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 or two exceptions, we may say, that, in the country which this warlike clan once occupied, there is hardly left a land-holder of the name.  One of the last border reivers was, however, of this family, and lived within the beginning of the last century.  After having made himself dreaded over the whole country, he at last came to the following end:  One—­, a man of large property, having lost twelve cows in one night, raised the country of Tiviotdale, and traced the robbers into Liddesdale, as far as the house of this Armstrong, commonly called Willie of Westburnflat, from the place of his residence, on the banks of the Hermitage water.  Fortunately for the pursuers he was then asleep; so that he was secured, along with nine of his friends, without much resistance.  He was brought to trial at Selkirk; and, although no precise evidence was adduced to convict him of the special fact (the cattle never having been recovered), yet the jury brought him in guilty on his general character, or, as it is called in our law, on habite and repute.  When sentence was pronounced, Willie arose; and, seizing the oaken chair in which he was placed, broke it into pieces by main strength, and offered to his companions, who were involved in the same doom, that, if they would stand behind him, he would fight his way out of Selkirk with these weapons.  But they held his hands, and besought him to let them die like Christians.  They were accordingly executed in form of law.  This was the last trial at Selkirk.  The people of Liddesdale, who (perhaps not erroneously) still consider the sentence as iniquitous, remarked, that—­, the prosecutor, never throve afterwards, but came to beggary and ruin, with his whole family.