The prisoner boldly answered, that he would not go without bidding him good night.' The Duke of Buccleuch, who was warden, or keeper, of Liddesdale, demanded the restoration of Kinmont Willie to liberty, and complained of his being taken and imprisoned as a breach of the border-laws, and an insult done to himself. Lord Scrope refused, or at least evaded, giving up his prisoner. Buccleuch then sent him a challenge, which Lord Scrope declined to accept, on the ground of his employment in the public service. The Scottish chief, therefore, resolved to redress by force the insult which his country, as well as himself, had sustained on the occasion. He collected about three hundred of his best men, and made a night march to Carlisle Castle. A small party of chosen men dismounted, while the rest remained on horseback, to repel any attack from the town. The night being misty and rainy, the party to whom that duty was committed approached the foot of the walls, and tried to scale them by means of ladders which they had brought with them for the purpose. But the ladders were found too short. They then, with mining instruments which they had vided, burst open a postern, or wicketdoor, and entered the castle. Their chief had given them strict orders to do no harm save to those who opposed them, so that the few guards, whom the alarm brought together, were driven back without much injury. Being masters of the castle, the trumpets of the Scottish warden were then blown, to the no small terror of the inhabitants of Carlisle, surprised out of their quiet sleep by the sounds of an invasion at so early an hour. The bells of the castle rang out; those of the cathedral and Mott-hall answered; drums beat to arms; and beacons were lighted, to alarm the warlike country around. They had freed Kinmont Willie from his dungeon. The first thing Armstrong did was to shout a good-night to Lord Scrope, asking him, at the same time, if he had any news for Scotland. The borderers strictly obeyed the commands of their chief, in forbearing to take any booty. They returned from the castle, bringing with them their rescued countryman, and a gentleman named Spencer, an attendant on the constable at the castle. Buccleuch dismissed him, with his commendations to Salkeld, the constable, whom he esteemed, he said, a better gentleman than Lord Scrope, bidding him say it was the warden of Liddesdale who had done the exploit, and praying the constable, if he desired the name of a man of honour, to issue forth and seek a revenge. Buccleuch then ordered the retreat, which he performed with great leisure, and re-entered Scotland at sunrise in honour and safety. 'There had never been a more gallant deed of vassalage done in Scotland,' says an old historian, no, not in Wallace's days.' Queen Elizabeth, as you may imagine, was dreadfully angry at this insult, and demanded that Buccleuch should be depro-livered up to the English, as he had In the meanwhile, the Scottish party had done the errand they came for. committed so great an aggression upon their frontier during the time of peace. The matter was laid before the Scottish parliament. King James himself pleaded the question on the part of Elizabeth, willing, it may be supposed, to recommend himself to that princess by his tameness and docility. The Secretary of State replied in defence of Buccleuch; and the Scottish parliament finally voted that they would refer the question to commissioners, to be chosen for both nations, and would abide by their decision. But concerning the proposed surrender of Buccleuch to England, the president declared, with a loud voice, that it would be time enough for Buccleuch to go to England when the king should pass there in person. Buccleuch finally ended the discussion by going to England at the king's personal request, and on the understanding that no evil was to be done to him. Queen Elizabeth desired to see him personally, and demanded of him how he dared to commit such aggression on her territory. He answered undauntedly, that he knew not that thing which a man dared NOT do. Elizabeth admired the answer, and treated this border chief with distinction during the time he remained in England, which was not long." It was by such exploits that the name of the "bold Buccleuch" was earned, and yet, while we cannot help admiring such examples of daring courage, we may be very glad indeed that we live in times of peace, and not in the midst of such alarms. After the union of the crowns in 1603, "proclamations were made, that none of the inhabitants of either side of the border (except noblemen and gentlemen of unsuspected character) should retain in their possession armour or weapons, offensive or defensive, or keep any horse above the value of fifty shillings. Particular clans, described as broken men, were especially forbid the use of weapons. The celebrated clan of Armstrong had, on the very night in which Queen Elizabeth's death became public, concluding that a time of such misrule as that in which they had hitherto made their harvest was again approaching, and desirous of losing no time, made a fierce incursion into England, and done much mischief. But such a consequence had been foreseen and provided against. A strong body of soldiers, both English and Scots, swept along the border, and severely punished the marauders, blowing up their fortresses with gunpowder, destroying their lands, and driving away their cattle and flocks. The Armstrongs appear never to have recovered their consequence after this severe chastisement; nor are there many of this celebrated clan now to be found among the landowners of Liddesdale, where they once possessed the whole. district. The Grahams, long the inhabitants of the Debateable