were none of them so clever as Wallace; and they had to yield at last. Edward was moderate and merciful. When they submitted he forgave them all, only putting a very slight punishment on them. He might very likely have forgiven Wallace too if he would have submitted. He was far too high-spirited for that; he kept himself in hiding; but he was caught at last, taken prisoner to London, tried, condemned, and executed.

13. Edward probably thought all would go well now that the hero was dead; the Scotch had no leader, and their spirit would be broken and cowed. He began to make arrangements for governing the country, and uniting it to England. He meant to be a good and equitable ruler; he gave the Scotch good laws, just such as the English had, and did away with some of those curious and old-fashioned ones which were not quite fit for a civilized people. He also promoted many of the Scotch nobles and bishops to places of honour and trust.

14. But it would not do; the people had been thoroughly roused, and their defeats had not broken their spirit at all. Very soon they got the leader they wanted-a man Robert as brave and clever as Wallace, and a man too Bruce. whom none of the proudest of the nobles could

object to serve under, since he was one of their own royal family, with a good claim to be king of Scotland. When Edward had been called on to decide between the claimants to the crown there were two principal ones who seemed to have the best right, Bruce and Balliol. Balliol had had his turn, and Bruce was dead, but he had left a grandson behind him, Robert the Bruce, as he is called.

15. Edward L. brought up this young man in his court, and it is said that at different times he fought against the Scotch, and took part with the English. But he was uneasy under it; he was not very likely to forget that his grandfather had had the next right to be king of Scotland, and that he was his grandfather's heir. If Scotland should ever have a king of her own again, now that Balliol was out of the way, why should not he be that king? There was only one other man alive who had as good a claim as he had-a man who was called the Red Comyn, and who was a sort of cousin to both Bruce and Balliol.

16. Edward watched young Bruce narrowly. But one fine morning, not six months after Wallace's death, Robert Bruce was missed from the English court. There had been some words between him and King Edward. There had been some

more words dropped by Edward when Bruce was not by, which made his friends think he was in danger. No one dared speak, but Bruce received a present from a friend-a present of a sum of money and a pair of spurs. He was quick enough to guess what that meant. He lost no time. Before morning he, with only two followers, was far on his way to Scotland. There was snow lying on the ground, and he feared he might be traced and followed by the marks of the horses' feet, so he ordered the three horses to be shod with the shoes hind-side before, which made all the footprints look as if they were those of horses on their way into the town. He got safe away, and never stopped till he reached Scotland.

17. Now, then, here was a man of the royal blood, whom the greatest nobleman would be proud to follow, ready to take the lead and free his country. Never was a man more fitted for the task. Like Wallace, he was tall, strong, and handsome; like him, too, he was clever and full of ideas. That little plan about shoeing the horses showed he would be ready with schemes for any emergency, and was not a mere man of routine. He was always cheerful, hopeful, and good-humoured; kind and considerate to women and to those weaker than himself; he had been well educated, and could both read and write, which was rather a rare thing for a gentleman in those days. He was as good a knight as the best, for Edward had trained him up in all the rules of chivalry; but when necessary he could leave horse and heavy armour behind, and live like a wild mountaineer, hiding himself in dens and caves, or on the rough heath-covered hills.

18. Almost directly he arrived in Scotland he fell in with his cousin, and possible rival, the Red Comyn. They had a stormy interview in a church, from which Bruce presently emerged pale and agitated. "I doubt I have slain the Red Comyn," he said to his friends who waited outside. "Dost thou leave such a matter in doubt?" said one of them; "I will make sicker" (or sure). And rushing into the church, he did indeed make sure that his master's rival, whom he found wounded and helpless, should never trouble him more.

