304 Death of Comyn. 



" So fell it in samyn tid, 



That at Dumfres, rycht thar besid, 



Schyr Jhone the Comyn soiornying maid ; 



The Brus lap on, and thiddir raid ; 



And thocht, for-owtyn mar letting, 



For to gwyt hym his discoueryng. 



Thiddir he raid, but langer let, 



And with Schyr Jhone the Comyn met, 



In the freris, at the hye awter, 



And schawyt him, with lauchand cher. 



The Endentur ; syne with a knyff 



Rycht in that eted, hym reft the ly£f. 



Schyr Edmund Cumyn, als was slayn, 



And othir also off mekill mayn. 



And nocht for thi yeit sum men sayis, 



At that debat fell othir wayis : 



But quhat sa euyr maid the debate, 



Thar — throuch he deyt, weill I wat. 



He mysdyd thar gretly, but wer 



That gave na gyrth to the awter. 



Therefor sa hard myscheiff him fell, 



That ik herd neuir in romanys tell 



Off man so hard sted as wes he. 



That efterwart com to sic boute." 



So far as I know at present, the only accounts thereof written 

 within ICO years of the event are Hemingburgh's, Matthew of 

 Westminster's, Barbour's, and Fordun's. All the other incidents 

 related seem to be accretions entirely legendary, and each of us 

 according to his temperament is at liberty to believe as much or 

 as little of them as he pleases. If anything can be shown to 

 have contemporary evidence for it, it may be taken as authentic. 

 I have never met in England, Scotland, or Ireland a single 

 individual who was not an admirer of the Bruce of Bannock- 

 burn, the liberator of Scotland ; but though all intelligent men 

 admire King Robert they are not obliged to disbelieve anything 

 because it may seem to be to the discredit of the hero. The 

 poet in the extract distinctly says that his hero did wrong, and 

 what Barbour thought and said we are at liberty to think and 

 say. 



In the passage from Barbour there is a mistake in the name 

 of John Comyn 's brother. Three MSS. have Edmund, two 

 MSS. Edward. The right name was Robert. There is only 

 one difficult word gryth, which means sanctuary. The line 

 means " That respected not the sanctuar}- of the altar. ' ' 



