hich used to throw
the proudest nobles on their knees, how he dared to storm her castle, to
which the Border baron replied--"What, madam, is there that a brave man
may not dare?" The rejoinder pleased her; and, turning to her courtiers,
she exclaimed--"Give me a thousand such leaders, and I'll shake any throne
in Europe!"

XIII.

MINIONS OF THE MOON.

"Diana's Foresters, Gentlemen of the shade,
Minions of the Moon."--FALSTAFF.

"_Reparabit Cornua Phoebe._"--MOTTO: HARDEN FAMILY.

"The siller moon now glimmers pale;
But ere we've crossed fair Liddesdale,
She'll shine as brightlie as the bale
That warns the water hastilie.

"O leeze me on her bonny light!
There's nought sae dear to Harden's sight:
Troth, gin she shone but ilka night,
Our clan might live right royallie."

FEAST OF SPURS.

The more famous reivers whose names have been handed down in the
traditions, poetry, and history of the Scottish Border, are seldom
regarded with any very pronounced feelings of aversion. The Armstrongs,
Elliots, Graemes, Stories, Burneses, and Bells; the Scotts, Kers, Maxwells,
and Johnstones--whose depredations have been recorded with much fulness of
detail in the annals of the country, were no doubt quite as bad as they
have been described. They cannot be acquitted of grave moral
delinquencies, judged even by the standard of the age in which they lived.
But at this distance of time many are disposed to regard their
depredations and lawless life, if not with a kindly, at least with an
indulgent eye. It must be frankly admitted that there was an element of
genuine heroism in their lives, which goes far to redeem them from the
contempt with which, under other conditions, we would have been compelled
to regard them. What they did was, as a general rule, done openly, and
evidently with a certain sub-conscious feeling that their actions, if
rightly understood, were not altogether blame-worthy. Their reiving was
carried on under conditions which developed some of the best as well as
worst elements of their nature and manhood. The Border reiver, whatever he
was, can certainly not be described as cowardly. He carried his life in
his hands. He never knew when he went on a foraging expedition, whether he
might return. The enemy with which he had to contend was vigilant and
powerful. Before he could drive away the cattle, he had, first of all, to
settle