Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/47

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tyrant indeed seemed to delight in incendiary acts, for in this desolating march into the Scotch coun- ties he, with unexampled ingratitude and barbarity, made a point every successive morning of setting fire to the house which had afforded him shelter on the preceding night. The Scots having re- built the town, it became in 1291 the place of convention for the states of the two countries, to de- termine the respective claims of Robert Bruce and John Baliol, who had offered themselves as candi- dates for the crown of Scotland during the inter- regnum. The latter, you know, was the successful competitor; but did not retain his dignity long, resigning it to Edward, who shortly afterwards took the town of Berwick by storm, at the expence of seven thousand Scottish lives. Al- most drained of inhabitants by this carnage, Edward transplanted a large body of his English subjects

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into the town, and received here the homage of the Scotch nobility; but Wallace, the great Caledonian hen; shortly avenged th - cruelties in- flicted upon his countrymen, and wiped away the disgrace of the Scottish d feats, by possessing him- self of the town of Benvick, but not its castle, and for a long time turning the scale of war in Savour of Ins countrymen. Betrayed at length into his enemy's hands, he was executed, and his limbs

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