hed for
leaving a considerable number on the shore at the mouth of the river,
when, as they prayed to him to rescue them from their perilous
situation, he answered that they had better call on Moses, who had
made them pass safe through the Red Sea, and, sailing away with their
remaining property, left them to their fate. The number of exiles is
variously estimated at fifteen thousand and sixty and sixteen thousand
five hundred and eleven; all their property, debts, obligations,
mortgages, escheated to the King.

Yet some, even in those days, presumed to doubt whether the nation
gained by the act of expulsion, and even ventured to assert that the
public burdens on the Christians only became heavier and more
intolerable. Catholics suffered in the place of the enemies of the
Cross of Christ. The loss to the Crown was enormous.[87] The convents
made themselves masters of the valuable libraries of the Jews, one at
Stamford, another at Oxford, from which the celebrated Roger Bacon is
said to have derived great information; and long after, the common
people would dig in the places they had frequented, in hopes of
finding buried treasure.

EXPLOITS AND DEATH OF WILLIAM WALLACE, THE "HERO OF SCOTLAND"

A.D. 1297-1305

SIR WALTER SCOTT

When the granddaughter and sole heiress of King Alexander
III of Scotland was betrothed, in her sixth year, 1288, to
the son of Edward I of England, an early union of the
English and Scottish crowns seemed assured. But the death of
the little princess, two years later, left the throne of
Scotland vacant, and was followed by the rise of thirteen
claimants, three of whom were entitled to serious
regard--John de Baliol, Lord of Galloway; Robert Bruce, Lord
of Annandale; and John Hastings, Lord of Abergavenny, all
descended from David, brother of William the Lion, King of
Scotland, 1165-1214.

Edward I of England at once assumed all the rights of a
feudal suzerain until the disputed claims should be settled.
Finally the claim of Baliol was recognized, he did homage to
Edward for his services to the realm of Scotland, and for a
time peace prevailed. But when Edward called upon the
Scottish nobles to serve in his foreign wars, and made other
demands implying the dependence of Scotland, the resentment
of Baliol's subjects forced him into an attitude of war. In
1295 he made an alliance a