claim in right of his mother, who was a sister of John Balliol.  Between Bruce and Comyn there was a long-standing feud.  In 1299, at a meeting of the Great Council of Scotland at Peebles, Comyn had attacked Bruce, and they could only be separated by the use of violence.  On the 10th February, 1305-6, Bruce and the Comyn met in the church of the convent of the Minorite Friars at Dumfries.  Tradition tells that they met to adjust their conflicting claims, with a view to establishing the independence of the country in the person of one or other of the rivals; that a dispute arose in which they came to blows; and that Bruce, after inflicting a severe wound upon his enemy, left the church.  “I doubt I have slain the Red Comyn,” he said to his followers.  “Doubt?” was the reply of Sir Roger Fitzpatrick, “I’ll mak siccar.”  The actual circumstances of the affair are unknown to us; but Bruce may fairly be relieved of the suspicion of any premeditation, because it is most unlikely that he would have needlessly chosen to offend the Church by committing a murder within sanctuary.  The real interest attaching to the circumstances lies in the tradition that the object of the meeting was to organize a resistance against Edward I. Whether this was so or not, there can be no doubt that the result of the conference compelled the Bruce to place himself at the head of the national cause.  A Norman baron, born in England, he was by no means the natural leader for whose appearance men looked, and there was a grave chance of his failing to arouse the national sentiment.  But the murder of one claimant to the Scottish throne at the hands of the only other possible candidate, who thus placed himself in the position of undoubted heir, could scarcely have been forgiven by Edward I, even if the Comyn had not, for the past two years, proved a faithful servant of the English king.  There was no alternative, and, on the 27th March, 1306, Robert, Earl of Carrick and Lord of Annandale, was crowned King of the Scots at Scone.  The ancient royal crown of the Scottish kings had been removed by Balliol in 1296, and had fallen into the hands of Edward, but the Countess of Buchan placed on the Bruce’s head a hastily made coronet of gold.

It was far from an auspicious beginning.  It is difficult to give Bruce credit for much patriotic feeling, although, as we have seen, he had been one of the guardians who had maintained a semblance of independence.  The death of the Comyn had thrown against him the whole influence of the Church; he was excommunicate, and it was no sin to slay him.  The powerful family, whose head had been cut off by his hand, had vowed revenge, and its great influence was on the side of the English.  It is no small tribute to the force of the sentiment of nationality that the Scots rallied round such a leader, and it must be remembered that, from whatever reason the Bruce adopted the national cause, he proved in every respect worthy of a great occasion, and as time passed, he came to deserve the place he occupies as the hero of the epic of a nation’s freedom.