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diff --git a/21738-8.txt b/21738-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..acd1602 --- /dev/null +++ b/21738-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5255 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hunted and Harried, by R.M. Ballantyne + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Hunted and Harried + +Author: R.M. Ballantyne + +Release Date: June 7, 2007 [EBook #21738] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUNTED AND HARRIED *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + + + + +HUNTED AND HARRIED, BY R.M. BALLANTYNE. + +CHAPTER ONE. + +ON THE HUNT. + +On a brilliant summer morning in the last quarter of the seventeenth +century a small troop of horsemen crossed the ford of the river Cairn, +in Dumfriesshire, not far from the spot where stands the little church +of Irongray, and, gaining the road on the western bank of the stream, +wended their way towards the moors and uplands which lie in the +neighbourhood of Skeoch Hill. + +The dragoons, for such they were, trotted rapidly along the road that +led into the solitudes of the hills, with all the careless dash of men +whose interests are centred chiefly on the excitements of the passing +hour, yet with the unflagging perseverance of those who have a fixed +purpose in view--their somewhat worn aspect and the mud with which they +were bespattered, from jack-boot to iron headpiece, telling of a long +ride over rugged ground. + +The officer in command of the party rode a little in advance. Close +behind him followed two troopers, one of whom was a burly middle-aged +man with a stern, swarthy countenance; the other a youth whose tall +frame was scarcely, if at all, less powerful than that of his +comrade-in-arms, though much more elegant in form, while his youthful +and ruddy, yet masculine, countenance suggested that he must at that +time have been but a novice in the art of war. + +This youth alone, of all the party, had a somewhat careworn and sad +expression on his brow. It could hardly have been the result of +fatigue, for there was more of ease and vigour in his carriage than in +that of any of his companions. + +"We should be near the river by this time, Glendinning," said the leader +of the party, reining in and addressing the swarthy trooper. + +"Ay, sir, the Cluden rins jist ayont the turn o' the road there," +replied the man. "Ye'll hear the roar o' the fa' in a meenit or twa." + +Even as he spoke the dull growl of a cataract was heard, and, a few +minutes later, the party came upon the ford of the river. + +It was situated not many yards below the picturesque waterfall, which is +now spanned by the Routen Bridge, but which, at that time, was +unbridged--at all events, if a bridge had previously existed, it had +fallen in or been carried away--and the wild gorge was impassable. + +The sound of the fall alone told of its vicinity, for a dense mass of +foliage hid it completely from the troopers' view until they had +surmounted the steep bank on the other side of the stream. + +"Are you well acquainted with this man Black?" asked the leader of the +party as they emerged from the thick belt of trees and shrubs by which +the Cluden was shaded, and continued their journey on the more open +ground beyond. + +"I ken him weel, sir," answered the trooper. "Andrew Black was an auld +freend o' mine, an' a big, stoot, angry man he is--kindly disposed, nae +doot, when ye let him alane, but a perfe't deevil incarnate when he's +roosed. He did me an ill turn ance that I've no paid him off for +_yet_." + +"I suppose, then," said the officer, "that your guiding us so willingly +to his cottage is in part payment of this unsettled debt?" + +"Maybe it is," replied the trooper grimly. + +"They say," continued the other, "that there is some mystery about the +man; that somehow nobody can catch him. Like an eel he has slipped +through our fellows' fingers and disappeared more than once, when they +thought they had him quite safe. It is said that on one occasion he +managed even to give the slip to Claverhouse himself, which, you know, +is not easy." + +"That may be, sir, but he'll no slip through my fingers gin I ance git a +grup o' his thrapple," said the swarthy man, with a revengeful look. + +"We must get a grip of him somehow," returned the officer, "for it is +said that he is a sly helper of the rebels--though it is as difficult to +convict as to catch him; and as this gathering, of which our spies have +brought information, is to be in the neighbourhood of his house, he is +sure to be mixed up with it." + +"Nae doot o' that, sir, an' so we may manage to kill twa birds wi' ae +stane. But I'm in a diffeeculty noo, sir, for ye ken I'm no acquaint +wi' this country nae farer than the Cluden ford, an' here we hae come to +a fork i' the road." + +The party halted as he spoke, while the perplexed guide stroked his +rather long nose and looked seriously at the two roads, or bridle-paths, +into which their road had resolved itself, and each of which led into +very divergent parts of the heathclad hills. + +This guide, Glendinning, had become acquainted with Black at a time when +the latter resided in Lanarkshire, and, as he had just said, was +unacquainted with the region through which they now travelled beyond the +river Cluden. After a short conference the officer in command decided +to divide the party and explore both paths. + +"You will take one man, Glendinning, and proceed along the path to the +right," he said; "I will try the left. If you discover anything like a +house or cot within a mile or two you will at once