historians describe the good Lord James as one who was never dejected by bad fortune, or unduly elated by that which was good. They say he was modest and gentle in time of peace, but had a very different countenance upon a day of battle. He was tall, strong, and well made, of a swarthy complexion, with dark hair, from which he was called the Black Douglas. Notwithstanding the many battles in which he had fought, his face had escaped without a wound. A brave Spanish knight at the court of King Alphonso, whose face was scarred by the marks of Moorish sabres, expressed wonder that Douglas's countenance should be unmarked with wounds. Douglas replied modestly, he thanked God, who had always enabled his hands to guard and protect his face. Many of Douglas's followers were slain in the battle in which he himself fell. The rest resolved not to proceed on their journey to Palestine, but to return to Scotland. After the time of the Good Lord James, the Douglases have carried upon their shields a bloody heart, with a crown upon it, in memory of this expedition of Lord James to Spain with the Bruce's heart. In those times men painted such emblems on their shields as they might be known by them in battle, for their helmet hid their face; and now, as men no longer wear armour in battle, the devices, as they are called, belonging to particular families, are engraved upon their seals, or upon their silver plate, or painted upon their car riages. Thus, for example, there was one of the brave knights who was in the company of Douglas, and was appointed to take charge of the Bruce's heart homewards again, who was called Sir Simon Lockhard of Lee. He took afterwards for his device, and painted on his shield, a man's heart, with a padlock upon it, in memory of Bruce's heart, which was padlocked in the silver case. For this reason, men changed Sir Simon's name from Lockhard to Lockheart, and all who are descended from Sir Simon are called Lockhart to this day. Did you ever hear of such a name, Mr. Hugh Littlejohn?" Well, the Scottish knights who remained alive returned to their own country. They brought back the heart of the Bruce, and the bones of the Good Lord James. These last were buried in the church of Saint Bride, where Thomas Dickson and Douglas held so terrible a Palm-Sunday. The Bruce's heart was buried below the high altar in Melrose Abbey. As for his body, it was interred in the midst of the church of Dunfermline, under a marble stone. But the church becoming afterwards ruinous, and the roof falling down with age, the monument was broken to pieces, and nobody could tell where it stood. But a little while before Master Hugh Littlejohn was born, which I take to be six or seven years ago, when they were repairing the church at Dunfermline, and removing the rubbish, lo! they found fragments of the marble tomb of Robert Bruce. Then they began to dig farther, thinking to find the body of this celebrated monarch; and at length they came to the skeleton of a tall man, and they knew it must be that of King Robert, both because he is known to have been buried in a winding sheet of cloth of gold, of which many fragments were found about this skeleton, and also because the breastbone appeared to have been sawed through, in order to take out the heart. So orders were sent from the King's Court of Exchequer to guard the bones carefully, until a new tomb should be prepared, into which they were laid with great respect. A great many gentlemen and ladies attended, and almost all the common people in the neighbourhood. And as the church would not hold the numbers, they were allowed to pass through it, one after another, that each one, the poorest as well as the richest, might see all that remained of the great King Robert Bruce, who restored the Scottish monarchy. Many people shed tears; for there was the wasted skull, which once was the head that thought so wisely and boldly for his country's deliverance; and there was the dry bone, which had once been the sturdy arm that killed Sir Henry de Bohun, between the two armies, VOL. VI.-E at a single blow, on the evening before the battle of Bannockburn. It is more than five hundred years since the body of Bruce was first laid into the tomb; and how many millions of men have died since that time, whose bones could not be recognised, or their names known, any more than those of inferior animals! It was a great thing to see that the wisdom, courage, and patriotism of a King, could preserve him for such a long time in the memory of the people over whom he once reigned. But then, my dear child, you must remember, that it is only desirable to be remembered for praiseworthy and patriotic actions, such as those of Robert Bruce. It would be better for a prince to be forgotten like the meanest peasant, than to be recollected for actions of tyranny or oppression. CHAPTER X. Of the Government of Scotland. I FEAR, my dear Hugh, that this will be rather a dull Chapter, and somewhat difficult to be understood; but if you do