Page:The Queens of England.djvu/24

 i 4 THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. two daughters and her son Edgar, could win the thoughts of the dying wife and mother from those beloved absent ones. It was many days before the tidings of Malcolm's horrible death could reach Dunfermline. When they did, Margaret was in the agonies of death. Prince Edgar received the messenger, and then returned to his mother's couch. "How fares it with the king and my Edward?" faintly asked the dying queen; but her son made no reply. "I know all," added Margaret, "and I conjure you by this holy cross to tell me the worst." "Both are dead," said the young prince, mournfully. His mother's only answer was a prayer, which Turgot, who wit- nessed the scene, has preserved ; and with the words "Deliver me" on her lips, the pious and gentle-hearted Margaret expired. Thus Matilda became doubly an orphan. The remains of good Queen Margaret, one of the best queens that ever reigned in Scotland, were interred at Dunfermline ; and so great was the love the Scottish nation bore to their Saxon queen, that her tomb was for ages considered as a shrine where miracles were said to be performed.* Hardly were the bones of Malcolm and Margaret laid in their last resting-place, than their children were driven from Scotland by a usurper. This was Donald Bane, younger son of Duncan, who, on his brother's death, took advantage of the youth and helplessness of Malcolm's heir, and seized upon the Scottish throne. Edgar Atheling, who had probably come to fulfill a brother's part to his departed sister, acted as befitted one who owed so much to both Malcolm and Margaret, and befriended their children. He brought the orphans in safety to England, and placed Matilda and Mary under the care of their aunt, Christina Atheling, who, having previously left her sister's realm, was then Abbess of Romsey Nunnery. Matilda was then only sixteen, and Mary still younger. Though Christina ruled her nieces with an iron hand, she did not neglect to give them the education becoming their royal birth. Matilda and Mary were instructed in the litera- ture of the times, in which the elder attained a degree of knowledge far above most of her sex. She also excelled in was preserved in the Scots' College of Douay, where Carruthers, ,the historian, saw it in 1785. It was still perfect, with long tresses of beau- tiful fair hair.
 * At the Reformation, Margaret's body was disinterred, and her head