Land which was claimed both by England and Scotland, were still more severely dealt with. They were very brave and active borderers attached to England, for which country, and particularly in Edward VI.'s time, they had often done good service. But they were also very lawless plunderers, and their incursions were as much dreaded by the inhabitants of Cumberland as by those of the Scottish frontier. Thus their conduct was equally the subject of complaint on both sides of the border; and the poor Grahams, seeing no alternative, were compelled to sign a petition to the king, confessing themselves to be unfit persons to dwell in the country which they now inhabited, and praying that he would provide the means of transporting them elsewhere, where his paternal goodness should assign them the means of subsistence. The whole clan, a very few individuals excepted, were thus deprived of their lands and residences, and transported to the county of Ulster, in Ireland, where they were settled on lands which had been acquired from the conquered Irish. There is a list in existence which shows the rate at which the county of Cumberland was taxed for the exportation of these poor borderers, as if they had been so many bullocks. Another efficient mode of getting rid of a warlike and disorderly population, who, though an admirable defence of a country in time of war, must have been great scourges in time of the profound peace to which the border districts were consigned after the close of the English wars, was the levying a large body of soldiers to serve in foreign countries. The love of military adventure had already carried one legion of Scots to serve the Dutch in their defence against the Spaniards, and they had done great service in the Low Countries, and particularly at the battle of Mechline, in 1578; where, impatient of the heat of the weather, to the astonishment of both friends and enemies, the Scottish auxiliaries flung off their upper garments and fought like furies in their shirts. The circumstance is pointed out in the plan of the battle which is to be found in Strada's history, with the explanationHere the Scots fought naked.' Buccleuch levied a large additional force from the border, whose occupation in their native country was gone for ever. These also distinguished themselves in the wars of the Low Countries. It may be supposed that very many of them perished in the field, and the descendants of others still survive in the Netherlands and in Germany. In addition to the relief afforded by such an outlet for a superfluous military population, whose numbers greatly exceeded what the land could have supplied with food, and who, in fact, had only lived upon plunder, bonds were entered into by the men of substance and family on the borders, not only obliging themselves to abstain from depredations, but to stand by each other in putting down and preventing such evil doings at the hand of others, and in making common cause against any clan, branch, or surname, who might take offence at any individual for acting in prosecution of this engagement. They engaged also to the king and to each other, not only to seize and deliver to justice such thieves as should take refuge in their grounds, but to discharge from their families or estates all persons, domestics, tenants, or others, who could be suspected of such offences, and to supply their place with honest and peaceable subjects. There is in existence such a bond, dated in the year 1612, and subscribed by about twenty landholders, chiefly of the name of Scott. Finally, an unusually severe and keen prosecution of all who were convicted, accused, or even suspected, of offence against the peace of the border, was set on foot by George Home, Earl of Dunbar, James's able but not very scrupulous minister; and these judicial measures were conducted so severely as to give rise to the proverb of Jeddart or (Jedburgh) justice, by which it is said a criminal was hanged first and tried afterwards; the truth of which is affirmed by historians as a well-known fact, occurring in numerous instances. Cruel as these measures were, they tended to remedy a disease which seemed almost desperate. Rent, the very name of which had till that period scarcely been heard on the border, began to be paid for property, and the proprietors of land turned their thoughts to rural industry, instead of the arts of predatory warfare. But it was more than a century ere the country, so long a harassed and disputed frontier, gained the undisturbed appearance of a civilised land." And so the borders were pacified, and there is now no part of Britain more prosperous or more peaceful. ARREST OF THE FIVE MEMBERS. THE HOUSE OF COMMONS-NOBLE CONDUCT OF THE LONDONERS. F all the famous state, and Culpeper chancellor of the events connected with Our ancient British parliament, none yields in interest to the incident in the struggle between it and Charles I., called the arrest, or attempted arrest, of the five members. For some time Charles seemed inclined to cease the highhanded and illegal course of action, in which he had hitherto indulged, and "to take a wise and temperate course. He resolved to make Falkland secretary of exchequer. He declared his intention of conferring, in a short time, some important office on Hyde. He assured these three persons that he would do nothing relating to the House of Commons without their joint advice, and that he would communicate all his designs to them in the most unreserved manner. This resolution, had he adhered to it, would have averted many years of blood and mourning. But in very few days,' says Clarendon, 'he did fatally swerve from it.' On the third of January, 1642, without giving the slightest hint of his |