[Footnote:
_Spur-whang_--Spur-leather.] But to the saddle, James Stewart, since
so the phrase goes. I hear your trumpets. Bound to horse and away--we
shall soon see which nag is best breathed."
Followed by a train of about three hundred well-mounted men-at-arms,
these two powerful barons directed their course to Dumfries, and from
thence eastward to Teviotdale, marching at a rate which, as Morton had
foretold, soon disabled a good many of their horses, so that when they
approached the scene of expected action, there were not above two
hundred of their train remaining in a body, and of these most were
mounted on steeds which had been sorely jaded.
They had hitherto been amused and agitated by various reports
concerning the advance of the English soldiers, and the degree of
resistance which the Abbot was able to oppose to them. But when they
were six or seven miles from Saint Mary's of Kennaquhair, a gentleman
of the country, whom Murray had summoned to attend him, and on whose
intelligence he knew he could rely, arrived at the head of two or
three servants, "bloody with spurring, fiery red with haste."
According to his report, Sir John Foster, after several times
announcing, and as often delaying, his intended incursion, had at last
been so stung with the news that Piercie Shafton was openly residing
within the Halidome, that he determined to execute the commands of his
mistress, which directed him, at every risk, to make himself master of
the Euphuist's person.
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