When, in 1672, this feud, long repressed, broke out anew, at the instigation of Black Arthur and Alexander Forbes of Strathgirnoc, Donald, bright ensample of faith, stood by Adam of Auchindown when Black Arthur was laid low, and when his nephew John was so shamefully routed at the Crabstanes. Here Henry Gordon of Knock's brother took prisoner the neighbouring Laird of Strathgirnoc, one of the most violent of his name, as I have said, in stirring up these troubles. He was therefore sentenced to death, but the gallant Adam, after a short detention in Auchindown, set him, unfortunately, as we shall see, at liberty.

The old ballad, with the note prefixed in this book, will narrate far better than I can one of the incidents in this struggle, more particularly relating to the Braes of Mar.

EDOM O' GORDON.

["This ballad is founded upon a real event, which took place in the north of Scotland in the year 1571, during the struggles between the party which held out for the imprisoned Queen Mary, and that which endeavoured to maintain the authority of her infant son, James VI. The person here designated Edom o' Gordon, was Adam Gordon of Auchindown, brother of the Marquis of Huntly, and his deputy as Lieutenant of the North of Scotland for the Queen. This gentleman committed many acts of oppression on the clan Forbes under colour of the Queen's authority; and in one collision with that family, killed Arthur, brother to Lord Forbes. He afterwards sent a party, under one Captain Car or Ker, to reduce the house of Towie, one of the chief seats of the name of Forbes. The proprietor of this mansion being from home, his lady, who was pregnant at the time, confiding too much in her sex and condition, not only refused to surrender, but gave Car some very opprobrious language over the walls; which irritated him so much that he set fire to the house, and burnt the whole inmates, amounting in all to thirty-seven persons. As Gordon never cashiered Car for this inhuman action, he was held by the public voice to be equally guilty; and accordingly we here find a ballad in which he is represented as the principal actor himself. Gordon, in his History of the Family of Gordon, informs us that, in the right old spirit of Scottish family feud, the Forbeses afterwards attempted to assassinate Gordon on the streets of Paris. Forbes,' he says, with these desperate fellows, lay in wait in the street through which he was to return to his lodgings from the palace of the Archbishop of Glasgow, then ambassador in France. They discharged their pistols upon Auchindown as he passed by them, and wounded him in the thigh. His servants pursued, but could not catch them; they only found, by good chance, Forbes's hat, in which was a paper with the name of the place where they were to meet. John Gordon, Lord of Glenluce and Longormes, son to Alexander Gordon, Bishop of Galloway, Lord of the Bedchamber to the King of France, getting instantly notice of this, immediately acquainted the king, who forthwith despatched le grand prevost de l'hôtel, or the great provost of the palace, with his guards, in company with John Gordon and Sir Adam's servants, to the place of their meeting, to apprehend them. When they were

arrived at the place, Sir Adam's servants, being impatient, rushed violently into the house and killed Forbes; but his associates were all apprehended, and broke upon the wheel.' This dreadful incident would surely have made an excellent second part to the ballad."CHAMBERS.]

IT fell about the Martinmas,

When the wind blew shrill and cauld,
Said Edom o' Gordon to his men,
"We maun draw to a hauld.

"And whatna hauld sall we draw to,

My merrie-men and me?

We will gae to the house o' Rhodes [Rothes],
To see that fair ladye."

She had nae sooner buskit hersel',
Nor putten on her goun,

Till Edom o' Gordon and his men
Were round about the toun.

They had nae sooner sitten doun,
Nor suner said the grace,
Till Edom o' Gordon and his men
Were closed about the place.

The lady ran to her touir heid,
As fast as she could drie,
To see if, by her fair speeches,
She could with him agree.

As sune as he saw the ladye fair,
And hir yetts all lockit fast,
He fell into a rage of wrath,
And his heart was aghast.

"Come down to me, ye ladye fair,
Come down to me, let's see;
This nicht ye'se lie by my ain side,
The morn my bride sall be."

"I winna come down, ye fause Gordon;
I winna come down to thee;

I winna forsake my ain deir lord,
That is sae far frae me."

"Gi'e up your house, ye fair ladye,

Gi'e up your house to me;
Or I will burn yoursel' therein,
But and your babies thrie."

"I winna gi'e 't up, thou fause Gordon,
To nae sic traitor as thee;

Though thou suld burn mysel' therein,
But and my babies thrie.

"And ein wae worth you, Jock, my man!
I paid ye weil your fee;

Why pou ye out my grund-wa'-stane,
Lets in the reek to me?

"And ein wae worth you, Jock, my man!
I paid ye weil your hyre;

Why pou ye out my grund-wa'-stane,
To me lets in the fyre?"

"Ye paid me weil my hire, ladye,
Ye paid me weil my fee;

But now I'm Edom o' Gordon's man,
Maun either do or die."

O then bespake her youngest son,
Sat on the nurse's knee,

"Dear mother, gi'e ower your house," he says, "For the reek it worries me.'

"I winna gi'e up my house, my dear,

To nae sic traitor as he;

Come weel, come wae, my jewel fair,
Ye maun tak' share wi' me."

O then bespake her daughter deir;
She was baith jimp and sma';
"O row me in a pair o' sheets,
And tow me ower the wa'."

