Page:History of Sir William Wallace (1).pdf/65

 ( 65 ) when Edward I carried it to England; and it continues one of the appendages to royalty in Westminster Abbey The following prophetic distitich is said to have reconciled many of the Scottish bigots to the Union. Ni tallat faturn, Scoti, quocunque locatum Invenient lapidem, 'ruguare tenentur ibidem,

Unless old prophesies and words are vain, Where'er this stone is found, the Scots shall reign. And the prediction was considered as verifi- ed when James VI. ascended the English throne For misfortunes are more strongly experi- enced by a nation, than to bare an infant eleve todo the throne. This was woefully exemplified at the period. Faction and anarchy universally prevailed and distracted the kingdom. Each of these regents had their adherents and vassals, who respectively exerted themselves in support of their own chief of the newly appointed regents, the Earl of Fife was soon after assasin- ated: The Earl of Buck a cited a natural death; James, the Stewart of Scotland, withdrew from the council of his remaining colleagues and engaged in a faction with some other trile Meanwhile, the king of Norway and the king of England, the former the father, and the lat- ter the grand-uncle, of their infant queen eagerly Weed their attention to the disposition and F3 situa-