ke a cow, by which he could make it steal itself home to his
semi-baronial residence.[3] These apparently inconsistent and opposite
qualities were possessed by the laird of Henderland. There was not in
all Liddesdale a nobler champion of the rights of war; and few there
were that entered more keenly into the spirit of enterprise, to take
from his neighbour a fat steer, and then fight, as nobly as ever did
King Robert for a lost kingdom, in defence of his horned prey. The
riever in Cockburn was, however, a character of mere habit; for he
possessed qualities of heart and mind which raised him far above the
Border chiefs with whom he was usually ranked. He could fight to the
effusion of blood that came from within an inch of the coronary veins of
his heart, for the property of a cow, that, next day, he would divide
among the poor; and he was often heard to say, that, if Henderland had
been among "the Lowdens," he would have been a gay courtier, a supporter
of the throne, and a friend of the poor, if not the king's almoner
himself. In addition to these qualities, he carried a noble figure, and
an open, intelligent countenance, that expressed the feelings of a heart
as susceptible of the social affections as it was of the emotions that
produced his lawless enterprises.

The interior of Henderland Castle, at this time, was graced by the
presence of one of the fairest of women, and the most dutiful and
affectionate of wives. The lot of Marjory Scott, the wife of Cockburn,
was, indeed, in all respects, save in the possession of a husband she
loved devotedly, unfortunately cast; because, in person, mind, and
heart, she was formed for gracing the polished drawing-room of refined
and civilized life, and imparting to the nursery the charm of a soft,
kind, and doting mother, whose love of strict moral discipline was only
one phase of her maternal affection. Become the wife of a Border chief
from the force of an irresistible early passion, she was as much the
domesticated lover of in-door enjoyments, the cultivator of the social
affections, and the admirer of love and tranquillity, as if she had
occupied a retreat in Arcadia. She had brought her husband three
children, all as fair as herself, one girl and two boys, whom she, in
playful kindness, declared she would rear in the fear of God, the love
of man, and the hearty hatred of Border rieving in all its gradations,
from the laird's enforcing of blackmail, to the prowess of the laird