And the tothir the suthfastnes,
That schawys the thing rycht as it wes.
He did not misjudge the taste of his country, and The Bruce, with which the Scottish contribution to English literature begins, long held its place as the national epic of Scotland.
The specimen describes an incident in the unsuccessful siege of Berwick, 1319.
THE BRUCE, Bk. xvii, ll. 593 ff. St. John's College (Cambridge) MS. G 23 (A.D. 1487).
Thai <that> at the sege lay,
Or it wes passit the fift day,
Had maid thame syndry apparale
To gang eftsonis till assale.