Wi’ that the water they hae ta’en,
  By ane’s and twa’s they a’ swam thro’;
  “Here are we a’ safe,” quo’ the Laird’s Jock,
  “And, puir faint Wat, what think ye now?”

  They scarce the other brae had won,
  When twenty men they saw pursue;
  Frae Newcastle toun they had been sent,
  A’ English lads baith stout and true.

  But when the land-serjeant the water saw,
  “It winna ride, my lads,” says he;
  Then cried aloud—­“The prisoner take,
  But leave the fetters, I pray, to me.”

  “I wat weil no,” quo’ the Laird’s Jock;
  “I’ll keep them a’; shoon to my mare they’ll be,
  My gude bay mare—­for I am sure,
  She has bought them a’ right dear frae thee.”

  Sae now they are on to Liddesdale,
  E’en as fast as they could them hie;
  The prisoner is brought to’s ain fire side,
  And there o’s airns they mak him free.

  “Now, Jock, my billie,” quo’ a’ the three,
  “The day is com’d thou was to die;
  But thou’s as weil at thy ain ingle side,
  Now sitting, I think, ’twixt thee and me.”

[Footnote 174:  Spaits—­Torrents.]

[Footnote 175:  Caugers—­Carriers.]

[Footnote 176:  Branks and brecham—­Halter and cart-collar.]

[Footnote 177:  Mese—­Soothe.]

[Footnote 178:  Cholerford brae—­A ford upon the Tyne, above Hexham.]

[Footnote 179:  Fie—­Predestined.]

HOBBIE NOBLE.

* * * * *

We have seen the hero of this ballad act a distinguished part in the deliverance of Jock o’ the Side, and are now to learn the ungrateful return which the Armstrongs made him for his faithful services.[180] Halbert, or Hobbie Noble, appears to have been one of those numerous English outlaws, who, being forced to fly their own country, had established themselves on the Scottish borders.  As Hobbie continued his depredations upon the English, they bribed some of his hosts, the Armstrongs, to decoy him into England, under pretence of a predatory expedition.  He was there delivered, by his treacherous companions, into the hands of the officers of justice, by whom he was conducted to Carlisle, and executed next morning.  The laird of Mangerton, with whom Hobbie was in high favour, is said to have taken a severe revenge upon the traitors who betrayed him.  The principal contriver of the scheme, called here Sim o’ the Maynes, fled into England from the resentment of his chief; but experienced there the common fate of a traitor, being himself executed at Carlisle, about two months after Hobbie’s death.  Such is, at least, the tradition of Liddesdale.  Sim o’ the Maynes appears among the Armstrongs of Whitauch, in Liddesdale, in the list of clans so often alluded to.