promise. _Spendyd_, grasped (spanned). _Corsiare_, courser. _Blane_,
halted. _Dynte_, stroke. _Halyde_, hauled. _Stour_, press of battle.
_Dre_, endure. _Hinde_, gentle. _Hewyne in to_, hewn in two. _The
mayde them byears_, they made them biers. _Makys_, mates. _Carpe off
care_, tell of sorrow. _March perti_, the Border district.
_Lyff-tenant_, lieutenant. _Weal_, clasp. _Brook_, enjoy. _Quyte_,
avenged. _That tear begane this spurn_, that wrong caused this
retaliation. _Reane_, rain. _Ballys bete_, sorrows amend.


EDOM O' GORDON. After Aytoun. This ballad was first printed at
Glasgow, 1755, as taken down by Sir David Dalrymple "from the
recitation of a lady," and was afterwards inserted--"interpolated and
corrupted," says the unappeasable Ritson--in Percy's _Reliques_.
Ritson himself published a genuine and ancient copy from a manuscript
belonging apparently to the last quarter of the sixteenth century and
preserved in the Cotton Library. The ballad is known under two other
titles, _Captain Car_ and _The Burning o' London Castle._
Notwithstanding this inexactitude in names, the ballad has an
historical basis. In 1571 Adam Gordon, deputy-lieutenant of the North
of Scotland for Queen Mary, was engaged in a struggle against the clan
Forbes, who upheld the Reformed Faith and the King's party. Gordon was
successful in two sharp encounters, but "what glory and renown he
obtained of these two victories," says the contemporary History of
King James the Sixth, "was all cast down by the infamy of his next
attempt; for immediately after this last conflict he directed his
soldiers to the castle of Towie, desiring the house to be rendered to
him in the Queen's name; which was obstinately refused by the lady,
and she burst forth with certain injurious words. And the soldiers
being impatient, by command of their leader, Captain Ker, fire was put