should have what conditions
I should demand or desire. First, all English prisoners were set at
liberty. Then had I themselves, and most part of the gentlemen of the
Scottish side, so strictly bound in bondes to enter to mee, in fifteen
dayes warning, any offendour, that they durst not, for their
lives, break any covenant that I made with them; and so, upon these
conditions, I set them at liberty, and was never after troubled with
these kind of people. Thus God blessed me in bringing this great
trouble to so quiet an end; wee brake up our fort, and every man
retired to his owne house."--_Carey's Memoirs_, p. 151.

The people of Liddesdale have retained, by tradition, the remembrance
of _Carey's Raid_, as they call it. They tell, that, while he was
besieging the outlaws in the Tarras they contrived, by ways known
only to themselves, to send a party into England, who plundered the
warden's lands. On their return, they sent Carey one of his own cows,
telling him, that, fearing he might fall short of provision during his
visit to Scotland, they had taken the precaution of sending him some
English beef. The anecdote is too characteristic to be suppressed.

From this narrative, the power and strength of the Armstrongs, at
this late period, appear to have been very considerable. Even upon the
death of Queen Elizabeth, this clan, associated with other banditti of
the west marches to the number of two or three hundred horse, entered
England in a hostile manner, and extended their ravages as far as
Penrith. James VI., then at Berwick, upon his journey to his new
capital, detached a large force, under Sir William Selby, captain of
Berwick, to bring these depredators to order. Their raid, remarkable
for being the last of any note occurring in history, was avenged in an
exemplary manner. Most of the strong-holds upon the Liddel were razed
to the foundation, and several of the principal leaders executed at
Carlisle; after which we find little mention of the Armstrongs in
history. The precautions, adopted by the Earl of Dunbar, to preserve
peace on the borders, bore peculiarly hard upon a body of men, long
accustomed to the most ungoverned licence. They appear, in a
great measure, to have fallen victims to the strictness of the new
enactments.--_Ridpath_, p. 703.--_Stow_, 819.--_Laing_, Vol. I. The
lands, possessed by them in former days, have chiefly come into the
hands of the Buccleuch family, and of the Elliots; so that, with one