Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

XCIV SIR .lOHN JOUXSTOXE, KNIGH'i', loCr-loST.
"deadlie eiiciuye" tlie laird of Jolnistoiie. lie coinplaiiicd also that the
charges against him were false, and that the order for liis iiiiprisonrnent in
Slackness arose from the ill-will cf the Earl of Arran. He petitiinied th.e
king that he might have a fair trial or Le allowed to leave the country for a
time. It does not appear that a favourable reply was given, and owing to
the confusion between the rival clans, many lawless persons were set at.
liberty.^ Taking advantage of this, Maxwell rLSulvcd to revenge his own
cause, and his natural brother, Eobert ^Maxwell of Cowhill, at the head of
one Inmdred and twenty English and Scottish rebels, attacked in the night-
time the castle of Lochwood, Johnstone's chief residence, and plundered it,
after which they set fire to it and burned it, their loader, it is said, observing,
with savage gk-e, that he would give Lady Johnstone light enongli by which
to set her silken hood.^ This Lady Johnstone was l^ame ilargaret Scott, a
daughter of Buccleuch. In the conflagration Johnstone's jewels and his
chavter-chcst, as well as all the household furniture, v/ere destroyed/' This
outrage, which took place on Cih Apiil 1585, was connected in the minds
of some with English intrigue on ' behalf of the banished ]Carls of ilar,
Angus, and their adliercnts. The Master of Oray, then a promin>:-nt figure in
Scottish polities, wrote to Queeri I^lizabeth, some days after the occuiience,
thnt a copy letter had fallen irito the hands of King James, which was
reported to have been written by her Iti Loul Maxwell " promising him
assistance in this his foolish attempt." The king vi'as not willing to believe
she knew of Lord Maxwell's purpose, but the wiitei' is desiious to knov,', ft)r
the credit of his niission, whether the letter was written by her IMajesty, or
whelher it was issued by Lord ^^laxwell himself, as the writer thinks.*
It was perhaps this su.=:picion, that ]\Iaxwell v/as in k-ague with the
' Letter, Lord Scrope to Walsyngliara, ^ Original claim against M.txv.-cII, in
Bending also a coi)y of Maxwell's letter to Annandale Cliarter-cLest.
King James. Hamilton Papers, vol. ii. pp.
C36-G3-S, 640. * Papers relating to Patrick, Master of
" Book of Carlaverock, vol. i. p. 'JG2. day, pp. 4,?, 44.