break loose, and again Grim Death would hurl his darts broadcast at old and young, rich and poor. In his _Scenes of Infancy_ Leyden alludes to the belief: ' "Mark, in yon vale, a solitary stone, Shunned by the swain, with loathsome weeds o'ergruwn! The yellow stonecrop shoots from every pore, With scaly sapless lichens crusted o'er: Beneath the base, where starving hemlocks creep, The yellow Pestilence is buried deep. Here oft, at sunny noon, the peasants pause, While many a tale their mute attention draws; * And, as the younger swains, with active feet, Pace the loose weeds, and the flat tombstone mete, What curse shall seize the guilty wretch, they tell, Who drags the monster from his midnight cell." All manner of precautions were adopted to hinder the spreading of the pestilence. Orders were even issued forbidding the assembling together of more than three or four persons at any one place, but the Privy Council Records of the time show that this regulation was obeyed only when it suited the people to observe it. There were limits to the dread in which the pestilence was held, and even fear of the consequences did not always reconcile the Borderers to such an interference with their liberty. It is on record that, in 1637, when, in the execution of his duty as Convener of the Justices of his county, Sir John Murray of Philiphaugh went to Selkirk, he {248}found that a marriage was about to take place, and that most part of the community had been invited to be present. Sir John at once forbade the assemblage, and, later, he sent for the father of the bride, a man named James Murray, and informed him that on no account would more than four or five guests be permitted. But James was not to be thus coerced. "Na, na!" he cried, "If ye be feared, come not there. But the folk are comin'." So Sir John called on the bailies to commit the offender at once to prison. The bailies, however, were probably included in the number of the wedding guests, and were looking forward to the "ploy" with as great pleasurable anticipation as was even the most irresponsible of those invited. They paid no heed to Sir John's demand; "there was no obedience given thereto," say the Records. And next day, when the postponed wedding took place, "there was about four or five score persons who met and drank together all that day till night." Whether Sir John remained to take any part in the festivities we are not told, but of this at least we may be very sure: his interference did not tend to lessen the amount of liquor consumed on the occasion. CHAPTER X SELKIRK