send your comrade +back to let me know, while you take up your quarters in the cottage and +await my coming. Choose whom you will for your companion." + +"I choose Will Wallace, then," said Glendinning, with a nod to the young +trooper whom we have already introduced. + +The youth did not seem at all flattered by the selection, but of course +obeyed orders with military promptitude, and followed his comrade for +some time in silence, though with a clouded brow. + +"It seems to me," said the swarthy trooper, as they drew rein and +proceeded up a steep ascent at a walk, "that ye're no' sae pleased as ye +might be wi' the wark we hae on hand." + +"Pleased!" exclaimed the youth, whose tone and speech seemed to indicate +him an Englishman, "how can I be pleased when all I have been called on +to do since I enlisted has been to aid and abet in robbery, cruelty, and +murder? I honour loyalty and detest rebellion as much as any man in the +troop, but if I had known what I now know I would never have joined +you." + +Glendinning gazed at his companion in amazement. Having been absent on +detached service when Will Wallace had joined--about three weeks +previously--he was ignorant both as to his character and his recent +experiences. He had chosen him on the present occasion simply on +account of his youth and magnificent physique. + +"I doot I've made a mistake in choosin' _you_," said Glendinning with +some asperity, after a few moments, "but it's ower late noo to +rectifee't. What ails ye, lad? What hae ye seen?" + +"I have seen what I did not believe possible," answered the other with +suppressed feeling. "I have seen a little boy tortured with the +thumbscrews, pricked with bayonets, and otherwise inhumanly treated +because he would not, or could not, tell where his father was. I have +seen a man hung up to a beam by his thumbs because he would not give up +money which perhaps he did not possess. I have seen a woman tortured by +having lighted matches put between her fingers because she would not, or +could not, tell where a conventicle was being held. I did not, indeed, +see the last deed actually done, else would I have cut down the coward +who did it. The poor thing had fainted and the torture was over when I +came upon them. Only two days ago I was ordered out with a party who +pillaged the house of a farmer because he refused to take an oath of +allegiance, which seems to have been purposely so worded as to make +those who take it virtually bondslaves to the King, and which makes him +master of the lives, properties, and consciences of his subjects--and +all this done in the King's name and by the King's troops!" + +"An' what pairt did _you_ tak' in these doin's?" asked Glendinning with +some curiosity. + +"I did my best to restrain my comrades, and when they were burning the +hayricks, throwing the meal on the dunghill, and wrecking the property +of the farmer, I cut the cords with which they had bound the poor fellow +to his chair and let him go free." + +"Did onybody see you do that?" + +"I believe not; though I should not have cared if they had. I'm +thoroughly disgusted with the service. I know little or nothing of the +principles of these rebels--these fanatics, as you call them--but +tyranny or injustice I cannot stand, whether practised by a king or a +beggar, and I am resolved to have nothing more to do with such fiendish +work." + +"Young man," said the swarthy comrade in a voice of considerable +solemnity, "ye hae obviously mista'en your callin'. If you werena new +to thae pairts, ye would ken that the things ye objec' to are quite +common. Punishin' an' harryin' the rebels and fanatics--_Covenanters_, +they ca' theirsels--has been gaun on for years ower a' the land. In my +opeenion it's weel deserved, an' naething that ye can do or say wull +prevent it, though what ye do an' say is no' unlikely to cut short yer +ain career by means o' a rope roond yer thrapple. But losh! man, I +wonder ye haena heard about thae matters afore now." + +"My having spent the last few years of my life in an out-of-the-way part +of Ireland may account for that," said Wallace. "My father's recent +death obliged my mother to give up her farm and return to her native +town of Lanark, where she now lives with a brother. Poverty and the +urgency of a cousin have induced me, unfortunately, to take service with +the dragoons." + +"After what ye've said, hoo am I to coont on yer helpin' me e'noo?" +asked Glendinning. + +"As long as I wear the King's uniform you may count on my obeying orders +unless I am commanded to break the plainest laws of God," answered the +young man. "As our present business is only to discover the cottage of +Andrew Black, there seems likely to be no difficulty between us just +now." + +"H'm! I'm no' sure o' that; but if ye'll tak' my advice, lad, ye'll +haud yer tongue aboot thae matters. If Clavers heard the half o' what +ye've said to me, he'd send ye into the next warl' withoot gieing ye +time to say yer prayers. Freedom of speech is no permitted at the +present time in Scotland--unless it be the right kind of speech, and--" + +He stopped, for at that moment two young girls suddenly appeared at a +bend of the road in front of them. They gazed for a moment at the +soldiers in evident surprise, and then turned as if to fly, but +Glendinning put spurs to his horse and was beside them in a moment. +Leaping to the ground, he seized the girls roughly by their arms as they +clung together in alarm. One of the two was a dark-eyed little child. +The other was fair, unusually pretty, and apparently about fifteen or +sixteen years of age. + +The trooper proceeded to