t for ever by thy guile."[51]

In Scotland, the party of independence was, for the time, helpless.
Edward and Balliol divided the country between them. The eight counties
of Dumfries, Roxburgh, Berwick, Selkirk, Peebles, Haddington, Edinburgh,
and Linlithgow formed the English king's share of the spoil, along with
a reassertion of his supremacy over the rest of Scotland. English
officers began to rule between the Tweed and the Forth. But the cause of
independence was never really hopeless. Balliol and the English party
were soon weakened by internal dissensions, and the leaders on the
patriotic side were not slow to take advantage of the opportunities thus
given them. It was, indeed, necessary to send King David and his wife to
France, and they landed at Boulogne in May, 1334. But from France, in
return, came the young Earl of Moray, who, along with Robert the High
Steward, son of Marjory Bruce, and next heir to the throne, took up the
duties of guardians. The arrival of Moray gave fresh life to the cause,
but there is little interest in the records of the struggle. The Scots
won two small successes at the Borough-Muir of Edinburgh and at
Kilblain. But the victory in the skirmish at the Borough-Muir (August,
1335) was more unfortunate than defeat, for it deprived Scotland for
some time of the services of the Earl of Moray. He had captured Guy de
Namur and conducted him to the borders, and was himself taken prisoner
while on his journey northwards. Sir Andrew Moray of Bothwell, who had
been made guardian after the battle of Dupplin, and was captured in
April, 1333, had now been ransomed, and he was again recognized as
regent for David II. So strong was the Scottish party that Balliol had
to flee to England for assistance, and, in 1336, Edward III again
appeared in Scotland. It was not a very heroic effort for the future
victor of Crecy; he marched northwards to Elgin, and, on his way home,
burned the town of Aberdeen.

As in the first war the turning-point had proved to be the death of
Edward I in the summer of 1307, so now, exactly thirty years later, came
another decisive event. In the autumn of 1337, Edward III first styled
himself King of France, and the diversion of his energies from the Scots
to their French allies rendered possible the final overthrow of Balliol
and the Scottish traitors. The circumstances are, however, parallel only
to the extent that an intervention of fortune rendered possible the
victory of S