disperse singly midst the fastnesses and
rocks of Scotland, than lift up a sword against her freedom. The
sentiments of the countess were very soon discovered; and even yet
stronger than the contempt and loathing with which they looked upon the
earl was the love, the veneration they bore to her and to her children.
If his mother's lips had been silent, the youthful heir would have
learned loyalty and patriotism from his brave though unlettered
retainers, as it was to them he owed the skin and grace with which he
sate his fiery steed, and poised his heavy lance, and wielded his
stainless brand--to them he owed all the chivalric accomplishments of
the day; and though he had never quitted the territories of Buchan, he
would have found few to compete with him in his high and gallant spirit.

Dark and troubled was the political aspect of unhappy Scotland, at the
eventful period at which our tale commences. The barbarous and most
unjust execution of Sir William Wallace had struck the whole country as
with a deadly panic, from which it seemed there was not one to rise to
cast aside the heavy chains, whose weight it seemed had crushed the
whole kingdom, and taken from it the last gleams of patriotism and of
hope. Every fortress of strength and consequence was in possession of
the English. English soldiers, English commissioners, English judges,
laws, and regulations now filled and governed Scotland. The abrogation
of all those ancient customs, which had descended from the Celts and
Picts, and Scots, fell upon the hearts of all true Scottish men as the
tearing asunder the last links of freedom, and branding them as slaves.
Her principal nobles, strangely and traitorously, preferred safety and
wealth, in the acknowledgment and servitude of Edward, to glory and
honor in the service of their country; and the spirits of the middle
ranks yet spurned the inglorious yoke, and throbbed but for one to lead
them on, if not to victory, at least to an honorable death. That one
seemed not to rise; it was as if the mighty soul of Scotland had
departed, when Wallace slept in death.

CHAPTER III.

A bustling and joyous aspect did the ancient town of Scone present near
the end of March, 1306. Subdued indeed, and evidently under some
restraint and mystery, which might be accounted for by the near vicinity
of the English, who were quartered in large numbers over almost the
whole of Perthshire; some, however, appeared exempt from these m