prince could be; but soon the king went away and came back carrying his baby-son in his arms. The title of Prince of Wales was given to him, and ever since then it has been borne by the eldest son of the King or Queen of England.

8. Seven years after, the good Queen Eleanor died, and King Edward mourned for her very deeply. Her death happened at Harley, in Nottinghamshire; but Edward wished her to be buried amongst the kings and queens at Westminster Abbey. So her body was carried to London, and at the twelve places on the road where the bearers rested and set down the coffin Edward afterwards built twelve beautiful carved crosses. There is only one of them left standing now, and that is at Waltham. There used to be one at Charing Cross, in London, but it fell into ruins and was taken away; and not long ago a new cross was built there in imitation of the old one that Edward put up to the memory of Eleanor.

21. SIR WILLIAM WALLACE.

1. When Edward I. had been King of England for about thirty years, the King of Scotland died, and left no son to reign after him-only his grandchild, a young and delicate girl, who was away in Norway, and was quite unfit to govern such a barbarous people as the Scots were in those days.

2. Edward of England had just conquered Wales,

and he was wishing to make himself master of Scotland also. So he sent a message to the Scots, asking them to give their queen in marriage to his son Edward, who had been made Prince of Wales. The Scots consented, but the Queen of Scotland died upon the voyage from Norway, and the throne was empty.

3. A great many men came forward to claim it, and the Scots resolved to ask King Edward of England to decide between them.

4. Then Edward decided that a nobleman named John Baliol had the best claim to be king, and accordingly he was crowned. After his coronation, he knelt at the feet of Edward and gave the crown into his hands, and then received it back from him, and declared himself the humble vassal of the King of England.

5. Not long after, Edward sent a message to the Scots commanding them to pay him tribute money, and to do other things to show that they thought him their lord. The Scots haughtily refused to pay; and then Edward marched across the Tweed with an army, and forced them to obey him. And he filled all the Scotch towns and castles with English soldiers.

6. William Wallace was only a boy while all these things were happening; but he was a very quick boy, with a brave heart and an independent spirit, and he hated the English soldiers who held the land in subjection.

7. One day he slew an English soldier. The English governor published a proclamation, offering a reward to any one who would kill Wallace; so Wallace fled, and he roamed about Scotland stirring

up his countrymen to rise in arms against the English, and drive them out of the country.

8. At last he got together an army, and met the army of Edward in battle; and at Stirling Bridge Wallace and his Scots defeated the English with great slaughter. It was a great victory, and the fame of it spread quickly over England and Scotland; and Wallace became the darling hero of the whole Scottish nation. Men joined his army in crowds, and he grew so bold that he even dared to invade England. Edward gathered his armies, and fell upon Wallace and the Scots, and slew them. Wallace fled away and hid himself; but the English found him, and carried him away to London, to be tried as a traitor.

But

9. Then, when Wallace was brought before the English judge, he answered and said, "I am no traitor to King Edward, for I have never been his subject." Then they accused him of having killed many English soldiers; and to that Wallace answered boldly, "It is true; I would I had killed more." Then the English judges, seeing how bitter an enemy he was to King Edward, condemned him to death.

10. His head was cut off, and his dead body was divided into four quarters, and the four pieces were stuck on iron spikes on London Bridge, so that all who passed by might see them, and take warning not to rebel against King Edward.

22. ROBERT BRUCE (A.D. 1274--1329).

1. Among the Scots who fought on the side of Wallace, one of the bravest was Robert Bruce; but shortly before Wallace died he had given up all hope of bringing peace and happiness to Scotland by resisting the English, and he had entered the army of the English king.

2. When he heard the news of the death of Wallace, Robert Bruce thought of his old leader dying like a traitor, and of his four limbs spiked on London Bridge for all the English people to triumph over; and his heart was full of rage and shame. So he vowed to spend the rest of his life in driving the English out of Scotland.

3. But Bruce had a very violent and impatient temper, which brought great trouble upon himself and others. There was a brave soldier called John Comyn, whom many of the Scots looked to as their leader; and for some time the Scotch patriots were divided into two parties, one of which followed Bruce and the other Comyn.

4. Robert Bruce thought that while the Scots were divided among themselves they would never deliver their country from the English; so he invited Comyn to meet him in a church at Dumfries, that they might become friends instead of rivals. But the more they talked together, the more they quarrelled; and at last Robert Bruce lost his temper, and struck John Comyn a blow that laid him dead and bleeding on the ground.