od
and intermarriage. The period also preceded that when the grasping
ambition of Edward I. gave a deadly and envenomed character to the wars
betwixt the two nations--the English fighting for the subjugation
of Scotland, and the Scottish, with all the stern determination and
obstinacy which has ever characterized their nation, for the defence
of their independence, by the most violent means, under the most
disadvantageous circumstances, and at the most extreme hazard. As yet,
wars betwixt the two nations, though fierce and frequent, had been
conducted on principles of fair hostility, and admitted of those
softening shades by which courtesy and the respect for open and generous
foemen qualify and mitigate the horrors of war. In time of peace,
therefore, and especially when both, as at present, were engaged in war,
waged in behalf of a common cause, and rendered dear to them by their
ideas of religion, the adventurers of both countries frequently fought
side by side, their national emulation serving only to stimulate them to
excel each other in their efforts against the common enemy.

The frank and martial character of Richard, who made no distinction
betwixt his own subjects and those of William of Scotland, excepting as
they bore themselves in the field of battle, tended much to
conciliate the troops of both nations. But upon his illness, and the
disadvantageous circumstances in which the Crusaders were placed, the
national disunion between the various bands united in the Crusade, began
to display itself, just as old wounds break out afresh in the human body
when under the influence of disease or debility.

The Scottish and English, equally jealous and high-spirited, and apt to
take offence--the former the more so, because the poorer and the weaker
nation--began to fill up by internal dissension the period when the
truce forbade them to wreak their united vengeance on the Saracens.
Like the contending Roman chiefs of old, the Scottish would admit no
superiority, and their southern neighbours would brook no equality.
There were charges and recriminations, and both the common soldiery
and their leaders and commanders, who had been good comrades in time of
victory, lowered on each other in the period of adversity, as if their
union had not been then more essential than ever, not only to the
success of their common cause, but to their joint safety. The same
disunion had begun to show itself betwixt the French and English,