condescend to forward the interests of our merchants John Burnet and John Frere in their business, in like manner as you may wish us to act towards your merchants in their commercial transactions. Farewell." We cannot resist giving a place, also, to a description of the strength and personal appearance of Wallace, as related by a very old lady to James I. It is translated from Hector Boece, by the learned editor of Morison's edition of Blind Harry, who, after some preliminary remarks, thus introduces it : "The date is the year 1430. At that time, James I. was in Perth; and perhaps having heard Henry the Minstrel recite some of Wallace's exploits, found his curiosity excited to visit a noble lady of great age, who was able to inform him of many ancient matters. She lived in the castle of Kinnoull, on the opposite side of the river, and was probably a widow of one of the Lords of Erskine, a branch of whose family continued to be denominated from the barony of Kinnoull, till about the year 1440. It was Boece's manner to relate an event as circumstancially as if he had been one of the parties, and engaged in it; I shall therefore give the anecdote in his own manner, by translating his words: "In consequnce of her extreme old age, she had lost her sight, but all her other senses were in entire; and her body was yet firm and lively; she had seen William Wallace and Robert Bruce, and frequently told particulars concerning them. The King, who entertained a love and veneration of greatness, resolved to visit the old lady, that he might hear her describe the manners and strength of the two heroes, who were admired in his time, as they now are in our's. He therefore sent a message, acquainting her that he was to come to her next day. She received the message gratefully, and gave immediate orders to her handmaids to prepare every thing for his reception in the best manner, particularly that they should display her pieces of tapestry, some of which were uncommonly rich and beautiful. All her servants became busily employed, for their work was in some degree unusual, as she had not for a long time been accustomed to receive princely visitors. The next day, when told the King was approaching, she went down into the hall of her castle, dressed with as much elegance and finery as her old age and fashion of the time would permit, attended by a train of matrons, many of whom were her own descendants, of which number some appeared more altered and disfigured by age than she herself was. One of her matrons having informed her that the king was entering the hall, she arose from her seat, and advanced to meet him so easily and gracefully, that he doubted of her being wholly blind. At his desire she embraced and kissed him. Her attendant assured him that she was wholly blind; but that, from long custom, she had acquired these easy movements. He took her by the hand and sat down, desiring her to sit on the same seat next to him. And then, in a long conference, he interrogated her respecting ancient matters. He was much delighted with her conversation. Among other things, he asked her to tell him what sort of a man William Wallace was? what was his personal figure? what his courage? and with what degree of strength he was endowed? He put the same questions to her concerning Bruce. Robert, she said, was a man beautiful, and of a fine appearance. His strength was so great, that he could easily have overcome any mortal man of his time :-But in so far as he excelled other men, he was excelled by Wallace, both in stature and in bodily strength; for, in wrestling, Wallace could have overcome two such men as Robert was. "The King made some enquiries concerning his own immediate parents, and his other ancestors; and having heard her relate many things, returned to Perth, well pleased with the visit he had made.'" Although Scotland might now be said to have become a conquered province, yet it soon emerged from its prostrate condition; for in less than a year from the death of Wallace, the chains of Edward were broken. Robert Bruce, grandson of Robert Bruce, Lord of Annandale, who was competitor for the crown with John Baliol, now stood forward to assert the freedom and independence of Scotland, and acted with a decision and energy scarcely inferior to its great hero. He was crowned at Scone on the 27th March 1306; after which he made a progress through various parts of the country, seizing many of the castles and towns which were in possession of the English, who precipitately fled before him. After having ravaged Galloway, he came to Perth, then a town walled and strongly fortified, where the Earl of Pembroke lay, with an army, composed both of English and Scottish knights. Bruce finding the earl shut up within the walls, sent a challenge to meet him in open warfare. The English commander returned for answer, "that the day was too far spent ; but that he would fight him on the morrow." Bruce retired to Methven wood, a few miles from Perth, where Pombroke came upon him while his soldiers were cooking their supper. The battle was of short duration; in fact, from the manner in which they were surprised, the Scots were routed at once. Bruce himself was thrice unhorsed, and once so nearly taken, that the captor, Sir Philip de Mowbray, called aloud that he had the new made king, when Sir Christopher Seaton felled him to the earth, and gallantly rescued his master. Bruce, and the remains of his army, retreated to the highlands; many, however, of his best and bravest friends fell into the hands of the enemy. For several years the cause of independence was rather dubious: its supporters experienced manifold sufferings and privations. The death of Edward, however, inspired them with new hopes. The military genius of the father had not fallen on his son and successor, Edward II: he was headstrong, capricious, and vacillating; consequently, the Scots found themselves better able to contend against their oppressor. Bruce, having returned from a successful expedition into England, determined to besiege Perth, and sat down before it. Although Perth had been repeatedly assailed by the Scottish forces, it had withstood all their attacks, unassisted as these were by the military engines then in use for battering or scaling the walls, and for discharging stones and other missiles; accordingly, owing to the strength of the