‘... the Regent made progress first to Stirling, where four priests
of Dumblane were condemnit to the death, for saying of mess against
the act of parliament; but he remittit their lives, and causit them
to be bund to the mercat cross with their vestments and chalices
in derision, where the people cast eggs and other villanie at their
faces, by the space of ane hour; and thereafter their vestments and
chalices were burnt to ashes. From that he passed to Sanctandrois,
where a notable sorcerer called Nic Neville was condemnit to the death
and brunt; and a Frenchman callit Paris, wha was ane of the devisers
of the king’s death, was hangit in Sanctandrois, and with him William
Stewart, Lyon King of Arms, for divers points of witchcraft and
necromancy.’--_H. K. J._
The _Diurnal of Occurrents_ relates the Regent’s proceedings against
the powers of the other world in this journey in a style equally cool
and laconic. ‘In my Lord Regent’s passing to the north, he causit burn
certain witches in Sanctandrois, and in returning he causit burn ane
other company of witches in Dundee.’
* * * * *
[Sidenote: SEP.]
The Regent once more set out on an expedition against the Border
thieves, attended by a hundred men of war. In the words of a poetical
panegyrist:
‘... having established all thing in this sort,
To Liddesdale again he did resort.
Through Ewesdale, Esdale, and all the dales rade he,
And also lay three nichts in Cannobie,
Where nae prince lay thir hunder years before;
Nae thief durst stir, they did him fear so sore;
And that they should nae mair their theft allege,
Threescore and twelve he brought of them in pledge,
Syne warded them, whilk made the rest keep order,
Than _might the rash buss keep kye on the Border_.’[68]
It is said that no former ruler had ever so thoroughly awed the Border
men. On his return to Edinburgh in November, he distributed the
hostages among certain barons of the realm.
This, however, was the last of Moray’s expeditions against the thieves.
He was approaching the end of his career, doomed by party hatred in
conjunction with private malice.
[Sidenote: 1569-70.