glass, besides the just occasion of spending timber in building extraordinary ships, as well in number as in bigness, besides the unspeakable daily increase in building of houses, boats, barges, waggons, coaches, carts, and many other things for household uses, and which, together with the want of conservation and planting of woods within these last fourscore years, are the true reasons of the great scarcity of timber and sweet fuel in England." Whilst Margaret was employing her munificence in the erection of the choir of the elegant Church of the Grey Friars, and otherwise encouraging the progress of improvement in the metropolis, Edward, detained by weakness at Carlisle, was busily occupied, first in adjusting the difference between himself and his barons, many of whom were growing weary of warfare, and afterwards in enthusiastic efforts to subdue the Scots. But the ambition of the English King was defeated by his own decrepitude, and the courage, perseverance, and activity of the brave Bruce. Although repeatedly beaten, and driven to seek shelter in the wild moors and mountain fastnesses, Bruce and his daring patriotic band could neither be conquered nor prevailed upon to lay down their arms. With death or liberty for their motto, they, if overcome in one part of the country, flew to another, and, at an unexpected moment, rushed upon the English with maniacal impetuosity, and before the enemy recovered from the shock, precipitately retreated again to the security of the hills and forests. Many of these brave patriots were taken and executed as traitors, whilst others wore imprisoned with rigour. Their fate, as champions of liberty, may demand our pity, but when we consider that some were murderers and robbers, and all had more than once broke their oath of fealty and been pardoned, and therefore were traitors according to the jurisprudence of the age, it would be unjust to the memory of Edward to brand him as a cruel despot on account of their unfortunate end, Annoyed at the repeated successful sallies of Bruce, and feeling his health improved, Edward endeavoured to advance with his army into Scotland, but the exertion of mounting his horse brought on a severe relapse of dysentery, which it was beyond mortal power to check. Finding death approaching, the old King sent for the Prince of Wales, and charged him to be just, merciful, courteous, and constant in word and deed; to love his two young brothers, to honour and respect his mother, Queen Margaret, never to recall Gaveston, to duly apply the thirty-two thousand marks which he had bequeathed from the treasury for the service of seven score knights in the Holy Land, and, upon pain of eternal damnation, not to turn to the south till he had subdued Scotland. " But what if the rebels will not succumb, sire ?" demanded the Prince, horrified by the malediction, and impelled by a desire to immediately encircle his brow with the crown. " Carry my bones with you at the head of the army," uttered the dying monarch; "that will ensure success."* The Prince promised compliance, and the King, anxious to die in a country he had more than once subjugated, proceeded, by easy journeys, towards Scotland. In this manner he advanced as far as the little town of Burgh-uponthe-Sands, in Cumberland, where he expired, on the seventh of July, 1307, in the sixty-ninth year of his age, and the thirty-fifth of bis reign. In defiance of his father's prohibition, Edward resolved to bury his bones with all convenient despatch. Accordingly, the body was conveyed to Waltham Abbey, remained there till the new King had received the oath of allegiance * Froissart Bays the King made the Prince of Wales swear, in the presence of all the barons, that, immediately he was dead* he would have his body boiled in a large cauldron, till the flesh should drop from the bones; that he would have the flesh buried, aud the bones preserved, and that every time the Scota rebelled against him, he would carry in his march against them the bones of his father; for he believed most firmly that, in their encounters with the Scots, the English would always be victorious as long as they carried his bones with them, There appears so much exaggeration in this statement, that we have preferred following the text of Walsingham.