question them sharply. + +"Be gentle," said Will Wallace sternly, as he rode up, and, also +dismounting, stood beside them. "No fear of their running away now." + +The swarthy trooper pretended not to hear, but nevertheless relaxed his +grip and merely rested his hand upon the fair girl's shoulder as he said +to the other-- + +"Now, my wee doo, ye canna be far frae hame, I's be sworn. What's yer +name?" + +"Aggie Wilson," answered the child at once. + +"And yours?" + +"Jean Black," replied the blonde timidly. + +"Oho! an' yer faither's name is Andrew, an' his hoose is close by, I'll +be bound, so ye'll be guid eneuch to show us the way till't. But first, +my bonny lass, ye'll gie me a--" + +Slipping his arm round the waist of the terrified blonde, the trooper +rudely attempted to terminate his sentence in a practical manner; but +before his lips could touch her face he received a blow from his comrade +that sent him staggering against a neighbouring tree. + +Blazing with astonishment and wrath, Glendinning drew his sword and +sprang at his companion, who, already full of indignation at the memory +of what he had been so recently compelled to witness, could ill brook +the indignity thus offered to the defenceless girl. His weapon flashed +from its sheath on the instant, and for a few moments the two men cut +and thrust at each other with savage ferocity. Wallace, however, was +too young and unused to mortal strife to contemplate with indifference +the possibility of shedding the blood of a comrade. Quickly recovering +himself, he stood entirely on the defensive, which his vigorous activity +enabled him easily to do. Burning under the insult he had received, +Glendinning felt no such compunctions. He pushed his adversary +fiercely, and made a lunge at last which not only passed the sword +through the left sleeve of the youth's coat, but slightly wounded his +arm. Roused to uncontrollable anger by this, Will Wallace fetched his +opponent a blow so powerful that it beat down his guard, rang like a +hammer on his iron headpiece, and fairly hurled the man into the ditch +at the roadside. + +Somewhat alarmed at this sudden result, the youth hastily pulled him +out, and, kneeling beside him, anxiously examined his head. Much to his +relief he found that there was no wound at all, and that the man was +only stunned. After the examination, Wallace observed that the girls +had taken advantage of the fray to make their escape. + +Indignation and anger having by that time evaporated, and his judgment +having become cool, Wallace began gradually to appreciate his true +position, and to feel exceedingly uncomfortable. He had recklessly +expressed opinions and confessed to actions which would of themselves +ensure his being disgraced and cast into prison, if not worse; he had +almost killed one of his own comrades, and had helped two girls to +escape who could probably have assisted in the accomplishment of the +duty on which they had been despatched. His case, he suddenly +perceived, was hopeless, and he felt that he was a lost man. + +Will Wallace was quick of thought and prompt in action. Carefully +disposing the limbs of his fallen comrade, and resting his head +comfortably on a grassy bank, he cast a hurried glance around him. + +On his left hand and behind him lay the rich belt of woodland that +marked the courses of the rivers Cluden and Cairn. In front stretched +the moors and hills of the ancient district of Galloway, at that time +given over to the tender mercies of Graham of Claverhouse. Beside him +stood the two patient troop-horses, gazing quietly at the prostrate man, +as if in mild surprise at his unusual stillness. + +Beyond this he could not see with the physical eye; but with the mental +orb he saw a dark vista of ruined character, blighted hopes, and dismal +prospects. The vision sufficed to fix his decision. Quietly, like a +warrior's wraith, he sheathed his sword and betook himself to the covert +of the peat-morass and the heather hill. + +He was not the first good man and true who had sought the same shelter. + +At the time of which we write Scotland had for many years been in a +woeful plight--with tyranny draining her life-blood, cupidity grasping +her wealth, hypocrisy and bigotry misconstruing her motives and +falsifying her character. Charles the Second filled the throne. +Unprincipled men, alike in Church and State, made use of their position +and power to gain their own ends and enslave the people. The King, +determined to root out Presbytery from Scotland, as less subservient to +his despotic aims, and forcibly to impose Prelacy on her as a +stepping-stone to Popery, had no difficulty in finding ecclesiastical +and courtly bravos to carry out his designs; and for a long series of +dismal years persecution stalked red-handed through the land. + +Happily for the well-being of future generations, our covenanting +forefathers stood their ground with Christian heroism, for both civil +and religious liberty were involved in the struggle. Their so-called +fanaticism consisted in a refusal to give up the worship of God after +the manner dictated by conscience and practised by their forefathers; in +declining to attend the ministry of the ignorant, and too often vicious, +curates forced upon them; and in refusing to take the oath of allegiance +just referred to by Will Wallace. + +Conventicles, as they were called--or the gathering together of +Christians in houses and barns, or on the hillsides, to worship God-- +were illegally pronounced illegal by the King and Council; and +disobedience to the tyrannous law was punished with imprisonment, +torture, confiscation