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some hours, 'expecting more company; and within short time after, the country came in on all sides, so that we were quickly between three and four hundred horse; and after some longer stay, the foot of Carlisle came to us, to the number of three or four hundred men; whom we set presently at work, to get up to the top of the tower, and to uncover the roof; and then some twenty of them to fall down together, and by that means to win the tower. The Scots seing their present danger, offered to parley, and yielded themselves to my mercy. They had no sooner opened the iron gate, and yielded themselves my prisoners, but we might see four hundred horse within a quarter of a mile coming to their rescue, and to surprise me and my small company; but of a sudden they stayed, and stood at gaze. Then had I more to do than ever; for all our Borderers came crying with full mouths, Sir, give us leave to set upon them ; for these are they that have killed our fathers, our brothers, and uncles, and our cousins; and they are come, thinking to surprise you, upon weak grass nags, such as they could get on a sudden; and God hath put them into your hands, that we may take revenge of them for much blood that they have spilt of ours.' I desired they would be patient awhile, and bethought myself, if I should give them their will, there would be few or none of

the Scots that would escape unkilled (there were so many deadly feuds among them ;) and therefore I resolved with myself to give them a fair answer but not to give them their desire. So I told them, that if I were not there myself, they might then do what pleased themselves; but being present, if I should give them leave, the blood that should be spilt that day would lie very hard upon my conscience. And therefore, I desired them, for my sake, to forbear; and if the Scots did not presently make away with all the speed they could, upon my sending to them, they should then have their wills to do what they pleased. They were ill satisfied with my answer, but durst not disobey. I sent with speed to the Scots, and bade them pack away with all the speed they could; for if they stayed the messenger's return, they should few of them return to their own home. They made no stay; but they were turned homewards before the messenger had made an end of his message. Thus, by God's mercy, I escaped a great danger; and, by my means, there were a great many men's lives saved that day."

On many a carn's gray pyramid,

Where urn's of mighty chiefs lie hid.

Verse 29, p. 71.

The cairns, or piles of loose stone, which crown

the summit of most of our Scottish hills, and are found in other remarkable situations, seem usually, though not universally, to have been sepulchral monuments. Six flat stones are commonly found in the centre, forming a cavity of greater or smaller dimensions, in which an urn is often placed. The author is possessed of one discovered beneath an immense cairn at Roughlee, in Liddesdale. It is of the most barbarous construction; the middle of the substance alone having been subjected to the fire, over which, when hardened, the artist had laid an inner and outer coat of unbaked clay, etched with some very rude ornaments: his skill ap parently being inadequate to baking the vase when completely finished. The contents were bones and ashes, and a quantity of beads made of coal. This seems to have been a barbarous imitation of the Roman fashion of sepulture.

!

NOTES.

ON

CANTO FOURTH.

Great Dundee.-Ver. 2, p. 76.

The viscount of Dundee, slain in the battle of Killycrankie.

For pathless marsh and caverned cell,
The peasant leaves his lowly shed.-

Verse 3, p. 76.

The morrasses were the usual refuge of the Border herdsmen, on the approach of an English army. (Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, vol. i. p. 49.) Caves hewed in the most dangerous and inaccessible places, also afforded an occasional retreat. Such caverns may be seen in the precipitous banks of the Teviot, at Sunlaws, and Ancram, upon the Jed at Hundalee, and in many other places upon the Border. The banks of the Eske, at Gor◄

ton and Hawthornden, are hollowed into similar re

cesses.

But even these dreary dens were not always secure places of concealment. "In the way as we came, not far from this place (Long Niddry) George Ferrers, a gentleman of my lord Protector'shappened upon a cave in the ground, the mouth whereof was so worne with the freshe printe of steps, that he seemed to be certayne, thear wear sum folke within; and gone doune to trie, he was redily receyved with a hakebut or two. He left them not yet, till he had knowen whyther thei wolde be content to yelde and come out, whiche they fondly refusyng, he went to my lorde's grace, and upon utteraunce of the thynge, gat license to deale with them as he could; and so returned to them, with a skore or two of pioners. Three ventes had their cave, that we ware aware of, whereof he first stopt up one; anoother he fil❜d ful of strawe, and set it a fyer, wherat they within cast water apace; but it was so wel maynteyned without, that the fyer prevayled, and thei within fayn to get them belyke into anoother parler. Then devised we (for I hapt to be with hym) to stop the same up, whereby we should eyther smoother them, or fynd out their ventes, if thei hadde any moe: as this was doon at another issue, about a xii score of we moughte see the fume of their smoke to come out; the which continued with so great a

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