At ten o’clock the party broke up, and the strangers mounted their horses, to ride to their respective homes. The Laird of Invermay, having observed some mischief brewing in the mind of Newton, endeavoured to make him stay for the night, but without success. The Master, Clavidge, and M‘Naughton rode on, with Inchbrakie a little in front of them. When Newton came up, Inchbrakie and he turned a little aside, and Newton was then observed to loose his belt and give his sword to Inchbrakie. Then riding on to the rest of the party, he contrived to lead Clavidge and M‘Naughton a little ahead, and commenced speaking noisily about some trivial matter. Hearing, however, the clashing of two swords behind them, Clavidge and M‘Naughton turned back, along with Newton, and there saw the Master of Rollo fallen on his knees, while Inchbrakie stood over him. The latter called out to Newton, ‘He has got it.’ Clavidge rushed to sustain the sinking man, while Inchbrakie and Newton went apart and interchanged a few hurried sentences. Presently Newton came up again, when Clavidge, perceiving that the Master was wounded to the death, cried out: ‘O God, such a horrid murder was never seen!’ To this Newton, standing coolly by, said: ‘I think not so—I think it has been fair.’ The poor Master seems to have died immediately, and then Newton went again aside with Inchbrakie, gave him his own hat, and assisted him to escape. In the morning, when the two swords were found upon the ground, the bloody one proved to be Newton’s. Inchbrakie fled that night to the house of one John Buchanan, whom he told that he had killed the Master of Rollo, adding, with tokens of remorse: ‘Wo worth Newton—wo worth the company!’ and stating further that Newton had egged him on, and given him a weapon, when he would rather have declined fighting. Inchbrakie escaped abroad, and was outlawed, but, procuring a [Sidenote: 1695.] remission, returned to his country in 1720.[142] James Edmonstoun of Newton was tried (Aug. 6, 1695) for accession to the murder of John Master of Rollo, and condemned to banishment for life.[143] It is stated that, nevertheless, he carried the royal standard of James VIII. at the battle of Sheriffmuir, and even after that event, lived many years on his own estate in Strathearn.[144] [Sidenote: MAY.] The Estates at this date advert to the fact that sundry lands lying along the sea-coast had been ruined, in consequence of their being overwhelmed with sand driven from adjacent sand-hills, ‘the which has been mainly occasioned by the pulling up by the roots of bent, juniper, and broom bushes, which did loose and break the surface and scroof of the sand-hills.’ In particular, ‘the barony of Cowbin and house and yards thereof, lying in the sheriffdom of Elgin, is quite ruined and overspread with sand,’ brought upon it by the aforesaid cause. Penalties were accordingly decreed for such as should hereafter pull up bent or juniper bushes on the coast sand-hills.[145]