"The maid has given her maiden heart To Ronald of the Isles; And, fearful lest her brother's word Bestow her on that English lord, She seeks Iona's piles; And wisely deems it best to dwell A vot'ress in the holy cell, Until these feuds, so fierce and fell, The abbot reconciles." "The cemetery of the nunnery," as we learn on the authority of Dr. Johnson, and at the date of his visit, "was, till very lately, regarded with such reverence that only women were buried in it." And how the burly speech and rugged bluntness characteristic of the old philosopher are softened and atoned for, to my thinking, when he adds, "These relics of veneration always produce some mournful pleasure. I could have forgiven a great injury more easily than the violation of this imaginary sanctity." Next to its renown as an ancient seat of piety and learning, it is as a burial-place that Iona is chiefly known and venerated. Though it is difficult now to identify the tombs of kings, or to distinguish them from those of the humbler individuals who have found a last resting-place in Reilig Orain, the burial-place of St. Oran, it is unquestionably true that the sanctity of the island gave it a preference over any other spot as a place of sepulture, especially for royalty,--a preference, doubtless, partly due to the belief in an ancient Gaëlic prophecy, which foretold that before the end of the world "the sea at one tide shall cover Ireland and the green-headed Islay, but Columba's Isle shall swim above the flood." Forty Scottish kings are said to have been interred in Iona, among whom we have Shakspeare's authority for including King Duncan. "_Rosse._ Where is Duncan's body? "_Macd._ Carried to Colmeskill, The sacred storehouse of his predecessors, And guardian of their bones."