The collier lost no time in preparing his load of charcoal to be ready next day to go to Paris. Early on Christmas morning he is up betimes, and fills two creels with fresh charcoal, and has got all ready for his journey, when Gillian, his wife, gave vent to her doubts about the matter. "Ralph," said she, "I'm thinking that yon man is not so simple as he said. If he had been alone when you gave him such a blow, my faith you should have paid for it; therefore I advise you not to look near the court, for if you do, I'll wager my life, you shall have cause to rue it." "Have no fear for my life, dame; I shall keep my | promise, and take my chance, to what- | ever end it leads ;" and with that he starts by the dawn of day, with his horse and creels, and jogs merrily along with his whip in his hand, on his way to court. The king appointed his trusty squire, Sir Rolland, to watch for any man laden coming into town, with orders to conduct him to his presence. Sir Rolland wondered what should induce the king, on the solemn Christmas-day, to appoint him such an errand, when he should be at his devotions; but, as in duty bound, he takes his way, and after watching a good while without seeing any one, at last he spies the collier. On meeting, the collier kneeled courteously to the knight, who returned his salute, and then said—“Friend, leave off thy courtesy, and come with me to Paris; it is the king's orders that thou be brought before him without delay." "In faith," said the collier, "though I am but a common man and poorly clad, | I shall know which is the best man of us two before I be bullied in that way.” "I did not mean to bully thee," said the knight; "but I think thou art not wise to disobey the king's orders." "I am but following my lawful business, and am fetching a load of fuel to Wymond of the Wardrobe, according to promise. I shall be sore beat before I be driven from my purpose." "So might I thrive," said Sir Rolland; "I am determined thou shalt neither see Wymond nor Will till I have brought thee before the king." The collier stood and looked at the knight, who was splendidly mounted, and armed in complete armour, gorgeously adorned with diamonds and rubies, and all kinds of precious stones that gleamed in the sunlight; and he thought to himself, "If he be as manly as he is well made, it will need no small pith to abide his meeting." Provoked at his coolness, the knight demanded him to cast the creels off his horse, and without more ado to come away to the king. In faith," said Ralph, "it were great shame did I not keep my promise to fetch these coals to-day; and for all that thou hast said, I will abide by my word.” By the rood!" said the knight, thou keepest me here half the day; to the court thou must come; to let thee go were false to the king, from which Christ me save! I know not what he wants thee for, nor did he name you more than any other—I was to bring the first man I met; it may be for your advantage for aught I know." "Thou found me," said the collier, "about no unlawful business; and by the Mother and the Maiden! if thou provoke me further, come after what may, thou and I shall come to blows." "It is like enough," said Sir Rolland, laughing, "that thou would strike stoutly;" but not wishing to bring matters to that pass, he said, “Let me see if we may not manage the matter in a more quiet way. Where does that Wymond, whom you promised to meet to-day, live?" "With the queen, he told me; and I undertook to be at the court to-day without fail." "Then," said Sir Rolland, "see thou keep thy promise; if thou art there by noon it will be soon enough for my errand." | "Trust me," said the collier; as I am a true man, I shall not haste a foot faster to serve your purpose; and if you do not move quickly out of my path, by the rood! you shall rue it." Seeing he could make no better of it, and trusting the collier's word, Sir Rolland was about to leave, when Ralph challenged him to be at the same place at the same time to-morrow on horseback, and he should be ready to meet him on equal terms; and thus they parted. On Sir Rolland's return to court, he is observed by the king. "Come hither, Sir Knight,” said his majesty; "hast thou done my bidding?” “As you bade, my liege," said the knight, "I watched all the ways, and found nobody abroad save one rustic, on his way to Paris with a load of charcoal." "And why hast thou not brought him before me as I bade you?" said the king; "I fear he has outwitted you." Seeing the king was displeased, Sir Rolland went out to learn if the collier had kept his word, when he met a porter, who said— "There is a fellow at the gate, with a horse and two creels, who will not be "Then persuaded to go away without being let in." "Admit him instantly," said the knight; "but tell me, does he ask particularly after any one?" "After one Wymond," said the porter. tell him thou art not worthy to see Wymond, but let him seek him himself, if there be such a one." So saying, he returned to the royal hall. The porter undid