ately took at Carlisle, and I cannot deny the fact; but the oath was
a foolish one, and exacted by fear; it was my body that took the oath,
and not my mind; but its having been taken at all is now to me the cause
of much remorse and sorrow; yet erelong I hope to be absolved from it by
our Holy Father. In the meanwhile, I am resolved to go and join my
fellow-countrymen, and assist them in their efforts to restore to its
liberty the land of my nativity, for none, as you know, is an enemy of
his own flesh, and as for me, I love my people. Let me beseech you,
then, to adopt the same resolution, and you shall ever be esteemed my
most dear friends and approved counsellors."

To this request the men of Annandale deferred giving any answer till the
morning, and took advantage of the night to retire, so that Bruce could
only join the insurgents with his own vassals of Carrick.

The first disappointment might have taught Bruce to desist from his
design, for which the time was not yet ripe; but blinded by ambition, he
entered into a strict alliance with Wishart, the Bishop of Glasgow, and
the Steward of Scotland, the principal leaders of the insurrection. Upon
joining his new associates, he found their purposes utterly incompatible
with his views upon the crown. Wallace, the soul of the party, had ever
supported the claims of Baliol, and his great supporter, Sir Andrew
Moray, a near connection of the Comyns, had the same object. During the
campaign, therefore, of 1298, which concluded with the battle of
Falkirk, Bruce shut himself up in his castle of Ayr, maintaining a
cautious neutrality, while his father continued to reside in England and
to serve Edward in his wars. The king, however, did not admire this cold
system of neutrality. He in consequence determined to attack the castle
of Ayr, and Bruce, dreading the consequences, razed it to the ground,
and sought an asylum in the mountain fastnesses of Carrick.

In the following year, when Wallace had resigned the regency, John
Comyn, of Badenoch, and Sir John de Soulis, were chosen governors of the
kingdom, and the party of Bruce availed themselves of the opportunity to
advance his influence by opposition to those in power, and by defeating
every measure taken for the public benefit. An attempt was made by those
who really wished well to the national cause, or who dreaded that their
disunion might be fatal to all alike, to reconcile the contending
factions; with this view they el