our soverane lord, the king, allanerly except; and to be
trewe, gude, and lele servant to my said lord, and be ready to do
him service, baith in pece and weir, with all my kyn, friends, and
servants, that I may and dowe to raise, and be and to my said lord's
airis for evermair. And sall tak his true and plane part in all maner
of actions at myn outer power, and sall nouther wit, hear, nor se my
said lordis skaith, lak, nor dishonestie, but we sall stop and lett
the samyn, and geif we dowe not lett the samyn, we sall warn him
thereof in all possible haist; and geif it happenis me, the said Johne
Armistrang, or myne airis, to fail in our said service and manrent,
any maner of way, to our said lord (as God forbid we do), than, and
in that caiss, the gift and nonentres maid be him to us, of the said
landis of Dalbetht, Schield, Dalblane, Stapil-Gortown, Langholme,
and--with the pertinentis to be of no avale, force, nor effect; but
the said lord and his airis to have free regress and ingress to the
nonentres of the samyn, but ony pley or impediment. To the keeping and
fulfilling of all and sundry the premisses, in form above writtin, I
bind and obliss me and my airis foresaids, to the said lord and his
airis for evermare, be the faithis treuthis in our bodies, but fraud
or gile. In witness of the whilk thing, to thir letters of manrent
subscrievit, with my hand at the pen, my sele is hangin, at Drumfries,
the secund day of November, the yeir of God, Jaiv and XXV. yeiris.

JOHNE ARMISTRANG, with my hand
at the pen.

The lands, here mentioned, were the possessions of Armstrong himself,
the investitures of which not having been regularly renewed, the
feudal casualty of non-entry had been incurred by the vassal. The
brother of Johnie Armstrang is said to have founded, or rather
repaired, Langholm castle, before which, as mentioned in the ballad,
verse 5th, they "ran their horse," and "brake their spears," in the
exercise of border chivalry.--_Account of the Parish of Langholm, apud
Macfarlane's MSS_. The lands of Langholm and Staplegorton continued
in Armstrong's family; for there is, in the same MS. collection, a
similar bond of manrent, granted by "Christofer Armistrang, calit
_Johne's Pope_," on 24th January, 1557, to Lord Johne Lord Maxwell,
and to Sir Johne Maxwell of Terreglis, knight, his tutor and governor,
in return for the gift of "the males of all and haill the landis whilk
are conteint in ane bond made by umquh