"And gif you refuse to do that,
(I freely here upgive wi' thee,)
He'll cast yon bonny castle down,
And make a widowe o' that gay ladye.

"He'll loose yon bluidhound Borderers,
Wi' fire and sword to follow thee;
There will nevir a Murray, after thysell,
Have land in Ettrick Foreste free."-

"It stands me hard,” the Outlaw said;

Judge gif it stands na hard wi' me,

Wha reck not losing of mysell,

But a' my offspring after me.

"My merryemen's lives, my widowe's teirs-
There lies the pang that pinches me;
When I am straught in bluidie eard,
Yon castell will be right dreirie.

"Auld Halliday, young Halliday,
Ye sall be twa to gang wi' me;
Andrew Murray, and Sir James Murray,
We'll be nae mae in cumpanie.”-

When that they cam before the King,
They fell before him on their kné—
"Grant mercie, mercie, nobil King!
E'en for his sake that dyed on tree."-

have;

"Sicken like mercie sall ye

On gallows ye sall hangit be!"—

"Over God's forbode," quoth the Outlaw then, I hope your grace will bettir be!

Else, ere you come to Edinburgh port,
I trow thin guarded sall ye be :

"Thir landis of Ettricke Foreste fair,
I wan them from the enemie;
Like as I wan them, sae will I keep them,
Contrair a' kingis in Christentie."-

All the nobilis the King about,

Said pitie it were to see him dee"Yet grant me mercie, sovereign prince, Extend your favour unto me!

"I'll give thee the keys of my castell,
Wi' the blessing o' my gay ladye,
Gin thou❜lt make me sheriffe of this Foreste,
And a' my offspring after me."—

"Wilt thou give me the keys of thy castell, Wi' the blessing of thy gaye ladye?

I'se make thee sheriffe of Ettricke Foreste,
Surely while upward grows the tree;

"But, Prince, what sall cum o' my men?
When I gae back, traitour they'll ca' me.
I had rather lose my life and land,
Ere my merryemen rebuked me.'

"Will your merryemen amend their lives ?
And a' their pardons I grant thee—
Now, name thy landis where'er they lie,
And here I RENDER them to thee."-

"Fair Philiphaugh is mine by right,

And Lewinshope still mine shall be;
Newark, Foulshiells, and Tinnies baith,
My bow and arrow purchased me.

"And I have native steads to me,
The Newark Lee and Hanginshaw ;1
I have mony steads in the Forest schaw,
But them by name I dinna knaw."

The keys of the castell he gave the King,
Wi' the blessing o' his feir ladye;

1 In this and the following verse, the ceremony of feudal inves titure is supposed to be gone through, by the Outlaw resigning his possessions into the hands of the king, and receiving them back, to be held of him as superior. The lands of Philiphaugh are still possessed by the Outlaw's representative. Hangingshaw and Lewinshope were sold of late years. Newark, Foulshiels, and Tinnies, have long belonged to the family of Buccleuch.

He was made sheriffe of Ettricke Foreste,
Surely while upward grows the tree;
And if he was na traitour to the King,
Forfaulted he suld never be.

Wha ever heard, in ony times,
Sicken an outlaw in his degré,

Sic favour get befor a King,

As did the OUTLAW MURRAY of the Foreste free?

JOHNIE ARMSTRANG.

THERE will be such frequent occasion, in the course of this work, to mention the clan, or sept, of the Armstrongs, that the Editor finds it necessary to prefix to this ballad some general account of that tribe.

The Armstrongs appear to have been at an early period in possession of great part of Liddesdale, and of the Debateable Land. Their immediate neighbourhood to England rendered them the most lawless of the Border depredators; and as much of the country possessed by them was claimed by both kingdoms, the inhabitants, protected from justice by the one nation, in opposition to the other, securely preyed upon both.' The chief was Armstrong of Mangertoun; but, at a later period, they are declared a broken clan, i. e. one

1 In illustration of this position, the reader is referred to a long correspondence betwixt Lord Dacre and the Privy Council of England, in 1550, concerning one Sandye Armstrang, a partisan of England, and an inhabitant of the Debateable Land, who had threatened to become a Scottishman, if he was not protected by the English Warden against the Lord of Maxwell.-See Introduction to NICHOLSON and BURNS' History of Cumberland and Westmoreland.