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King John sent certain ruffians to Falaise, to blind the boy with red-hot irons-but Arthur so feelingly entreated them, and shed such piteous tears, and so trustfully appealed to Hubert de Bourg, the warden of the castle, who had a love for him, and was an honourable tender man, that Hubert could not bear it. To his eternal honour, he prevented the torture from being performed, and at his own risk sent the savages away.

The chafed and disappointed king bethought himself of the stabbing suggestion next; and, with his shuffling manner and his cruel face, proposed it to one William de Bray. "I am a gentleman, and not an executioner," said William de Bray, and left the presence with disdain.

But it was not difficult for a king to hire a murderer in those days. King John found one for his money, and sent him down to the castle of Falaise. "On what errand dost thou come ?" said

Hubert to this fellow. turned.

"To despatch young Arthur," he re

"Go back to him who sent thee," answered Hubert, "and say that I will do it."

King John, very well knowing that Hubert would never do it, but that he courageously sent this reply to save the prince or gain time, despatched messengers to convey the young prisoner to the castle of Rouen.

Arthur was soon forced from the good Hubert, of whom he had never stood in greater need than then; carried away by night, and lodged in his new prison, where through his grated window he could hear the deep waters of the river Seine rippling against the stone wall below.

One dark night, as he lay sleeping, dreaming perhaps of rescue by those unfortunate gentlemen who were obscurely suffering and dying in his cause, he was roused and bidden by his jailer to come down the staircase to the foot of the tower; he hurriedly dressed himself and obeyed. When they came to the bottom of the winding stairs, and the night air from the river blew upon their faces, the jailer trod upon his torch, and put it out. Then Arthur

1 Piteous tears, Larmes attendrissantes.

in the darkness was drawn into a solitary boat; and in that boat he found his uncle and another man.

He knelt to them, and prayed them not to murder him. Deaf to his entreaties they stabbed him, and sunk his body in the river with heavy stones. When the spring morning broke, the tower door was closed, the boat was gone, the river sparkled on its way, and never more was any trace of the poor boy beheld by mortal eyes. CHAS. DICKENS.

(Child's History of England.)

SYDNEY SMITH BUILDS HIS HOUSE.

I WAS suddenly caught up by the Archbishop of York, and transported to my living in Yorkshire, where there had not been a resident clergyman for a hundred and fifty years. Fresh from London,2 not knowing a turnip from a carrot, I was compelled to farm3 three hundred acres, and without capital to build a parsonage-house.4

I asked and obtained three years' leave from the archbishop, in order to effect an exchange, if possible, and fixed myself meantime at a small village two miles from York, in which was a fine old house of the-time of Queen Elizabeth, where resided the last of the squires with his lady, who looked as if she had walked straight out of the ark, or had been the wife of Enoch. He was a perfect specimen of old !5 he smoked, hunted, drank beer at his door with his grooms and dogs, and spelt over the county paper on Sundays.

At first he heard6 I was a Jacobin and a dangerous fellow, and turned aside as I passed; but at length, when he found the peace of the village undisturbed, harvests as usual, he first bowed, then called, and at last reached such a pitch of confidence that he used to bring the papers, that I might explain the difficult words

1 My living, Mon bénéfice.-2 Fresh from London, Fraîchement arrivé de Londres. To farm, De prendre à ferme.-4 A parsonage-house, Un presbytère.-5 Of old, Des anciens temps. He heard, On lui avait dit.-7 Reached such a pitch of confidence, En vint à un tel degré de confiance.

saulted by all the English soldiers. The governor of Lanark, whose name was Hazelrigg, burned the house, and put his wife and servants to death. He also proclaimed Wallace an outlaw,1 and offered a reward to any one who should bring him to an English garrison, alive or dead.

On the other hand, Wallace soon collected a body of men outlawed like himself. One of his earliest expeditions was directed against Hazelrigg, whom he killed. He fought skirmishes with the soldiers who were sent against him, and often defeated them; and in time became so well known and so formidable, that multitudes began to resort to his standard, until at length he was at the head of a considerable army, with which he proposed to restore his country to independence.

At length, an opportunity presented itself near Stirling to engage2 the English army under the Earl of Surrey; and the Scotch were victorious.