not quite comprehend it at the first reading, you may perhaps do so upon a second trial, and I will strive to be as plain and distinct as I can. As Scotland was never so great or so powerful as during the reign of Robert Bruce, it is fit time to tell you the sort of laws by which the people were governed and lived in society together. And first, you must observe, that there are two kinds of government, one called despotic, or absolute, in which the King can do whatever he pleases with his subjects-seize upon their property, or deprive them of their lives at pleasure. This is the case of almost all the kingdoms of the East, where the Kings, Emperors, Sultans, or whatever other name they bear, may do whatever they like to their subjects, without being controlled by any one. It is very unfortunate for the people who live under such a government, and the subjects can be considered as no better than slaves, having no life nor property safe as soon as the King chooses to take it. Some Kings it is true,, are good men, and use the power which is put into their hands only to do good to the people. But then others are thoughtless, and cunning and wicked persons contrive to get their confidence, by flattery and other base means, and lead them to do injustice, even when perhaps they themselves do not think of it. And, besides, there are bad Kings, who, if they have the uncontrolled power of taking the money and the goods of their subjects, of throwing them into prison, or putting them to death at their pleasure, are apt to indulge their cruelty and their greediness at the expense of the people, and are called by the hateful name of Tyrants. Those states are therefore a thousand times more happy which have what is called a free government; that is where the King himself is subject to the laws, and cannot rule otherwise than by means of them. In such governments, the King is controlled and directed by the laws, and can neither put a man to death, unless he has been found guilty of some crime for which the law condems him to die, nor force him to pay any money beyond what the laws give the Sovereign a right to collect for the general expenses of the state. Almost all the nations of modern Europe have been originally free governments, but in several of them the Kings have acquired a great deal too much power, although not to such an unbounded degree as we find in the Eastern countries. But other countries, like that of Great Britain, have had the good fortune to retain a free constitution, which protects and preserves those who live under it from all oppression, or arbitrary power. We owe this blessing to our brave ancestors who were at all times ready to defend these privileges with their lives; and we are, on our part, bound to hand them down, in as ample form as we received them, to the posterity who shall come after us. In Scotland, and through most countries of Europe, the principles of freedom were protected by the feudal system, which was now universally introduced, You recollect that the King, according to that system, English. The burghers were all well trained to bestowed large estates upon the nobles and great armis, and were obliged to attend the King's army, or barons, who were called vassals, for the fiefs, or host, whenever they were summoned to do so. possessions which they thus received from the Besides other privileges, the boroughs had the very King, and were obliged to follow him when he sum-important right to send representauves, or commismoned them to battle, and to attend upon his great sioners, who sat in Parliament to look after the council, in which all matters concerning the affairs interest of the towns which they represented, as of the kingdom were considered, and resolved upon. well as to assist in the general affairs of the nation. It was in this Great Council, now called a Parlia- You may here remark, that so far the Scottish ment, that the laws of the kingdom were resolved Parliament entirely resembled the English in the upon, or altered, at the pleasure, not of the King nature of its constitution. But there was this very alone, nor of the Council alone, but as both the King material difference in the mode of transacting busiand Council should agree together. I must now tell ness, that in England, the peers, or great nobility, you particularly how this Great Council was com- with the bishops, and great abbots, sat, deliberated, posed, and who had the privilege of sitting there. and voted in a body by themselves, which was called At first, there is no doubt that every vassal who the House of Lords, or of Peers, and the representaheld lands directly of the crown, had this privilege; tives of the counties, or shires, together with those and a baron, or royal vassal, not only had the right, of the boroughs, occupied a different place of meeting, but was obliged to attend the Great Council of the and were called the Lower House, or House of Comkingdom. Accordingly, all the great nobility usually mons. In Scotland, on the