The Fortunes of Nigel (Unabridged). Walter Scott

      Chapter I

       Table of Contents

      Now Scot and English are agreed,

       And Saunders hastes to cross the Tweed,

       Where, such the splendours that attend him,

       His very mother scarce had kend him.

       His metamorphosis behold,

       From Glasgow frieze to cloth of gold;

       His back-sword, with the iron hilt,

       To rapier, fairly hatch'd and gilt;

       Was ever seen a gallant braver!

       His very bonnet's grown a beaver.

       The Reformation.

      The long-continued hostilities which had for centuries separated the south and the north divisions of the Island of Britain, had been happily terminated by the succession of the pacific James I. to the English Crown. But although the united crown of England and Scotland was worn by the same individual, it required a long lapse of time, and the succession of more than one generation, ere the inveterate national prejudices which had so long existed betwixt the sister kingdoms were removed, and the subjects of either side of the Tweed brought to regard those upon the opposite bank as friends and as brethren.

      These prejudices were, of course, most inveterate during the reign of King James. The English subjects accused him of partiality to those of his ancient kingdom; while the Scots, with equal injustice, charged him with having forgotten the land of his nativity, and with neglecting those early friends to whose allegiance he had been so much indebted.

      The temper of the king, peaceable even to timidity, inclined him perpetually to interfere as mediator between the contending factions, whose brawls disturbed the Court. But, notwithstanding all his precautions, historians have recorded many instances, where the mutual hatred of two nations, who, after being enemies for a thousand years, had been so very recently united, broke forth with a fury which menaced a general convulsion; and, spreading from the highest to the lowest classes, as it occasioned debates in council and parliament, factions in the court, and duels among the gentry, was no less productive of riots and brawls amongst the lower orders.

      While these heart-burnings were