SEPTEMBER 217 



not be ascertained till he was taken to Ayr, where, aided 

 by the chirurgery of ' Doctour Low/ he breathed his last. 

 It is clear that Cassilis was the assailant in this fray, and 

 that Bargany tried to avoid the encounter: nevertheless 

 the earl can hardly be blamed if, according to all the 

 rules of warfare, he chose his own time to attack a 

 hostile force threatening his territory. Anyhow, he escaped 

 punishment on the plea that he was doing the king 

 service, seeing that Thomas Kennedy, who rode with 

 his brother, Bargany, on that fatal day, was an outlaw 

 at the time. It might have followed that, his principal 

 enemy being laid low, the earl might have resumed 

 peaceful sway over his dominions, had not a deadly 

 quarrel ensued between him and his lieutenant, Sir 

 Thomas of Culzean, about an appointment made by the 

 former to the Provostship of Maybole College. Sir 

 Thomas was assured by the omnipresent Auchendrayne 

 that he went in danger of his life, at least so says our 

 anonymous chronicler; but if the authorship of the 

 Historic be justly suspected to be Auchendrayne's own, 

 then, as will be seen, there is good reason to doubt this 

 statement. 



Howbeit, what was subsequently established on oath 

 is this: that on the llth of May, 1602, Culzean sent his 

 squire, Lancelot, to find Auchendrayne in Maybole, inform 

 him that he, Culzean, was to set out for Edinburgh next 

 day, and desire him to meet him for a conference at the 

 Duppil near Ayr, as he should pass that way. Mure had 

 left Maybole before Lancelot's arrival, so Lancelot got the 

 schoolmaster to embody the message in a letter, which 

 was sent to Mure at his own house of Auchendrayne, 

 distant some six or seven miles, by the hand of 'ane 



