pite, at last began to recover their courage; and some of them having ventured into the Pictish territory, carried off Alpin's head from Abernethy, the capital of their dominions. In the mean time, Kenneth gained over the nobility to his side, and war was immediately renewed with great vigour. The Picts were not deficient in their preparations, and had now procured some assistance from England. The first battle was fought near Sterling; where the Picts, being deserted by their English auxiliaries were utterly defeated. Drusken escaped by the swiftness of his horse, and in a few days after made application to Kenneth for a cessation of hostilities; but as the Scottish monarch demanded a surrender of all the Pictish dominions, the treaty was instantly broken off. Kenneth pursued his good fortune, and conquered the counties of Merns, Angus, and Fife; but as he marched against Stirling, he received intelligence that these counties had again revolted, and cut off all the garrisons which he had left, and that Drusken was at the head of a considerable army in these parts. On this Kenneth hastened to oppose him, and a negoeiation again took place.— The result was still unfavourable; for Kenneth insisted on an absolute surrender of the counties of Fife, Mearns, and Angus; which being refused, both parties prepared for a decisive battle. The engagement was very bloody and desperate, the Picts fighting like men in despair. Drusken renewed the battle seven times; but at last was entirely defeated and killed, and the counties in dispute became the immediate property of the conqueror. Kenneth did not fail to improve his victory, by reducing the remainder of the Pictish territories; which he is said to have done with the greatest cruelty, and even to have totally exterminated the inhabitants. The capital, called Camelon, supposed to have heen Abernethy) held out four months; but was at length taken by surprise, and every living creature in it destroyed. This was followed by the reduction of the Maiden Castle, now that of Edinburgh;

which was abandoned by the garrison, who fled to Northumberland. After the reduction of these important places, the rest of the country made no great resistance, and Kenneth became master of the whole kingdom of Scotland.

Besides this war with the Picts, Kenneth is said to have been successful against the Saxons, though of these wars we have very little account. Having reigned ten years in peace, after his subjugation of the Picts, and composed a code of laws for the good of his people, Kenneth died of a fistula, at Fort Teviot, near Duplin, in Perthshire, in the year 854. Before his time the seat of the Scots government had been in Argyleshire; but he removed it to Scone, by transferring thither the famous stone supposed to be the palladium of Scotland, and which was afterwards carried off by Edward I. of England, and lodged in Westminster Abbey.

Kenneth II. surnamed the Great, by some historians, was succeeded by his brother Donald V. who is represented as a man of the worst character; so that the remaining Picts, who had fled out of Scotland, were encouraged to apply to the Saxons for assistance, promising to make Scotland tributary to the Saxon power after it should be conquered. This proposal was accepted; and the confederates invaded Scotland with a powerful army, and took the town of Berwick; however, they were soon after defeated by Donald, who took also their ships and provisions. This capture proved their ruin; for some of the ships being laden with wine, the Scots indulged themselves so much with that liquor, that they became incapable of defending themselves; the consequence of this was that the confederates rallying their troops, attacked them in that state of intoxication. The Scots were defeated with excessive slaughter; twenty thousand of them lay dead on the spot; the king and his principal nobility were taken prisoners: and all the country, from the Tweed to the Forth, became the property

of

of the conquerors. Still, however, the conquerors were unable to pursue their victory farther, and a peace was concluded, on condition that the Saxons should be masters of all the conquered country.Thus the Forth and Clyde because the southern boundaries of the Scottish dominions. It was agreed that the Forth should from that time forward be called the Scots Sea; and it was made capital for any Scotsman to set his foot on English ground. They were to erect no forts near the English contines, to pay an annual tribute of one thousand pounds, and to give up sixty of the sons of their chief nobility as hostages.

A mint

was erected by the Saxon prince named Osbreth, at Stirling; and a cross raised on the bridge at that place, with the following inscription, implying that this place was the boundary between Scotland and England:

"Anglos a Scotis separat crux ista remotis:

Arma hic stant Bruti, stant Scoti sub hac cruce tuti."