the gate, and told the collier to search for Wymond himself. He inquired at several ushers if they could tell him where Wymond might be found, but none of them knew any one of that name. The collier, distrusting them, pushed his way into the royal hall, in which all the nobility were assembled, keeping the Christmas festivals, with the king and the queen in their midst. He is dumfoundered with the splendour that suddenly bursts on his sight-the roof gleaming with all kinds of devices and carvings, and studded with gold and silver and precious stones; the wall covered with banners and mirrors, and the floors with the richest carpets; and he thought to himself, "I have enough of royalty for once; if I had but one word of Wymond, I should soon be on my way back again, but having come thus far, I am loath to be beat." Then pushing forward, he suddenly found himself in sight of the noble king, and could hardly help calling aloud, "Yon's Wymond. I ken him right well, though he be more splendidly clad than when he lived with me. He is of more state than he told me. Alas! I fear I have been misled." But the king observing him, smiled unseen. The collier next cast his eye on the queen, and was so dazzled by the splendour of her royal robes, glittering with jewels, that he said to himself, "Deil take me, if I manage to get safe out of here, if the wisest man in Paris will persuade me to come back again these seven years to come." While the collier was thus perplexed, the king began to relate to his nobles the story of his adventure in | the forest, how he met the collier on the moor, and how he was treated by him. While this was being told, the collier quaked at the prospect of certain destruction, which seemed to await him, and wished to God he were suddenly transported to that same moor with the best knight in the hall. When the king had ended his relation, he put it to the knights present, What should be done to the man who thus guided, and lodged, and used him so lightly? "Hang him!" they all cried out at once; "he deserves nothing better." "God forbid," said the king, "I should in that way thank the man who saved my life on that dreadful night; he seems a stalwart man and a hard hitter; I think, for his courtesy, we shall make him a knight. I hold it a wiser plan than to slay such good Christians, to send them to fight God's enemies." So saying, he advanced to the collier, and dubbed him a knight, and assigned him a pension of three hundred pounds a-year, with a promise of the next free ward that should fall to the crown. "Sir Ralph," said the king, addressing the new-made knight, "thou has worthily won thy spurs, and though of humble descent, art meet to mix with the noblest knights of France; and I pray God of His grace may make thee as good as thou art brave." With that he ordered a squire to bring him a suit of rich armour, and appointed him a retinue of sixty squires for his com. pany. Early next morning, Sir Ralph made ready to keep his tryst with Sir Rolland, and was on the ground at the time appointed. After waiting a little while, he saw coming toward him, riding on a camel, the most gigantic knight he had ever seen. Sir Ralph, supposing him his opponent, attacks him at full speed, and in the first encounter both their horses are killed, and their spears splintered over their heads. They then fight for an hour on foot, when Sir Rolland makes his appearance, and rushing in between the combatants, separates them. Sir Ralph's opponent turns out to be Magog, a Saracen knight, sent by the Cham of Tartary to declare war against the King of France. He has fought so bravely, that Sir Rolland is anxious he should turn Christian, and converts him by the following speech :-"If thou remain in thine own land thou shalt go to hell at the last; but if thou change thee in haste, and confess thy sin, thou shalt have pardon and profit. Thou shalt have to wife the gentle Duchess, Dame Jane of Anjou, heir-apparent to two duchies, with many rich towns, and than whom there is none fairer in all France." "I reck not of thy riches, Sir Rolland," replied the Saracen; "thy God and thy grassum I hold but light; but if thy God be so good as thou sayest, I shall leave Mahomet, and shall cast myself on thy God, and beseech Him for His mercy to give me grace, and to Christ His Son, for I have often seen Christians cry on Him in their distresses." "I thank God for that," said News having reached the king of the death of the Marshal of France, Sir Ralph is appointed his successor; and to mark the spot where he found the king, a hostelry is erected, in the name of Saint July, for sheltering those who lose their way, or need its protec Sir Rolland, "and Christ His sweet Son JOHN BARBOUR. 1316?