d. When he found one manuscript which she particularly esteemed, he
"sent for his goldsmith" and had the vellum encased in gold and
ornamented with jewels; then carried it back to her with such fond
pleasure as may be easily imagined. Margaret on her part did what she
could to secure to her King some of the punctilios of reverential
respect due in her knowledge to a monarch. She suggested the formation
of a royal guard to protect the King's person and surround him with
honour and observance. She filled the palace with her wealth, adorning
it in every way, providing fine clothes for the retainers and so
enriching the house that the table was served with dishes of gold and
silver. And it would seem that the reputation of a new and splendid
Court thus suddenly evolved among the northern mists got abroad, and
brought merchants with their wares up the Firth, and quickened, if it
did not altogether originate, the first feeble current of trade which
was the precursor and origin of all our after wealth in Scotland.

[Illustration: THE NAVE, DUNFERMLINE ABBEY--LOOKING WEST]

[Illustration: QUEEN MARGARET'S CAVE]

This was not all, however, that Margaret did for the commonwealth. If we
may trust her biographer, it was she who established that great
principle of reform so important in all states, and generally one of the
later fruits of civilisation, that the soldiers should be prevented from
exacting or putting under requisition the peaceful people about, and
that all they had should be honestly paid for, which was the last thing
likely to be thought of by a mediaeval prince. Altogether Margaret's
influence was exerted for the best purposes to induce her husband "to
relinquish his barbarous manners and live honestly and civilly," as the
chronicler says. It was perhaps not so good an exercise of her power
when she opened arguments, apparently through Malcolm as interpreter,
with the native clergy of Scotland, the hermits and ecclesiastics of
Columba's strain, and the mysterious Culdees of whom we know so little.
The one certain fact fully established concerning them being, that they
kept Easter at a different date from that appointed by Rome. The King,
though no scholar, would seem to have been a linguist in his way, since
he spoke both languages, that is the Saxon, and the Celtic or Pictish,
again a most difficult question to determine--with a smattering of
Latin; and was thus able to act as Margaret's mouthpiece in her
argumen