Page:Robert the Bruce and the struggle for Scottish independence - 1909.djvu/46

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16
Introduction.

may be noticed, by the by, that Hume of Godscroft, composing his history of the Douglases in the sixteenth century, appropriated the spider incident on behalf of Sir James Douglas, the companion of Bruce. He makes Douglas watch the insect's repeated failures and ultimate success, which he reports to the King with the appropriate moral.