Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1911-05-18
IF" THAT MADE HISTORY.
One Of Them Changed the Fate Of
Scotland.

(From the San Francisco Bulletin)
If beaten. hunted. hopeless man had
not taken heart from the quite perseve-
rance of a spider Scotland might never
have won freedom. The man was Ro-
bert the Bruce known as Robert
Rruce'). He was the victim of one of
history's worst hard luck stories. He had
dared to strike blow for his crushed
country's liberty. In punishment he was
routed, his comrades were slain. his es-
tates were confscated, his brothers were
hanged or beheaded his wife was thrown
into a dungeon. his sisters were impris-
| oned like wild animals in iron cages. He
himself was fugitive with n price on
his head and with hundreds Of armed
mcr hunting him down. The reward for
unsuccessful patriotism IN the fourteenth
| century was death.
Scotland never had been wholly sub
dued by the English. But It had at last
been forced into a condition OF semiser-
vitude that was little easie, TOR brave
men to bear than actual slavery. At
last in 1876, William Wallace-a man OF
the people--rose to his stricken father
lands defense The Scotch mobiles stood
| aloof the purest patriotism. But the poor
er classes 1ocked to his standard. He
won many battles against England's
mighty steel clad armies; proving to all
the world that the we'll led peasant could
hold his own against the armored noble
man. But. by sheer force of numbers, the
English finally crushed the gallant little
peasant army. Wallace was seized, was
carried to London In chains, was rushed
through a mock trial and hanged. And
once more Scotland lay helpless under
Englands heel.
Then it was that Robert Bruce--a
Scottish Earl whose early life had given
little promise Of greatness-came to his
countrys aid. Gathering n band of pa
triots about him and having himself
| crowned King OF Scotland. he sought to
| make headway against the English. But
he was defeated again and again. AT
| last his followers were all scattered
| slain his family executed or lodged in
captivity. He himself was forced to fee
alone into the wilderness.
His hopes were dead. The man-hunt
RACED hot at his heels. Capture meant
death. The best fate he could hope for
| was to slip through the line of his pur-
| suers and escape to some foreign land;
| there to end his days In lonely exile.
| In his wretched flight, Bruce paused
| for an hour. rest In deserted tumble
down cave hut There he crouched in a
| dark corner, listening for the approach
ing footsteps Of hi. foes AS he lay
| there. his eyes fell upon a spider that
WAS swinging from the ceiling at the end
Of II. sossnmer web The tiny insect was
evidently trying to make the dangling
| strands swing far enough to one side to
| touch the wall, so that complete web
| might be woven between wall and ceiling
Back and forth swung the spider, try
| ing in vain to Set UP enough momentum
| to reach the side Of the wall. Each time
| the effort was a failure and the poor lit
tie creature would swing back to the
starting point. There seemed no posi-.
bic chance for it to accomplish the feat
1t had set upon. But the spider kept
on, not realizing it was beaten
Ard the exhausted fugitive In the cor
nor (whose greater intelligence told him
he himself was beaten past all hope)
found himself watching the spiders cf-
fort with the morbid interest that one
failure often feels for another.
In moments Of great stress peoples
minds sometimes centre about petty
things. And so 1t was that Robert Bruce
for the moment forgot his own peril and
misery in watching an insects struggle
| to spin a web.
! Six times the spider swung furiously
| toward the wall. Six times it fell back
An odd idea came into Bruce's mind.
Stirred by the tiny spinner's pluck he
suddenly resolved that il the spider
should succeed on the seventh attempt
he would accept the success as good
omen to himself, and would continue tho
hopeless struggle for Scottish liberty
A seventh time the spider swung
across space. This time it reached the
wall and chung there triumphant. It
was the age % .uperstitions and omens.
Bruce accepted the spider's victory as a
sign. He went forth rallied his sur
viving comrades and took up the fight
once more.
And now, as though the omen of the
spider had really been true message to |
him, Rruce was as successful as once he
had been unlucky. Castle after castle he
captured; in battle after battle he was |
victor. by 1913 he had delivered nearly |
all Of Scotland from the English yoke. |
At the famous conflict of Bannocllhurn |
the next year he routed England's |
strongest army,
Scotland was free.