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and Mr. John Smith as colleagues. No report from the visitors has fallen under our notice; and we are left to conjecture as to the way in which Mr. Wallace fared when he went on his proselytizing mission to Lord Herries; and whether or not Mr. Blyth succeeded in re-establishing the Protestantism of Lord Maxwell. We suspect that in both instances failure was the result. The King had begun to look coldly on Presbyterianism; he was preparing to graft upon it a strange prelatic shoot, and to hamper in many respects the action of the Assembly-thus retarding the Reformed cause, and encouraging both its avowed and secret enemies. It was scarcely to be expected that the nobles who had opposed it all along, or had only nominally embraced it, would under such circumstances change their creed or their policy.

On the 2nd of February, 1593, Lord Maxwell and Angus, the new Earl of Morton, came to an unseemly issue on the question of precedency, in St. Giles's Church, Edinburgh; and just as they were about to draw swords within the sacred edifice, the Lord Provost interfered and caused the combative barons to be sent guarded to their lodgings in the city.

Soon after this bloodless incident, Maxwell returned to Dumfriesshire, never more to leave it in life. Sir James Johnstone having by his recent rebellious acts forfeited the wardenry of the Western Marches, that office was again given to the Lord of Nithsdale; and thus armed he proceeded to the Border for the purpose of allaying its turbulence. Probably the King meant him to adopt stringent measures towards the Johnstones; but when it seemed as if the strife between the families was about to be renewed, a peace was patched up between them through the mediation of mutual friends. The rival chiefs were thereby induced not only to give up their antagonism, but to enter into an alliance offensive and defensive with relation to the wily chief of Drumlanrig, who was, for sufficient reasons, distrusted by both. This agreement, duly signed by the contracting parties, is still preserved among the Annandale papers. In accordance with it, John, Earl of Morton, Lord Maxwell, and Sir James Johnstone of Dunskellie agreeing for themselves, and taking burden upon them for their next kin, friends, tenants, and servants, "oblige them by the faith and troth of their

bodies that they nor their foresaids intromit or agree with Sir James Douglas of Drumlanrig, nor his kin, friends, tenants, and servants, without the special advice and consent of the other had thereto; and that both their assurance, and assurance with the said Sir James Douglas, should be done in one day; and in case any of them had an action of law against him, to concur, fortifie, and assist [each] other to the intensist of their power; and should take a true, upright, and aefold part with others while the feid were agreid or reconciled."

This contract is dated the 13th of March, 1592, only twentyone months previous to the battle of Dryfe-Sands; and there is another more general one of a still later date-April 1st of that year-in which Maxwell and Johnstone come under a solemn obligation for themselves and friends to "freely remit and forgive all rancours of mind, grudge, malice, and feids that had passed, or fallen furth between them in any time bygone."* A noble resolution, truly! which, if faithfully carried out, would have had a happy effect on the rival houses, and given a slight foretaste of the millenium to the County. Unfortunately their bond of union was feeble as a thread of flax, their friendship transitory as a wintry sunbeam on snow-clad hills, their interchange of kindly words delusive

"The torrent's smoothness ere it dash below."

The Johnstones had become hand and glove with the Lord Warden! They would therefore be able, so far as he was concerned, to enter upon predatory pursuits with impunity, if they only left unharmed the dependants of the house of Maxwell. So thinking, a party of the Annandale men, headed by William Johnstone of Wamphray, surnamed the Galliard, sweeping into Upper Nithsdale, ravaged the lands of Lord Sanquhar; but all the rich "hereship" acquired by them was no equivalent for the loss they sustained, as their trusty leader, captured by the Crichtons, was, without remorse, converted by his captors into a "tassel" for the gallows tree, though the poor fellow, in view of such an ignominious doom, prayed hard for mercy, and tried to win by bribe what he could not Annandale Papers.

*

gain from pity. "O! Simmy, Simmy"-so he pleaded to his chief captor, Simon of the Side

"O! Simmy, Simmy, now let me gang,
And I'll ne'er mair a Crichton wrang;
O! Simmy, Simmy, now let me be,
And a peck o' gowd I'll gie to thee."

William Johnstone of Kirkhill, on whom the leadership of the "lads of Wamphray" now devolved, mustered them in great force in order to levy more spoil, and exact what was even sweeter to a Borderer than any amount of stouthrief-revenge.

