"And round and round the wa's he went
Their ashes for to view.
At last into the flames he flew
And bad the world adieu."
This ballad is found in various versions, which proves how wide-spread was the popularity of the striking story which it relates. In the version given from the Cotton MS. by Ritson in his Ancient Songs (vol. ii. p. 38, ed. 1829) the husband takes no vengeance on Captain Car. Another version, entitled Loudoun Castle, is reprinted in Child's English and Scottish Ballads (vol. vi. p. 254), from the Ballads and Songs of Ayrshire, where the scene is changed to Loudoun Castle, which is supposed to have been burnt about three hundred and sixty years ago by the clan Kennedy. In Ritson's version the castle is called Crechcrynbroghe, and in the Genealogy of the Forbes, by Matthew Lumsden, of Tullikerne, written in 1580 (Inverness, 1819, p. 44), the name is changed to Cargaffe. From this latter source we learn that the lady of Towie was Margaret Campbell, daughter of Sir John Campbell, of Calder, and that the husband, far from flying into the flames, married a second wife, a daughter of Forbes of Reires, who bare him a son named Arthur.]
It fell about the Martinmas,
Quhen the wind blew shril and cauld,
Said Edom o' Gordon to his men,
We maun draw till a hauld.[649]
And quhat a hauld sall we draw till,5
My mirry men and me?
We wul gae to the house o' the Rodes,
To see that fair ladìe.
The lady stude on hir castle wa',
Beheld baith dale and down:10
There she was ware of a host of men
Cum ryding towards the toun.[650]
O see ye nat, my mirry men a'?
O see ye nat quhat I see?
Methinks I see a host of men:15
I marveil quha they be.
She weend[651] it had been hir luvely lord,
As he cam ryding hame;
It was the traitor Edom o' Gordon,
Quha reckt nae sin nor shame.20