ct in punishing crimes, one
whose conduct should make him feared as well as beloved. The qualities
of Robert the Third were the reverse of all these. In youth he had
indeed seen battles; but, without incurring disgrace, he had never
manifested the chivalrous love of war and peril, or the eager desire to
distinguish himself by dangerous achievements, which that age expected
from all who were of noble birth and had claims to authority.

Besides, his military career was very short. Amidst the tumult of a
tournament, the young Earl of Carrick, such was then his title, received
a kick from the horse of Sir James Douglas of Dalkeith, in consequence
of which he was lame for the rest of his life, and absolutely disabled
from taking share either in warfare or in the military sports and
tournaments which were its image. As Robert had never testified much
predilection for violent exertion, he did not probably much regret
the incapacities which exempted him from these active scenes. But his
misfortune, or rather its consequences, lowered him in the eyes of
a fierce nobility and warlike people. He was obliged to repose the
principal charge of his affairs now in one member, now in another, of
his family, sometimes with the actual rank, and always with the power,
of lieutenant general of the kingdom. His paternal affection would have
induced him to use the assistance of his eldest son, a young man of
spirit and talent, whom in fondness he had created Duke of Rothsay, in
order to give him the present possession of a dignity next to that of
the throne. But the young prince's head was too giddy, and his hand
too feeble to wield with dignity the delegated sceptre. However fond of
power, pleasure was the Prince's favourite pursuit; and the court was
disturbed, and the country scandalised, by the number of fugitive amours
and extravagant revels practised by him who should have set an example
of order and regularity to the youth of the kingdom.

The license and impropriety of the Duke of Rothsay's conduct was the
more reprehensible in the public view, that he was a married person;
although some, over whom his youth, gaiety, grace, and good temper had
obtained influence, were of opinion that an excuse for his libertinism
might be found in the circumstances of the marriage itself. They
reminded each other that his nuptials were entirely conducted by his
uncle, the Duke of Albany, by whose counsels the infirm and timid King
was much governed a