contrary, the nobles, came on the King's summons; but then it was very prelates, representatives for the shires, and delegates inconvenient and expensive for men of smaller for the boroughs, all sat in the same apartment, and estates to be making long journeys to the Parliament, debated and voted as members of the same assembly. and remaining, perhaps, for many days, or weeks, Since the union of the kingdoms of England and absent from their own families, and their own busi- Scotland, the Parliament, which represents both ness. Besides, if all the royal vassals, or freeholders, countries, sits and votes in two distinct bodies, called as they began to be called, had chosen to attend, the the two Houses of Parliament, and there are many number would have been far too great for any pur- advantages attending that form of conducting the pose of deliberation-it would not have been possible national business. to find a room large enough to hold such a meeting, You now have some idea of the nature of the Parnor could any one have spoken so as to have made liament, or Grand Council of the nation, and of the himself understood by such an immense multitude. various classes of persons who had a right to sit From this it happened, that instead of attending all there. I am next to tell you, that they were sumof them in their own persons, the lesser barons, (as moned together and dismissed by the King's orders; the smaller freeholders were called to distinguish and that all business belonging to the nation was them from the great nobles,) assembled in their dif- transacted by their advice and opinion. Whatever ferent districts, or shires, as the divisions of the measures they proposed passed into laws, on receiving country are termed, and there made choice of one or the consent of the King, which was intimated by two of the wisest and most experienced of their num- touching with the sceptre the laws that were passed ber to attend the Parliament, or Great Council, in by the Parliament. Thus you see that the laws by the name, and to take care of the interest, of the which the country was governed, were in a great whole body. Thus, the crown vassals who attended measure, of the people's own making, being agreed upon and composed the Parliament, or the National to by their representatives in Parliament. When, Council of Scotland, came to consist of two different in particular, it was necessary to raise money for bodies, namely, the Peers, or Great Nobility, whom any public purpose, there was a necessity for obtainthe King especially summoned, and such of the les-ing the consent of Parliament, both as to the amount ser Barons who were sent to represent the crown of the sum, and the manner in which it was to be vassals in the different shires or counties of Scotland. collected; so that the King could not raise any But besides these two different classes, the Great money from the subjects, without the approbation of Council also contained the representatives of the his Grand Council. clergy, and of the boroughs, or considerable towns. In the times of the Roman Catholic religion, the churchmen exercised very great power and authority in every kingdom of Europe, and omitted no opportunity by which their importance could be magnified. It is therefore not wonderful, that the chief men of the clergy, such as the bishops, and those abbots of the great abbeys who were called Mitred Abbots, from their being entitled to wear mitres, like bishops, should have obtained seats in Parliament. They were admitted there for the purpose of looking after the affairs of the church, and ranked along with the Peers, or Nobles having titles. It remains to mention the boroughs. You must know, that in order to increase the commerce and industry of the country, and also to establish some balance against the immense power of the great Lords, the Kings of Scotland, from an early period, had been in the use of granting considerable privileges to many of the towns in their dominions, which, in consequence of the charters which they obtained from the crown, were termed royal boroughs. The citizens of these boroughs had the privilege of electing their own magistrates, and had considerable revenues, some from lands conferred on them by the King, others from tolls and taxes upon commodities brought into the town. These revenues were laid out by the magistrates (usually called the Provost and Bailies) for the use of the town. The same magistrates, in those warlike days, led out the burghers, or townsmen, to battle, either in defence of the town's lands and privileges, which were often attacked by the great lords and barons in their neighbourhood, or for the purpose of fighting against the It may be said, in general, of the Scottish laws, that they were as wisely adapted for the purpose of government as those of any state in Europe at that early period; nay, more, that they exhibit the strongest marks of foresight and sagacity. But it was the great misfortune of Scotland, that the good