A collection of ancient and modern Scottish ballads, etc

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99
above the other. Ail of thera being at rest, about mid-
night tlie tower takes fire, in so sudden and furio(.;s a
manner, that this noble Lord, the Laird of Rothemay,
Enghsh Will, Colin Ivat, and other two, being six in
number, were cruelly burnt to death, without help or
relief offered to be made ;
the laird and lady looking on,
without so much as endeavouring to deliver them from
the fury of those merciless flames, as was reported,
** Robert Gordon, who was in Aboyne's chamber, escaped
as ('tis said) Aboyne might have done, if he had not
rushed up stairs to awake Rothemay ;
and while he was
about that, the wooden passage, and the lofting of the
room took fire, so that none of them could get down
stairs. They went to the window that looked into the
court, and cried many times help for God's sake, the
laird and lady looking on ; but all to no purpose. And
finally, seeing there was no help to be made, they recommended
themselves to God, clasped in one another's
embraces: And thus perished in those merciless flames,
the noble Lord John Gordon, Viscount of Melgum and
Aboyne, and John Gordon of Rothemay, a very brave
. youth. This Viscount was a very complete gentleman,
both in body and mind, and much lamented by the
whole country, but especially by his father, mother and
lady, who lived a melancholy and retired life all her
time thereafter." Gordon's History of the Illustrious
Family of Gordon^ vol. ii.]
When Frennet castle's ivied walls
Thro' y allow leaves were seen ;
When birds forsook the sapless boughs^
And bees the faded green
;