an
arena from which nature and circumstances widely separated him, gave a
free Scotland to her people, and made himself the hero of her great
epic.

When we see the spiritless sons of Bruce in the hands of base
intriguing nobles, trailing their great inheritance in the mire, we
exclaim: Was it for this that there was such magnificent heroism? Was
it worth seven {271} years of such struggle to emancipate the land from
a foreign tyranny, only to have it fall into a degrading domestic one?
But the reassuring fact is, that the governing power of a nation is
only an incident, more or less imperfect. The life is in the people.
There was not a cottage nor a cabin in all of Scotland that was not
ennobled by the consciousness of what had been done. Men's hearts were
glad with a wholesome gladness; and every child in the land was lisping
the names of Wallace and of Bruce and learning the story of their
deeds. But for all that, the period following the death of the great
King and Captain is a disappointing one, and we are not tempted to
linger while the incapable David II. wears his father's crown, and
while the son of Baliol, instigated by England, is troubling the
kingdom, and even having himself crowned at Scone; and while Edward
III., until attracted by more tempting fields in France, is invading
the land and recapturing its strongholds. The limit of humiliation
seems to be reached when David II., in the absence of an heir, proposes
to leave his throne to Lionel, son of Edward III.!

When Robert Bruce bestowed his {272} daughter, Marjory, upon the High
Steward of Scotland, he determined the course of history in two
countries; in England even more than in Scotland. The office of
Steward was the highest in the realm. Since the time of David I. it
had been hereditary in one family, and according to a prevailing
custom, to which many names now bear testimony, the official
designation had become the family name. The marriage of Robert Stewart
(seventh High Steward of his house) to Marjory Bruce was destined to
bear consequences involving not alone the fate of Scotland, but leading
to a transforming revolution and the greatest crisis in the life of
England. As the Weird Sisters promised to Banquo, this Stewart was "to
be the fader of mony Kingis," for Marjory was the ancestress of
fourteen sovereigns, eight of whom were to sit upon the throne of
Scotland, and six upon those of both England and Scotland (1371 to
1714, thr