of property, and death. To enforce these +penalties the greater part of Scotland--especially the south and west-- +was overrun by troops, and treated as if it were a conquered country. +The people--holding that in some matters it is incumbent to "obey God +rather than man," and that they were bound "not to forsake the +assembling of themselves together"--resolved to set the intolerable law +at defiance, and went armed to the hill-meetings. + +They took up arms at first, however, chiefly, if not solely, to protect +themselves from a licentious soldiery, who went about devastating the +land, not scrupling to rob and insult helpless women and children, and +to shed innocent blood. Our Scottish forefathers, believing--in common +with the lower animals and lowest savages--that it was a duty to defend +their females and little ones, naturally availed themselves of the best +means of doing so. + +About this time a meeting, or conventicle, of considerable importance +was appointed to be held among the secluded hills in the neighbourhood +of Irongray; and Andrew Black, the farmer, was chosen to select the +particular spot, and make the preliminary arrangements. + +Now this man Black is not easily described, for his was a curiously +compound character. To a heart saturated with the milk of human +kindness was united a will more inflexible, if possible, than that of a +Mexican mule; a frame of Herculean mould, and a spirit in which profound +gravity and reverence waged incessant warfare with a keen appreciation +of the ludicrous. Peacefully inclined in disposition, with a tendency +to believe well of all men, and somewhat free and easy in the formation +of his opinions, he was very unwilling to resist authority; but the love +of truth and justice was stronger within him than the love of peace. + +In company with his shepherd, Quentin Dick--a man of nearly his own size +and build--Andrew Black proceeded to a secluded hollow in Skeoch Hill to +gather and place in order the masses of rock which were to form the +seats of the communicants at the contemplated religious gathering--which +seats remain to this day in the position they occupied at that time, and +are familiarly known in the district as "the Communion stones of +Irongray." + +CHAPTER TWO. + +THE "FANATIC" AND THE "SPY." + +The night was dark and threatening when Andrew Black and his shepherd +left their cottage, and quickly but quietly made for the neighbouring +hill. The weather was well suited for deeds of secrecy, for gusts of +wind, with an occasional spattering of rain, swept along the hill-face, +and driving clouds obscured the moon, which was then in its first +quarter. + +At first the two men were obliged to walk with care, for the light was +barely sufficient to enable them to distinguish the sheep-track which +they followed, and the few words they found it necessary to speak were +uttered in subdued tones. Jean Black and her cousin Aggie Wilson had +reported their _rencontre_ with the two dragoons, and Quentin Dick had +himself seen the main body of the troops from behind a heather bush on +his way back to the farm, therefore caution was advisable. But as they +climbed Skeoch Hill, and the moon shed a few feeble rays on their path, +they began to converse more freely. For a few minutes their intercourse +related chiefly to sheep and the work of the farm, for both Andrew and +his man were of that sedate, imperturbable nature which is not easily +thrown off its balance by excitement or danger. Then their thoughts +turned to the business in hand. + +"Nae fear o' the sodgers comin' here on a nicht like this," remarked +Andrew, as a squall nearly swept the blue bonnet off his head. + +"Maybe no," growled Quentin Dick sternly, "but I've heard frae Tam +Chanter that servants o' that Papist Earl o' Nithsdale, an' o' the +scoondrel Sir Robert Dalziel, hae been seen pokin' their noses aboot at +Irongray. If they git wund o' the place, we're no likely to hae a quiet +time o't. Did ye say that the sodgers ill-used the bairns?" + +"Na!--ane o' them was inclined to be impident, but the ither, a +guid-lookin' young felly, accordin' to Jean, took their pairt an' +quarrelled wi' his comrade, sae that they cam to loggerheeds at last, +but what was the upshot naebody kens, for the bairns took to their heels +an' left them fechtin'." + +"An' what if they sud fin' yer hoose an' the bairns unproteckit?" asked +the shepherd. + +"They're no likely to fin' the hoose in a nicht like this, man; an' if +they do, they'll fin' naebody but Ramblin' Peter there, for I gied the +lassies an' the women strick orders to tak' to the hidy-hole at the +first soond o' horses' feet." + +By this time the men had reached a secluded hollow in the hill, so +completely enclosed as to be screened from observation on all sides. +They halted here a few moments, for two dark forms were seen in the +uncertain light to be moving about just in front of them. + +"It's them," whispered Andrew. + +"Whae?" asked the shepherd. + +"Alexander McCubine an' Edward Gordon." + +"Guid an' safe men baith," responded Quentin; "ye better gie them a +cry." + +Andrew did so by imitating the cry of a plover. It was replied to at +once. + +"The stanes are big, ye see," explained Andrew, while the two men were +approaching. "It'll tak' the strength o' the fowr o' us to lift some o' +them." + +"We've got the cairn aboot finished," said McCubine as he came up. He +spoke in a low voice, for although there was no probability of any one +being near, they were so accustomed to expect danger because of the +innumerable enemies who swarmed about the country, that caution had +almost become a