He told me of the famine that threatened his little garrison; of the constant watching, day and night, necessary to prevent a surprise.

But in his extremity, he observed that one defile was thinly guarded by the enemy; probably because, as it lay at the bottom of a perpendicular angle of the rock, they thought it unattainable by the Scots.

To this point, however, my dauntless friend turns his eyes.
He would attempt it, could he procure a sufficient number of fresh men to cover the retreat of his exhausted few.

For this purpose, as I had so lately explored the most hidden paths of the craigs, I volunteered to visit the Lord Mar, and to conduct, in safety, any succors he might send to our persecuted leader." **The stem of this brave name, in subsequent times, became two great branches, the Roxburghe and the Lothian.
"This," continued Ker, "was the errand on which I came to the earl.
Think then my horror, when in my journey I found redoubled legions hemming in the hills; and on advancing toward Bothwell Castle, was seized with that nobleman, who, they said, was condemned to lose his head!" "Not so bad as that, my brave Ker," cried Murray, a glow of indignation flushing his cheek; "many a bull's head** shall frown in this land, on the Southron tables, before my uncle's neck gluts their axes! No true Scottish blood, I trust, will ever stain their scaffolds; for while we have arms to wield a sword, he must be a fool that grounds them on any other terms than freedom or death.

We have cast our lives on the die; and Wallace's camp or the narrow house must be our prize!" **A bull's head, presented at a feast, was a sign that some one of the company was immediately to be put to death.-( 1809.) "Noble youth!" exclaimed the prior, "may the innocence which gives animation to your courage, continue its moving soul! They only are invincible who are as ready to die as to live; and no one can be firm in that principle, whose exemplary life is not a happy preparation for the awful change." Murray bowed modestly to this pious encomium, and turning to Ker, informed him, that since he must abandon all hope of hearing any more of the fifty brave men his cousin Helen had sent to the craigs, he bethought him of applying to his uncle, Sir John Murray, who dwelt hard by, on his estate at Drumshargard.