The treachery towards Bruce, which has been charged against him by all authorities except Lord Hailes, also tended to deepen the stain on his character. This charge, whether true or false, we have no means of ascertaining. A number of the objections stated by his Lordship against it are, however, of considerable weight. That a bond existed between them of the tenor already described, there is little doubt; and that the terms of this bond became afterwards matter of dispute, there is some reason to believe, as the fulfilment of it would have been dangerous to both. For had Bruce been placed on the throne by the assistance of Cumyn, and the latter had received the estates of Bruce, according to agreement, he would have been a subject far too powerful for the crown; and _vice versa_ in the case of Bruce. The quarrel, therefore, which subsequently took place in the chapel of Dumfries, and which ended in the death of Cumyn, (the particulars of which are known to every reader), might have arisen in an altercation respecting the difficulties involved in the completion of the bond, without either party having been guilty of a breach of faith. It was no doubt the policy of Bruce and his confederates, that the stain of treachery should be affixed on the name of Cumyn, as it afforded the only plausible excuse for committing a murder in a place of such reputed sanctity. Indeed the circumstance of the latter having requested an interview within the precincts of a church, showed nothing like a premeditated intention to quarrel; but since the deed was committed, it seemed necessary to the future safety and views of Bruce and his faction, that with the influence the character of the Cumyns should be diminished. That they assisted in this last object themselves, is but too apparent; otherwise it would be difficult to account for that odium which afterwards became attached to them. For while the Scots, in the Low country, cried out against the “fause Cumyn’s Kyn,” their vassals in Badenoch and Lochaber re-echoed the charge, till the very name became cognominal with deceit; so much so, that the following proverb is at this day remembered in those parts of the Highlands to which their influence extended: _“Fhad’s a bhios crann an cóille, Bi’dh fóill an Cuimeineach.”_ “While there are trees in a wood, there will be deceit in a Cumyn.”