n the
afternoon to the Earl of Glencairn at Eglinton Castle to report what he
had done; and his Lordship again, in a most laudatory manner, commended
his prudence and singular mildness of nature, mentioning to the Earl and
Countess of Eglinton, then present with him, divers of the missions
wherein he had been employed, extolling his zeal, and above all his
piety. And the Lady Eglinton, who was a household character, striving,
with great frugality, to augment the substance of her Lord, by keeping
her maidens from morning to night eydent at work, some at their
broidering drums, and some at their distaffs, managing all within the
castle that pertained to her feminine part in a way most exemplary to
the ladies of her time and degree, indeed to ladies of all times and
degrees, promised my grandfather that when he was married, she would
give his wife something to help the plenishing of their house, for the
meek manner in which he had comported himself toward her friend, the
superior of the nuns. Then the Earl of Glencairn said,--

"Gilhaize, madam, is now his own master, and may choose a bride when it
pleases himself; for I have covenanted with my friend, your Lord, to let
him have the mailing of Quharist, in excambio for certain of the lands
of late pertaining to the abbacy of Kilwinning, the which lie more
within the vicinage of this castle; and, Gilhaize, here is my warrant to
take possession."

With which words the Earl rose and presented him with a charter for the
lands, signed by Eglinton and himself, and he shook him heartily by the
hand, saying, that few in all the kingdom had better earned the guerdon
of their service than he had done.

Thus it was that our family came to be settled in the shire of Ayr; for
after my grandfather had taken possession of his fee, and mindful of the
vow he had made in the street of Edinburgh on that blessed morning when
John Knox, the champion of the true church, arrived from Geneva, he went
into the east country to espouse Elspa Ruet, if he found her thereunto
inclined, which happily he soon did. For their spirits were in unison;
and from the time they first met, they had felt toward one another as if
they had been acquaint in loving-kindness before, which made him
sometimes say, that it was to him a proof and testimony that the souls
of mankind have, perhaps, a living knowledge of each other before they
are born into this world.

At their marriage, it was agreed that they should ta