disappearing, Hume and his companions made the woods resound with a loud
laugh, and, starting up, and crying, "For Berwick, ho!" they hurried away
in the direction of the town, which the Governor, in his anxiety to form a
large assemblage, had left without a guard. Meanwhile the burgher army
pushed on for Newmilne; "and, when they came there," (says the chronicle),
"they pitched their camp; and nae doubt butt they were well disciplined,
seeing theye had the advantage of the Captain's training, with the great
blessing attour of weapons suitable--viz., rusty ould swords and pistolles;
and they continued about three or foure houres on the bankes and about the
milne: still there was nae appearance of the Scotch coming to fecht with
them." For a long time the Captain was solemn and quiet; but when it
appeared that the Scots "were not to come to show fecht," he got as wordy
as a blank-verse poet, and stood up in the face of a neighbouring wood,
from which it was expected the enemy would emanate, and called upon the
cowards (as he styled them) to come out "and dare to touche one stone of
the milne dam-dike."

"Did I not tell thee, Mr Mayor," he cried, "that I killed Patrick Hume? If
not, where is he now, and he the Lord Ross of Foulden, and he of Paxton,
and all the rest of the Border heroes? Come forth from thy wood recesses,
if there be as much pluck in thee as will enable thee to meet the fire of
the eye of the Governor of Berwick! Ha! ha! The rascals must have been at
Bothwell, where, doubtless, they felt the pith of this arm. There goeth the
disadvantage of bravery! The devil a man will encounter one whose name is
terrible, and I fear I may never have the luxury of a good fight again.
This day I expected to have fleshed my good sword. To-morrow is my
wedding-day. How glorious would it have been to have made it also a day of
victory! I could almost hack these unconscious trees for very spite, and to
give my sword the exercise it lacketh."

And he swung his falchion from side to side, cutting off the tops of the
young firs, just as if they had been men's heads; but no Scotchman made his
appearance. The whole bells of Berwick now began to swing and ring as if
the town had been invaded; and messengers, breathless and panting, arrived
at the camp, and communicated the intelligence that the Bastard of Hume
had, with a body of men, got entrance to the Mayor's house, by shewing the
guard the Governor's sword, and carried off Isabe