They made a picture; they made a tableau vivant of the same illustration as Landseer's lamb looking into the grass- covered cannon's mouth.
This is the Border-land! Here the fiercest antagonisms of hostile nationalities met in deadly conflict.

Fire and blood, rapine and wrath blackened and reddened and ravaged for centuries across this bleak territory.

Robber-chieftains and knighted free-booters carried on their guerilla raids backward and forward, under the counterfeited banner of patriotism.

Scotch and English armies led by kings marched and counter-marched over this sombre boundary.
Never before was there one apparently more insoluble as a barrier between two peoples.

Never before in Christendom was there one that required a longer space of time to melt.