GUY OF NAMUR. — THE AMAZON. 93 



made a fresh step in advance. The conflict, however, was vigorously sustained ; 

 and the earl himself was in great personal danger, till the constable having 

 fallen, and his men either slain or dispersed, the flag of " auld Scotland" waved 

 once more from her ramparts.* 



In the reign of David Bruce, when, to prevent its reoccupation by the English, 

 the Castle had been dismantled; Guy, comte of Namur, following in the wake 

 of King Edward with a body of armed followers, directed his march upon Edin- 

 burgh. The tidings having preceded him, he was met on the Borough-Moor 

 — the usual field of strife — by the royal troops, under the command of Earls 

 Moray and March. A general engagement ensued; the Belgian discovered 

 himself an adept in military skill, which was met by an equal portion on the 

 part of the Scotch nobles ; and where both were brave, the battle became 

 necessarily obstinate and sanguinary. The armed knights, keeping aloof fi-om 

 wasting their strength and steel on ignoble objects, sought each his antagonist 

 fi-om the ranks of chi^'alry. One of these having singled out a Scottish squire, 

 of the name of Shaw, the challenge was eagerly answered, and mutually 

 transfixing one another in the charge, both were dismounted by the shock, 

 and expired together. What added greatly to the interest of this heroic 

 incident, was the discovery that the visored stranger who had so nobly chal- 

 lenged the Scot, was a female — a young Amazon who had come to share the 

 perils of her lover, and " die for love." 



The battle continued with no abatement, till a fresh detachment crossing 

 the Pentland Hills to support the Scotch, the fate of the day was decided ; and 

 the invaders retreating towards the city, succeeded in gaining the castle, and 

 there, by killing all their horses, so as to form barricades, endeavoured to hold 

 the post. But the certain prospect of famine made the ruined fortress 

 untenable, and surrendering at discretion, they were generously permitted to quit 

 the kingdom, on condition of never again abetting the enemies of Scotland. f 



On another occasion — when this fortress, so often changing its garrison, was 

 once more in the hands of the English — a skipper, who represented himself as 

 the liege subject of King Edward, and just anchored at Leith with a cargo of 

 choice French wines, craved an interview with the governor. Being shown 



* " A more desperate adventure tlian this," says Barbour, " was never acliieved since Alexander the 

 Great leaped lieadlong among his foemen from the wall of the town he was beleaguering." 



f A large stone used to be shown in the street of Candlemaker-row, which was said to have been broUen 

 by a stroke from the battle-axe of Sir Alexander Ramsay, while engaged in annoying the retreating enemy. 

 According to the traditionary account preserved in Edinburgh, the kniglit slow man and horse, and split 

 tlie stone at one stroke!— Homer's heroes could hardly have done more. But, in regarding the feats of 

 ancestry, we look through the mist of ages, and are more likely to see them magnified than diminislicd. 



B B 



