was honored more worthily. His name had now penetrated
throughout the greater part of the civilized world and he was known as
one of the greatest geniuses that had ever lived. Many people believed
that Dante had actually beheld the scenes that he described. When they
met him on the streets they would draw aside to let him pass, thinking
him a man whose destiny was different from their own, and they would
whisper to each other that he was the man who had descended into Hell
and come forth again alive and had looked with his own eyes at the
horrors of the Infernal Regions.

No doubt the fame and the almost frightened homage that he received
were pleasing to the sad soul of Dante, but he always remembered that
he was still an outcast from his native city. Florence stubbornly
refused to remove her ban and when Dante died he was buried at Ravenna.
There his body still lies, with a Latin inscription on his tombstone
that tells the world of the ingratitude of the city of Florence to her
greatest son, who is also the greatest poet that Italy has ever seen.

CHAPTER X

ROBERT BRUCE

If you ask a Scot who is the greatest man that ever lived he will
probably say Robert Bruce. It does not matter that Robert Bruce died
six hundred years ago--his name is as bright in Scotland as though he
had lived yesterday. Songs and stories are told about him there and
every school boy hears of him as soon as he is old enough to listen to
the tales of his country.

The reason for this is that Robert Bruce made the Scots free from the
rule of England, which country they used to hate. Also because he was a
great warrior, so strong in body and with such courage that it was
almost impossible for any foe to stand against him.

When Edward the First ruled over England he extended his power over the
free land of Scotland, where the race and the speech were different
from those of the English. A dispute had arisen among the Scottish
chiefs as to who was to succeed to the Scottish throne. Many claimants
came forward, and as a result of this the chieftains were embroiled
among themselves, giving Edward a chance to seize their country which
he was not slow to take.

So great had been the jealousy among the Scots that many joined
Edward's army to fight against their fellow countrymen. Among them was
a young nobleman named Robert Bruce, whose grandfather had himself been
one of the claimants to the Scottish throne.

It was not a noble deed o