second nature. + +Without further converse the four men set to work in silence. They +completed a circular heap, or cairn, of stones three or four feet high, +and levelled the top thereof to serve as a table or a pulpit at the +approaching assembly. In front of this, and stretching towards a +sloping brae, they arranged four rows of very large stones to serve as +seats for the communicants, with a few larger stones between them, as if +for the support of rude tables of plank. It took several hours to +complete the work. When it was done Andrew Black surveyed it with +complacency, and gave it as his opinion that it was a "braw kirk, +capable o' accommodatin' a congregation o' some thoosands, mair or +less." Then the two men, Gordon and McCubine, bidding him and the +shepherd good-night, went away into the darkness from which they had +emerged. + +"Whar'll they be sleepin' the nicht?" asked the shepherd, as he and +Andrew turned homeward. + +"I' the peat-bog, I doot, for I daurna tak' them hame whan the dragoons +is likely to gie us a ca'; besides, the hidy-hole wull be ower fu' soon. +Noo, lad," he added, as they surmounted a hillock, from which they had +a dim view of the surrounding country, "gang ye doon an' see if ye can +fin' oot onything mair aboot thae sodgers. I'll awa' hame an see that +a's right there." + +They parted, the shepherd turning sharp off to the right, while the +farmer descended towards his cottage. He had not advanced above half +the distance when an object a little to the left of his path induced him +to stop. It resembled a round stone, and was too small to have +attracted the attention of any eye save one which was familiar with +every bush and stone on the ground. Grasping a stout thorn stick which +he carried, Andrew advanced towards the object in question with catlike +caution until quite close to it, when he discovered that it was the head +of a man who was sleeping soundly under a whin-bush. A closer +inspection showed that the man wore an iron headpiece, a soldier's coat, +and huge jack-boots. + +"A dragoon and a spy!" thought Andrew, while he raised his cudgel, the +only weapon he carried, and frowned. But Andrew was a merciful man; he +could not bring himself to strike a sleeping man, even though waking him +might entail a doubtful conflict, for he could see that the trooper's +hand grasped the hilt of his naked sword. For a few moments he surveyed +the sleeper, as if calculating his chances, then he quietly dropped his +plaid, took off his coat, and untying his neckcloth, laid it carefully +on one side over a bush. Having made these preparations, he knelt +beside Will Wallace--for it was he--and grasped him firmly by the throat +with both hands. + +As might have been expected, the young trooper attempted to spring up, +and tried to use his weapon; but, finding this to be impossible at such +close quarters, he dropped it, and grappled the farmer with all his +might; but Andrew, holding on to him like a vice, placed his knee upon +his chest and held him firmly down. + +"It's o' nae manner o' use to strive, ye see," said Andrew, relaxing his +grip a little; "I've gotten ye, an' if ye like to do my biddin' I'll no +be hard on ye." + +"If you will let me rise and stand before me in fair fight, I'll do your +business if not your bidding," returned Wallace in a tone of what may be +termed stern sulkiness. + +"Div ye think it's likely I'll staund before you in fair fecht, as you +ca'd--you wi' a swurd, and me wi' a bit stick, my lad? Na, na, ye'll +hae to submit, little though ye like it." + +"Give me the stick, then, and take you the sword, I shall be content," +said the indignant trooper, making another violent but unsuccessful +effort to free himself. + +"It's a fair offer," said Andrew, when he had subdued the poor youth a +second time, "an' reflec's favourably on yer courage, but I'm a man o' +peace, an' have no thirst for bloodshed--whilk is more than ye can say, +young man; but if ye'll let me tie yer hands thegither, an' gang +peaceably hame wi' me, I's promise that nae mischief'll befa' ye." + +"No man shall ever tie my hands together as long as there is life in my +body," replied the youth. + +"Stop, stop, callant!" exclaimed Andrew, as Will was about to renew the +struggle. "The pride o' youth is awful. Hear what I've gotten to say +to ye, man, or I'll hae to throttle ye ootright. It'll come to the same +thing if ye'll alloo me to tie ane o' _my_ hands to ane o' yours. Ye +canna objec' to that, surely, for I'll be your prisoner as muckle as +you'll be mine--and that'll be fair play, for we'll leave the swurd +lyin' on the brae to keep the bit stick company." + +"Well, I agree to that," said Wallace, in a tone that indicated surprise +with a dash of amusement. + +"An' ye promise no' to try to get away when you're tied to--when _I'm_ +tied to _you_?" + +"I promise." + +Hereupon the farmer, reaching out his hand, picked up the black silk +neckcloth which he had laid aside, and with it firmly bound his own left +wrist to the right wrist of his captive, talking in a grave, subdued +tone as he did so. + +"Nae doot the promise o' a spy is hardly to be lippened to, but if I +find that ye're a dishonourable man, ye'll find that I'm an +uncomfortable prisoner to be tied to. Noo, git up, lad, an' we'll gang +hame thegither." + +On rising, the first thing the trooper did was to turn and take a steady +look at the man who had captured him in this singular manner. + +"Weel, what d'ye think o' me?" asked Andrew, with what may be termed a +grave smile. + +"If you want to know my true opinion," returned Wallace, "I should say +that I would not have