he winning side, the side of progress
and advancement. The Donalds and Duncans were swept away after a brief
and bloody interval and were no more possible in Scotland after her, and
the reign of the Anglo-Saxon was assured. She was apparently the
instrument too, though there is little information on this subject, of
drawing the Church of Scotland into that close union with Rome which had
been already accomplished in England; a step which, if it lost some
doubtful freedom and independence in ecclesiastical matters, secured
still more completely a recognised place in Catholic Christendom to the
northern kingdom. "The pure Culdee" of whom we know so little did not
survive, any more than did the Celtic kings, her influence and the
transformation she effected. Her life and legend formed the
stepping-stone for Scotland into authentic history as into a
consolidated and independent existence. The veil of fable and
uncertainty cleared away before the mild shining of her name and story.
Like Edinburgh coming suddenly into sight, as in some old and primitive
picture, high upon its rock, with the slope of the Castle Hill on one
side and the precipices round, and the white mist sweeping up from the
sea, Scotland itself becomes recognisable and grows into form and order
by the light of her peaceful and gracious presence.

And it is something worth noting that this image of purity and
excellence was no monkish vision of the purity of the cloister, but that
more complete and at the same time more humble ideal of the true wife,
mother, and mistress, whose work was in and for the world and the
people, not withdrawn to any exceptional refuge or shelter--which has
always been most dear to the Anglo-Saxon race. The influence of such an
example in a country where manners and morals were equally rudimentary,
where the cloister proved often the only refuge for women, and even that
not always a safe one--was incalculable, and the protection of a
virtuous Court something altogether novel and admirable. The gentlewomen
who worked at their tapestry under Margaret's eye, and learned the
gentler manners of other Courts and countries of old civilisation by her
side, and did their wooing modestly with the sanction of her approval,
must have changed the atmosphere of the north in the most wonderful way
and quickened every current of national development though the influence
was remote and the revolution unperceived. The chroniclers go back with
a fond