Page:Scotish Descriptive Poems - Leyden (1803).djvu/189

 appear to have been the archers, and targetters or broad-swordsmen:

P. 158. v. 30. During the glory of the Roman empire, and even in the period of its decline, all nations who affected the friendship of the Romans, or were dazzled by their glory, were anxious to boast the same extraction. The story of Brutus, the progenitor of the English, is well known. In the sixth century, Hunnibald, in his History of the Franks, deduces their origin from Francus a son of Priam. The Sicilians derived themselves from his brother Siculus. In the reign of Justinian, the Greeks themselves affected a similar honour. The Scots, however, who piqued themselves on never submitting to the Romans, deduced their origin directly from the Greeks, the mortal foes of the Trojans, and consequently stated themselves as the inveterate and native enemies of the English, a race who claimed a Trojan origin. Jealousy and incessant hostility aggravated the mutual animosities of the Scots and English, till the tempers of their writers became almost as hostile as the swords of their warriors, and it was considered as the indispensable duty of a good citizen to abuse the sister kingdom. It may be amusing to contrast