laws which the Kings and Parliaments agreed upon, were not carried steadily into execution; but, on the contrary, were broken through and neglected, just as if they did not exist at all. I will endeavour to explain some of the causes of this negligence. The principal evil was the great power of the nobility, which was such as to place them almost beyond the control of the King's authority. The chief noblemen had obtained the power of administering justice each upon his own estate; and therefore the whole power of detecting, trying, and punishing crimes, rested in the first place, with these great men. Now, most of those great lords were much more interested in maintaining their own authority, and extending their own power, within the provinces which they occupied, than in promoting general good order and tranquillity through the country at large. They were almost constantly engaged in quarrels with each other, and often with the King himself. Sometimes they fought amongst themselves, sometimes they united together against the King. On all occasions they were disposed for war, rather than peace, and therefore took little care to punish the criminals who offended against public order. Instead of bringing to trial the persons who committed murder, robbery, and other violent actions, they often protected them, and enlisted them in their own immediate service, and frequently, from were assembled, they were frequently defeated by the English; whereas, when they fought in smaller bodies with the same enemy, they were very often victorious over them, because at such times the Scots were agreed among themselves, and obeyed the commands of one leader, without pretending to dispute his authority. revenge or ambition, were actually the private encou- | course, many of those proud independent nobles ragers of the mischief which these men perpetrated. The judges named by the King, and acting under his authority, had a right indeed to apprehend and to punish such offenders against the public peace, when they could get hold of them. But then it was very difficult to seize upon the persons accused of such acts of violence, when the powerful lords in whose territory they lived were disposed to assist them in concealing themselves, or making their escape. And even when the King's courts were able to seize such culprits, there was a law which permitted the lord on whose territory the crime had been committed, to demand that the accused persons should be delivered up to him, to be tried in his own court. A nobleman or baron making such a demand, was, indeed, obliged to give security that he would execute justice on the persons within a certain reasonable time. But such was the weakness of the royal government, and such the great power of the nobility, and the barons of high rank, that if they once got the person accused into their own hand, they might easily contrive either to let him escape, or to have him acquitted after a mock trial. Thus, it was always difficult, and often impossible, to put in execution the good laws which were made in the Scottish Parliament, on account of the great power possessed by the nobles, who, in order to preserve and extend their own authority, threw all manner of interruption in the way of public justice. These causes of private crimes and public defeat, subsisted even in the midland counties of Scotland, such as the three Lothians, Fifeshire, and other provinces, where the King generally resided, and where he necessarily possessed most power to maintain his own authority, and enforced the execution of the laws. But there were two great divisions of the country, the Highlands namely, and the Borders, which were so much wilder and more barbarous than the others, that they might be said to be altogether without law; and although they were subjected in name to the King of Scotland, yet when he desired to execute any justice in either of these great districts, he could not do so otherwise than by marching there in person, at the head of a strong body of forces, and seizing upon the offenders, and putting them to death with little or no form of trial. Such a rough course of justice, perhaps, made these disorderly countries quiet for a short time, but it rendered them still more averse to the royal government in their hearts, and disposed on the slightest occasion to break out, either into disorders amongst them. selves, or into open rebellion. I must give you some more particular account of these wild and uncivilized districts of Scotland, and of the particular sort of people who were their inhabitants, that you may know what I mean when I speak of Highlanders and Borderers. Each of these nobles within the country which was subject to him, more resembled a king himself than a subject of the Monarch of Scotland; and in one or two instances, we shall see that some of them became so powerful as to threaten to dispossess the kings of their throne and dominions. The very smallest of them often made war on each other withThe