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The Green Bag
read them at length in the collection of Border papers) of the capture. Those same papers show that the ballad gives the main features of the rescue with sur prising accuracy. But I cannot linger over its cheerful numbers. The event might once have provoked a war, but the shadow of the union was already cast. James would do nothing to spoil the splendid prize almost within his grasp, and Elizabeth's statesmen were not like to quarrel with their future master. With the death of Elizabeth (1603) came the union of the crowns, and the Scots rider felt their craft in danger, for they forthwith
made a desperate incursion into England, with some idea (it is thought) of staying the event. But they were severely punished, and needs must cower under the now allpowerful crown. The appointment of ef fective wardens presently ceased. In 1606, by the Act I, Jac., Cap. I, the English Par liament repealed the Anti-Scots laws, on condition that the Scots Parliament recip rocated; and presently a kindred measure was touched with the Scepter at Edinburgh. The administration of the Border was left to ordinary tribunals, and the Laws of the Marches vanished to the lumber room. — Francis Watt, in the New Review.
