"E. Bruce."
The combat was fierce, and fatal to Lord Bruce.
It has always been presumed that the duel was fought under the walls of Antwerp; but the combatants disembarked at Bergen-op-Zoom, and fought near that town, and not Antwerp.
In consequence of a tradition, that the heart of Lord Edward Bruce had been sent from Holland, and interred in the vault or burying-ground adjoining the old abbey church of Culross, in Perthshire, Sir Robert Preston directed a search in that place in 1808, with the following result:— Two flat stones, without inscription, about four feet in length and two in breadth, were discovered about two feet below the level of the pavement, and partly under an old projection in the wall of the old building. These stones were strongly clasped together with iron; and when separated, a silver case, or box, of foreign workmanship, shaped like a heart, was found in a hollow or excavated place between them. Its lid was engraved with the arms and name "Lord Edward Bruse;" it had hinges and clasps; and when opened, was found to contain a heart, carefully embalmed, in a brownish coloured liquid. After drawings had been taken of it, as represented in the present engravings, it was carefully replaced in its former situation. There was a small leaden box between the stones in another excavation; the contents of which, whatever they were originally, appeared reduced to dust.
Some time after this discovery, Sir Robert Preston caused a delineation of the silver case, according to the exact dimensions, with an inscription recording its exhumation and re-deposit, to be engraved on a brass plate, and placed upon the projection of the wall where the heart was found.
It is a remarkable fact, that the cause of the quarrel between Lord Bruce and Sir Edward Sackville has remained wholly undetected, notwithstanding successive investigations at different periods. Lord Clarendon, in his "History of the Rebellion," records the combat as an occurrence of magnitude, from its sanguinary character and the eminence of the parties engaged in it. He does not say any thing respecting the occasion of the feud, although Lord Bruce's challenge seems to intimate that it was a matter of public notoriety.
The exact day of the duel is not known, but it was certainly in 1613, and most probably in August from the date of one of the above letters.
EXTRAORDINARY FEMALE INTREPIDITY.