thought, from the look of you, that you could have +taken mean advantage of a sleeping foe." + +"Ay--an' I would not have thought, from the look o' _you_," retorted +Andrew, "that ye could hae sell't yersel' to gang skulkin' aboot the +hills as a spy upon the puir craters that are only seekin' to worship +their Maker in peace." + +Without further remark Andrew Black, leaving his coat and plaid to keep +company with the sword and stick, led his prisoner down the hill. + +Andrew's cottage occupied a slight hollow on the hillside, which +concealed it from every point of the compass save the high ground above +it. Leading the trooper up to the door, he tapped gently, and was +promptly admitted by some one whom Wallace could not discern, as the +interior was dark. + +"Oh, Uncle Andrew! I'm glad ye've come, for Peter hasna come back yet, +an' I'm feared somethin' has come ower him." + +"Strike a light, lassie. I've gotten haud o' a spy here, an' canna weel +do't mysel'." + +When a light was procured and held up, it revealed the pretty face of +Jean Black, which underwent a wondrous change when she beheld the face +of the prisoner. + +"Uncle Andrew!" she exclaimed, "this is nae spy. He's the man that cam' +to the help o' Aggie an' me against the dragoon." + +"Is that sae?" said Black, turning a look of surprise on his prisoner. + +"It is true, indeed, that I had the good fortune to protect Jean and her +friend from an insolent comrade," answered Wallace; "and it is also true +that that act has been partly the cause of my deserting to the hills, +being starved for a day and a night, and taken prisoner now as a spy." + +"Sir," said Andrew, hastily untying the kerchief that bound them +together, "I humbly ask your pardon. Moreover, it's my opeenion that if +ye hadna been starvin' ye wadna have been here 'e noo, for ye're +uncommon teuch. Rin, lassie, an' fetch some breed an' cheese. Whar's +Marion an' Is'b'l?" + +"They went out to seek for Peter," said Jean, as she hastened to obey +her uncle's mandate. + +At that moment a loud knocking was heard at the door, and the voice of +Marion, one of the maid-servants, was heard outside. On the door being +opened, she and her companion Isabel burst in with excited looks and the +information, pantingly given, that the "sodgers were comin'." + +"Haud yer noise, lassie, an' licht the fire--pit on the parritch pat. +Come, Peter, let's hear a' aboot it." + +Ramblin' Peter, who had been thus named because of his inveterate +tendency to range over the neighbouring hills, was a quiet, undersized, +said-to-be weak-minded boy of sixteen years, though he looked little +more than fourteen. No excitement whatever ruffled his placid +countenance as he gave his report--to the effect that a party of +dragoons had been seen by him not half an hour before, searching +evidently for his master's cottage. + +"They'll soon find it," said the farmer, turning quickly to his +domestics--"Away wi' ye, lassies, and hide." + +The two servant-girls, with Jean and her cousin Aggie Wilson, ran at +once into an inner room and shut the door. Ramblin' Peter sat stolidly +down beside the fire and calmly stirred the porridge-pot, which was +nearly full of the substantial Scottish fare. + +"Noo, sir," said Black, turning to Will Wallace, who had stood quietly +watching the various actors in the scene just described, "yer +comrades'll be here in a wee while. May I ask what ye expect?" + +"I expect to be imprisoned at the least, more probably shot." + +"Hm! pleasant expectations for a young man, nae doot. I'm sorry that +it's oot o' my power to stop an' see the fun, for the sodgers have +strange suspicions aboot me, so I'm forced to mak' mysel' scarce an' +leave Ramblin' Peter to do the hospitalities o' the hoose. But before I +gang awa' I wad fain repay ye for the guid turn ye did to my bairns. If +ye are willin' to shut yer eyes an' do what I tell ye, I'll put you in a +place o' safety." + +"Thank you, Mr. Black," returned Wallace; "of course I shall only be too +glad to escape from the consequences of my unfortunate position; but do +not misunderstand me: although neither a spy nor a Covenantor I am a +loyal subject, and would not now be a deserter if that character had not +been forced upon me, first by the brutality of the soldiers with whom I +was banded, and then by the insolence of my comrade-in-arms to your +daughter--" + +"Niece; niece," interrupted Black; "I wish she _was_ my dauchter, bless +her bonny face! Niver fear, sir, I've nae doot o' yer loyalty, though +you an' yer freends misdoot mine. I claim to be as loyal as the best o' +ye, but there's nae dictionary in _this_ warld that defines loyalty to +be slavish submission o' body an' sowl to a tyrant that fears naether +God nor man. The quastion noo is, Div ye want to escape and wull ye +trust me?" + +The sound of horses galloping in the distance tended to quicken the +young trooper's decision. He submitted to be blindfolded by his captor. + +"Noo, Peter," said Andrew, as he was about to lead Wallace away, "ye ken +what to dae. Gie them plenty to eat; show them the rum bottle, let them +hae the rin o' the hoose, an' say that I bade ye treat them weel." + +"Ay," was Ramblin' Peter's laconic reply. + +Leading his captive out at the door, round the house, and re-entering by +a back door, apparently with no other end in view than to bewilder him, +Andrew went into a dark room, opened some sort of door--to enter which +the trooper had to stoop low--and conducted him down a steep, narrow +staircase. + +The horsemen meanwhile had found the cottage and were heard at that +moment tramping about in front, and thundering