A foot I should not flee.’
And aft she cried, ‘Ohon! alas, alas,
A sair heart’s ill to win;
I wan a sair heart when I married him,
And the day it’s well return’d again.’”
[226] Spalding, vol. i. p. 29.
[227] The “Common Band” or “General Band,” was the name given in popular speech to an Act of the Scottish Parliament of the year 1587, which was passed with the view of maintaining good order, both on the Borders and in the Highlands and Isles. The plan on which this Act chiefly proceeded was, “To make it imperative on all landlords, bailies, and chiefs of clans, to find sureties to a large amount, proportioned to their wealth and the number of their vassals or clansmen, for the peaceable and orderly behaviour of those under them. It was provided, that, if a superior, after having found the required sureties, should fail to make immediate reparation of any injuries committed by persons for whom he was bound to answer, the injured party might proceed at law against the sureties for the amount of the damage sustained. Besides being compelled, in such cases, to reimburse his sureties, the superior was to incur a heavy fine to the Crown. This important statute likewise contained many useful provisions for facilitating the administration of justice in these rude districts.”—Spalding’s Memorialls, vol. i. p. 3, (note). Gregory’s Western Highlands, p. 237.
[228] Continuation of the History of the Earls of Sutherland, by Gilbert Gordon of Sallagh, annexed to Sir R. Gordon’s work, p. 460. Spalding, p. 63.
[229] Gordon of Sallagh’s Continuation, p. 464, et seq.
[230] Gordon’s Continuation, p. 475. Spalding, vol. i. p. 47, et seq.