ected Bruce, and Lamberton, Bishop of
Glasgow, joint regents in the name of Baliol; but this ill-assorted
coalition soon fell to pieces, as might have been expected, where the
views which one party entertained in secret were so utterly opposed to
the avowed purposes of all.

The policy which actuated Bruce on this occasion may be easily
explained. It was clear that Edward would never consent to the
restoration of Baliol, then in exile, and the Comyns had taken so
decided a part against him, that it seemed most improbable he would ever
consent to raise one of that family to the throne. Continuing,
therefore, the same line of duplicity with which he had commenced, and
which he had only abandoned for a single instant in the vain hope of
persuading the party of Wallace to openly adopt his claims, he now
endeavored by submission and affected attachment to win the favor of the
English monarch. Edward, he well knew, had the power, could he be
brought to entertain the inclination, to place him on the Scottish
throne, and if this point were once attained, Bruce trusted that means
would afterward occur of shaking off all dependence upon his benefactor.
In these designs he to a certain extent succeeded, but not in his main
object. If he was crafty, Edward was yet craftier. He had fallen into
the same error that his father had, in 1296, and was outwitted by the
superior political ability of him whom he had intended to deceive, and
who, it must be confessed, was equally insincere. Edward cheated both
father and son, by holding out to them the hope of a crown he never
meant them to attain, his object being to unite the two countries; an
excellent purpose in itself, if we could only bring ourselves to
overlook the fraud and violence by which it was to be accomplished.
When, therefore, the Comyns submitted, in 1304, and he proceeded to the
settlement of his new dominions, the Earl of Carrick found that his only
gain was the being employed among the commissioners in organizing a
system of government. He had, however, reaped no little advantage from
his dissimulation. While Baliol was an exile and Comyn in disgrace, he
had preserved his estates, and won the king's confidence without losing,
but rather augmenting, his influence with the Scotch. At the same time
he saw that Comyn was still powerful; his claims to the throne were more
generally admitted by the people, and without his concurrence nothing
could be effected. Thus situated, Bru