There is no impossibility.
Looking next at Scott's Auld Maitland the story is that King Edward I.
reigned for fifty years. He had a nephew Edward (an apocryphal person:
such figures are common in ballads), who wished to take part in the
invasion of Scotland. The English are repulsed by old Maitland from
his "darksome house" on the Leader. The English, however, (stanza xv.)
conquer Scotland, and join Edward I. in France. They besiege that
town,
Which some call Billop-Grace (xviii.).
Here Maitland's three sons are learning at school, as Scots often were
educated in France. They see that Edward's standard quarters the arms
of France, and infer that he has conquered their country. They "will
try some jeopardy." Persuading the English that they are themselves
Englishmen, they ask leave to carry the royal flag. The eldest is told
that he is singularly like Auld Maitland. In anger he stabs the
standard-bearer, seizes the flag, and, with his brothers, spurs to
Billop-Grace, where the French captain receives them.
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