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men

We are all commin of Auld lineage,
Of lords of fee and heritage,
That had nothing mair ugsome
Than to live in Thraldom ;-

but with the proverbial fickleness or faithlessness of his race, he continued to coquet with either party until the dagger of the Earl of Carrick ended his indecision.

The blow

That on the slippery altar-steps

Laid the Red Comyn low, raised against Robert Bruce the bitter and relentless hostility of the race. They pursued him like sleuthhounds. One or other of the clan was always upon his track. With their aid the English reduced the castle of Kildrummy, and captured the chivalrous young brother to whom Bruce was attached by ties of almost womanly tenderness. There is something peculiarly touching in the grant made by the dying King, twenty years after that brother was in his bloody grave, to an hospital in the neighbourhood, in puram et perpetuam eleemosynam pro animæ Nigelli de Bruys, fratris nostri,'-the memorial of an undying regard! At Kingsland they routed his army, and on several occasions nearly succeeded in taking him prisoner. But at length the tide turned in the King's favour. Twice the Earl of Buchan met him at Inverury. Barbour has described the meetings in that rugged old chronicle of his-rugged indeed, yet animate in every page with poetic and chivalrous fire. The Red Comyn

had been slain :

Thiddir he raid, but langer let And with Schyr Johne the Cumyn met, In the Freris, at the hye Awter, And schawt him, with lauchand cher The endentur; syne with a knyff Richt in that sted, hym reft the lyff,— and the Earl had vowed vengeance:

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'And yarnys mair, na ony thing, Wengeance of you, Schyr King, to tak For Schyr Jhone the Cumyn his sak That quhilum in Dumfress wes sleyn.' The King said, 'Sa our Lord me sayn I had gret causs him for to slay. And giff it fall that thai will fycht, Giff they assaile we sall defend, Syne fall eftre quhat God will send.' But when he came to Inverury a deadly sickness fell upon the King. Hearing of this mishap the Earl assembled his kinsfolk, Mowbray, Brechin, and their retainers, and marched upon the diminished encampment:

To the Slenauch with all thair men, For till assaile the king then, Was liand in till his seckness. This wes eftyr the Martymes, Quhen snaw had helyt all the land. During three days the armies looked at each other, the archers only being engaged in incidental skirmishes, until the royalists thought it prudent to retire to the hill-country. So they placed the sick King in the midst of his captains, and bearing him upon a litter marched steadily with resolute countenance past the enemy, who could not muster courage to attack that serried array of desperate soldiers. The picture, as painted by Barbour, is fine and striking. The tumultuous crowd of eager enemies awed into sudden fear-the slow and mournful, but undismayed march of the hardy veterans-the rude litter, with the pale King stretched motionless upon it, like some knightly effigy with clasped hands upon the tomb-sick unto death as it seemed, but even in his winding-sheet a great, resolute, and awe-inspiring man!

The King and the Earl met again in the same place next spring, when the latter was utterly routed. This victory,' says Bellenden, wes sa plesand to King Robert that he gat

6

his heil thairthrow.' Barbour asserts that Comyn fled from the battle-field straight to the English Court

Till Inglond fled the erle of Bowchquane,
Schyr Jhone Mowbray is with him gane;
And wer resett with the King.
Bot thai had baith bot schort lesting;
For thei deyt sone eftre syne.

This account, however, is barely correct; for the Earl retreated at first into his own country, where he was followed by Edward, the King's brother. At Aiky Brae, near Old Deer, the Comyn fought his last fight. This Aiky Brae had already proved an unlucky spot for the race. The second earl was killed there when out hunting, by a fall from his horse. He had ridiculed Thomas of Ercyldoune, and the soothsayer had predicted his doom :

By Aiky-side thy horse shall ride, He shall stumble, and thou shalt fa'; Thy neck-bane shall break in twa, And maugre all thy kin and thee, Thy own belt thy bier shall be. And now upon the same steep declivity, with its blasted rocks and wintry pines and stunted heather, the final discomfiture of the great house took place. The Earl himself escaped to England, but his clan was almost extirpated.

The King took indeed signal vengeance. The Comyns were his most bitter enemies; and he probably hated them not only on account of their unappeasable animosity, but because he had done them a cruel wrong which lay heavy upon his conscience. So he wasted their country with fire and sword

He gert his men bryn all Bowchane Fra end till end, and sparyt nane; And heryit it then on sic maner That eftre that weile fifty year, Men menyt 'the Herschip of Bowchane.' The inhabitants were put to the sword. More than thirty of the clan were beheaded in one day, and buried together in the grave of the headless Comyns.' The great woods of oak were burned. To this hour the desolation and nakedness of the district attest the cruel severity of the punishment that was inflicted. The name of Comyn was proscribed. Those of the race who had adhered to Bruce were forced to adopt different designations. The ancestor of the family of Achmacoy is said to have been a son of the Earl, and to have remained true to his allegiance. He took the name of Buchan, a name still honourably transmitted. Their possessions were confiscated and bestowed on the partisans of the monarchy. So complete was the destruction, that of a name,' says a chronicle of the

age, which numbered at one time three earls and more than thirty belted knights, there remained no memorial in the land, save the orisons of the monks of Deer.' Nor were these 'orisons' apparently long continued. For the superior of their once favoured abbey was present at the Parliament held at Cambuskenneth in 1314; and we learn that he affixed his seal to the celebrated ordinance then directed against the Comyns. This crowning ingratitude might surely have been spared.

