The Scots are bold, hardy, and much inured to war. When they make their invasions into England, they march from twenty to four-and-twenty leagues without halting, as well by night as day, for they are all on horseback, except the camp-followers, who are on foot. The knights and esquires are well mounted on large bay horses, the common people on little galloways. They bring no carriages with them, on account of the mountains they have to pass in Northumberland; neither do they carry with them any provisions of bread or wine, for their custom and sobriety is such, in time of war, that they will live for a long time on flesh half sodden without bread, and drink the river water without wine. They have therefore no occasion for pots or pans, for they dress the flesh of their cattle in the skins, after they have taken them off; and being sure to find plenty of them in the country which they invade, they carry none with them. Under the flaps of his saddle each man carries a broad plate of metal, behind the saddle a little bag of oatmeal; when they have eaten too much of this sodden flesh, and their stomach appears weak and empty, they place this plate over the fire, mix with water their oatmeal, and, when the plate is heated, they put a little of the paste upon it, and make a thin cake, like a cracknell or biscuit, which they eat to warm their stomachs; it is therefore no wonder that they perform a longer day's march than other soldiers. THE RULE OF ISABELLA (1328). SOURCE.--Sismondi, _Histoire des Français_ (Paris, 1828), x. 14-17. Edward III., King of England, was only aged sixteen years; the administration of affairs was absolutely in the hands of his mother, Isabella of France, who was beginning to realise how hateful she was to the nation which she governed. A foreigner, and surrounded by foreigners, she was polluted in the eyes of the English by the blood of her husband, shed by her, and by her licentious conduct with Roger de Mortimer, her favourite. Fearing at any time a rebellion, she sought above all to diminish the number of her enemies, and to escape the possibility of a foreign war. With this end in view, she first made treaty[6] with Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, fully recognising the independence of his kingdom, surrendering to him all the titles and all the crown jewels, which Edward I. had taken from the Scots, and marrying her daughter Joan to David Bruce, son of Robert, and his heir-apparent, only seven years old.