d
concealed in whose dress he found letters that proved Comyn's treachery.
However this may be, they were likely enough to quarrel in any case,
being hot-headed rivals; and, whatever they quarrelled about, they
certainly did quarrel in the church where they met, and Bruce drew his
dagger and stabbed Comyn, who fell upon the pavement. When Bruce came
out, pale and disturbed, the friends who were waiting for him asked what
was the matter? 'I think I have killed Comyn,' said he. 'You only think
so?' returned one of them; 'I will make sure!' and going into the church,
and finding him alive, stabbed him again and again. Knowing that the
King would never forgive this new deed of violence, the party then
declared Bruce King of Scotland: got him crowned at Scone--without the
chair; and set up the rebellious standard once again.

When the King heard of it he kindled with fiercer anger than he had ever
shown yet. He caused the Prince of Wales and two hundred and seventy of
the young nobility to be knighted--the trees in the Temple Gardens were
cut down to make room for their tents, and they watched their armour all
night, according to the old usage: some in the Temple Church: some in
Westminster Abbey--and at the public Feast which then took place, he
swore, by Heaven, and by two swans covered with gold network which his
minstrels placed upon the table, that he would avenge the death of Comyn,
and would punish the false Bruce. And before all the company, he charged
the Prince his son, in case that he should die before accomplishing his
vow, not to bury him until it was fulfilled. Next morning the Prince and
the rest of the young Knights rode away to the Border-country to join the
English army; and the King, now weak and sick, followed in a
horse-litter.

Bruce, after losing a battle and undergoing many dangers and much misery,
fled to Ireland, where he lay concealed through the winter. That winter,
Edward passed in hunting down and executing Bruce's relations and
adherents, sparing neither youth nor age, and showing no touch of pity or
sign of mercy. In the following spring, Bruce reappeared and gained some
victories. In these frays, both sides were grievously cruel. For
instance--Bruce's two brothers, being taken captives desperately wounded,
were ordered by the King to instant execution. Bruce's friend Sir John
Douglas, taking his own Castle of Douglas out of the hands of an English
Lord, roasted the dead bodies of