The desperadoes engaged in
it on the Scottish side were known as Moss-troopers, any of whom when
caught by the English were taken to Carlisle and hanged near there at a
place called Hairibee. Those who claimed the "benefit of clergy" were
allowed to repeat in Latin the "Miserere mei," at the beginning of the
51st Psalm, before they were executed, this becoming known as the
"neck-verse."
William of Deloraine was one of the most desperate Moss-troopers ever
engaged in Border warfare, but he, according to Sir Walter Scott:
By wily turns, by desperate bounds,
Had baffled Percy's best blood-hounds;
In Eske or Liddel, fords were none,
But he would ride them, one by one;
* * * * *
Steady of heart, and stout of hand.
As ever drove prey from Cumberland;
Five times outlawed had he been,
By England's King, and Scotland's Queen.
When Sir Michael Scott was buried in Melrose Abbey his Mystic
Book--which no one was ever to see except the Chief of Branxholm, and
then only in the time of need--was buried with him. Branxholm Tower was
about eighteen miles from Melrose and situated in the vale of Cheviot.
After the death of Lord Walter (who had been killed in the Border
warfare), a gathering of the kinsmen of the great Buccleuch was held
there, and the "Ladye Margaret" left the company, retiring laden with
sorrow and her impending troubles to her bower.
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