wledge, but to writhe beneath her sway. His whole frame was shaken;
intolerable pains took possession of him, and though the virulence of
the complaint was at length so far abated as to permit him a short
continuance of life, he could never sit his horse again, or even hope to
carry on in his own person his plans for the total reduction of
Scotland. But as his frame weakened, as he became the victim of almost
continual pain, all the darker and fiercer passions of his nature gained
yet more fearful ascendency. The change had been some time gathering,
but within the last twelve months its effects were such, that his
noblest, most devoted knights, blind as their affection for his person
rendered them, could scarce recognize in the bloodthirsty, ambitious
tyrant they now beheld their gallant, generous, humane, and most
chivalric sovereign, who had won golden opinions from all sorts and
conditions of men; who had performed the duties of a son and husband so
as to fix the eyes of all Europe on him in admiration; who had swayed
the sceptre of his mighty kingdom with such a powerful and fearless
hand, it had been long since England had acquired such weight in the
scale of kingdoms. Wise, moderate, merciful even in strict justice as he
had been, could it be that ambition had wrought such change; that
disease had banished every feeling from his breast, save this one dark,
fiend-like passion, for the furtherance of which, or in revenge of its
disappointment, noble blood flowed like water--the brave, the good, the
young, the old, the noble and his follower, alike fell before the axe or
the cord of the executioner? Could it indeed be that Edward, once such a
perfect, glorious scion of chivalry, had now shut up his heart against
its every whisper, lest it should interfere with his brooding visions of
revenge; forgot each feeling, lest he should involuntarily sympathize
with the noble and knightly spirit of the patriots of Scotland, whom he
had sworn to crush? Alas! it was even so; ruthless and tyrannical, the
nobles he had once favored, once loved, now became odious to him, for
their presence made him painfully conscious of the change within
himself; and he now associated but with spirits dark, fierce, cruel as
his own--men he would once have shunned, have banished from his court,
as utterly unworthy of his favor.

It was, then, in a royally-furnished chamber, pleasantly overlooking the
river Eden and the adjoining country, that about