THE QUIGRICH. 435 



formerly asked for tlae arm of St. Fillan lie had given him the empty 

 silver case, after taking out the relic, fearing it might be lost in the 

 tumult. The King therefore, full of hope, spent the remainder of the 

 night in thanksgiving and prayer." Hector Boece refers to this po- 

 tent intervention on behalf of the Bruce. Camerarius also ascribes 

 the victory to the same miraculous aid, speaking of it as " obtained 

 by the intervention of divine assistance. Anno Chr. 1314, to St. Lil- 

 ian's intercession for his countrymen ;" but St. Fillan's legend disap- 

 pears from the narrative of Major and other later historians. 



Other evidence, however, tends to confirm the faith maintained in 

 the Scottish legend of the fourteenth century which ascribed the vic- 

 tory of Bannockburn and the national independence, to the arm of 

 St. EOlan which wrought so marvellously for his people on that glo- 

 rious day. "Were it not, indeed, that the sainted Abbot — no longer 

 heedful of Scotland in this faithless century of ours, — has allowed his 

 favoured reliquary, as well as its humble chronicler, to be transported 

 beyond reach of Scottish legend, tale, or chronicle : much curious 

 illustration might be added to this memento of a memorable national 

 event. But unfortunately the libraries of Canada are far from rich in 

 such materials. Barbour has given due prominence to the picturesque 

 narrative of Maurice, Abbot of Inchaffray, celebrating mass in sight 

 of the Scottish army ; and then, passing barefooted along the front 

 of the kneeling host with his uplifted crucifix, exhorting them to win 

 their liberty or die. It connects this historical incident of the field 

 of Bannockburn with the marvelous interposition ascribed to the arm 

 of the sainted Abbot of an older century, when we recall the fact 

 that centuries thereafter, and until the dissolution of religious houses 

 at the Reformation, there was a cell or priory, belonging to the 

 Abbey of Inchafl'ray, in Strathern, near the miraculous pool of St. 

 Milan, '^ founded by King Robert the Bruce, and consecrated to St. 

 Fillan, in consideration of the assistance he had from that saint at 

 the battle of Bannockburn."* 



Some curious and highly interesting notices of ancient Scottish 

 Croziers and their hereditary custodiers, with charters of tenure of 

 freeholds held in virtue of such trust, have been recovered by tlie re- 

 searches of Mr. Cosmo Innes, Professor of History and Antiquities 

 in Edinburgh University, and Mr. Joseph Robertson, another able 



* Spottiswood's App. Hope's Minor Practicks, p. 424. 



