to have existed at the period when the statute book, as well as
the page of the chronicler, begins to present constant evidence of
the difficulties to which the crown was exposed, while the haughty
house of Douglas all but overbalanced its authority on the Southern
border, and the North was at the same time torn in pieces by
the yet untamed savageness of the Highland races, and the daring
loftiness to which some of the remoter chieftains still carried
their pretensions.

The well authenticated fact of two powerful clans having deputed
each thirty champions to fight out a quarrel of old standing, in
presence of King Robert III, his brother the Duke of Albany, and
the whole court of Scotland, at Perth, in the year of grace 1396,
seemed to mark with equal distinctness the rancour of these mountain
feuds and the degraded condition of the general government of the
country; and it was fixed upon accordingly as the point on which
the main incidents of a romantic narrative might be made to hinge.
The characters of Robert III, his ambitious brother, and his
dissolute son seemed to offer some opportunities of interesting
contrast; and the tragic fate of the heir of the throne, with its
immediate consequences, might serve to complete the picture of
cruelty and lawlessness.

Two features of the story of this barrier battle on the Inch of Perth
--the flight of one of the appointed champions, and the reckless
heroism of a townsman, that voluntarily offered for a small piece
of coin to supply his place in the mortal encounter--suggested
the imaginary persons, on whom much of the novel is expended. The
fugitive Celt might have been easily dealt with, had a ludicrous
style of colouring been adopted; but it appeared to the Author that