Page:This Canada of ours and other poems.djvu/70

64 simple metre, which the great American poet adopted as most suitable for Songs of the Forest and Tales of the Wigwam.

The Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny, is the subject of many fabulous traditions. Ancient chronicles recount that, after having been Jacob's pillow at Bethel, it was a valued relic in the time of Gathelus, a Spanish king, and contemporary of Romulus. This monarch sent it with his son when the latter invaded Ireland. It was for centuries the coronation throne of Irish princes, until it was removed first to lona, where Fergus, son of Ere, was crowned upon it, A.D. 503, and thence to Scone, in 842, by Kenneth II., when the Scots had overcome the Picts. It remained in the Abbey of Scone as the coronation chair of the kings of Scotland, until carried off by Edward I., in order that nothing might be left to remind the Scots of their former independence. He, however, placed it, with veneration, near the altar in Westminster Abbey, where it may now be seen, forming the support of the coronation chair of the British sovereigns. The mysterious connection which this stone is supposed to have with the destinies of the Scots is celebrated in the well known Latin couplet:

It was not unnatural that the accession of the Stuarts to the throne of Great Britain should have been hailed by many as the accomplishment of this singular prophecy.