should make him feared as well as beloved. The qualities of Robert
the Third were the reverse of all these. In youth he had indeed seen
battles; but, without incurring disgrace, he had never manifested the
chivalrous love of war and peril, or the eager desire to distinguish
himself by dangerous achievements, which that age expected from
all who were of noble birth and had claims to authority.

Besides, his military career was very short. Amidst the tumult of
a tournament, the young Earl of Carrick, such was then his title,
received a kick from the horse of Sir James Douglas of Dalkeith,
in consequence of which he was lame for the rest of his life, and
absolutely disabled from taking share either in warfare or in the
military sports and tournaments which were its image. As Robert
had never testified much predilection for violent exertion, he did
not probably much regret the incapacities which exempted him from
these active scenes. But his misfortune, or rather its consequences,
lowered him in the eyes of a fierce nobility and warlike people.
He was obliged to repose the principal charge of his affairs now
in one member, now in another, of his family, sometimes with the
actual rank, and always with the power, of lieutenant general of
the kingdom. His paternal affection would have induced him to use
the assistance of his eldest son, a young man of spirit and talent,
whom in fondness he had created Duke of Rothsay, in order to give
him the present possession of a dignity next to that of the throne.
But the young prince's head was too giddy, and his hand too feeble to
wield with dignity the delegated sceptre. However fond of power,
pleasure was the Prince's favourite pursuit; and the court was
disturbed, and the country scandalised, by the number of fugitive
amours and extravagant revels practised by him who should have set
an example of order and regularity to the youth of the kingdom.