Red Rowan, the strongest man in Teviotdale, lifted him up. "Stay now, Red Rowan, till I take farewell of Lord Scroope. Farewell, farewell, my good Lord Scroope," he cried. "I will pay ye for my lodging when first we meet on the Border." With shout and cry Red Rowan bore him on his shoulders down the long ladder, the irons clanking at every stride. "Many a time," said Kinmont Willie, "have I ridden a horse both wild and unruly, but never have my legs bestrode a rougher beast than Red Rowan. Many a time have I pricked a horse over the furrows, but never since I backed a steed have I worn such cumbrous spurs." Scarcely had they won the Staneshaw-bank when all the bells in Carlisle were ringing and Lord Scroope was after them with a thousand men on horse and on foot. But— "Buccleuch has turn’d to Eden water Even where it flowed frae bank to brim, And he has plunged in wi’ a’ his band, And safely swam them through the stream. He turn’d him on the other side, And at Lord Scroope his glove flung he— ’If ye like na my visit to merry England, In fair Scotland come visit me!’ All sore astonished stood Lord Scroope, He stood as still as rock of stane; He scarcely dared to trew[#] his eyes, When through the water they had gane. [#] Trust ’He is either himsell a devil frae hell, Or else his mother a witch maun be; I wadna have ridden that wan water, For a’ the gowd[#] in Christentie.’" [#] Gold *Chapter XXVIII* *Dick o’ the Cow* "Fair Johnie Armstrong to Willie did say ’Billie, a-riding we will gae.’" The ballad of this name, a popular one in Liddesdale, relates, like that of Kinmont Willie, to the time when Lord Scroope was Warden of the West Marches and Governor of Carlisle. Dick o’ the Cow seems to have been his fool or jester. Dickie, some years after the events described in the ballad, fell a victim to the vengeance of the Armstrongs. There had been no raids from Liddesdale for a considerable time, and no riding, and the horses had all grown so fat that they dare scarcely stir out of the stall. Then fair Johnie Armstrong said to his brother Willie, "Brother, we will go a-riding. We have long been at feud with England, and perhaps we shall find some spoil." So they rode to Hulton Hall and round about it, but the laird, a wise man, had left neither goods nor cattle outside to steal, except six sheep in a meadow. Said Johnie, "I’d rather die in England than take those six sheep to Liddesdale." "But who was that man we last met as we came over the hill?" "Oh, he is an innocent fool, and men call him Dick o’ the Cow." "That fool has three good cows of his own, as good as there are in Cumberland. Betide me life or death, they shall go to Liddesdale with me!"