He foresaw his own downfall, in
this reawakened enthusiasm respecting the man whom his treachery had
been the first means of betraying to his enemies. Baffled in the aim
of his ambition by the very means he had taken to effect it, Cummin saw
no alternative, but to throw himself at once upon the bounty of
England; and, to this purpose, he bethought him of the only chance of
preserving the power of past events, that this tempest of the
soul--excited by remorse in some, and gratitude in others--could only
be maintained to any conclusive injury to England, by a royal hand, and
that that hand was expected to be Bruce's, he determined at once, that
the prince to whom he had sworn fealty, and to whom he owed his present
elevation, should follow the fate of his friend. By the spies which he
constantly kept round Huntingtower, he was apprised that Bruce had set
off toward London in a vessel from Dundee. On these grounds, he sent a
dispatch to King Edward, informing him that destiny had established him
supreme lord of Scotland; for not its second and its last hope had put
himself into his hands. With this intelligence, he gave a particular
account of all Bruce's proceedings, from the time of his meeting
Wallace in France, to his present following the chief to London.
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