Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 9.djvu/170

434 him from Fordun, and detailed with all the grace and majesty of the Roman language, the latter embodied in poetry, and such poetry as will endure till the end of time. Every age will feel as if Malcolm Canmore had lived but yesterday, and was worthy of every inquiry.

He was the son of Duncan, who succeeded to the throne of Scotland by the assassination of his grandfather, Malcolm II. This "gracious Duncan" of the great poet appears to have been a soft, easy king, and little fitted for the stormy people over whom he was called to rule. Still less does he appear to have been adapted to those difficult trials by which he was quickly beset, in the first instance, from the insurrection of Macdonald, one of the powerful thanes of Scotland, who called in the Islesmen to his aid; and afterwards, from the invasion of the Danes, who tried the barren shores of Scotland, after they had wasted to the uttermost the rich coasts of France and England. In both cases, however, he was delivered by the military prowess of his cousin, Macbeth, who not only quelled the revolt of the islanders, but drove the Danes to their shipping with great slaughter. To understand aright the importance of these military services of Macbeth, we should remember that the great question at issue in Scotland now was, what race should finally predominate in the country. So large a portion of what had been England during the heptarchy, had been won and incorporated into Scotland, that the Anglo-Saxon race bade fair to out-number and surpass the Celtic; and the rebellion of Macdonald was nothing more, perhaps, than one of that long series of trials between the two peoples, in which the Celt finally succumbed. As for the Danish invasion, it might have ended either in a permanent settlement in Scotland, like that which had been effected by the Danes in Normandy, or a complete conquest, like that which they had achieved in England, while, in either case, Scotland would have been a sufferer.

After these dangerous conflicts had terminated, Duncan made his eldest son, Malcolm, Prince of Cumberland, by which he designated him heir to the Scottish throne. This appointment, however, was anything but pleasing to Macbeth. Here the reader will remember the predictions of the weird sisters, which form a very important fact in the strange history of the period. But Macbeth had enough to incite him in his ambitious career independently of witch or prophetess. By the Tanist law of succession, common to the Celts of Scotland as well as Ireland, Macbeth, who was the cousin-german of Duncan, should have succeeded to the government on the death of the latter, should his son be still a minor; but Duncan, by this movement in favour of young Malcolm, set aside the Tanist law, which had been the general rule of Scotland, and precluded Macbeth from all hope of being king. To be requited for his public services by exclusion from his inheritance, was too much for such an ambitious spirit, while the only chance of remedy was the possible death of Duncan, before Malcolm was old enough to be his father's successor. We know how such a prospect has paved the way to a throne in every nation, whether barbarous or civilized. Duncan was assassinated. This foul deed of Macbeth, however, was not committed under trust, and in his own castle, as Shakspeare, for the purposes of poetry, has represented; but at Bothgowan (or the Smith's Dwelling), near Elgin, by an ambuscade appointed for the deed. This event is said to have occurred A.D. 1039. Macbeth immediately placed upon his own head the crown which he had so violently snatched, while the two sons of Duncan fled, Malcolm, the elder, to Siward, Earl of Northumber-