-1395. attained this honour by the time that he was forty." This would place his birth in 1317, a year later than Lord Hailes places it. UNLIKE Thomas the Rhymer's, there | remarks, that, "he was fortunate if he is no uncertainty about the work which is John Barbour's passport to fame; but about his personal history there is very little to record. The date of his birth is matter of conjecture-1316, 1320, and In the same year, at the request of 1326 being severally assumed for it. David II., Edward III. grants him a The place of his nativity is likewise un- safe-conduct to repair to Oxford, with known, the only place having any pro- three students, in order to study. Some bability in its favour being Aberdeen. discussion has been raised as to whether Arbroath is suggested as the place of his Barbour himself went there to study, or early education. Warton, in his History only in charge of the three scholars. Dr of English Poetry, says that he was edu- Irving suggests, with much probability, cated at Oxford, but gives no authority for that Barbour's purpose was to consult the statement. There is much variation such books as were not accessible at even in the spelling of his name; but Dr home, and to confer with the learned Jamieson adopts Barbour on account of clerks of that celebrated university. its having been so spelled in a charter in His safe-conduct for Oxford is signed the vernacular tongue. In all his pass- by the king at Westminster, 13th Auports to England it is spelled Barber. gust 1357; and on 13th September, he The confirmation of a charter by David is appointed one of the commissioners II. to the Carmelite friars of Aberdeen, who were to meet at Edinburgh about dated May 7, 1360, contains the name the ransom of David II. That he atof quondam Andreae Barbitonsir, who is tended the meeting of commissioners is supposed to be Barbour's father. The thought unlikely, as there were two apfirst authentic link in his history is his pointed from Aberdeen, with a proviso, promotion, in 1357, to the Archdeacon- that the absence of one of them should ship of Aberdeen, on which Dr Jamieson | not obstruct the progress of business. Another safe-conduct, dated 6th November 1364, is granted him, with four horsemen, to repair to Oxford, or elsewhere in England, to study; a third, on 16th October 1365, to travel through England, with six companions, on horseback, to St Denis, and other sacred places in France; and a fourth, dated November 30, 1368, to pass through England to France, and back, with two valets and two horses, for the purpose of study. It has been supposed, and with great probability, that the chief object of his various journeys was the collecting of materials for his books. by Hume of Godscroft, in his History of the House of Douglas (1644), to have been made in favour of an hospital in Aberdeen, which was in receipt of it till the time of the Reformation; but this, too, has been a misstatement, for the settlement was made to the chapter of the Cathedral Church of Aberdeen, for the purpose of celebrating an annual mass for his soul after his death. When that event took place has only been approximately ascertained, from the fact that the last half-year's instalment of his pension paid him, was that for the first half of 1395. Of The Bruce, two MSS. are preserved. The one in the Advocates' Library was written in 1489 by John Ramsay, who is supposed to be the same that was afterwards prior of the Carthusian Monastery at Perth. The other, written in 1487, is in St John's College Library, Cambridge. Dr Jamieson's well-known edition of The Bruce, 1820, is from the text of the former, and that of the latter is now (being edited for the Early English Text Society by the Rev. W. W. Skeat. The statements of former writers in reference to the writing of The Bruce, and the pensions granted to Barbour, being inaccurate on several points, Dr Jamieson investigated the matter thoroughly, and concludes that there is no evidence to show that it was written at the request of David II. That Barbour was held in much esteem in David's reign is manifest; but it appears from a passage in Book IX. of The Bruce, that Robert II., David's successor, was in the fifth year of his reign when the poem was about half Besides The Bruce, he wrote other two written; and there is no evidence of his metrical works, one called The Brute, of having received any pension till the year which no manuscript is now known to before Robert's death (1390). He was exist, unless about 2000 lines of two granted two pensions, one of £10 Scots, MS. Troy-books by Lydgate, discovered from the customs of Aberdeen; and an- by Mr Bradshaw, librarian to the Uniother of 20s. from the rents of burrow-versity of Cambridge, be, as Mr Bradmails of that city. The first was during shaw supposes, part of it. It seems to life, but the second was to his assignees have been a genealogical history of the whomsoever; and both appear to have kings of Scotland, from the mythical been granted in consideration of his Brutus, first king of Britain, who is having written the Life and Acts of said to have been a son of Ascanius, son King Robert the First. The settlement of Æneas, the Trojan prince. The fact of his perpetual pension has been stated of its having existed, is placed beyond |