on the door for +admittance. + +Wallace fancied that the door which closed behind him must be of amazing +thickness, for it shut out almost completely the sounds referred to. + +On reaching the foot of the staircase, and having the napkin removed +from his eyes, he found himself in a long, low, vaulted chamber. There +was no one in it save his guide and a venerable man who sat beside a +deal table, reading a document by the light of a tallow candle stuck in +the mouth of a black bottle. + +The soldiers, meanwhile, having been admitted by Ramblin' Peter, +proceeded to question that worthy as to Andrew Black and his household. +Not being satisfied of the truth of his replies they proceeded to apply +torture in order to extract confession. It was the first time that this +mode of obtaining information had been used in Black's cottage, and it +failed entirely, for Ramblin' Peter was staunch, and, although inhumanly +thrashed and probed with sword-points, the poor lad remained dumb, +insomuch that the soldiers at length set him down as an idiot, for he +did not even cry out in his agonies--excepting in a curious, +half-stifled manner--because he knew well that if his master were made +aware by his cries of what was going on he would be sure to hasten to +the rescue at the risk of his life. + +Having devoured the porridge, drunk the rum, and destroyed a +considerable amount of the farmer's produce, the lawless troopers, who +seemed to be hurried in their proceedings at that time, finally left the +place. + +About the time that these events were taking place in and around Black's +cottage, bands of armed men with women and even children were hastening +towards the same locality to attend the great "conventicle," for which +the preparations already described were being made. + +The immediate occasion of the meeting was the desire of the parishioners +of the Reverend John Welsh, a great-grandson of John Knox, to make +public avowal, at the Communion Table, of their fidelity to Christ and +their attachment to the minister who had been expelled from the church +of Irongray; but strong sympathy induced many others to attend, not only +from all parts of Galloway and Nithsdale, but from the distant Clyde, +the shores of the Forth, and elsewhere; so that the roads were crowded +with people making for the rendezvous--some on foot, others on +horseback. Many of the latter were gentlemen of means and position, +who, as well as their retainers, were more or less well armed and +mounted. The Reverend John Blackadder, the "auld" minister of +Troqueer--a noted hero of the Covenant, who afterwards died a prisoner +on the Bass Rock--travelled with his party all the way from Edinburgh, +and a company of eighty horse proceeded to the meeting from Clydesdale. + +Preliminary services, conducted by Mr. Blackadder and Mr. Welsh, were +held near Dumfries on the Saturday, but at these the place of meeting on +the Sabbath was only vaguely announced as "a hillside in Irongray," so +anxious were they to escape being disturbed by their enemies, and the +secret was kept so well that when the Sabbath arrived a congregation of +above three thousand had assembled round the Communion stones in the +hollow of Skeoch Hill. + +Sentinels were posted on all the surrounding heights. One of these +sentinels was the farmer Andrew Black, with a cavalry sword belted to +his waist, and a rusty musket on his shoulder. Beside him stood a tall +stalwart youth in shepherd's costume. + +"Yer ain mother wadna ken ye," remarked Andrew with a twinkle in his +eyes. + +"I doubt that," replied the youth; "a mother's eyes are keen. I should +not like to encounter even Glendinning in my present guise." + +As he spoke the rich melody of the opening psalm burst from the great +congregation and rolled in softened cadence towards the sentinels. + +CHAPTER THREE. + +THE TRUE AND THE FALSE AT WORK. + +The face of nature did not seem propitious to the great gathering on +Skeoch Hill. Inky clouds rolled athwart the leaden sky, threatening a +deluge of rain, and fitful gusts of wind seemed to indicate the approach +of a tempest. Nevertheless the elements were held in check by the God +of nature, so that the solemn services of the day were conducted to a +close without discomfort, though not altogether without interruption. + +Several of the most eminent ministers, who had been expelled from their +charges, were present on this occasion. Besides John Welsh of Irongray, +there were Arnot of Tongland, Blackadder of Troqueer, and Dickson of +Rutherglen--godly men who had for many years suffered persecution and +imprisonment, and were ready to lay down their lives in defence of +religious liberty. The price set upon the head of that "notour traitor, +Mr. John Welsh," dead or alive, was 9000 merks. Mr. Arnot was valued at +3000! + +These preached and assisted at different parts of the services, while +the vast multitude sat on the sloping hillside, and the mounted men drew +up on the outskirts of the congregation, so as to be within sound of the +preachers' voices, and, at the same time, be ready for action on the +defensive if enemies should appear. + +Andrew Black and his companion stood for some time listening, with bowed +heads, to the slow sweet music that floated towards them. They were too +far distant to hear the words of prayer that followed, yet they +continued to stand in reverent silence for some time, listening to the +sound--Black with his eyes closed, his young companion gazing wistfully +at the distant landscape, which, from the elevated position on which +they stood, lay like a magnificent panorama spread out before them. On +the