" Here shall no peril that may be Drive me elloons into the sea ; Aline aventure here take will I, Whether it be easeful or angry." With three hundred followers, he surprised the En glish in their cantonments, took the castle of Turnberry, and put the garrison to the sword. From that clay his party i apidly increased ; and, alter eight years of inces sant warfare, attended by the most glorious successes, the decisive battle of Bannockburn blasted the hopes of Edward, and secured the independence of Scotland. Bruce was now firmly established upon the throne, and from being a wandering outcast, fighting for his very existence against the tyranny ofXdward, he became a powerful monarch, carrying terror and desolation into the territories of his adversary. The remainder of his life was, in a great measure, spent in active warfare, but his offensive operations were too extensive to be completely successful; and his attempt upon Ireland was undertaken, not so much to harass his enemy, or to extend his power, as to gain a kingdom for his bro ther Edward, whose ambition, unable to brook the au thority of a superior, would otherwise have embroiled his country in a civil war. Worn out, at length, with the fatigues and exertions of an eventful life, and after having concluded a peace with England, most advan tageous and honourable to Scotland, and worthy of her long struggle for independence, Bruce died at Cardross, nn the 7th of June, 1329, in the 55th year of his age, and the 24th of his reign. On his death-bed, he re quested, that as he had often purposed to visit the holy Land, his heart should be carried thither, and deposited at. the sepulchre of our Saviour. Sir James Douglas, who had been long his companion in arms, and his faithful adherent through every variety of fortune, was chosen to fulfil the wishes of his dying master. But
this mournful duty was never performed ; for we are informed by Barbour, that Douglas, on his way to Je rusalem, landed in Spain, where he fell in battle against the Moors. The royal heart was brought back to Scot land, and buried in the church of Melrose.
Bruce was twice married ; first to Isabella, daughter of Donald, Earl of Mar, by whom he had Marjory, mar ried to Walter, the Stewart of Scotland, whose son, Robert II. was the first monarch of the line of Stuart. By his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Aymer de Burgh, Earl of Ulster, he had David II. who succeeded him, and two daughters.
As a warrior, Robert Bruce found no equal in the age in which lie lived ; and it is impossible, by any delinea tion of ours, to do justice to that undaunted valour which no dangers could dismay ; to that energy of soul which rose superior to every misfortune ; and to that unwea ried perseverance which, under circumstances the most adverse and distressful, led him, with a steady step, to the accomplishment of his design. In Scotland, his name will ever be remembered with gratitude and ad miration. From the many salutary regulations which he introduced into his government, lie seems to have had a sincere affection for the liberties of his subjects ; and, by a wise and vigorous administration, he curbed the irregularities of a people who had been long accus tomed to anarchy, bloodshed, and plunder. Sec Guth rie's Hist. of Scot. vol. ii. p. 163, Sec.; Hume's Hist. of Eng. vol. ii. p. 323, Etc.; Hanes' Annals of Scot.; and Barbour's Life of Bruce. (n)