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were not deterred from persisting in the attempt to regain their independence, however hopeless it might appear. They rallied again and again, after repeated defeats and losses, until, at length, the principal nobility of Scotland, moved by jealousy of each other, and corrupted by the flatteries of Edward, deserted, and finally betrayed, their gallant leader. The satisfaction of Edward was too great to be concealed, when he learned that Wallace had been delivered into his hands, by the treachery of Sir John Monteith, one of his own countrymen: unmindful of the generosity which had distinguished his youth, he now breathed revenge against his fallen adversary, and ordered him to be conducted to London, where he was publicly executed as a traitor, though he had never been a subject of the English crown."

"Oh, how unjust," said Susan. "Do tell us some more anecdotes." "Oh, pray do,” said Ann."

"I am sorry to refuse you," answered Mr. Wilmot; "but it is two o'clock, and it is time to join your mamma. Besides," continued he, smiling, "we should even use our rational pleasures with moderation, if we mean to continue the enjoyment of them."

"Well, then, dear Mr. Wilmot, you will let us come soon again,” cried the girls.

"Yes, my dears," he replied. "But see, the sun is shining: we can take a little walk before dinner: it will refresh you."

The party then left the gallery,

25

CHAP. III.

As it is not my intention to enter so fully into the history of Susan and Ann, as it is to relate the true stories they heard from Mr. Wilmot, I shall only just tell my young readers, that the following day proving fine, they enjoyed the promised excursion on the water. The weather now becoming very sultry, and the children unable to take their morning walks, their mother and Mr. Wilmot, who sought to mingle instruction with amusement, proposed that they should spend an hour or two, in the middle of every day, in the picture gallery.

The two little girls were delighted with this proposition, and followed with alacrity their good-humoured conductor, as he kindly led the way.

When they had entered the room, Mr. Wilmot stopped before a fine sketch of an entrance into Oxford; and whilst pointing out to the children the college at which he had been

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educated, he enquired whether they had ever been told who were the first founders of the university.

The children answering in the negative, Mr. Wilmot proceeded to tell them that it was founded in the year 886*, in the second year after St. Grimbald's coming over to England. Its first regents and readers in divinity were, St. Neot, an abbot and eminent professor of theology; and St. Grimbald, an eloquent and most excellent interpreter of the Holy Scriptures: grammar and rhetoric were taught by Asser, a monk of extraordinary learning; logic, music, and arithmetic, by John, a monk of St. David's; and geometry and astronomy by another John, a monk and a colleague of St. Grimbald, a man of acute wit and immense erudition. "These lectures," says the annalist, "were often honoured with the presence of the most illustrious and invincible king Alfred, whose memory, to every judicious taste, shall be sweeter than honey." From this small beginning arose this now celebrated university, which is at once the ornament and pride of the land.

A few observations made by Mrs. Spencer, who had joined the party, led Mr. Wilmot to

See Camden's Britannica.

give the following sketch of the progress of Christianity, from its first introduction into this country, together with the origin and establishment of the protestant religion.

"Various are the opinions," said he, "entertained respecting the precise period when, or by whom, Christianity was first introduced into this happy island. Nor can it tend to our improvement, though it might gratify our curiosity, to know, whether St. Paul, when he visited the 'western isles,' included England; or whether his immediate predecessors, or followers, preached the 'glad tidings of salvation' to the natives. It is sufficient for us to know, that the gospel found its way hither some time in the first century; since, in the persecution of the Christians, by the cruel and tyrannical Nero, in the year 64, many of them fled hither for an asylum. Its progress in Great Britain, during the three first centuries, is certainly involved in some obscurity; though it probably increased during the fourth century, as we find three English bishops present, at the council held at Arminium, respecting the Arian controversy.

"About this period the Saxons, having subdued the country, pursued, with unrelenting cruelty, the Christians: multitudes of whom

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