Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, iii. 131.
An edition of this ballad was published in Herd's Scottish Songs, (i. 54,) and there is styled The Young Laird of Ochiltrie. Scott recovered the following copy from recitation, which is to be preferred to the other, as agreeing more closely with the real fact, both in the name and the circumstances.
The incident here celebrated occurred in the year 1592. Francis, Earl Bothwell, being then engaged in a wild conspiracy against James VI., succeeded in obtaining some followers even among the king's personal attendants. Among these was a gentleman named Weymis of Logie. Accused of treasonable converse with Bothwell, he confessed to the charge, and was, of course, in danger of expiating his crime by death. But he was rescued through the address and courage of Margaret Twynstoun, a lady of the court, to whom he was attached. It being her duty to wait on the queen the night of Logie's accusation, she left the royal chamber while the king and queen were asleep, passed to the room where he was kept in custody, and ordered the guard to bring the prisoner into the presence of their majesties. She received her lover at the cham
ber door, commanding the guard to wait there, and conveyed him to a window, from which he escaped by a long cord. This is the story as related in The Historie of King James the Sext, quoted by Scott.
I will sing, if ye will hearken,
If ye will hearken unto me;
The king has ta'en a poor prisoner,
The wanton laird o' young Logie.
Young Logie's laid in Edinburgh chapel,5
Carmichael's the keeper o' the key;
And May Margaret's lamenting sair,
A' for the love of young Logie.
[May Margaret sits in the queen's bouir,]
[Knicking her fingers ane by ane,]10
[Cursing the day that she e'er was born,]
[Or that she e'er heard o' Logie's name.]
"Lament, lament na, May Margaret,
And of your weeping let me be;
For ye maun to the king himsell,15
To seek the life o' young Logie."
May Margaret has kilted her green cleiding,
And she has curl'd back her yellow hair,
—
"If I canna get young Logie's life,
Farewell to Scotland for evermair."20