126 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



fit of epilepsy. Thus, the profoundest silence being necessary, they were thrown 

 into the most embarrassing difficulty ; for, by his falling, or the noise unavoidable 

 in attempting to remove him, the most imminent hazard arose of their discovery. 

 It was a moment that demanded instant decision. An expedient was suggested 

 and adopted. The invalid was made fast to the ladder, which was then turned, 

 so that his comrades passing over his breast, pushed forward to the summit. 

 Surmounting the wall, they surprised the ill-watched garrison, who were too 

 confident in the strength of the castle to keep a due guard, and carried the place 

 by an attempt unequalled for its daring intrepidity, and which may recall the 

 capture of Edinburgh Castle by Randolph, as already mentioned in this work.* 

 The consternation of the garrison may be conceived, when, wakened from their 

 dream of fancied security, they heard the voice and saw the flashing sword of 

 Crawford, as he headed his band of desperadoes, and pronounced them his 

 prisoners. The governor escaped by a hasty retreat to the river, but the 

 archbishop was secured before the alarm had reached him ; escorted to Stirling, 

 and there executed, in the manner already described. -j- 



To this rock the monkish traditions of the country have ascribed an origin 

 very different from that given to it by modern geologists. It is this : 

 St. Patrick, the tutelar saint of Ireland, was a native of Dunbartonshire, born in 

 the parish of Kilpatrick, where he devoted his whole energies to the preaching 

 of the gospel. His success was marked by a numerous train of proselytes ; but, 

 while the saint was thus bringing his countrymen out of darkness into light, 

 Satan was watching him with malignant eye, and labouring, by every fiendish 

 machination, to interrupt the good work. He found his own votaries gradually 

 deserting his standard, and taking up their cross with the pious and indefatigable 

 Patrick. In haunts where the shout of bacchanals was so lately heard, the 

 blessed sound of hymns and spiritual songs now threw a sanctity over the spot, and 

 in the ear of the arch-fiend sounded like the " pasans of open rebellion." Feeling 

 his empire on these shores already tottering under him, he summoned to his 

 aid the witches and magicians from the neighbouring caves ; and to them, as his 

 faithful servants, expounded the wrongs he had suffered, and was likely to suffer, 

 through this audacious rebel, Patrick the preacher. . . .The word was hardly 

 spoken, when those faithful auxiliaries flew to execute their commission, and, 

 by innumerable enchantments, beset the good Patrick night and day, till, 

 concentrating the whole powers of darkness into one terrible effort, they finally 

 compelled him to retreat, but were not permitted to take away his life. No, 

 he had other work before him; and, committing himself to a small open boat 



Set: vol. i. pp. 90 93. f See vol. i. Art. " Stirling." 



