+The Text+ is that of Scott's _Minstrelsy,_ which was repeated in
Motherwell's collection, with the insertion of one stanza, obtained from
tradition, between Scott's 2 and 3.
+The Story+ as told in this variant of the ballad is remarkably true to
the historical facts.
The Laird was John Wemyss, younger of Logie, a gentleman-in-waiting to
King James VI. of Scotland, and an adherent of the notorious Francis
Stuart, Earl of Bothwell. After the failure of the two rash attempts of
Bothwell upon the King's person--the former at Holyrood House in 1591
and the second at Falkland in 1592--the Earl persuaded the Laird of
Logie and the Laird of Burleigh to join him in a third attempt, which
was fixed for the 7th or 9th of August 1592; but the King got wind of
the affair, and the two Lairds were seized by the Duke of Lennox and
'committed to ward within Dalkeith.'
The heroine of the ballad was a Danish maid-of-honour to James's Queen;
her name is variously recorded as Margaret Vinstar, Weiksterne,
Twynstoun, or Twinslace. 'Carmichael' was Sir John Carmichael, appointed
captain of the King's guard in 1588.
The ballad stops short at the escape of the lovers by ship. But history
relates that the young couple were befriended by the Queen, who refused
to comply with the King's demand that May Margaret should be dismissed.
Eventually both were received into favour again, though the Laird of
Logie was constantly in political trouble. He died in 1599. (See a paper
by A. Francis Steuart in _The Scots Magazine_ for October 1899, p. 387.)