was the indignation of the assembly against
the perjured criminal, that he was often slain by his own clan, to
wipe out the disgrace he had brought on them. In the same spirit
of confidence, it was not unusual to behold the victors, after an
engagement, dismiss their prisoners upon parole, who never failed
either to transmit the stipulated ransom, or to surrender themselves
to bondage, if unable to do so. But the virtues of a barbarous
people, being founded not upon moral principle, but upon the dreams of
superstition, or the capricious dictates of antient custom, can seldom
be uniformly relied on. We must not, therefore, be surprised to find
these very men, so true to their word in general, using, upon other
occasions, various resources of cunning and chicane, against which the
border laws were in vain directed.

The immediate rulers of the borders were the chiefs of the different
clans, who exercised over their respective septs a dominion, partly
patriarchal, and partly feudal. The latter bond of adherence was,
however, the more slender; for, in the acts regulating the borders,
we find repeated mention of "Clannes having captaines and chieftaines,
whom on they depend, oft-times against the willes of their
landeslordes."--_Stat._ 1587, c. 95, _and the Roll thereto annexed_.
Of course, these laws looked less to the feudal superior, than to the
chieftain of the name, for the restraint of the disorderly tribes; and
it is repeatedly enacted, that the head of the clan should be first
called upon to deliver those of his sept, who should commit any
trespass, and that, on his failure to do so, he should be liable to
the injured party in full redress. _Ibidem_, and _Stat._ 1594, c. 231.
By the same statutes, the chieftains and landlords, presiding over
border clans, were obliged to find caution, and to grant hostages,
that they would subject themselves to the due course of law. Such
clans, as had no chieftain of sufficient note to enter bail for their
quiet conduct, became broken men, outlawed to both nations.

From these enactments, the power of the border chieftains may be
conceived; for it had been hard and useless to have punished them
for the trespasses of their tribes, unless they possessed over them
unlimited authority. The abode of these petty princes by no means
corresponded to the extent of their power. We do not find, on the
Scottish borders, the splendid and extensive baronial castles, which
graced and defended th