Page:Robert the Bruce and the struggle for Scottish independence - 1909.djvu/67

1286 A.D.] : "Let no man question the salvation of this King. He who has lived well, cannot die ill."

No greater calamity could have befallen the young kingdom of Scotland than the unforeseen end of this beneficent ruler. Henceforward the resources of the country were to be sapped by perpetual warfare, civil and foreign; the wealth accumulated under the prosperous reigns of Alexander and his predecessors was to be dissipated, and all productive industry brought to a standstill, until the very name of Scot should become a synonym for pauper in the languages of Europe.