Highlands of Scotland, so called from the out the king's consent, and thus there was a univer- rocky and mountainous character of the country, sal scene of disorder and bloodshed through the consist of a very large proportion of the northern whole country. These disorders seemed to be ren- parts of that kingdom. It was into these pathless dered perpetual by a custom which was called by the wildernesses that the Romans drove the ancient inname of deadly feud. When two men of different habitants of Great Britain; and it was from these families quarreled, and the one injured or slew the that they afterwards sallied to invade and distress other, the relatives of the deceased or wronged per- that part of Britain which the Romans had conquered, son, knowing that the laws could afford them no and in some degree civilized. The inhabitants of the redress, set about obtaining revenge, by putting to Highlands spoke, and still speak, a language totally death some relation of the individual who had done different from the Lowland Scotch. That last lanthe injury, without regarding how innocent the sub-guage does not greatly differ from English, and the ject of their vengeance might have been of the ori-inhabitants of both countries easily understand each ginal cause of offence. Then the others, in their turn, endeavoured to execute a similar revenge upon some one of the family who had first received the iniury; and thus the quarrel was carried on from father to son, and often lasted betwixt families that were neighbours and ought to have been good friends, for several generations, during which time they were said to be at deadly feud with each other. From the want of due exercise of the laws, and from the revengeful disposition which led to such long and fatal quarrels, the greatest distresses followed to the country. When, for example, the Kings of Scotland assembled their armies, in order to fight against the English, who were then the public enemy, they could bring together indeed a number of brave nobles, with their followers, but there always was great difficulty, and sometimes an absolute impossibility, of making them act together, each being jealous of his own authority; and many of them engaged in personal quarrels either of their own making, or such as existed in consequence of this fatal and cruel custom of deadly feud, which, having been originally perhaps some quarrel of little importance, had become inveterate by the cruelties and crimes which had been committed on both sides, and was handed down from father to son. It is true, that under a wise and vigorons prince, like Robert the Bruce, those powerful barons were overawed by his his wisdom and authority. But we shall see too often, that when kings and generals of inferior capacity were at their head, their quarrels amongst themselves often subjected them to defeat and to disgrace. And this accounts for a fact which we shall often have occasion to notice, that when the Scots engaged in great battles with large armies, in which, of other, though neither of them comprehend the Gaelic, which is the language of the Highlanders. The dress of these mountaineers was also different from that of the Lowlanders. They wore a plaid, or mantle of frieze, or of a striped stuff called tartan, one end of which being wrapped round the waist, formed a short petticoat, which descended to the knee, while the rest was wrapt around them like a sort of cloak. They had buskins made of raw hide; and those who could get a bonnet, had that covering for their heads, though many never wore one during their whole lives, but had only their own shaggy hair tied back by a leathern strap. They went always armed, carrying bows and arrows, large swords, which they wielded with both hands, called claymores, poleaxes, and daggers for close fight. For defence, they had a round wooden shield, or target, stuck full of nails; and their great men had shirts of mail, not unlike to the flannel shirts now worn, only composed of links of iron instead of threads of worsted; but the common men were so far from desiring armour, that they sometimes threw their plaids away, and fought in their shirts, which they had very long and large, after the Irish fashion. This part of the Scottish nation was divided into clans, that is, tribes. The persons composing each of these clans believed themselves all to be descended, at some distant period, from the same common ancestor, whose name they usually bore. Thus, one tribe was called MacDonald, which signifies the sons of Donald; another MacGregor, or the sons of Gregor; MacNiel, the sons of Niel, and so on. Every one of these tribes had its own separate Chief, or commander, whom they supposed to be the immediate descendant of the great father of the tribe from whom they were all descended. To this Chief they paid the most un- | der, but as these Wardens were generally themselves limited obedience, and willingly followed his com- chiefs of clans, they did not do much to mend the mands in peace