For several centuries after the fall of Rome, the state of society was exceedingly unsettled and turbulent. The priests and the powerful barons were continually at variance with the kings, neither of them being willing to consent to a division of power; and the settlement of the Saracens, or Moors, in Spain, produced a spirit of ferocious discord in religion. The daughters of princes and nobles lived in perpetual danger; for bold, ambitious men, who coveted their kingdoms, or their fortunes, often stormed their castles, carried them off, and compelled them to marry, without pretending to consult their inclinations. Thus the Saxon heiresses were divided among the retainers of William the Conqueror. The annals of Scotland furnish a curious instance of these warlike marriages. Sir William Scott made an incursion upon the territories of Murray of Elibank, and was taken prisoner. Murray, in accordance with the barbarous spirit of the times, sentenced his enemy to immediate death; but his wife said, “Hout, na, mon! Would ye hang the winsome young laird of Harden, when ye have three ill-favored daughters to marry?” “Right,” answered the baron of Elibank; “he shall either marry our mickle-mouthed Meg, or strap for it.” The prisoner at first resisted the proposal; but he finally preferred “mickle-mouthed Meg” to the halter; and the union thus inauspiciously formed proved exceedingly happy. The father or guardian of the bride generally gave her to the bridegroom with these words: “I give thee ----, my daughter, or my ward, to have the keeping of the keys of thy house, and one third of the money thou art possessed of, or shall possess hereafter, and to enjoy all the other rights appointed to wives by law.” The bridegroom generally bestowed handsome presents on the bride, and she received a dowry proportioned to her father’s wealth. The young couple were usually escorted to church by a troop of friends. The priest crowned them with flowers and pronounced a blessing. Maidens were married beneath a canopy; but this custom was not observed by widows. Among the Franks, marriages were not legal unless solemnized in a full court, where a buckler had three times been lifted up, and three causes openly tried. Soter, the fifth bishop of Rome, is said to have been the first who declared marriages illegal unless solemnized by a priest. A magnificent feast was given in honor of noble marriages, where immense quantities of wine were drank, and music, dancing, and minstrel songs enlivened the scene. All the retainers, or vassals, of the feudal lord, partook of the banquet, which of course was spread in a spacious hall. The guests sat at table according to their rank; and a huge salt-cellar marked the dividing line between the noble and the ignoble. Below the salt-cellar, the food was coarser, and the liquors of a cheap kind.