afe. 71 



it was at the period when Wallace lived. The 

 thoughts of all were much engrossed by the terrible 

 condition of the country, and the once playful children, 

 who used to assemble beneath the Oak of Ellerslie, now 

 grown up to boyhood, heard from their fathers that the 

 English army was advancing with all speed towards the 

 border land. Edward led them on, but he had no right 

 to the crown of Scotland. Alexander III., who had filled 

 till lately the now vacant throne, and who had espoused the 

 sister of Edward, most probably inherited, after a period 

 of eight hundred years, and through a succession of 

 males, the sceptre of all the Scottish princes ; of those, 

 who, although the country had been continually exposed 

 to such factions and convulsions as are incident to all 

 barbarous, and to many civilized nations, had governed 

 her rocks and fastnesses, from a period whose commence- 

 ment is lost in the obscurity of ages. But the king was 

 dead ; he had fallen from his horse at Kinghorn, and the 

 maid of Norway, as she was termed, daughter of Eric, her 

 king, and his own fair daughter Margaret, was the only re- 

 presentative of the Scottish dynasty. Alexander had wisely 

 caused her to be recognized by the states of Scotland, as 

 the lawful heir of the kingdom, and though an infant and 

 a foreigner, she was immediately received as such. Mar- 

 garet was accordingly proclaimed queen, and the disposi- 

 tions which had been made against the event of Alexander's 

 death appeared so just and prudent, that no disorders, as 

 might naturally be apprehended, ensued in the kingdom. 



