Already volumes have been written on the martial achievements of the Scottish nation, and we are fully impressed with the magnitude of our undertaking when, in these brief pages, we propose to illustrate the heroic tale of our ancient glory. Nowhere is there a more perfect representative of our exiles who have been soldiers, amongst “the bravest of the brave,” in many lands, than is afforded us in our present sketch of the _First or Royal Scots Regiment of Foot_. Many and conflicting have been the accounts given of their early history. Some have imagined the present regiment to be the representative of the Archers of the Scottish Guard, which, in the days of Bruce, had been associated with Royalty and the defence of the Scottish throne; others have given their origin to the Scottish Guard, which had for many years been the Body Guard of the French kings; but the most complete and authentic account, derived from many sources, is that given by Richard Cannon, Esq. of the Adjutant General’s Office, in the admirable Historical Records of the Royals, wherein the origin of the regiment is traced to the ingathering of our exiles, who had hitherto served with great credit as soldiers, nay as Royal Guards, in the armies of France, Denmark, Sweden, and the States of Holland, to be formed into one, the present regiment of First Royal Scots Foot. As early as the year 882 A.D. Charles III., king of France, had selected from among the exiles a body of Scottish gentlemen, conspicuous for their fidelity and valour, who enjoyed his special favour, and were incorporated as a Royal Guard. During the Crusades these followed Louis IX. into Egypt. They were of infinite value to France, at a time when the disastrous battle of Agincourt, fought in 1415, had prostrated her power, and all but reduced her proud and haughty people to be the vassals and subjects of triumphant England. The Scots Guards were retained in the service of Charles VII., and a few years later were joined by a body of 7000 of their countrymen under the Earl of Buchan, whose abilities as an officer and valour as a soldier won for him the thanks of a grateful country, who at the same time conferred the highest compliment and most splendid military distinction it was in their power to award, in creating him Constable of France. The Scottish army in France was subsequently largely increased by farther instalments of adventurous exiles from “the fatherland.” These helped to break the yoke of England upon the Continent, and specially distinguished themselves at the battles of Baugé, 1421, Crevan, 1423, and Verneuille, 1424: so much so, that Charles, appreciating their worth, selected from their ranks, first in 1422, a corps of Scots Gendarmes, and thereafter, in 1440, a corps of Scots Guards. On the fair plains of Italy, so cruelly desolated by the rude hand of war, and so long the favourite battle-field of princes, whom the poet fitly styles “Ambition’s honoured fools”—