Ivanhoe

Scots. The Earl was appointed also to keep the peace towards the celebrated George Buchanan, who had a pension out of the same abbacy, to a similar extent, and under the like penalty.

The consequences are thus described by the Journalist already quoted:—

“The said Laird of Bargany, perceiving that the ordinerie justice (the oppressed as said is) could neither help him nor yet the afflicted, applied his mind to the next remedy, and in the end, by his servants, took the house of Dunure, where the poor Abbot was kept prisoner. The bruit flew fra Carrick to Galloway, and so suddenly assembled herd and hyre-man that pertained to the band of the Kennedies; and so within a few hours was the house of Dunure environed again. The Master of Cassilis was the frackast, and would not stay, but in his heat would lay fire to the dungeon, with no small boasting that all enemies within the house should die.

“He was required and admonished by those that were within to be more moderate, and not to hazard himself so foolishly. But no admonition would help, till that the wind of an hacquebute blasted his shoulder, and then ceased he from further pursuit in fury. The Laird of Bargany had before purchest [obtained] of the authorities, letters, charging all faithfull subjects to the King’s Majesty to assist him against that cruel tyrant and man-sworn traitor, the Earl of Cassilis; which letters, with his private writings, he published, and shortly found sic concurrence of Kyle and Cunynghame with his other friends, that the Carrick company drew back fra the house; and so the other approached, furnished the house with more men, delivered the said Mr. Allan, and carried him to Ayr, where, publicly at the market cross of the said town, he declared how cruelly he was entreated, and how the murdered King suffered not sic torment as he did, that only excepted he escaped the death; and, therefore, publicly did revoke all things that were done in that extremity, and especially he revoked the subscription of the three writings, to wit, of a fiyve yeir tak and nineteen yeir tak, and of a charter of feu. And so the house remained, and remains (till this day, the 7th of February 1571), in the custody of the said Laird of Bargany and of his servants. And so cruelty was disappointed of proffeit present, and shall be eternallie [punished], unless he earnestly repent. And this far for the cruelty committed, to give occasion unto others, and to such as hate the monstrous dealing of degenerate nobility, to look more diligently upon their behaviours, and to paint them forth unto the world, that they themselves may be ashamed of their own beastliness, and that the world may be advertised and admonished to abhor, detest, and avoid the company of all sic tyrants, who are not worthy of the society of men, but ought to be sent suddenly to the devil, with whom they must burn without end, for their contempt of God, and cruelty committed against his creatures. Let Cassilis and his brother be the first to be the example unto others. Amen. Amen.”

This extract has been somewhat amended or modernised in orthography, to render it more intelligible to the general reader. I have to add, that the Kennedies of Bargany, who interfered in behalf of the oppressed Abbot, were themselves a younger branch of the Cassilis family, but held different politics, and were powerful enough in this and other instances to bid them defiance.

The ultimate issue of this affair does not appear; but as the house of Cassilis are still in possession of the greater part of the feus and leases which belonged to Crossraguel Abbey, it is probable the talons of the King of Carrick were strong enough, in those disorderly times, to retain the prey which they had so mercilessly fixed upon.

I may also add, that it appears by some papers in my possession that the officers or country keepers on the Border were accustomed to torment their prisoners by binding them to the iron bars of their chimneys to extort confession.

CHAPTER XXIII

1 (p. 221) epigraph: The lines are from Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona (act 5, scene 4) .

2 (p. 227) the industrious Henry: See “Dedicatory Epistle,” endnote 7.

CHAPTER XXIV

1 (p. 229) epigraph: The text is from John Home’s Douglas (1756; line 305).

2 (p. 234) gentle Ecclesiastica: Bois-Guilbert here associates Rebecca with the Book of Wisdom from the Apochrypha, also called Ecclesiasticus, which contains lengthy disquisitions on female virtue and moral conduct.

CHAPTER XXV

1 (p. 239) epigraph: The lines are from Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer (1773; 4.680).

CHAPTER XXVI

1 (p. 247) epigraph: The lines are written by Scott himself.

CHAPTER XXVII

1 (p. 254) epigraph: The lines are from George Crabbe’s “The Hall of Justice” (1807; lines 5-8, 27-32) .

2 (p. 269) touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets nought of evil: See the Bible, 1 Chronicles 16:22.

3 (p. 269) “They bring forward mantelets and pavisses”: [Author’s note] Mantelets and Pavisses. Mantelets were temporary and movable defences formed of planks, under cover of which the assailants advanced to the attack of fortified places of old. Pavisses were a species of large shields covering the whole person, employed on the same occasions.

4 (p. 270) “Look that the crossbowmen lack not bolts”: [Author’s note] Bolts and Shafts. The bolt was the arrow peculiarly fitted to the cross-bow, as that of the long-bow was called a shaft. Hence the English proverb—“I will either make a shaft or bolt of it,” signifying a determination to make one use or other of the thing spoken of.

CHAPTER XXVIII

1 (p. 271) epigraph: The lines are written by Scott himself.

2 (p. 281 ) Juvenal’s Tenth Satire: Better known to Scott’s readers in the form of Samuel Johnson’s imitation, “The Vanity of Human Wishes,” in which the rich traveler discovers that “Nor light nor darkness bring his pain relief / One shows the plunder, and one hides the thief” (lines 43-44).

3 (p. 283) “Here be two arblasts … with windlaces and quarrells”: [Author’s note] Arblast, etc.