portant office, it is your
duty so to find. Englishmen have their angry passions as well as Scots;
and should this man's action remain unpunished, you may unsheath, under
various pretences, a thousand daggers betwixt the Land's-End and the
Orkneys."

The venerable Judge thus ended what, to judge by his apparent emotion,
and by the tears which filled his eyes, was really a painful task. The
jury, according to his instructions, brought in a verdict of Guilty; and
Robin Oig M'Combich, ALIAS McGregor, was sentenced to death, and left
for execution, which took place accordingly. He met his fate with great
firmness, and acknowledged the justice of his sentence. But he repelled
indignantly the observations of those who accused him of attacking an
unarmed man. "I give a life for the life I took," he said, "and what can
I do more?" [See Note 11.--Robert Donn's Poems.]

*****

NOTES.

NOTES TO CHRONICLES OF THE CANONGATE.

Note 1.--HOLYROOD.

The reader may be gratified with Hector Boece's narrative of the
original foundation of the famous abbey of Holyrood, or the Holy Cross,
as given in Bellenden's translation:--

"Eftir death of Alexander the first, his brothir David come out of
Ingland, and wes crownit at Scone, the yeir of God MCXXIV yeiris, and
did gret justice, eftir his coronation, in all partis of his realme. He
had na weris during the time of King Hary; and wes so pietuous, that he
sat daylie in judgement, to caus his pure commonis to have justice; and
causit the actionis of his noblis to be decidit be his othir jugis. He
gart ilk juge redres the skaithis that come to the party be his wrang
sentence; throw quhilk, he decorit his realm with mony nobil actis, and
ejeckit the vennomus custome of riotus cheir, quhilk wes inducit afore
be Inglismen, quhen thay com with Quene Margaret; for the samin wes
noisum to al gud maneris, makand his pepil tender and effeminat.

"In the fourt yeir of his regne, this nobill prince come to visie the
madin Castell of Edinburgh. At this time, all the boundis of Scotland
were ful of woddis, lesouris, and medois; for the countre wes more gevin
to store of bestiall, than ony productioun of cornis; and about this
castell was ane gret forest, full of haris, hindis, toddis, and siclike
maner of beistis. Now was the Rude Day cumin, called the Exaltation of
the Croce; and, becaus the samin wes ane hie solempne day, the king past
to his contemplation. Eftir the messis wer done with m