uld
not do to pleasure his daughter. But though his intercession did good in
delaying the warrant, yet my owning of the raising the flag at Sanquhar
was too much for the King, and in due course my warrant sped; of which
the bruit came north with a servant of Balmaghie's who rode like the
wings of the wind. But indeed I was not greatly disappointed, for since
my declaration to the Privy Council, I never expected any other end.

As soon, however, as the news came to the house of Balmaghie, Maisie
Lennox betook herself to the woodside to think. There she stayed for the
better part of an hour, pacing up and down more like an aged man than a
young maiden. Then, as my informant tells me, she came in again with a
face wonderfully assured.

"Give me a horse and suit of lad's clothes," she said to her who kept
the drapery closets and wardrobes at the house of Balmaghie.

"Preserve us, lass, for what wad ye hae lad's claes?" said the ancient
housekeeper. But without waiting to reply, Maisie Lennox went and got
them.

"The lassie's gane wud![12] There's nae reason in her," she cried out in
amazement.

[Footnote 12: Mad.]

But indeed it was a time when men and women were not inclined to stand
upon reasons. For each being supposed to have his neck deep in the tow,
he had no doubt his own good logic for whatever he proposed.

So Mistress Crombie, housekeeper to the Laird of Balmaghie, without
further question, fitted Maisie Lennox with a suit of lad's clothes,
which (having taken off and again suitably attired herself) she strapped
in a roll on her saddle bow and covered with a plaid. Then, dressed like
a maid that goes to her first place and rides a borrowed horse, she took
her way eastward. Now at that time, so important were the proclamations
and Privy Council matters, that every week there rode a post who carried
naught but reprieves and sentences.

It had been the custom of late, ever since the numerous affrays near the
border of Berwick, that this messenger of life and death should ride by
Carlisle and Moffat to Edinburgh.

Now this young maid, contrary to the wont of women folk, had all her
life said little and done much. So when Maisie Lennox came to the side
of the Little Queensberry Hill, having ridden all the way sedately, as a
sober maiden ought, she went aside into a thicket and changed her
woman's appearance to that of a smart birkie who rides to college. It
was about the time when the regents call up such to