They rowed her in a pair o' sheets,
And towed her ower the wa';
But on the point o' Edom's speir
She gat a deidly fa'.

O bonnie, bonnie was her mouth,
And cherry were her cheiks ;
And cleir, cleir was her yellow hair,
Whereon the reid blude dreips.

Then wi' his speir he turned her ower,
O gin her face was wan!

He said, "You are the first that eir
I wist alyve again."

He turned her ower and ower again,

O gin her skin was whyte!

He said, "I micht ha'e spared thy lyfe
To been some man's delyte.

"Backe and boon, my merrie-men all,
For ill dooms I do guess;

I canna luik on that bonnie face,
As it lies on the grass!"

"Them luiks to freits, my master deir,

Then freits will follow them;

Let it ne'er be said brave Edom o' Gordon
Was dauntit by a dame."

O then he spied her ain deir lord,

As he came o'er the lea;

He saw his castle in a fyre,

As far as he could see.

"Put on, put on, my michtie men,
As fast as ye can drie;

For he that's hindmost o' my men
Sall ne'er get gude o' me."

And some they rade, and some they ran,
Fu' fast out ower the plain;

But lang, lang, ere he could get up,
They a' were deid and slain.

But monie were the mudie men
Lay gasping on the grene;
For o' fifty men that Edom brought,
There were but fyve gaed hame.

And mony were the mudie men,
Lay gasping on the grene;

And mony were the fair ladyes,
Lay lemanless at hame.

And round and round the wa's he went,

Their ashes for to view;

At last into the flames he ran,
And bade the world adieu.

"Subsequent to this tragical affair," says Picken, in The Traditionary Stories of Old Families, "a meeting for reconciliation took place between a select number of the heads of the two houses, in the hall of an old castle in these parts, probably Driminor. After much argument, the difference being at length made up, and a reconciliation effected, both parties sat down to a feast in the hall, provided by the Forbes chief. The eating was ended, and the parties were at their drink-the clansmen being of equal numbers, and so mixed, as had been arranged, that every Forbes had a Gordon seated at his right hand. 'Now,' said Gordon of Huntly to his neighbour chief, as this business has been so satisfactorily settled, tell me, if it had not been so, what it was your intention to have done.' "There would have been bloody work-bloody work,' said Lord Forbes- and we would have had the best of it, I will tell you: see, we are mixed one and one, Forbeses and Gordons. I had only to give a sign by the stroking down of my beard, thus, and every Forbes was to have drawn the skein from under his left arm, and stabbed to the heart his right-hand man;' and, as he spoke, he suited the sign to the word, and stroked down his flowing beard. In a moment a score of skeins were out, and flashing in the light of the pine-torches held behind the guests. In another moment they were buried in as many hearts; for the Forbeses, whose eyes constantly watched their chief, mistaking this in

voluntary motion for the agreed sign of death, struck their weapons into the bodies of the unsuspecting Gordons. The chiefs looked at each other in silent consternation. At length the Forbes said, "This is a sad tragedy we little expected, but what is done cannot be undone, and the blood that now flows on the floor of Driminor will just help to sloaken the auld fire of Corgarf!'"

When tracing up the course of a river, one likes to know what relates to each tributary as it joins, before continuing the upward march of discovery. In the same way, before resuming the main thread of the history of the Braes of Mar, it will be better to finish with the Forbes feud. This, then, is the last incident occasioned by it, connected with this country.

After the death of Henry Gordon of Knock, in 1591, his brother, the capturer of Forbes of Strathgirnoc, at the battle of the Crabstanes, succeeded as laird. Forbes, in whose heart the injury was treasured up, watched his time for revenge. Knock's seven sons went out one day to cast divots, and unwittingly set to work on Strathgirnoc's land. This was enough. Forbes, with a party of his tenants, surrounded and caught them. With his own sword he struck off their heads, and then had them attached, one by one, to the cross-top of the "flauchter-spade" each had been using. The spades in a line were then stuck into the ground on the hillside, and this dreadful sight presented itself to the servant, sent with the young men's dinner from Knock Castle. No wonder that he hastened back the way he came. His sudden return and exclamations of horror brought the laird to the stairhead. Informed suddenly of the fearful fate of his sons, and overcome with agony, he fell over the bannisters, and was killed. And so the lands of Knock, as well as those of Strathgirnoc, fell into the hands of Abergeldie, who hanged Forbes in his own house, to avenge the murder of his relatives.

The Lamonts, you are aware, had the lairdships of Allancuaich and Inverey. In those days, a drover of the name of Rory, a wealthy man, and doing a large trade, was in the habit of lodging with Allancuaich on his way to and from the south markets. After an unusually great sale and large profit at Amulree, he arrived with his gilly at the laird's, and was, as usual, cordially received and well entertained. Those were the times of real Highland hospitality. On the morrow he departed, accompanied by the laird's only son, a youth of great promise, who was to show him a near cut to the Bealachdearg and Strathaven route. Some days after, the drover's body was found by two shepherds at a place thence called Inchrorie-.e., Rory's plain -with a deep cut in the back of his head. Who committed the murder? Donald of Castletown, in discharge of his duty,