or war, not caring though, in doing evil. Robert the Bruce committed great part of the so, they transgressed the laws of the King, or went charge of the Borders to the Good Lord James of into rebellion against the King himself. Each tribe Douglas, who discharged his trust with great fidelity. lived in a valley, or district of the mountains, sepa- But the power which the family of Douglas thus rated from the others; and they often made war acquired, proved afterwards, in the hands of his sucupon, and fought desperately with each other. But cessors, very dangerous to the Crown of Scotland. with Lowlanders they were always at war. They Thus you see how much the poor country of Scotdiffered from them in language, in dress, and in man-land was torn to pieces by the quarrels of the nobles, ners; and they believed that the richer grounds of the weakness of the laws, the disorders of the Highthe low country had formerly belonged to their an- lands, and the restless incursions of the Borderers. cestors, and therefore they made incursions upon it, If Robert the Bruce had lived, and preserved his and plundered it without mercy. The Lowlanders, health, he would have done much to bring the counon the other hand, equal in courage and superior in try to a more orderly state. But Providence had discipline, gave many severe checks to the Highland- decreed, that in the time of his son and successor, ers, and thus there was almost constant war or Scotland was to fall back into a state almost as discord between them, though natives of the same miserable as that from which that great Prince rescued it. country. Such Some of the most powerful of the Highland Chiefs set themselves up as independent sovereigns. were the famous Lords of the Isles, called MacDonald, to whom the islands called the Hebrides, lying on the north-west of Scotland, might be said to belong in property. These petty sovereigns made alliances with the English in their own name. They took the part of Robert the Bruce in the wars, and joined him with their forces. We shall find, that after his time, they gave great disturbance to Scotland. The Lords of Lorn, MacDougals by name, were also extremely powerful; and you have seen that they were able to give battle to Bruce, and to defeat him, and place him in the greatest jeopardy. He revenged himself afterwards, by driving John of Lorn out of the country, and by giving great part of his possessions to his own nephew Sir Colin Campbell, who became the first of the great family of Argyle, which afterwards enjoyed such power in the Highlands. Upon the whole, you can easily understand, that these Highland clans, living among such high and inaccessible mountains, and paying obedience to no one save their own chiefs, should have been very instrumental in disturbing the tranquillity of the kingdom of Scotland. They had many virtues, being a kind, brave, and hospitable people, and remarkable for their fidelity to their chiefs. But they were restless, revengeful, fond of plunder, and delighting rather in war than in peace, in disorder than in repose. The Border countries were in a state little more favourable to a quiet or peaceful government. In some respects the inhabitants of the counties of Scotland lying opposite to England, greatly resembled the Highlanders, and particularly in their being, like them, divided into clans, and having chiefs, whom they obeyed in preference to the King, or the officers whom he placed among them. How clanship came to prevail in the Highlands and Borders, and not in the provinces which separated them from each other, it is not easy to conjecture, but the fact was so. The Borders are not, indeed, so mountainous and inaccessible a country as the Highlands, but they also are full of hills, especially on the more western part of the frontier, and were in early times covered with forests, and divided by small rivers and morasses into dales and valleys, where the different clans lived, making war sometimes on the English, sometimes on each other, and sometimes on the more civilized country which lay behind them, But though the Borderers resembled the Highlanders in their mode of government and habits of plundering, and as it may be truly added, in their disobedience to the general government of Scotland, yet they differed in many particulars. The Highlanders fought always on foot, the Borderers were all horsemen. The Borderers spoke the same language with the Lowlanders, wore the same sort of dress, and carried the same arms. Being accustomed to fight against the English, they were also much better disciplined. But in point of obedience to the Scottish government, they were not much different from the clans of the north. Military officers called Wardens, were appointed along the Borders, to keep these unruly people in or CHAPTER XI. Regency and Death of Randolph-Battle of Dupplin- Accession of Edward Baliol to the Throne of Scotland, and his Flight to England-Battle of Halidon-Hili, and Return of Baliol. ROBERT BRUCE, the