56 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Holyrood.
thirty-two days. He was then brought forth, nude,
in presence of a multitude, who regarded him with
fear and wonder, and to whom he affirmed ?that
by the aid of the Blessed Virgin, he could fast as
long as he pleased.?
? As there appeared to be more simplicity than
guile in his bchaviour, he was released, and. afterwards
went to Rome, where he fasted long enough
to convince Pope Gregory of the miracte. From
Holyrudhous f but the days of its declension an&
destruction were at hand.
The English army which invaded Scotland under
the Earl of Hertford, in 1543-4, barbarously burned
down the temporal edifices of the abbey; and.
among other plunder there were camed off the
brass lectern which has been already described,
and a famous brass font of curious workmanship, ?
by Sir Richard Lea, knight, captain of English
INTERIOR OF HOLYROOD CHURCH, LOOKING EAST.
Rome he went to Venice, where he received fifty
ducats of gold to convey him to Jerusalem, in performance
of a vow he had made. He returned to
Scotland in the garb of a pilgrim, wearing palmleaves,
and bearing a bag filled with Iarge stones,
which he said were taken out of the pillar to which
the Saviour was bound when he was scourged. He
became a preacher, and in an obscure suburb of
the city perfornied mass before an altar, on which
his daughter, a girl of beauty, stood with wax tapers
around her to represent the Virgin-a double impiety,
which soon brought him under the ridicule
and contempt he deserved.?
In 1532, the ? Diurnal of Occurrents ? records,
there ?was made ane great abjuration of the
favouratis of Martene Lutar in the abbey of
Pioneers, who presented it to the Church of St,
Albans, in Hertfordshire, with the following absur&
inscription, which is given in Latin in Camden?s
?? Britannia ?:-
-?When Leith, a town of good account im
Scotland, and Edinburgh, the principal city of that
nation, were on fire, Sir Richard Lea, knyght, saved
me out of the flames, and brought me to England
In gratitude for his kindness, I, who heretofore
served only at the baptism of kings, do now most
willingly render the same service even to the
meanest of the English nation. Lea the conqueror
hath so commanded ! Adieu. The year of man?s
salvation, 1543-4, in the thirty-sixth year of King
Henry VIII.?
Father Hay records that among other things
