Never before did the fusing of two nationalities encounter more fierce and prolonged opposition.

Did ever patriotism pour out a swifter and deeper tide of chivalrous sentiment against merging one in another ?--against uniting two thrones and two peoples in one?
Did patriotism ever fight bloodier battles to prevent such a union, or cling to local sovereignty with a more desperate hold?
This is the Border-land! Look up the purpled steeps of these heathered hills.

The white lambs are looking, with their soft, meek eyes, into the grass-choked mouths of the rusty and dismantled cannon of the war of nationalities between England and Scotland.
The deed has been consummated.

The valor and patriotism of Wallace and Bruce could not prevent it.

The sheep of English and Scotch shepherds feed side by side on these mountain heights, in spite of Stirling and Bannockburn, of Flodden and Falkirk.