The remains of Surrey's great army fled out of Scotland after this defeat; and the Scots, taking arms on all sides, attacked the castles in which the English soldiers continued to shelter themselves, and took most of them by force or stratagem. Wallace defeated the English in several combats, chased them almost entirely out of Scotland, regained the towns and castles of which they had possessed themselves, and recovered for a time the complete freedom of the country. He even marched into England, and laid Cumberland and Northumberland waste, where the Scottish soldiers, in revenge for the mischief which the English had done in their country, committed great cruelties. Wallace did not approve of their killing3 the people who were not in arms, and he endeavoured to protect the clergymen and others, who were not able to defend themselves. "Remain with me," he said

to the priests of Hexham, a large town in Northumberland, “for I cannot protect you from my soldiers when you are out of my presence." The troops who followed Wallace received no pay,

1 He also proclaimed Wallace an outlaw, Il déclara aussi Wallace proscrit.-2 To engage, D'en venir aux mains avec.-3 Wallace did not approve of their killing, Wallace ne les approuva pas de tuer.

because he had no money to give them; and that was one great reason why he could not keep them under restraint, or prevent them doing much harm to the defenceless country people. He remained in England more than three weeks, and did a great deal of mischief to the country.

Edward I. was in Flanders when all these events took place in 1298. You may suppose he was very angry when he heard that Scotland, which he thought completely subdued, had risen into a great insurrection against him, defeated his armies, killed his treasurer, chased his soldiers out of their country, and invaded England with a great force. He came back from Flanders in a mighty rage, and determined not to leave that rebellious country until it was finally conquered, for which purpose he assembled a very fine army and marched into Scotland.

In the meantime the Scots prepared to defend themselves, and chose Wallace to be governor or protector of the kingdom, because they had no king at the time. But although, as we have seen, he was the best soldier and bravest man in1 Scotland, and therefore the most fit to be placed in command at this critical period, when the king of England was coming against them with such great forces, yet the nobles of Scotland envied him this important situation because he was not a man born in high rank, or enjoying a large estate. So great was their jealousy of3 Sir William Wallace, that many of these great barons did not seem very willing to bring forward their forces, or to fight against the English. Yet, notwithstanding this unwillingness of the great nobility to support him, Wallace assembled a large army; for the middle, but especially the lower classes, were very much attached to him. He marched boldly against the king of England, and met him near the town of Falkirk. Most of the Scottish army were on foot, because in those days only the nobility and great men of Scotland fought on horseback.

The English king, on the contrary, had a very large body of the finest cavalry in the world, Normans and English, all clothed in complete armour. He had also the celebrated archers of England,

1 See § 30, 2.-2 See § 42.-3 Their jealousy of, Leur jalousie contre.

each of whom was said to carry twelve Scotchmen's lives under his girdle; because every archer carried twelve arrows.

The Scots had some good archers from the forest of Ettrick, who fought under command of Sir John Stewart of Bonkill; but they were not nearly equal in number to the English. The greater part of the Scotch, armed with long spears, were placed so thick and close together, that it seemed as difficult to break through them as through the wall of a strong castle. The English made the attack. King Edward, though he saw the close ranks and undaunted appearance of the Scottish infantry, resolved nevertheless to try whether he could ride them down with his fine cavalry. He therefore gave his horsemen orders to advance. They charged accordingly at full gallop. It must have been a terrible thing to have seen these fine horses riding as hard as they could against the long lances which were held out by the Scots to keep them back, and a dreadful cry arose when they came against each other.

The Scottish spearmen being thrown into some degree of confusion by the loss of those who were slain by the arrows of the English, the heavy cavalry of Edward again charged, with more success than formerly, and broke through the ranks, which were already disordered. Sir John Grahame, Wallace's great friend and companion, was slain, with many other brave soldiers; and the Scots, having lost a very great number of men, were at length obliged to take flight.

After this fatal defeat of Falkirk, Sir William Wallace seems to have resigned his office of Governor of Scotland. And the King of England obliged all its nobles and great men, one after another, to submit themselves once more to his yoke. Wallace alone refused either to acknowledge the usurper, Edward, or to lay down his arms. He continued to maintain himself among the woods and mountains of his native country for no less than seven years after the battle of Falkirk. Many proclamations were sent out against him by the English, and a great reward was set upon his head. For the sake of this reward Wallace was basely betrayed by a pretended friend, and led prisoner to the Tower of London.

Edward caused this gallant defender of his country to be

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