found with his body still in the attitude of guarding the heart. The
body of Lord James, together with the heart, were returned to Scotland
The precious relic--the last that remained of the Bruce, the greatest
of Scottish kings--was deposited in Melrose Abbey, where it remains
to-day a sacred shrine for every Scotchman, and for every lover of
liberty. Rarely in the history of man has the prediction of the old
abbot been so literally fulfilled:

"I bless thee, and thou shalt be blest!"




CHAPTER V.

_COLUMBUS AND THE NEW WORLD._

THE TIME.

1. Columbus lived in a stirring age. Everywhere light was breaking in
after centuries of darkness, and all Europe was restless with
suggestions and beginnings of new life. Great men were plenty; rulers,
like the Medici of Florence; artists, like Raphael and Angelo;
preachers, like Savonarola, whose fiery prophecies brought him to
fiery death; reformers, chief among diem Luther, just beginning to
think the thoughts that later set the world agog. Great inventions
were spreading; gun-powder, invented before, now becoming terribly
effective through the improvement in guns; printing, suddenly opening
knowledge to every class; the little compass, with which mariners were
just beginning to trust themselves boldly on the seas, in spite of the