A nobler death on the field of battle is not recorded in the annals of
chivalry. In memory of this expedition, the Douglases have ever since
carried the armorial bearings of the Bloody Heart surmounted by the
Crown; and a similar distinction is borne by another family. Sir Simon
of Lee, a distinguished companion of Douglas, was the person on whom,
after the fall of his leader, the custody of the heart devolved. Hence
the name of Lockhart, and their effigy, the Heart within a Fetterlock.




THE HEART OF THE BRUCE


It was upon an April morn,
While yet the frost lay hoar,
We heard Lord James's bugle-horn
Sound by the rocky shore.

Then down we went, a hundred knights,
All in our dark array,
And flung our armour in the ships
That rode within the bay.

We spoke not as the shore grew less,
But gazed in silence back,
Where the long billows swept away
The foam behind our track.

And aye the purple hues decay'd