CHAP. XXIV. WALLACE AND BRUCE. 87 own...

CHAP. XXIV. WALLACE AND BRUCE. 87

own country free, if Sir William Wallace had notbeen taken prisoner and carried to London, whereKing Edward ordered his head to be cut off; whichwas as wicked and cruel as his cutting off the headsof the two Welsh princes.

This did not end the war in Scotland; for RobertBruce, who had come to be king after Baliol, deter-mined to do what Sir William Wallace had begun-I mean to drive the English out of Scotland; and hemade ready for a long and troublesome war, and KingEdward did the same; but when Edward had gotto the border of Scotland with his great army, tofight King Robert, he died.

If this King Edward I. had been content to ruleover his own subjects, and to mend their laws, andencourage them to trade and to study, he would havemade them happier, and we who live now shouldhave said he deserved better to be loved.

Indeed, he did so much that was right and wise,that I am sorry we cannot praise him in everything.

His greatest fault was ambition-I mean, a wishto be above everybody else, by any means. Now,ambition is good when it only makes us try to bewiser and better than other people, by taking painswith ourselves, and being good to the very personswe should wish to get the better of.

But when ambition makes us try to get things thatbelong to others, by all means, bad or good, it iswrong.

Ambition caused wise King Edward to forget him-self, after conquering the Prince of Wales, and toorder Llewellyn to be killed, that there might neverbe greater men in Wales than the kings of England.

The ambition to be King of Scotland made Edwardgo to war with the Scots, and made him so cruel as