Genealogy of the family of Forbes

seems to have himself (along with Wallace) created and brought
the warlike state of his kingdom to its'acme of glory, and, ashe liv-
ed the ornament of chivalry, he died like a true knight, ordering his
heart to be carried by Sir James Douglas to tlie Holy Land : the
end ofthis story is well known : Sir James being engaged in a battle
with the Moors, in Spain, threw the silver case, containing the
heart (which he wore suspended from his neck) among the
enemy, exclaiming," Go forward, as thou wast ever wont;" and
was soon after slain. The noble spirit of chivalry deeply per-
vaded* the reign of Edward the Third : his very deed of acknow-
ledgment of Bruce as King seems to breathe a sense of his con-
viction of his high renown ; and when a Minstrel at his table
mentioned Bruce as one of the three greatest menhe had known
in Europe, the King reprimanded a courtier who was offended
at an enemy being praised, and rewarded the Minstrel for his
honestj'. Towards the end of the fifteenth century ,■}■ however,
the European system seems to have thrown more consequence
upon the bands of infantry than during former centuries. The
States became more consolidated; and when Charles the Eighth
of France invaded Naples, standing armies began to be formed :
sands of devils; they left 10,000 pairs of brogues in their camp, and
a V3st quantity of flesh half boiled, in skins suspended on sticks over the
embefs. — In this expedition the English seem to have known nothing
of the motions of the Scotch, or where they were to be found ; so ex-
cellent were Bruce's operations' and so quick his marches.— In this
campaign, Douglas penetrated as far as king Edward's tent, and very
nearly made him prisoner ; he forced past the English sentinels in the
night, calling out, " Ha ! St. George — no ward !"
• It is delightful, upon coming to particulars regarding such men,
to find them increase in splendour instead of diminishing : Bruce was
saved from death at an assault upon Perth by a French knight, who
exclaimed, " It is a pity to see so great a king expose himself so much,
*• to gain a miserable hamlet."
f The discovery of the use of gunpowder, early in the 14tb, and of
printing in the middle of the fifteenth centuries, had efiected a com-
plete change in Europe, and led the way to changes still greater,