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THE RAID OF THE RKIDSWIRE. 131
heat of their resentment was abated; which prudent precaution prevented a war betwixt the two kingdoms. He then dismissed them with great expressions of regard; and, to satisfy Queen Elizabeth, sent Car-michael to York, whence he was soon after honourably dismissed. The field of battle, called the Reidswire, is a part of the Carter Mountain, about ten miles from Jedburgh."—Scott.
The seventh of July, the suith to say,
At the Reidswire the tryst was set; Our wardens they affixed the day,
And, as they promised, so they met.
Alas ! that day I'll ne'er forgett! 5
"Was sure sae feard, and then sae faine—
They came theare justice for to gett, Will never green to come again.
Carmichael was our warden then,
He caused the country to conveen ; 10
And the Laird's Wat, that worthie man,
Brought in that sirname weil beseen :
The Armestranges, that aye hae been A hardy house, but not a hail,
The Elliots' honours to maintaine, is
Brought down the lave o' Liddesdale.
2. Sicire signifies the descent of a hill, and the epithet Red is derived from the color of the heath, or perhaps, from the Eeid-water, which rises at no great distance.—S.
11. The Laird's Wat is perhaps the young Bnccleach, who, ahont twenty years after this raid, performed the great exploit of rescuing Kinmont Willie from Carlisle Castle.—S.
14. This clan are here mentioned as not being hail, or whole, because they were outlawed or broken men. Indeed, many of them had become Englishmen, as the phrase then |
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