greatest King who ever wore the Scottish crown, being dead, as you have been told, the kingdom descended to his son David, who was called David the Second, to distinguish him from the first King of that name, who reigned about a hundred years before. This David the Second was only four years old at his father's death; and although we have seen children who thought themselves very wise at that age, yet it is not usual to give them the management of kingdoms. So Randolph, Earl of Moray, of whom you have heard so much, became what is called Regent of the kingdom of Scotland; that is, he exercised the royal authority until the King should be old enough to take the charge upon himself. This wise provision had been made by Bruce, with consent of the Parliament of Scotland, and was very acceptable to the kingdom. The Regent was very strict in administering justice. If a husbandman had the plough-irons stolen from his plough when he left them in the field, Randolph caused the Sheriff of the county to pay the value; because it was the duty of that magistrate to protect property left in the open fields. A fellow tried to cheat under colour of this law: he hid his own plough-irons, and pretending they were stolen, claimed the price from the Sheriff, and was paid accordingly the estimated value, which was two shillings. But the fraud being discovered, the Regent caused the man to be hanged. Upon one occasion, a criminal who had slain a priest, and afterwards fled to Rome, and done penance there, was brought before the Regent. The culprit confessed the murder, but pleaded that he had obtained the Pope's pardon. "The Pope," said Randolph, "might pardon you for killing a priest, but his remission cannot avail you for murdering a subject of the King of Scotland." This was asserting a degree of independence of the Pope's authority, which was very unusual among the princes and governors of the time. While the Regent was sitting in judgment at Wigton, in Galloway, a man stepped forward to complain, that at the very time he was speaking, a company of his enemies were lying in ambush in a neighbouring forest, to put him to death. Randolph sent a party of his attendants to seize the men, and bring them before him. "Is it you," said he, who lie in wait to kill the King's liege subjects ?-To the gallows with them instantly." Randolph was to be praised for his justice, but not for his severity. He appears to have taken a positive pleasure in putting criminals to death, which marked the ferocity of the times and the turn of his own disposition. Having sent his Coroner before him to Ellandonan Castle in the Highlands, to execute certain thieves and robbers, that officer caused their heads to be hung round the walls of the castle to CHAP. XI.] FOSCOTTISH HISTORY. the number of fifty. When Randolph came down | encamped with a large army, whilst another, under It seemed as if that small handful of men must The efforts of the Regent to preserve the establish- have been destroyed by the numbers collected to opment of justice and order, were soon interrupted, pose them. But Edward Baliol took the bold resoand he was called upon to take measures for the lution of attacking the Regent's army by night, and defence of the country; for Robert Bruce was no in their camp. With this purpose he crossed the sooner in his grave than the enemies of his family Earn, which river divided the two hostile armies. began to plot the means of destroying the govern- The Earl of Mar had placed no sentries, nor observed ment which he had established. The principal per- any other of the usual precautions against surprise, son concerned in these machinations was Edward and the English came upon his army while the men Baliol, the son of that John Baliol who was formerly were asleep and totally unprepared. They made created King of Scotland by Edward I., and after- great slaughter amongst the Scots, whose numbers wards dethroned by him, and committed to prison, only served to increase the confusion. The Regent when Edward desired to seize upon the country for was himself slain, with the Earls of Carrick, of Mohimself. After being long detained in prison, John ray, of Menteith, and many other men of eminence. Baliol was at length suffered to go to France, where Many thousands of the Scots were slain with the he died in obscurity. But his son Edward Baliol, sword, smothered in the flight, or drowned in the seeing, as he thought, a favourable opportunity, re- river. The English were themselves surprised at solved to renew the claim of his father to the Scot-gaining, with such inferior numbers, so great and tish throne. He came over to England with this decided a victory. purpose, and although Edward III., then King of England, remembering the late successes of the Scots, did not think it prudent to enter into a war with them, yet Baliol found a large party of powerful English Barons, well disposed to aid his enterprise. Their cause of resentment was as follows:When Scotland was freed from