fortifications, Bruce and his army were unable to take Perth, though for six weeks they directed all their efforts against it. Edward I. had made Perth a place of great strength: it was fortified by a high wall, having strong towers upon it, and surrounded by a broad, deep ditch, well supplied with water. Bruce, seeing that the town could not be taken by open force, resolved to do so by stratagem: he carefully observed where the ditch was shallowest, so that he and his men could wade over. To get his plan executed before the succour expected from England had arrived, he immediately raised the siege, leaving those in the town under the impression that he considered the place impregnable. In about eight days, however, he returned, with scaling ladders, determined to get possession of it. According to Barbour, he chose a very dark night for this purpose. The king in person, bearing a lad. der in one hand and a spear in the other to feel his way, the water reaching his throat, led the soldiers across the ditch to the foot of the walls. Animated by the daring example of the king, they contended with one another who should first mount the walls; the king, it is said, was the second person to get to the top. The town may be said to have been instantly taken, so completely was it taken by surprise. The Scots who had joined the English interest were put to the sword; but the English garrison were all spared. In the castle and stores of the merchants a large booty was found. But though the king exercised great humanity in staying the slaughter as the resistance ceased, yet he ordered the walls and fortifications of the town to be destroyed. An incident connected with this successful enterprise of Bruce is worthy of being preserved, as showing the influence of the example of the king upon his followers, and the poverty of the Scottish towns in those times: a French knight was in the Scottish army, who, when the saw the king intrepidly enter the ditch at the head of his men, involuntarily exclaimed-we use language of Barbour "A lord! quhat sall we say Off our lords off Fraunce, that thai Into sic perill has hym set, To win a wrechyt hamylet!' With that word to the dyke he ran, Pinkerton, the annotator of Barbour, in remarking on the French knight designating Perth "a wretchyt hamylett," says :--" It is no wonder that, to a French knight, Perth, one of the chief towns of Scotland, should appear 'a wretched hamlet.' Such was the poverty of Scotland, owing to want of industry: for industry can make any country rich, and want of it can render any country poor. This poverty continued till the abolition of the hereditary jurisdictions in 1750, when liberty and industry began to diffuse their blessings over Scotland. The flourishing state of commerce under the five James', lately started by ignorant theorists, is a mere dream, unsupportable by any proof whatever." We may add that the French knight above mentioned is supposed to have been Sir Thomas Charteris, alias Longueville, a native of France, who, when at the court of Philip le Bel, had a dispute with, and killed a French nobleman in the king's presence. He escaped, but having been refused a pardon, he for several years invested the seas as a pirate, under the cognomen of the Red Reiver, and was encountered by Sir William Wallace on his way to France, who took him prisoner. At Wallace's intercession the French king conferred on him a pardon, and the honour of knighthood. He accompanied Wallace on his return to Scotland, and aided him in his exploits; but upon that hero's being betrayed and carried to London, Sir Thomas Charteris retired to Lochmaben, where he remained till Robert Bruce began to assert his right to the crown of Scotland. Having joined Bruce, he was the first that followed the king at the taking of Perth, January 8, 1313. His bravery on that occasion was rewarded by granting him the lands of Kinfauns, which continued in the family of Charteris for many years. About 1318, Sir John de Logie, Sir Gilbert Malherb, and Richard Brown, son of Sir John Brown, were executed at Perth as traitors, having been found guilty of being connected with a conspiracy planned by William, Lord Soulis. They were drawn at the tails of horses through the streets to the place of execution, where they were hanged, their hearts taken out, and their bodies dismembered. The Parliament which condemed them was called the Black Parliament of Perth. In a Parliament held at Scone in 1320, Lord Soulis and the Countess of Strathearn were condemned to perpetual imprisonment, though the latter told King Robert of the conspiracy. Robert Bruce held a parliament at Perth, in 1321, and others were held in Scone in 1323, 1325, and 1326. Robert I. died on the 7th of June 1329, and was succeeded by his son, David II., then in the seventh year of his age. The Earl of Moray was chosen Regent; and on the 27th of March 1330, a parliament was held at Perth. On the 8th November 1331, a parliament met at Scone; and in the month of August 1332, another was held at Perth, in which the Earl of Mar was elected Regent in room of the Earl of Moray, who had died. He did not, however, enjoy his new office any length of time; for he was slain at the battle of Duplin,* on the 12th of August that year, when Edward Baliol and an English force overran the kingdom; and on the day after his victory took possession of Perth, the walls of which he ordered to be rebuilt, the ditches cleared, and the whole fortifications put in a state of defence. On the 28th of August Baliol was crowned at Scone, in presence of many of the clergy and nobility; but no sooner had he retired from the neighbourhood of Perth than it was besieged by the relations of those who had fallen at the battle of Duplin. Macduff, Earl of Fife, governor of the town under Baliol, surrendered it after a seige of three months: the walls and fortifications were again destroyed, and Fife himself, his family, and vassals made prisoners. Another parliament was held at Perth in 1339. In this year the town was beseiged by the Regent Stuart. It had been fortified by Edward and his engineers with uncommon skill, and provided with an * The families adjoining Perth suffered severely in this engagement; Buchanan says that the name of the Hay would have been extinguished, had not William, the head of the house, left his lady pregnant. |