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a slight resistance; Stirling Castle almost with- out a struggle: others were abandoned: the spirit of the nation was extinguished: and Baliol again submitted to the terms of the conqueror. In this invasion Edward had been joined by Bruee and his adherents, who conceived a prospeet was of that nobleman obtaining the erown. But Edward, when order was restored, and the matter hinted to him, contemptuously replied, "Have we nothing else to do but to conquer kingdoms for you?" Bruce made no reply, but retired into obscurity, and passed the remainder of his days in quietness and opulence. It was in the month of July 1296 that Edward finished at Elgin his expedition northward a- gainst the Scots. On his return to the south his army committed the most dreadful excesses; and still more to complete the subjugation of Scotland, the English monarch ordered all the charters and pullic papers which could in any way exhibit proof of the independence of the realm to be destroyed. He also earried off the eelebrated stone, belonging to the coronation- chair of the Scottish kings, from the palace of Scone, where it had been kept for ages, and de- posited it in Westminister Abbey. But all these indignities, added to the oppression and misrule of Edward's lieutenants in Scotland, only served