Scotland with one another's blood, and
when all the horrors of internecine warfare were being perpetrated,
there was lighted a flame that added a heroine to the country's list
of women who have honorably earned that title. There appeared one day
before Corgaff Castle, in Strathdon, Captain Kerr and a party of
men, sent by the deputy lieutenant of the queen, Sir Adam Gordon of
Auchindown, to capture and to hold it. Between the houses of Gordon
and Forbes existed a deadly feud, although they were united by
marriage. The Forbeses had espoused the cause of the king, while
the Gordons were arrayed on the side of the queen. This added to the
bitterness of their feeling, and accounts for the stubbornness which
Lady Towie displayed when called upon to surrender. Her husband, John
Forbes, the Laird of Towie, was in the field with his three sons;
the defence of the castle accordingly fell upon her. When the Gordons
appeared before the castle and demanded its subjection, its noble
defender replied in such scornful terms to Captain Kerr, the leader of
the besieging force, that he swore that he would wipe out the stigma
of her insult with her blood. As it was impossible to carry the castle
by assault without the aid of artillery, he resorted to fire--not,
however, before the brave lady had shot her pistol at him pointblank,
missing her aim, but yet grazing the captain's knee with the bullet.

In spite of the plea of her sick stepson, she resolutely determined to
perish in the flames which were spreading through the castle from the
fire started by the enemy in a breach of the castle wall.

This incident of the siege is described in an old ballad:

"Oh, then out spake her youngest son,
Sat on the nurse's knee:
Says--'Mither, dear, gie o'er this house,
For the reek it smithers me.'

"'I would gie all my gold, my bairn,
Sae would I all my fee,
For ae blast o' the Westlin' wind
To blaw the reek frae thee.'"

Next, her daughter appealed to her that she might be sewed up in a
sheet and let down the tower wall. To this the mother assented. The
maiden was thus lowered to the ground, only to be received upon the
spear of the brutal captain:

"O then out spake her daughter dear.
She was baith jimp and small:
'Oh, row me in a pair of sheets,
And tow me o'er the wall.'

* * * * *

"Oh, bonnie, bonnie was her mouth,
And cherry was her cheeks;
And clear, c