Page:Chronicles of the Picts, chronicles of the Scots, and other early memorials of Scottish history.djvu/181

PEEFACE. clxxiii Edward accepted it, " salvo jure et clameo, de " regno Scotise, cum inde loqui voluerint." Every act of homage on the part of Scottish kings seems to have revived the controversy and given birth to a new chronicle ; and this was followed in 1280 by a still more elaborate edition of the Scottish version of the story. It is contained in the chronicle quoted in the " Scalachronica," and bearing to be compiled in this year. The tale is here much more circumstantially told. We have the origin of the Scots, their wanderings from Egypt to Spain, from thence to Ireland, and from Ireland to Scotland, where they settled under Fergus son of Ferthard. Then follows the statement that Fergus, son of Ferthard, was the first king of Scotland, and he is foUowed by the Scottish kings of Dalriada, ending with Alpin, who is said to have been the last of the Scots who reigned immediately before the Picts, and that the duration of their reign before the Picts was 305 years. We have then the tale of the arrival of the Picts, followed by the list of their kings, down to Drust, the son of Ferat, the last of them. We have then the introduction of a new colony of Scots from Ireland, and the destruc- tion of the king and nobles of the Picts by them by stratagem, and the statement of the recommence- ment of the reign of the kingdom of the Scots after the failure of the kingdom of the Picts, which kingdom of the Scots had commenced before the Picts, 443 years before the Incarnation. Then