Here he found himself
surrounded by his enemies. In attempting, by the speed of his horse,
to gain the castle of Dunbar, the warden plunged into a morass, where
he was overtaken and cruelly butchered. Wedderburn himself cut off his
head; and, in savage triumph, knitted it to his saddle-bow by the
long flowing hair, which had been admired by the dames of
France.--_Pitscottie, Edit_. 1728, p. 130. _Pinkerton's History of
Scotland_, Vol. II. p. 169 [6].
[Footnote 5: The statute 1594, cap. 231, ascribes the disorders on the
border in a great measure to the "counselles, directions, receipt,
and partaking, of chieftains principalles of the branches, and
househalders of the saides surnames, and clannes, quhilkis bears
quarrel, and seeks revenge for the least hurting or slauchter of ony
ane of their unhappy race, although it were ardour of justice, or in
rescuing and following of trew mens geares stollen or reft."]
[Footnote 6: This tragedy, or, perhaps, the preceding execution of
Lord Home, must have been the subject of the song, the first two lines
of which are preserved in the _Complaynt of Scotland_;
God sen' the Duc hed byddin in France,
And de la Baute had never come hame.
P, 100, Edin. 1801.]
The Earl of Arran, head of the house of Hamilton was appointed to
succeed De la Bastie in his perilous office.
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