J. F. Campbell Collection > Minstrelsy of the Scottish border > Volume 1

XVI IXTRODUCTION.
the Lord Home to Edinburgh, where he was tried
and executed. This example of justice, or seve-
rity, only irritated the kinsmen and followers of
the deceased baron : for though, in other respects,
not more sanguinary than the rest of a barbarous
nation, the Borderers never dismissed from their
memory a deadly feud, till blood for blood had
been exacted to the uttermost drachm.* Of this,
the fate of Anthony d"'Arcey, Seigneur de la Bastie,
affords a melancholy example. This gallant French
cavalier was appointed warden of the East Marches
by Albany, at his first disgraceful retreat to France.
Though De la Bastie was an able statesman, and
a true son of chivalry, the choice of the regent
was nevertheless unhappy. The new warden was
1.517 a foreigner, placed in the office of Lord Home, as
the delegate of the very man who had brought
that baron to the scaffold. A stratagem, contrived
* The statute 1594, cap. 231, ascribes the disorders on the
Border in a great measure to the " counselles, directions, re-
" ceipt, and partaking, of chieftains principalksof the branches,
" and househaldersof thesaides surnaines,and c]annes,quhilkis
" bears quarrel, and seeks revenge for the least hurting or
" slauchter of ony ane of their unhappy race, although it were
" ordour of justice, or in rescuing and following of trew mens
" geares stoUen or reft."