Robert Bruce.
Bruce, like many other heroes, was an observer of omens, and a singular instance is recorded by tradition.—After he had been four times defeated in his attempts to recover and secure the crown of Scotland, he was on the point of abandoning all future opposition to what appeared to be his fate, and to go to the Holy Land. It chanced that his eyes, as he was thus pondering, were attracted by the exertions of a spider, which, in order to fix his web, endeavoured to swing himself from one beam to another above his head. Involuntarily he became interested in the pertinacity with which the insect renewed its exertions after failing six times; and it occurred to him, that he would decide his own course according to the success or failure of that of the spider. At the seventh effort the insect gained its object, and Bruce, in like manner, persevered and carried his own.
Hence, it has been held unlucky and ungrateful, for any one of the name of Bruce to kill a spider!