Before ever a man could reach within miles, the fatal axe had fallen, and my lords, for whom each one of us would gladly have died with smiles upon our faces, lay headless in the courtyard of Edinburgh Castle." "And if the laddies were alive when ye rode awa', wha brocht the news faster than my Sholto could ride--tell me that ?" "I came not directly to Galloway, mother.

First I raised the west from Strathaven to Ayr.

Thence I carried the news to Dumfries and along the border side.

But to-day I have seen the Lady Sybilla on her way to take ship for France.

From her I heard the news that all I had done was too late." "That foreigneerin' randy! Wad ye believe the like o' her?
Yon woman that they named 'Queen o' Beauty' at the tournay by the Fords o' Lochar!--Certes, I wadna believe her on oath, no if she swore on the blessed banes o' Saint Andro himsel'.