the continuing of peace, he would forbear to do it, and omit nothing, on his part, that could be desired, either in equity, or by the laws of friendship.’—­The borders, in the mean time, making daily incursions one upon another, filled all their parts with trouble, the English being continually put to the worse; neither were they made quiet, till, for satisfying the queen, the laird of Bacleuch was first committed in St. Andrews, and afterwards entered in England, where he remained not long[158].”—­Spottiswood’s History of the Church of Scotland, p. 414, 416, Ed. 1677.

Scott of Satchells, in the extraordinary poetical performance, which he has been pleased to entitle A History of the Name of Scott (published 1688), dwells, with great pleasure, upon this gallant achievement, at which, it would seem, his father had been present.  He also mentions, that the laird of Buccleuch employed the services of the younger sons and brothers only of his clan, lest the name should have been weakened by the landed men incurring forfeiture.  But he adds, that three gentlemen of estate insisted upon attending their chief, notwithstanding this prohibition.  These were, the lairds of Harden and Commonside, and Sir Gilbert Elliot of the Stobbs, a relation of the laird of Buccleuch, and ancestor to the present Sir William Elliot, Bart.  In many things Satchells agrees with the ballads current in his time, from which, in all probability, he derived most of his information as to past events, and from which he sometimes pirates whole verses, as noticed in the annotations upon the Raid of the Reidswire.  In the present instance, he mentions the prisoner’s large spurs (alluding to the fetters), and some other little incidents noticed in the ballad, which was, therefore, probably well known in his days.

[Footnote 158:  The bishop is, in this last particular, rather inaccurate.  Buccleuch was indeed delivered into England, but this was done in consequence of the judgment of commissioners of both nations, who met at Berwick this same year.  And his delivery took place, less on account of the raid of Carlisle, than of a second exploit of the same nature, to be noticed hereafter.]

All contemporary historians unite in extolling the deed itself as the most daring and well-conducted atchievement of that age. “Audax facinus cum modica manu, in urbe maenibus et multitudine oppidanorum munita, et callidae:  audaciae, vix ullo obsisti modo potuit.”—­Johnstoni Historia, Ed. Amstael. p. 215.  Birrel, in his gossipping way, says, the exploit was performed “with shouting and crying, and sound of trumpet, puttand the said toun and countrie in sic ane fray, that the like of sic ane wassaladge wes nevir done since the memory of man, no not in Wallace dayis.”—­Birrel’s Diary, April 6, 1596.  This good old citizen of Edinburgh also mentions another incident which I think proper to insert here, both as relating to