19. This was a terrible beginning of Bruce's exploits in his native land. He not only drew upon himself the vengeance of all Comyn's relations, and the resentment of the English king, but, from the murder having been committed in a church, he likewise incurred the wrath of the clergy and the Pope, and was excommunicated. In a sort of defiance of everybody, he at

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was the custom then to think a great deal of what became of a man's body after he was dead. Bruce himself afterwards wished his heart to be carried to the Holy Land. When Richard I. died he had ordered his body to be divided into parts, and buried in different places: his heart was carried to the city of Rouen, which had always been faithful to him, and which he loved; his body was laid at his father's feet in token of submission and duty; and the "more ignoble parts" were buried among his rebellious subjects at Poitou. So that a man's burial was a kind of symbol or token of his last feelings and thoughts. Edward, whose dying effort had been to conquer the Scotch, wished his bones still to carry on the work.

But none of this was done. They carried his body back from the Solway Sands, and for sixteen weeks it lay at Waltham Abbey, by the grave of Harold, the last of the old English kings. Then it was conveyed to Westminster, and buried near his father. His tomb is not beautiful, like some of the others; it looks almost like "a sepulchre hewn out of a rock," and on it is carved in Latin "This is the hammer of the Scotch people."

22. As soon as Edward was dead it seemed as if all his work in Scotland fell to pieces. He was succeeded by his son Edward, the same who had been born at Carnarvon Castle, and was the first English Prince of Wales. Edward II. was a poor, weak, idle fellow, not at all like his father, not at all fit to cope with Bruce. He marched a little way into Scotland, but did nothing of any importance, and then turned back again into England.

23. More and more of the Scotch nobles and people now gathered round Bruce, and he pressed harder and harder upon the English. His principal helpers were his brother Edward, his nephew Randolph, and his friend Lord James of Douglas. All of these vied with each other in great deeds, and were constantly striving who could gain most favour and glory in the eyes of the king and the nation by their valiant acts and successes against the English. At last they had done so much that the English had no place of any importance left to them but Stirling Castle, and that was closely besieged by the Scotch.

Stirling
Castle.

24. The English felt that they must now make a great effort to save that fortress, and win back their lost ground. Edward II. therefore marched into Scotland himself, at the head of a great army. It consisted of fully 100,000 men, and was beautiful and terrible to look upon, with its splendidly-armed knights and horses, and its countless banners and pennons.

1314.

Battle of

burn.

Bruce had not half the number, but then he was a host in himself. It might be said of him, as Napoleon said when he saw the Duke of Wellington walking up a hill, "There go 20,000 men." He had too his brave Randolph and Douglas at his side. 25. They met near Stirling Castle, by the side of a brook called Bannockburn. Randolph was set to watch against any of the English army entering Stirling Castle, which they were come to relieve. By some mischance a Bannock troop of English cavalry very nearly made their way in before Randolph perceived them. "See, Randolph," said the king, 66 a rose has fallen from your chaplet." Randolph hastened to retrieve his fault; he rushed off with his men to stop the English before it was too late. He had but foot-soldiers to oppose the English horse, and not half so many even of them. Douglas, his friend and rival, saw that he was hard pressed, and rode after with his followers to assist him. But long before they reached the spot Randolph and his infantry had driven off the English, and when Douglas saw the horses, many of them riderless, fleeing away, he called on his men to stop; for, said he, "Randolph has gained the day; since we were not soon enough to help him in the battle, do not let us lessen his glory by approaching the field." This was the true magnanimity of a noble knight.

26. Every one in Bruce's army seemed to have the heart of a hero, and in spite of all the mighty English horsemen, and the far-famed English archers, the Scotch won a triumphant victory. Never before or since have the English been so utterly defeated. The king fled for his life, and escaped safely to England. Those of the English who would not flee, and there were a great many of them, were left dead on the field, or were taken prisoners.

1328. Peace of Northampton.

27. After this great victory Bruce's success was complete. The English could never recover from it, and were scarcely able to defend even their own border. The Scotch made inroads into England, and defeated them on their own ground. At last a treaty was signed at Northampton, fully acknowledging the independence of Scotland and her king. This was the very year before Robert Bruce died; a rich reward to him, and precious fruit of all his toils. He left a glorious name behind him, which is as dear, and deserves to be as dear, almost, to the Scotch nation as that of Alfred is to the English.