The Douglas.—­When King Robert I. died he exacted a promise from Sir James Douglas to convey his heart to the Holy Land, where he had been on the point of going when death arrested him.  The party had reached Sluys, so far on their way to Jerusalem, when Alonzo, King of Leon and Castile, at that time engaged in war with the Moorish governor of Granada, Osmyn, sent to demand the aid of Douglas; and by his oath as a knight, which forbade him ever to turn a deaf ear to a call in aid of the Church of Christ, he was obliged to attend to the summons.  He fought with his usual heroism, till the Moslems believed he bore a charmed life when they saw him rush into the thickest of the fight and escape unwounded.  But the Christian ranks nevertheless began to give way; and to stem the flight the Douglas threw the casket containing the king’s heart into the melee, and rushed after it, exclaiming, “Now pass onward as thou wert wont, and Douglas will follow thee or die!” The day after the battle the body of the hero and the casket were found by his surviving companions; and the squire of Douglas finding it was impossible to convey it to Jerusalem, brought back the king’s heart to Scotland, and it was interred in Melrose Abbey.

Marshal de Nevailles.—­At the battle of Senef, the Prince of Conde sent word to Marshal de Nevailles to be ready to engage the enemy.  The messenger found him hearing mass, at which the prince being enraged, muttered something in abuse of over-pious persons.  But the marquis having evinced the greatest heroism during the engagement, said after it to the prince, “Your highness, I fancy, now sees that those who pray to God behave as well in battle as their neighbours.”

HOSPITALITY.

Breton Peasants.—­At the conclusion of the war in 1814, three hundred British sailors, who had been prisoners, were assembled on the coast of Britanny to embark for England.  Being severally billetted on the inhabitants for some days before they embarked, one of them requested permission to see the superintendant, Monsieur Kearnie, which being granted, the British tar thus addressed him:  “An please your honour, I don’t come to trouble you with any bother about ourselves:  we are all as well treated as Christians can be; but there is one thing that makes my food sit heavy on my stomach, and that of my two messmates.”  “What is it, my brave fellow?” replied the superintendent;—­“the persons on whom you are quartered don’t grudge it you?” “No, your honour;—­if they did, that would not vex us.”  “What, then, do you complain of?” “Only this, your honour—­that the poor folk cheerfully lay their scanty allowance before us for our mess, and we have just found out that they have hardly touched a mouthful themselves, or their six babes, for the last two days; and this we take to be a greater hardship than any we found in prison.”  M. Kearnie told them that from this hardship they should all be relieved.  He instantly ordered the billets to be withdrawn, and rewarded all parties for their kindness, so compassionately exercised and interchanged.