"Back tae Nithsdale they hae gane,

And awa the Crichtons' nowt hae taen;
And when they cam to the Wellpath-head,
The Crichtons bade them "'Light and lead.''

That is to say, dismount and give battle, the very thing that
Kirkhill Willie wanted, and which he promised to supply the
Crichtons with to their hearts' content.

"Then out spoke Willie of the Kirkhill,
'Of fighting, lads, ye'se hae your fill;'
And from his horse Willie he lap,
And a burnished brand in his hand he gat.

"Out through the Crichtons Willie he ran,
And dang them down, baith horse and man.
O, but the Johnstones were wondrous rude,
When the Biddes burn* ran three days blude."

In returning homewards, the exulting victors left other unpleasant memories of their foray on the lands of Drumlanrig, Closeburn, and Lag; and if the ballad from which we have quoted is to be relied upon, they quite in character-wound up their saturnalia by a jovial carouse in a tavern at the head of Evan Water :-

"As they cam in at Evan-head,

At Ricklaw Holm they spread abread.
'Drive on, my lads, it will be late;

We'll hae a pint at Wamphray gate.'

And there Willie of Kirkhill, proud, exultant, elated with

*

Biddes Burn, a brook which waters a mountainous tract lying between Nithsdale and Annandale, near the head of the Evan.

success, and (shall we say?) "glorious" with the "barley bree," thus complimented his gallant followers :—

"Where'er I gang, or where'er I ride,
The lads of Wamphray are on my side;

And of a' the lads that I do ken,
The Wamphray lad's the king of men."

Sir Walter Scott seems to have attached no small amount of historical value to the ballad from which these verses are taken-"The Lads of Wamphray;" and we have quoted from it as it is true to the spirit, if not to the letter, and the incidents tend to illustrate the character of the Border raids.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE LORD WARDEN IS APPEALED TO BY THE SUFFERERS FROM THE JOHNSTONE RAID THE PROCESSION OF "THE BLOODY SHIRTS"-THE KING COMMANDS PETITIONERS- MAXWELL PRO

HIS WARDEN TO GIVE REDRESS TO THE

CEEDS FOR THIS PURPOSE WITH A POWERFUL FORCE INTO ANNANDALEA RECONNOITRING PARTY SENT BY HIM, WHEN ENCOUNTERED BY THE JOHNSTONES, TAKES REFUGE IN LOCHMABEN CHURCH--FIRE IS APPLIED TO THE CHURCH, AND THE PARTY SURRENDERS-BATTLE OF DRYFE-SANDS --DEFEAT OF THE NITHSDALE MENSLAUGHTER OF LORD MAXWELLMODERN ASPECT OF THE BATTLE-FIELD-LORD HERRIES MADE WARDEN

--

OF THE MARCHES-HE ATTACKS THE JOHNSTONES AT LOCKERBIE, AND IS REPULSED-JOHNSTONE PARDONED-APPOINTED WARDEN, AND AGAIN DISGRACED KING JAMES VISITS DUMFRIES, AND HOLDS A COURT OF REDRESS IN THE BURGH LORD MAXWELL MEDITATES VENGEANCE ON JOHNSTONE FOR THE SLAUGHTER OF HIS FATHER-THE KING INTERPOSES, BANISHES HIM FROM THE DISTRICT, AND EXACTS LETTERS FROM HIM, IN WHICH HE AGREES TO BE RECONCILED TO HIS ENEMY-MAXWELL BREAKS THROUGH HIS ENGAGEMENT, RECEIVES THE KING'S FORGIVENESS, AGAIN OFFENDS, AND IS CONSIGNED TO EDINBURGH CASTLE-ESCAPES FROM IT BY STRATAGEM, AND RETURNS TO DUMFRIESSHIRE.

THE sufferers from this rapacious incursion naturally complained of it to the Warden, and asked for redress at his hands -a request which placed him in an awkward dilemma. He did not wish to revive his old feud with the Johnstones; and perhaps he also believed that they had some right to reckon on his forbearance, though there was no express compact to that effect between them. Two influences, however, combined to make him resolve on warlike measures, though he was personally inclined to peace. The proprietors who had been pillaged, and were impatient for revenge, offered to enter into bonds of man-rent with him to maintain his quarrels against all and sundry, provided he would exercise his authority as Warden to punish the Johnstones: and the King about the same time issued a special commission to him, by which he was enjoined to execute justice on the guilty clan; James having been in

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