We crept on knees, and held our breath, Till we placed the ladders against the wa'; And sae ready was Buccleuch himsell To mount the first, before us a'.

He has ta'en the watchman by the throat, He flung him down upon the lead-- "Had there not been peace between our land, Upon the other side thou hadst gaed!--

"Now sound out, trumpets!" quo' Buccleuch; "Let's waken Lord Scroop, right merrilie!"

Then loud the warden's trumpet blew-- "_O whae dare meddle wi' me_?"[167]

Then speedilie to work we gaed, And raised the slogan ane and a'.

And cut a hole thro' a sheet of lead, And so we wan to the castle ha'.

They thought King James and a' his men Had won the house wi' bow and spear; It was but twenty Scots and ten, That put a thousand in sic a stear![168]

Wi' coulters and wi' fore-hammers, We garr'd the bars bang merrilie, Untill we cam to the inner prison, Where Willie o' Kinmont he did lie.

And when we cam to the lower prison, Where Willie o' Kinmont he did lie-- "O sleep ye, wake ye, Kinmont Willie, Upon the morn that thou's to die?"

"O I sleep saft,[169] and I wake aft; Its lang since sleeping was fleyed[170] frae me!

Gie my service back to my wife and bairns, And a' gude fellows that speer for me."

Then Red Rowan has hente him up, The starkest man in Teviotdale-- "Abide, abide now, Red Rowan, Till of my Lord Scroope I take farewell.

"Farewell, farewell, my gude Lord Scroope!

My gude Lord Scroope, farewell!" he cried-- "I'll pay you for my lodging maill,[171]

When first we meet on the border side."

Then shoulder high, with shout and cry, We bore him down the ladder lang; At every stride Red Rowan made, I wot the Kinmont's aims played clang!

"O mony a time," quo' Kinmont Willie, "I have ridden horse baith wild and wood; But a rougher beast than Red Rowan, I ween my legs have ne'er bestrode.

"And mony a time," quo' Kinmont Willie, "I've p.r.i.c.ked a horse out oure the furs;[172]

But since the day I backed a steed, I never wore sic c.u.mbrous spurs!"

We scarce had won the Staneshaw-bank, When a' the Carlisle bells were rung, And a thousand men, in horse and foot, Cam wi' the keen Lord Scroope along.

Buccleuch has turned to Eden water, Even where it flow'd frae bank to brim, And he has plunged in wi' a' his band, And safely swam them thro' the stream.

He turned him on the other side, And at Lord Scroope his glove flung he-- "If ye like na my visit in merry England, In fair Scotland come visit me!"

All sore astonished stood Lord Scroope, He stood as still as rock of stane; He scarcely dared to trew his eyes, When thro' the water they had gane.

"He is either himsell a devil frae h.e.l.l, Or else his mother a witch maun be; I wad na have ridden that wan water, For a' the gowd in Christentie."

[Footnote 160: _Hostelrie_--Inn.]

[Footnote 161: _Lawing_--Reckoning.]

[Footnote 162: _Basnet_--Helmet.]

[Footnote 163: _Curch_--Coif.]

[Footnote 164: _Lightly_--Set light by.]

[Footnote 165: _Low_--Flame.]

[Footnote 166: _Splent on spauld_--Armour on shoulder.]

[Footnote 167: The name of a border tune.]

[Footnote 168: _Stear_--Stir.]

[Footnote 169: _Soft_--Light.]

[Footnote 170: _Fleyed_--Frightened.]

[Footnote 171: _Maill_--Rent.]

[Footnote 172: _Furs_--Furrows.]

NOTES ON KINMONT WILLIE.

_On Hairibee to hang him up_?--P. 188. v. 1.

Hairibee is the place of execution at Carlisle.

_And they brought him ower the Liddel-rack_.--P. 188. v. 3.

The Liddel-rack is a ford on the Liddel.

_And so they reached the Woodhouselee_.--P. 192. v. 1.

Woodhouselee; a house on the border, belonging to Buccleuch.

The Salkeldes, or Sakeldes, were a powerful family in c.u.mberland, possessing, among other manors, that of Corby, before it came into the possession of the Howards, in the beginning of the seventeenth century. A strange stratagem was practised by an outlaw, called Jock Grame of the Peartree, upon Mr. Salkelde, sheriff of c.u.mberland; who is probably the person alluded to in the ballad, as the fact is stated to have happened late in Elizabeth's time. The brother of this freebooter was lying in Carlisle jail for execution, when Jock of the Peartree came riding past the gate of Corby castle. A child of the sheriff was playing before the door, to whom the outlaw gave an apple, saying, "Master, will you ride?" The boy willingly consenting, Grame took him up before him, carried him into Scotland, and would never part with him, till he had his brother safe from the gallows. There is no historical ground for supposing, either that Salkelde, or any one else, lost his life in the raid of Carlisle.

In the list of border clans, 1597, Will of Kinmonth, with Kyrstie Armestrange, and John Skynbanke, are mentioned as leaders of a band of Armstrongs, called _Sandies Barnes_, inhabiting the Debateable Land.

The ballad itself has never before been published.

d.i.c.k O' THE COW.