THE MAIDEN'S-LEAP. THE ROYAL WELCOME. 29 



occasions, he was lodged in a tower, nearly opposite to that of his mistress, 

 but communicating with a different staircase, and divided at top by a wide 

 interval of nine feet between the walls, which were sixty feet in height. In 

 the evening the young lady was accidentally missed from her chamber, at 

 the accustomed hour ; and some suspicion having arisen that she had mistaken 

 the staircase, and was secreted in the turret of her lover, her mother hastened 

 thither in search of the fair truant. The latter, however, rightly guessing 

 what must ensue were she discovered in the prohibited " bower," and hear- 

 ing the maternal footsteps approaching, formed the desperate resolution to 

 elude detection under such delicate circumstances, or perish in the effort. 

 Thus nerved for the attempt, and with the agility of a chamois on its native 

 precipices, she cleared the frightful chasm at a bound, lighted on her own 

 battlements without injury, and retired to bed, where the wary countess, 

 defeated in her previous search, found her shortly afterwards apparently asleep, 

 and could hardly forgive herself for her unjust suspicions of so dutiful a 

 daughter. Next night, however, the young lady, taking a still more desperate 

 step, eloped from the paternal castle, and was married to her lover. The 

 battlements where this daring experiment was tried are still shown as the 

 "maiden's leap." 



One of the proudest clays in the annals of Perth seems to have been that 

 on which King David Bruce, or David II., was conducted thither on his 

 return from France, and where he assembled the vast army with which he 

 afterwards invaded England. The account given by Froissard, who was then 

 in Scotland, furnishes a vivid picture of the scene. As soon as the young 

 king landed at Inverbervie, in the Mearns, his subjects nocked to him in 

 multitudes, and thence, with great joy and solemnity, conducted him to Perth. 

 His arrival there was the signal of national festivity, and all classes hastened to 

 bid him a loyal welcome. The smile of the sovereign was like a sudden light 

 in a dark place ; and for some time, every day was a renewal of the festival. 

 When the first outpourings of the national spirit had in some measure subsided, 

 it was represented to the king what waste and woe had been brought upon the 

 country by his great enemy, Edward, the English king. David expressed his 

 deep sense of the sufferings of which so many of his loyal subjects had been 

 the innocent victims, but consoled them with the prospect of speedy retaliation, 

 and pledged his royal word to see their wrongs redressed, or to perish in the 

 attempt. Full of this lofty resolve, and with the advice of his council, he sent 

 messages to all his friends and vassals, to entreat that they would unite their 

 strength to his, and thereby insure a triumph to his patriotic enterprise. The 



VOL. II. I 