Thus did the good King Robert triumph over his enemies-not unaided, as the Scottish writers believed, by more than mortal auxiliaries. On the day of the battle of Bannockburn, 'ane knicht with people of Aberdeen, and discoursed schinand armour' appeared to the to them of the great victory that was being gained over the English

men.

It is said (remarks Hector Boece), in the nicht afore this battal, II. men, of uncouth habit, come to the Abbot of Glassinbery in Ingland, for it was ane abbay of hospitalite, and desirit luging. The abbot ressavit thame pleasandly; and, quhen he had demandit thame quhat thay war, and quhare thay war passand to, they schew, that thay war servandis of God, and send be him to help the Scottis at Banockburn. On the morow, the abbot fand tham away or evir the yetis wer opnit, and thair beddis standing in the same array as they war left. It was belevit, thairfore, that thay war angellis, send, be provision of God, to defend the Scottis in their just materis, againis the tyranny of Inglishmen.

The Earls of Buchan were among the earliest families in Scotland who added supporters to their armorial bearings; and those chosen by Earl John were, as we learn from Balfour, two snakes or vipers.' The device, if selected to illustrate the character of the house, was not perhaps inappropriate. The popular judgment at least undoubtedly attributed to the Comyns hereditary treachery and faithlessness. They were described as a smooth, false, fickle, implacable race. The monkish annalists indeed tell us quaintly that they were addicted to religion;' and the number of religious houses they endowed in Buchan attests the magnificent patronage they bestowed

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upon the church. But the fanaticism of the devotee was not unfrequently in those ages combined with the treacherous vices of the tyrant; nay, so frequently was the spectacle exhibited, that the union at length became proverbial. We must not forget, however, that the accounts which have been transmitted to us proceeded from hostile pens, from writers who lived under the rule of their great enemy, from writers who themselves witnessed the terrible retribution that had fallen upon the illustrious and ill-fated house. The truth would seem to be that while the Comyns were often arrogant, ambitious, and unscrupulous, they were yet in the main men of virtue, courage, and resource. Their great abilities cannot be denied. For three generations the houses of Badenoch and Buchan produced a succession of astute politicians and sagacious statesmen. No doubt the policy of the leaders was often dictated by personal considerations, but as a whole it displayed felicity of resource and breadth of view; and in one conspicuous particular-in their firm adherence, namely, through good report and ill report, through good fortune and evil fortune, to the patriotic or national party-we are entitled to claim for men whose interests and sympathies were in many respects identified with an English monarchy and a Norman King, the virtues of courage and disinterestedness.

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houses, splendidly endowed, were erected at Foveran, at Deer, at Turreff, and other places; and every rocky pinnacle along that barren coast was covered with castellated works. The hoarse chant, which grew louder and harsher as the sails of uncouth pattern gathered stealthily out of the horizon, no longer startled the peaceful warders. The northern pirates found the familiar landing-place vigilantly guarded, and were often attacked on their own element* by the wellappointed 'galleys' of the Earl. The Castle of Kinedar, the family seat of the Comyn, commanded the fertile valley of the Deveron. Dundarg was literally built among the waves. The shattered but massive walls of Slains cling to the rocks that overhang the bay where the Viking fought his last battle on Scottish ground. The light sand has drifted across the lonely keep and chapel of Rattray; but Inverallochy and Cairnbulg-fragments of antique strength and comelinessstill rise above the desolate bents, no longer populous as of yore, and silent, save for the curlew or the plover. All these-Kinedar, Dundarg, Slains, Rattray, Inverallochy, Cairnbulg-were strongholds of the great house, and were built, it is believed, during the century of their

supremacy.

Upon the ruins of the Comyn estate various Buchan families of note arose. It is not, however, precisely known in what way the division was effected. One account asserts that Alicia and Margaret, the two daughters of the last Earl, married sons of the Earl of Ross and of Keith the Marischal, and that the estate was divided between their husbands. Cairns, it is added, were erected on three conspicuous eminences that intersect the district -Parcock, Mickle Crichie, and the hill at Pitfour-to indicate the line of march between the properties. A ballot followed, when the land on the east of this line fell to the Keith; on the west of it to the Ross.