Submission of Comyn the Governor

Soon after this expiring effort, the governor, with all his adherents, submitted to Edward. The Earls of Pembroke and Ulster, with Sir Henry Percy, met Comyn at Strathorde in Fife, on the 9th of February; and a negotiation took place, in which the late regent and his followers, after stipulating for the preservation of their lives, liberties, and lands, delivered themselves lip, and agreed to the infliction of any pecuniary fine which the conqueror should think right. The castles and strengths of Scotland were to remain in the hands of Edward, and the government of the country to be modelled and administered at his pleasure. From this negotiation those were specially excepted, for whom, as more obstinate in their rebellion, the Kins of En£rland reserved a more signal punishment. In this honourable roll we find Wishart bishop of Glasgow, James the Steward of Scotland, Sir John Soulis the late associate of Comyn in the government of the kingdom, David de Graham, Alexander de Lindesay, Simon Fraser, Thomas Bois, and William Wallace. To all these persons, except Wallace, certainj;erms, more or less rigorous, were held out, on accepting which, Edward guaranteed to them their lives and their liberty; and we know that sooner or later they accepted the conditions. But of this great man a rigorous exclusion was made. "As for William Wallace," I quote the words of the deed, "it is covenanted, that if he thinks proper to surrender himself, it must be unconditionally to the will and mercy of our lord the king." Such a surrender, it is well known, gave Edward the unquestionable right of ordering his victim to immediate execution.

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