While our hero was thus following up his plan for the emancipation of his country, his standard was unexpectedly joined by the younger Robert Bruce. This powerful baron, it seems, had incurred the suspicion of the Warden of the Western Marches, who summoned him to attend at Carlisle, on pretence of business relating to the kingdom. Afraid to disobey, Bruce made his appearance, accompanied by a numerous retinue of his followers, and was there obliged to make oath on the consecrated host, and the sword of Thomas à Becket, that he would remain the faithful vassal of the King of England. In order to prove his loyalty, and do away with the mistrust attached to him, he made an inroad on the estates of Sir William Douglas, who at the time was acting with Wallace, and carried off his wife and children to one of his own fortresses in Annandale. Having thus lulled the suspicions that had been awakened, he next assembled his father’s vassals, and endeavoured to persuade them to join him in attempting the deliverance of their country. In this, however, he was disappointed: he therefore collected his own retainers, and marched to the quarters of Wallace; consoling himself with the reflection, that the Pope would easily absolve him from his extorted oath. The insurrection in Scotland had hitherto been regarded by Edward more as the unconnected operations of banditti, than any thing like an organized scheme for regaining the national independence. Having most of the Scottish barons in his power from whom he thought he had any thing to apprehend, and conceiving that their vassals would not dare to move without the warrant of their superior,--he looked upon the affair as one which the troops he had left behind were more than sufficient to suppress. In this opinion he was confirmed both by the English and the Scotch barons whom he had along with him. The latter, either ignorant, or pretending ignorance of the talents and resources of our hero, represented their presence as being absolutely necessary before any formidable force could be brought into the field; and Langtoft[105] charges the English barons with deceiving their sovereign in the affair, and concealing from him the real state of the country. It is a matter of notoriety, that about this time, Edward and his nobles were not on the best of terms. Having now, as he thought, in addition to Wales, insured the subjection and obedience of Scotland, and remembering the facility with which, by the aid of 30,000 Scots lent him by Alexander III., he overawed and suppressed the Earl of Gloucester and those who took part with him; he began to assume towards the English nobility an imperious and haughty demeanour, which both alarmed their fears and excited their jealousy. The unprincipled stretches of power which he had attempted since his triumphal entry into London after his victories in Scotland, had also sown the seeds of dissatisfaction among the inferior classes, who, no longer dazzled with