228 ifcfngs of tbe 1Rofc, IRtfle, anfc (Bun 



Gilbert, the fourth Earl, was Privy Councillor to Mary 

 Stuart, and was involved in the ruin which overwhelmed 

 her fortunes at Langside. His successor in the title has 

 been made famous by ballad and tradition as the grim 

 husband who locked up his Countess in Maybole Tower, 

 and kept her there till she died. But even the veriest 

 stickler for romance must admit that he had just cause 

 for this severity. The lady was married against her 

 will no uncommon thing in those days and her heart 

 had been given long before to the famous King of the 

 Gypsies, Johnny Faa, of Yetholm, " Lord and Erie of 

 Little Egypt," whom a living romancer has introduced 

 into one of the most popular of his novels. When the 

 Earl of Cassillis was away, the bold Johnny took ad- 

 vantage of his absence to make a raid on his castle 

 and carry off his Countess, "she being nothing loth." 

 But the grim Earl, on his return, at once gave chase 

 to the abductor, caught him up, killed him and all his 

 followers, save one, after a bloody fight, and recaptured 

 the abducted lady. He built a tower at Maybole, in 

 Ayrshire, and when it was finished he took his faithless 

 wife there and shut her up for the rest of her life. But 

 she had her revenge in a way, for she spent her long, 

 lonely hours of imprisonment in working out on tapestry 

 the pictured story of her love adventures with Johnny 

 Faa, whilst the Lowland balladist has also perpetuated 

 the tale in verse. Against such " eternal blazon " what 

 avail the indignant protests of the " family " and 

 appeals to the fact that no documentary evidence of any 

 such romantic episode exists in the archives of the 

 Kennedys ? 