After the conclusion of this treaty, so humiliating to the Scots, the Picts, finding that their interest had been entirely neglected, fled to Norway, while those who remained in England were massacred. Donald shared the common fate of unfortunate princes, being dethroned and shut up in prison, where he killed himself, in the year 858. The character, however, of Donald, and the whole account of these transactions, rest on the credit of a single author, nainely Boece; for other writers represent Donald as a hero, and successful in his wars: but the obscurity in which the whole of this period of Scottish history is involved, renders! it impossible to determine these matters.

Donald V. was succeeded by his nephew Constantine II. the son of Kenneth II. in whose reign Scotland was first invaded by the Danes, who prove such formidable enemies to the English. This invasion was occasioned by some exiled Picts, who fled to Denmark, where they prevailed upon the king of that coun G

try

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try to send his two brothers, Hungar and Hubba, to recover the Pictish dominions from Constantine.These princes landed on the coast of Fife, where they committed the most horrid barbarities, not sparing even the ecclesiastics who had taken refuge in the island of May at the mouth of the Forth. Constantine defeated one of the Danish armies commanded by Hubba, near the water of Leven; but was himself defeated and taken prisoner by Hungar, who caused him to be beheaded at a place since called the Devil's Cave, in the year 874. This unfortunate action cost the Scots ten thousand men; but the Danes seem not to have purchased their victory very easily, as they were obliged immediately afterwards to abandon their conquests, and retire to their own country. The Danish monuments, however, that are to be seen in Fife, leave no room to doubt that many bloody scenes had been acted here between the Scots and Danes besides that above mentioned. Constantine II. was succeeded by his brother Eth, (or his son, as Monipenny stiles him), surnamed the Swift-footed, from his agility. Being devoted to luxury, his nobles took him and put him in prison, where he died in three days, of melancholy, in the second year of his reign, A. D. 876. He was succeeded by Gregory the son of Dongal, contemporary with Alfred of England, and both, princes deservedly acquired the sirname of Great.The Danes at their departure had left the Picts in possession of Fife; against whom Gregory immediately marched, and quickly drove them into the north of England, where their confederates were already masters of Northumberland and York, In their way thither they threw a garrison into the town of Berwick; but this was presently reduced by Gregory, who put to the sword all the Danes, but spared the lives of the Picts. From Berwick, Gregory pursued the Danes into Northumberland, where he defeated them; and passed the winter in Berwick. He then marched against the Cumbrians, who being mostly Picts were

in alliance with the Danes, and easily overcame them, and obliged them to yield up all the lands they had formerly possessed belonging to the Scots, and he agreed to protect them from the Danes. In a short time, however, Constantine the king of the Cumbrians violated the convention he had made, and invaded Annandale; but was defeated and killed by Gregory near Lochmaben. After this victory, Gregory reduced the counties of Cumberland and Westmorland, which, it is said, were ceded to him by Alfred the Great; and indeed the situation of Alfred's affairs at this time renders such a cession probable. Gregory next engaged in a war with the Irish, to support Donach an Irish prince, against two rebellious noblemen. The Irish were the first agressors, and invaded Galloway; but being repulsed with great loss, Gregory went over to Ireland in person, where the two chieftains, who had been enemies to each other before, now joined their forces to oppose the common enemy. The first engagement proved fatal to one of their chiefs, named Brian, who was killed with a great number of his followers. After this victory Gregory reduced Dundalk and Drogheda. On his way to Dublin he was opposed by a chieftain, named Corneil, who shared the fate of his confederate, being also killed, and his army entirely defeated. Gregory then became guardian to the young prince, whom he came to assist, appointed a regency, and obliged them to swear that they would never admit into the country either a Dane or an Englishman, without his consent. Having then placed garrisons in the strongest fortresses, he returned to Scotland, where he built the city of Aberdeen; and died in the year 894, at his castle of Dundore in the Garioch, in the eighteenth year of his reign.

Gregory was succeeded by Donald VI. the son of Constantine II, who imitated the virtues of his predecessor. The Scotch historians unanimously agree, that Northumberland was, at that time, in the possession of their countrymen; while the English as unanimously

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affirm