Scott, in his "Tales of a Grandfather,” where he writes: — j "Good King Robert did not long survive 1 this joyful event (the signing of the Treaty of Northampton between England and Scotland). He was not aged more than four and fifty years, but, as I said before, his bad health was caused by the hardships which he sustained during his youth, and at length he became very ill. Finding that he could not recover, he assembled around his bedside the nobles and counsellors in whom he most trusted. He told them that now, being on his deathbed, he sorely repented all Iris misdeeds, and particularly that he had in his passion killed Coxnyn with his own hand, in the church and before the altar. He said that if he had lived lie had intended to go to Jerusalem to make war upon the Saracens, who held the Holy Land, as some expiation for the evil deeds he had done. But since he was about to die, lie lequested of his dearest , friend and bravest warrior, and that was the good Lord James Douglas, that he should carry his heart to the Holy Land, j Douglas wept bitterly as lie ac- ■ cep ted this office. ... j “The King soon afterwards expired’; and his heart was taken out from his body and embalmed. Then the Douglas caused a case of silver to be made, into which he put the Bruce’s heart, and wore it around his neck by a string of silk and gold. And ho set forward for the Holy Land, with a gallant train of the bravest men in Scotland, who, to show their value and sorrow for their brave King Robert Bruce, resolved to attend his heart to the city of

Jerusalem. ... "Neither did Douglas ever get to the end of his journey. . . . In going to Palestine he landed in Spain. . . . King Alphonso easily persuaded the Scottish earl that he would do good service to the Christian cause by assisting him to drive bac-it the Saracens of Granada before proceeding to Jerusalem. Lord Douglas and his followers went accordingly to a great battle agains Osmyn. ■ • • But, being ignorant of the mode of fighting among the cavalry of the East, the Scots pursued tho chase too far, and the Moors, when they saw them scattered, turned suddenly back, with a loud cry of “Allah Illah Allah, ’ which is their shout of battle, and surrounded such of the Scottish knights and squires., as had advanced too hastily, and veie dispersed from each other. “In this new skirmish Douglas saw ,-ir Wm. St. Clair of Roslyn fighting desperately, surrounded by many Moots, who were hewing at him with their sabres ‘Yonder worthy knight will be slam, said Sir Douglas, ‘unless he have instant he*p. With that he galloped to his rescue but presently was himself also surrounded by many Aloor3. When he found the enemy press so thick round him as to leave him no chance of escaping, the Earl took from his neck the Bruce’s heart., and, speaking to it as he would have done to the King had he been alive, ‘Pass first in fight he said, ‘as thou wert wont to do, and Douglas will follow thee or die.’ He then threw the King's heart among the enemy and, rushing forward to the place where it fell, was there slain. His body was found lying above the silver case, as if it had been his last object to defend the Bruce s heart. ' ‘‘Well, such of the Scottish knights as remained alive returned to their own country They had brought back the heart ot the Bruce and the bones of tho good Lord Tames These last were interred m the Church of St Bride. . . . The Bruces heart was buried below the high a.tar m Morose Abbey.”