"
[Footnote 1: In the spirited translation of this poem, by Jones, the
following verses are highly descriptive of the exhausted state of the
victor army.
At Madoc's tent the clarion sounds,
With rapid clangour hurried far:
Each echoing dell the note resounds--
But when return the sons of war!
Thou, born of stern necessity,
Dull peace! the desert yields to thee,
And owns thy melancholy sway.
At a later period, the Saxon families, who fled from the exterminating
sword of the Conqueror, with many of the Normans themselves, whom
discontent and intestine feuds had driven into exile, began to rise
into eminence upon the Scottish borders. They brought with them
arts, both of peace and of war, unknown in Scotland; and, among their
descendants, we soon number the most powerful border chiefs. Such,
during the reign of the [Sidenote: 1249] last Alexander, were Patrick,
earl of March, and Lord Soulis, renowned in tradition; and such were,
also, the powerful Comyns, who early acquired the principal sway upon
the Scottish marches. [Sidenote: 1300] In the civil wars betwixt Bruce
and Baliol, all those powerful chieftains espoused the unsuccessful
party. They were forfeited and exiled; and upon their ruins was
founded the formidable house of Douglas. The borders, from sea to
sea, were now at the devotion of a succession of mighty chiefs, whose
exorbitant power threatened to place a new dynasty upon the Scottish
throne.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25