468 THE CHIEFTAIN AND HIS VASSAL. 



Well, and if the Emperor himself and his dominions should be- 

 come the victims of the former's insane resistance to the spirit of the 

 age, what then '? We care not much about speculating on the 

 probable results. We content ourselves, in the mean time, with say- 

 ing in general terms that there will, in such a contingency, be 

 abundant spoil for the other leading powers of Europe, and that, in 

 the division of this spoil, there is every chance of these Powers fall- 

 ing out among themselves, and by this means involving Europe in 

 a general war. 



THE CHIEFTAIN AND HIS VASSAL. 



A TALE OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 



It will be readily admitted by all who are acquainted with Scottish 

 history that there is no era in the annals of that country so replete 

 with those marvellous incidents which constitute the romance of real 

 life as the period during which Feudalism reigned in all its glory. 

 The power and influence which the chieftain exercised over his 

 vassals were altogether unbounded. His will was, in almost every 

 instance, their law : they had no higher views of the purposes for 

 which they were called into being than in as far as these were as- 

 sociated with the promotion of his plans. However great might be 

 the sacrifices to which they were thereby subjected, those sacrifices 

 were cheerfully borne. The heroic deeds they performed on his ac- 

 count were not prompted by slavish fear, but proceeded from a 

 mino-led feeling of veneration and aff'ectionate attachment to his 

 person. 



Love, however, when genuine and ardent, invariably reigns para- 

 mount in the soul. It has been so in every age and in every country. 

 Its dominion is alike acknowledged by the savage and the sage. It 

 forcibly bursts through every restraint that intervenes betwixt it and 

 its object, utterly regardless of personal consequences. 



Innes, the chief of a clan, was distinguished by no other appella- 

 tion than the general name of his. clan. Innes was universally ac- 

 knowledged during the middle of the thirteenth century to be among 

 the most illustrious and powerful chieftains in Scotland, whether in 

 regard to personal courage, the number of his retainers, or the deeds 

 of prowess the latter had achieved. Accustomed to reside princi- 

 pally, almost exclusivjly, at his lordly castle in Morayshire, ever 

 surrounded by those whose highest gratification centred in the ready 

 performance of his pleasure, the almost adored chieftain eventually 

 became so haughty and ambitious that he conceived himself the 

 only individual in the country worthy of being the friend of his 

 Sovereign. 



A wide field soon opened up to the ambitious aspirations of Innes, 

 who at this time had only attained the age of twenty-four. In the 

 year 1249, Alexander (he Second paid what the poet designates the 

 debt of nature; and, as the successor of that monarch was yet but in 

 his non-age, the friends of limes urgently advised him to repair to 



