The Mers sowld fynd me beiff and caill,
What rack of breid?
War I thair lyftit with my lyfe,
The devill sowld styk me with a knyffe,
An' ever I cum agane in Fyfe,
Till I were deid.—
Pinkerton's Scotish Poems, Vol. II p. 180.
Again, when Common Thift is brought to condign punishment, he remembers his border friends in his dying speech:
The widdefow wardanis tuik my geir,