The HAVEN OF BREAD that should be
Called in-til property.

Macduff,

Then follows a fine Gothic incident. aware that his flight would be discovered, and that he should be immediately pursued, passes through Fife to his strong castle of Kennauchy, and then proceeds to hasten the march of the English forces; having first apprised his wife of his intention, and directed her to "hold Macbeth in fair treaty," till she should discover a boat sailing to the southward; at sight of which she should inform the king that his enemy was escaped to England, but would speedily meet him in arms at Dunsinnane.

Till Kennauchy Macbeth came soon,

I

And felny great there would have done;
But, this lady, with fair treaty,

His

purpose letted done to be. And soon, fra she the sail up saw,

Then til Macbeth, with little awe,

She said Macbeth look
66

up, and see,

"Under yon sail forsooth is he,

"The thane of Fife whom thou has sought.

"Trow thou well, and doubt thou nought,

Felonie. Fr.; cruelty.

• Prevented,

"If ever thou shall him see again,
"He shall thee set intil great pain
"Syne thou would have put his neck
"Intil thy yokes. Now will I speak
"With thee no more; fare on thy way,
"Either well, or ill, as happen may."

Had Shakspeare met with this spirited scene, he would probably have been glad to contrast the heroine of Fife with the ferocious lady Macbeth, as well as to have saved the miserable contrivance of sending three murderers, to destroy the wife and children of a powerful thane, in a fortified and garrisoned castle.

The conversation between Malcolm and Macduff (Shaksp. Act IV. Scene 3.), and the incident of Birnam wood, are told nearly in the same way by Hollinshed and Wyntown; but the death of Macbeth is attributed, not to Macduff, but to a certain knight, who had been brought into the world by means of the Cæsarean operation.

The flittand wood they called aye
That, long time after-hand that day.
Of this when he had seen that sight,
He was right wo, and took to flight:
1 Moving.

And o'er the Mount they chased him than

Till the wood of Lunfanan.

This Macduff was there most fell,

And on that chace than most cruél.2

But a knight, that in that chace

Till this Macbeth than nearest was,
Macbeth turned him again,

And said, "Lurdane,3 thou pricks in vain:
"For thou may nought be he, I trow,
"That to dead shall slay me now.

"That man is not born of wife
"Of power to reave me my life."
The knight said, "I was never born,
"But of my mother's womb was shorn.
"Now shall thy treason here take end,
"For to thy father I shall thee send.”

The last line seems to contain an allusion to Macbeth's supposed birth, and to be a return for the injurious appellation of lurdane.

Wyntown, in his account of king Arthur, mentions, among the historians of his Gests, an author who is totally unknown to our poetical antiquaries.

The hill. i. e. the mountains now commonly called the Grampians.

• Keen, steady.

3 Clumsy fellow; lourdain. Old Fr.

He calls him "Huchown of the Awle Ryale," and tells us that

He made the great Gest of Arthur,
And the adventure of Sir Gawain;
The 'Pistle als of Sweet Susanne.

Mr. Macpherson seems to think that Huchown (Hugh) may be the Christian name of the Clerk of Tranent,

That made the aventures of Sir Gawain, (Dunbar's Lament, &c.); but perhaps he was the author of the Norman original, and Wyntown's anxiety to establish the authenticity of his narrative, may be explained, by his general fondness for exploits of Chivalry, a subject on which he always dwells with pleasure.

The love of tournaments, indeed, seems to have been carried almost to madness in Scotland, as well as in England, before the general adoption of firearms; as will appear from Wyntown's account of these exhibitions at Berwick, about the year 1388: but we must first exhibit the state of the country at the time of this festivity.

About Perth then was the country'
So waste, that wonder was to see;

For, intil well great space thereby
Was neither house left; na herbry1

Of deer there was then swilk foison
That they would near come to the town.
So great default was near that stead,
'That many were in hunger dead.

A carl, they said, was near thereby,
That would set settys3 commonly
Children and women for to sla,4
And swains that he might over-ta,5
And eat them all that he get might;
Christian Klek til name he hight.

While waste, but folk, was the country'.

Such were the consequences of war in the rich neighbourhood of Perth; and the "Forest," the scene of Douglas's exploits, and the environs of Berwick, were not likely to be much better cultivated, when Sir Henry of Lancaster, earl of Derby, impatient of the inactivity attendant on a truce, repaired to the frontiers to request of Douglas "three courses of war." This justing, though it

1 Harbour, lodging; herberger. Fr.