the dominion of England, all the Englishmen to whom Edward the First, or his successors, had given lands within that kingdom, were of course deprived of them. But there was another class of English proprietors in Scotland, who claimed estates to which they succeeded, not by the grant of the English prince, but by inheritance from Scottish families, to whom they were related, and their pretensions were admitted by Robert Bruce himself, at the treaty of peace made at Northampton, in 1328, in which it was agreed that these English Lords should receive back their Scottish inheritances. Notwithstanding this agreement, Bruce, who did not desire to see Englishmen enjoy land in Scotland, under what pretext soever, refused, or delayed at least, to fulfil this part of the treaty. Hence, upon the death of that monarch, the disinherited Lords resolved to levy forces, and unite themselves with Edward Baliol, to recover their estates, and determined to invade Scotland for that purpose. But their united forces did not amount to more than four hundred men-atarms, and about four thousand archers and soldiers of every description. This was a small army with which to invade a nation which had defended itself so well against the whole English forces; but Scotland was justly supposed to be much weakened by the death of her valiant King. A great misfortune befell the country, in the unexpected death of the Regent Randolph, whose experience and valour might have done so much for the protection of Scotland. He had assembled an army, and was busied with preparations for defence against the enterprise of Baliol and the disinherited Lords, when, wasted by a painful and consuming disorder, he died at Musselburgh, July 1332. The regret of the Scottish nation for the Regent's death was so great, that it has occasioned their historians to allege that he was poisoned by the English; but for this there seems no foundation. Donald, Earl of Mar, nephew to Robert Bruce, was appointed by the Scottish Parliament to be Regent in the room of the Earl of Moray; but he was without experience as a soldier, and of far inferior talents as a man. Mean time, the King of England, still affecting to maintain peace with Scotland, prohibited the disinherited Lords from invading Scotland from the English frontier. But he did not object to their equipping a small fleet in an obscure English sea-port, for the purpose of accomplishing the same object by sea. They landed in Fife, with Baliol at their head, and defeated the Earl of Fife, who marched hastily to oppose them. They then advanced northward towards Dupplin, near which the Earl of Mar lay Edward Baliol made an unworthy use of his success. He hastened again to acknowledge the King of England as his liege lord and superior, although every claim to such supremacy had been renounced, and the independence of Scotland explicitly acknowledged by the treaty of Northampton. He also surrendered to England the strong town and castle of Berwick, and engaged to become his follower in all his wars at his own charges. Edward III. engaged on his part to maintain Baliol in possession of the crown of Scotland. Thus was the kingdom reduced pretty much to the same state of dependance and subjection to England as when the grandfather of Edward placed the father of Baliol on the throne, in But the success of Baliol was rather apparent than the year 1292, about forty years before. real. The Scottish patriots were in possession of many of the strengths of the country, and the person of the young King David was secured in Dumbarton castle, one of the strongest fortresses in Scotland, or perhaps in the world. At no period of her history was Scotland devoid of brave men, able and willing to defend her rights. When the scandalous treaty, by which Baliol had surrendered the independence of his country to Edward, came to be known in Scotland, the successors of Bruce's companions were naturally among the first to assert the cause of freedom. John Randolph, second son of the Regent, had formed a secret union with Archibald Douglas, a younger brother of the Good Lord James, and they proceeded to imitate the actions of their relatives. They suddenly assembled feasting near Annan, they cut his guards in pieces, a considerable force, and attacked Baliol, who was killed his brother, and chased him out of Scotland in such haste that he escaped on horseback, without Archibald Douglas, who afterwards became Earl time to clothe himself, or even to saddle his horse. of Douglas, was a brave man, like his father, but not so good a general, nor so fortunate in his undertakings. There was another Douglas, called Sir William, a natural son of the Good Lord James, who made a great figure at this period. Although a bastard by birth, he had acquired a large fortune by marrying with the heiress of the Grahames of Dalkeith, and possessed the strong castle of the same name, with the still more important one called the Hermitage, a large and massive fortress situated in the wild |