n the year 1128, he, while out hunting in the royal forest near
Edwinsburg, was miraculously delivered from a stag at bay by the
interposition of an arm, wreathed in smoke, brandishing a cross of the
most dazzling brilliancy. At the sight of it the stag fled. The cross
remained as a celestial relic in the royal hand. In consideration of
this deliverance, strengthened by a vision, the foundations of
Holyrood were laid. The same tradition further tells us that the
miraculous cross was enshrined in silver, and placed on the high
altar, where it remained until the fatal battle of Durham, when David
II. was captured with his cross and crown.

Merlin was a noted magician and astrologer, who prophesied many things
that came to pass in England hundreds of years after his death.
Prophesying of the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and Mary, he says:

"Then shall the masculine sceptre cease to sway,
And to a spinster the whole land obey;
Who to the Papal monarchy shall restore
All that the Ph[oe]nix had fetched thrice before.
Then shall come in the faggot and the stake,
And they of convert bodies bonfires make;
Match shall this lioness with Caesar's son,
From the Pontific sea a pool shall run,
That wide shall spread its waters, and to a flood
In time shall grow, made red with martyrs' blood.
Men shall her short unprosp'rous reign deplore,
By loss at sea, and damage to the shore;
Whose heart being dissected, you in it
May in large characters find Calice writ."

Those acquainted with the history of Queen Mary's time, can have no
difficulty in discovering the circumstances to which the several
prophetic sayings refer; nor can they fail to be satisfied that the
following lines apply to Queen Elizabeth, and the state of England at
the time she swayed the sceptre:

"From th' other ashes shall a Ph[oe]nix rise,
Whose birth is thus predicted by the wise;
Her chief predominant star is Mercury,
Jove shall with Venus in conjunction be.
And Sol, with them, shine in his best aspect;
With Ariadne's crown, Astrea deckt,
Shall then descend upon this terrene stage:
(Not seen before since the first golden age).
Against whom all the Latian bulls shall roar,
But at Jove's awful summons shall give o'er.
Through many forges shall this metal glide,
Like gold by fire re-pured, and seven times try'd,
Her bright and glorious sunbeams shall expel