And thus, after an appeal to the Earl himself, it was arranged, much to John Lauder's content.
For his third knight the Douglas had made choice of his cousin Hugh, younger brother of his two opponents, and at that William and James of Avondale shook their heads.
"He pushes a good tree, our Hughie," said James.

"If he comes at you, Will, mind that trick of swerving that he hath.

Aim at his right gauntlet, and you will hit his shield." The conflict on the Boat Croft differed much from the chivalrous encounters of an earlier time and a richer country.

And of this more anon.
It chanced that on the borders of the crowd which that day begirt the great enclosure of the lists two burgesses of Dumfries stood on tiptoe,--to wit, Robert Semple, merchant dealing in cloth and wool, and Ninian Halliburton, the brother of Barbara, wife of Malise MacKim, master armourer, whose trade was only conditioned by the amount of capital he could find to lay out and the probability he had of disposing of his purchase within a reasonable time.
It would give an entirely erroneous impression of the state of Scotland in 1440 if the sayings and doings of the wise and shrewd burghers of the towns of Scotland were left wholly without a chronicler.

The burghs of Scotland were at once the cradles and strongholds of liberty.