On hearing this, the old earl swore that the insolent youth should one day feel the black dog's teeth. And, indeed, this day came all too soon, for Gaveston, after having been banished and recalled again and again, was at last seized by the confederate nobles, carried to Warwick Castle, and beheaded on Blacklow Hill.

But before the death of Gaveston, the popular discontent had assumed such formidable proportions that Parliament, assembled in arms, compelled Edward to give up the government for a year to a committee of bishops, earls, and barons, who were called "Ordainers," and who drew up articles of reform, by which, among other salutary measures, the king was required to summon Parliament at least once a year.

But while Edward was wrangling with his barons, Scotland was lost; the fortresses that were garrisoned by English soldiers having fallen one by one into the hands of Bruce, until, by the year 1314, Stirling Castle was almost the only important stronghold that had not been surrendered, and even that was so closely invested, and reduced to such straits, that the governor was compelled to agree to capitulate, if not relieved by a certain day.

3

The news of this impending disaster roused Edward to some degree of energy, and he resolved to conduct an army in person to the north, in the vain hope of recovering lost ground. A large force, numbering, it is said, a hundred thousand men, assembled at Berwick, marched along the east coast to Edinburgh, and advanced by the right bank of

the Forth towards Stirling, which was reached on the day previous to the promised surrender.

Here, in a field then called the New Park, with the town on his left, and the brook or burn of Bannock on his right, Bruce had drawn up his forces, and lay waiting for the enemy, when on the afternoon of June 23rd, 1314, the English army was seen approaching.

On the following day, the battle of Bannockburn was fought, in which the military talent of the Scottish king enabled him to triumph, with far inferior numbers, and with little loss, over the vast host of his opponents.

Edward fled from the field, hotly pursued as far as Dunbar, where he embarked for Berwick. Many of his barons and knights fell or were taken prisoners, while the entire stores and baggage of his troops became the spoil of the conquerors.

The independence of Scotland was the result of this great victory; for although a desultory warfare was carried on for some years to the continued advantage of the Scotch, the quarrel between the two nations was at length settled by a truce, in which Bruce was acknowledged as the independent sovereign of his native country.

1 Piers Gaves'-ton, a native of Guienne, the friend and companion of Edward during his father's reign, at the close of which Gaveston had been banished for producing discord between father and son.

2 Earl of Lan'-cas-ter, grandson of Henry III., and chief of the English barons.

3 Ca-pit'-u-late, to yield or give up on conditions.

EDWARD THE SECOND.

PART II.

THE history of the kingdom at this time is that of a series of calamities. The deficient harvest of one year was followed by its total failure in the next. As a consequence, the country suffered all the horrors of famine. Even the royal table was but scantily supplied with bread, and the poor were glad to feed on roots, horses, and dogs; while the barons, unable to maintain their retainers, dismissed them in crowds, who, having no resources but robbery, filled the land with pillage and bloodshed.

This famine was succeeded by a pestilence, caused by the unwholesome food upon which nearly all classes had been compelled to subsist.

Soon after this visitation, civil war was renewed; for the king, unwarned by experience, returned to his system of favouritism. The new object of his foolish fondness was Hugh Despencer, who, with his father, was soon as much a cause of strife between the king and the nobles as Gaveston had been. The Earl of Lancaster headed the popular. party; but being defeated at Borough Bridge, in Yorkshire, in 1322, he was carried to his own castle at Pontefract, condemned as a traitor, and beheaded. Many of his followers shared their leader's fate; while those who managed to escape fled to the Continent.

At this time there was an open quarrel between Edward and his queen, who, with her son, retired to France, where she was joined by Roger Mortimer,

Months passed away without either mother or son returning, Isabella professing to have fears of Hugh Despencer. At last, in the autumn of 1326, she landed in Suffolk; but it was at the head of a

foreign army.

Everywhere she was hailed as a

deliverer; while the king, after vainly appealing to the loyalty of the Londoners, fled to the west, where his favourite's estates lay.

The elder Despencer took refuge in Bristol, but the citizens rose against him, and the venerable old man, at the age of ninety, was inhumanly hanged.

Edward was captured in Glamorgan, together with the young Despencer, who, crowned with nettles, was suspended from a gallows fifty feet high at Hereford.

The king, being carried prisoner to Kenilworth, a Parliament was summoned, which resolved that he was unworthy to reign, and that his eldest son should be king in his stead. To this arrangement Edward yielded with tears; and the ceremony was closed by the steward of the household, Sir Thomas Blount, breaking his staff of office, and declaring all persons in the royal service discharged, as was done at a king's death.

Edward was made over to the keeping of Sir John Maltravers, who by insults and ill-usage strove to destroy his reason or his life.

From Kenilworth, we trace the progress of the unhappy captive to Corfe, Bristol, and Berkeley.

Here, one night, in the autumn of 1327, dreadful screams were heard, by the startled people in the neighbouring town, ringing through the thick walls of the castle; and they said, as they were thus horribly awakened from their sleep, "May Heaven be merciful to the king, for those cries forbode that no good is being done to him in his dismal prison.”

Next morning he was dead-not bruised, or stabbed, or marked upon the body; but much distorted in the face by the terrible internal injuries that had been inflicted on him by his murderers.