monks, brought from Rievalle (Rievaulx), in Yorkshire. It was dedicated to the Virgin, and was completed in ten years. The first abbey was made of oaken planks, and had a thatched roof; but St. David's lonely pile' was probably not unlike Kelso Abbey, which was also founded by this royal patron of ecclesiastics. But, whatever the appearance of the second abbey may have been, it is well-nigh certain that not a stone of it now remains; for the richly-endowed Melrose met with the fate of all other Border buildings, and was more than once a prize for the English invaders.

In 1322, Edward II. resolved to rest at Melrose, and Douglas took measures with the monks to do what hurt he could to the invader, and with a body of picked men was admitted into the building by William de Peebles, the Abbot. The old chronicler, Barbour, tells us how a right sturdy friar, spear in hand, rode forth on a stalwart horse, and, when the English advanced, cried out 'A Douglas! a Douglas!' upon which Douglas and his men rushed forth from the Abbey, and, by the suddenness of their attack, drove back the English advanceguard with great loss. The success of this scheme, however, recoiled upon the monks, for Edward swooped upon the Abbey, and (says Fordun, in his Scotichronicon,') wrecked' the building, and slew the Abbot and brethren. The wrecking was, probably, complete; at any rate, in 1326, Robert Bruce gave what would now be the sum of fifty thousand pounds for the re-building of the Abbey. They were large-hearted men in those days, and no niggards in their gifts for sacred purposes.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

LAYS AND LEGENDS.

St. Waltheof and his Miracles-Profitable Embalming―The
Legend of the Heart of Bruce-The Adventures of Sir James
Douglas-Melrose Abbey Burnt by Richard II.-Diversities of
Opinion-A New Abbey-A Sisyphæan Task-The Abbey's
Vicissitudes-Fair Maiden Lilliard and her Stumps-Knox
and Knocks-Cromwell's Pummelling The Virgin's Statue
Saved by a Miracle-Legend of Stumpy Thomson-Open Foes
and False Friends-Monastic Masons.

HE second Abbot of the second Abbey of Melrose was St. Waltheof, whose mother's second husband was that King David who founded the Abbey. Waltheof was a true Saxon, for his father was Simon, Earl of Huntingdon, and his grandfather was Siward, Count of Northumberland, and he lived to be a man of mark, both before, and (as Paddy would say) after his death, for he was canonised for his many virtues and miracles. His most useful miracle was supplying corn to the Tweed-dale people in a time of unusual scarcity—a miracle, doubtless, which the well-stocked granaries of Melrose enabled him to perform with ease. But another miracle recorded of him is far more abstruse and peculiar, and even surpasses the feats of those Chinese conjurors who swallow bullets and produce them from their ears. A priest had hesitated to drink some wine, on the very reasonable ground that there was a great spider in the cup. Waltheof insisted that

the priest should drain the cup dry, and, as his word was law, the priest was obliged to do as he was bid. Soon after, when the priest was in the refectory, he felt a queer sensation at the tip of one of his fingers. Presently the finger swelled, then the swelling burst, and out walked the very identical spider that the priest had swallowed. St. Waltheof had worked this miracle, and, owing to his interposition, the unusual bees-wing had not done hurt to the priest. The monks of Melrose must have possessed the secret of embalming, for when St. Waltheof had been buried, they made his body into a very attractive and profitable show, by taking it, every now and then, out of its tomb, and displaying it to the wondering pilgrims in an uncorrupted state, diffusing the sweetest odours, and restoring to health the sick people who were privileged to gaze upon it. Grose, quoting from Hutchinson, says, "The chronicle of Mailross contains this anecdote, "that Ingerim, bishop of Glasgow, and four abbots, came to Mailross to open the grave, after twelve years' interment, when they found the body of Waldevus uncorrupted; on which, with a religious rapture, they exclaimed, “Vere hic homo Dei est." They afterwards placed a marble monument over his remains. This Waldevus was Waltheof, who is also called Walthen, Waldere, and Walter.

As we have seen, King Robert Bruce expended a sum equivalent to 50,000l. of modern money on the re-building of the third Melrose Abbey. He had its interests so much at heart, that he left a document commending the brotherhood to the pious care of his son and successor, David, and desiring that his heart might be buried in the monastery. It is remarkable that this document bears date May 11, 1329, within a month of his death; and 'it follows that his request to

ADVENTURES OF SIR JAMES DOUGLAS.

331

Douglas, to convey his heart to the Holy Land, was made still nearer his end." * If we may credit tradition, Douglas fell in Spain, endeavouring to reach the Holy Land, and to carry out his royal master's last request. The circumstance has been well treated in a modern ballad (too long to be quoted here in its integrity), from which the following verses are taken.† Lord James Douglas has landed in Spain, and been welcomed by King Alphonso, but volunteers to fight the Moors. The tide of battle turns against him :

The foremost there fell brave St. Clair,

That saw the Douglas bold,

And did unloose the heart of Bruce

From its string of silk and gold;
He hurled it through the serried spears,
And his lifted voice rang high-
'Pass to the front, as thou were wont!
I follow thee, or die!'

The day hath closed on fair Castile,
The sinking sun gleams red
On shattered plumes and broken steel,
And piles of gallant dead;

In the centre of that bloody field
Lord Douglas lay in death—
Above him was his own good shield,

And the Bruce's heart beneath! * * *

A valiant knight the casket bore;
And, for that honoured part,
His scutcheon wore for evermore
A padlock and a heart.

They buried the Douglas in St. Bride;

And the heart of Bruce they laid
In Melrose stately aisles, beside
The altar's sacred shade.

Sir Walter Scott, in his History of Scotland,' thus briefly sketches the history of this event:-'The good

* Cosmo Innes' Sketches of Early Scotch History, p. 119.
† Lays and Ballads of English History, &c. Burns, 1846.

Lord James, having the precious heart under his charge, set out for Palestine, with a gallant retinue, and observing great state. He landed at Seville in his voyage, and learning that King Alphonso was at war with the Moors, his zeal to encounter the infidels induced him to offer his services. They were honourably and thankfully accepted; but, having involved himself too far in pursuit of the retreating enemy, Douglas was surrounded by numbers of the infidels when there were not ten of his suite left around his person; yet he might have retreated in safety had he not charged, with the intention of rescuing Sir William Sinclair, whom he saw borne down by a multitude. But the good knight failed in his generous purpose, and was slain by the superior number of the Moors. Scotland never lost a better worthy at a period when his services were more needed. He united the romantic accomplishments of a knight of chivalry with the more solid talents of a great military leader. The relics of his train brought back the heart of Bruce, with the body of his faithful follower, to their native country. The heart of the king was deposited in Melrose Abbey, and the corpse of Douglas was laid in the tomb of his ancestors, in the church of the same name.' This was precisely one of those subjects that would impress the mind of the great Novelist. He spoke of it to Washington Irving, and said that much might be made out of the adventures of Sir James Douglas in that adventurous age; of his fortunes in Spain, and his death in the crusade against the Moors, with the subsequent fortunes of the heart of Robert Bruce until it was brought back to its native land, and enshrined within the holy walls of Melrose. As he spoke,' says Irving, 'scenes, images, incidents kept breaking upon his mind