5] such as they could get on a sudden; and God will put
them into your hands, that we may take revenge of them for much blood that
they have spilled of ours.' I desired that they would be patient and wise,
and bethought myself, if I should give them their wills, there should be
few or none of them (the Scots) that would escape unkilled (there were so
many deadly feuds among them), and therefore I resolved with myself to
give a fair answer, but not to give them their desire. So I told them that
if I were not there myself, they might do what pleased themselves; but
being present, if I should give them leave, the blood that had been spilt
that day would lie very heavy on my conscience, and therefore I desired
them, for my sake, to forbear; and if the Scots did not presently make
away with all the speed they could upon my sending to them, they should
then have their wills to do what they pleased. They were ill satisfied
with my answer, but durst not disobey. I sent with speed to the Scots, and
bade them pack away with all the speed they could, for if they stayed the
messengers' return, there should few of them return to their own home.
They made no stay, but they were turned homewards before the messenger had
made an end of his message. Thus, by God's mercy and by my means, there
were a great many lives spared that day."[66]

Thus ended happily what might otherwise have proved a disastrous
encounter. Such incidents tend to prove that the Borderers might have been
governed with comparative ease had they only been dealt with in a firm but
kindly spirit. The rough usage to which they were frequently subjected at
the hands of the government made them reckless, and not unnaturally led
them to regard the law not as a friend, but as an enemy.

IX.

LIDDESDALE LIMMERS.

"_Wicked thieves and limmers._"

ACT OF PARLIAMENT.

"Thir limmer thieves, they have good hearts,
They nevir think to be o'erthrown;
Three banners against Weardale men they bare,
As if the world had been their own."

ROOKHOPE RYDE.

Though reiving may be said to have been a characteristic of the
inhabitants along the whole Border line from Berwick to the Solway, yet it
was only in the district known as Liddesdale where it attained, what we
might designate, its complete development as a thoroughly organized
system. This part of Roxburghshire is, to a certain extent,