This descendant of the Armstrongs was not unlike Johnny; and, indeed, it has been observed that throughout the whole branches of the family there was an extraordinary union of boldness and humour--two qualities which have more connection than may, at first view, be apparent. Law-breakers, among themselves, are seldom serious; a lightness of heart and a turn for wit being necessary for the sustenance of their outlawed spirits, as well as for a quaint justification--resorted to by all the tribe--of their calling, against the laws of the land. In the possession of these qualities, Will was not behind the most illustrious of his race; but he, perhaps, excelled them all in the art of "_conveying_"--a polite term then used for that change of ownership which the affected laws of the time denominated _theft_. This art was not confined to cattle or plenishing, though "They left not spindell, spoone, nor speit, Bed, boster, blanket, sark, nor sheet: John of the Park ryps kist and ark-- To all sic wark he is sae meet."[B] [B] See Maitland's curious satire on the Border robberies.--ED. It extended to abduction, and this was far seldomer exercised on damsels than on men, who would be well ransomed, especially of those classes, duke, earl, or baron, any of whom Johnny offered (for his life) to bring, "within a certain day, to his Majesty James V., either quick or dead." This latter part of their art was the highest to which the Borderers aspired; and there never was a riever among them all that excelled in it so much as Christie's Will. "To steal a stirk, or wear a score o' sheep _hamewards_," he used to say, "was naething; but to steal a _lord_ was the highest flicht o' a man's genius, and ought never to be lippened to a hand less than an Armstrong's;" and, certainly, if the success with which he executed one scheme of that high kind will guarantee Will's boasted abilities, he did not transcend the truth in limiting lord-stealing to the Armstrongs.