"--_Birrel's Diary, June_ 15, 1567. It would be some
satisfaction to know, that the grey hairs of this worthy personage did
not go down to the grave in peace.]
[Footnote 196: _Inter accolas latrociniis famosos Scotos Buccleuchi
clientes--fortissimos tributium et ferocissimos_,--JOHNSTONI
_Historia, ed. Amstael_, p. 182.]
This fatal battle was followed by a long feud, attended with all the
circumstances of horror, proper to a barbarous age. Johnstone, in
his diffuse manner, describes it thus: "_Ab eo die ultro citroque
in Annandia et Nithia magnis utriusque regionis jacturis certatum.
Caedes, incendia, rapinae, et nefanda facinora; liberi in maternis
gremiis trucidati; mariti in conspectu conjugum suarum, incensae
villae lamentabiles ubique querimoniae et horribiles armorum
fremitus_." JOHNSTONI _Historia, Ed. Amstael_. p. 182.
John, Lord Maxwell, with whose _Goodnight_ the reader is here
presented, was son to him who fell at the battle of Dryffe Sands,
and is said to have early vowed the deepest revenge for his father's
death. Such, indeed, was the fiery and untameable spirit of the man,
that neither the threats nor entreaties of the king himself could make
him lay aside his vindictive purpose; although Johnstone, the object
of his resentment, had not only reconciled himself to the court, but
even obtained the wardenry of the middle-marches, in room of Sir John
Carmichael, murdered by the Armstrongs.
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