left the level lands bordering the rivers Cairn and Nith stretched +away to the Solway, with the Cumberland mountains in the extreme +distance; in front and on the right lay the wild, romantic hill-country +of which, in after years, it was so beautifully written:-- + + "O bonnie hills of Galloway oft have I stood to see, + At sunset hour, your shadows fall, all darkening on the lea; + While visions of the buried years came o'er me in their might-- + As phantoms of the sepulchre--instinct with inward light! + The years, the years when Scotland groaned beneath her tyrant's hand! + And 'twas not for the heather she was called `the purple land.' + And 'twas not for her _loveliness_ her children blessed their God-- + _But for secret places of the hills, and the mountain heights_ + _untrod_." + +"Who was the old man I found in what you call your hidy-hole?" asked +Wallace, turning suddenly to his companion. + +"I'm no' sure that I have a right to answer that," said Black, regarding +Will with a half-serious, half-amused look. "Hooever, noo that ye've +ta'en service wi' me, and ken about my hidy-hole, I suppose I may trust +ye wi' a' my secrets." + +"I would not press you to reveal any secrets, Mr. Black, yet I think you +are safe to trust me, seeing that you know enough about my own secrets +to bring me to the gallows if so disposed." + +"Ay, I hae ye there, lad! But I'll trust ye on better grunds than that. +I believe ye to be an honest man, and that's enough for me. Weel, ye +maun ken, it's saxteen year since I howkit the hidy-hole below my hoose, +an' wad ye believe it?--they've no fund it oot yet! Not even had a +suspeecion o't, though the sodgers hae been sair puzzled, mony a time, +aboot hoo I managed to gie them the slip. An' mony's the puir body, +baith gentle and simple, that I've gien food an' shelter to whae was +very likely to hae perished o' cauld an' hunger, but for the hidy-hole. +Among ithers I've often had the persecuited ministers doon there, +readin' their Bibles or sleepin' as comfortable as ye like when the +dragoons was drinkin', roarin', an' singin' like deevils ower their +heids. My certies! if Clavers, or Sherp, or Lauderdale had an inklin' +o' the hunderd pairt o' the law-brekin' that I've done, it's a gallows +in the Gressmarkit as high as Haman's wad be ereckit for me, an' my heed +an' hauns, may be, would be bleachin' on the Nether Bow. Humph! but +they've no' gotten me yet!" + +"And I sincerely hope they never will," remarked Wallace; "but you have +not yet told me the name of the old man." + +"I was comin' to him," continued Black; "but wheniver I wander to the +doin's o' that black-hearted Cooncil, I'm like to lose the threed o' my +discoorse. Yon is a great man i' the Kirk o' Scotland. They ca' him +Donald Cargill. The adventures that puir man has had in the coorse o' +mair nor quarter o' a century wad mak' a grand story-buik. He has no +fear o' man, an' he's an awfu' stickler for justice. I'se warrant he +gied ye some strang condemnations o' the poors that be." + +"Indeed he did not," said Wallace. "Surely you misjudge his character. +His converse with me was entirely religious, and his chief anxiety +seemed to be to impress on me the love of God in sending Jesus Christ to +redeem a wicked world from sin. I tried to turn the conversation on the +state of the times, but he gently turned it round again to the +importance of being at peace with God, and giving heed to the condition +of my own soul. He became at last so personal that I did not quite like +it. Yet he was so earnest and kind that I could not take offence." + +"Ay, ay," said Black in a musing tone, "I see. He clearly thinks that +yer he'rt needs mair instruction than yer heed. Hm! maybe he's right. +Hooever, he's a wonderfu' man; gangs aboot the country preachin' +everywhere altho' he kens that the sodgers are aye on the look-oot for +him, an' that if they catch him it's certain death. He wad have been at +this communion nae doot, if he hadna engaged to preach somewhere near +Sanquhar this vera day." + +"Then he has left the hidy-hole by this time, I suppose?" + +"Ye may be sure o' that, for when there is work to be done for the +Master, Donal' Cargill doesna let the gress grow under his feet." + +"I'm sorry that I shall not see him again," returned the ex-trooper in a +tone of regret, "for I like him much." + +Now, while this conversation was going on, a portion of the troop of +dragoons which had been out in search of Andrew Black was sent under +Glendinning (now a sergeant) in quest of an aged couple named Mitchell, +who were reported to have entertained intercommuned, iúeú outlawed, +persons; attended conventicles in the fields; ventured to have family +worship in their cottages while a few neighbours were present, and to +have otherwise broken the laws of the Secret Council. + +This Council, which was ruled by two monsters in human form, namely, +Archbishop Sharp of Saint Andrews and the Duke of Lauderdale, having +obtained full powers from King Charles the Second to put down +conventicles and enforce the laws against the fanatics with the utmost +possible rigour, had proceeded to carry out their mission by inviting a +host of half, if not quite, savage Highlanders to assist them in +quelling the people. This host, numbering, with 2000 regulars and +militia, about 10,000 men, eagerly accepted the invitation, and was let +loose on the south and western districts of Scotland about the beginning +of the year, and for some time ravaged and pillaged the land as if it +had been an enemy's country. They were thanked by the King for so +readily agreeing to assist in reducing the Covenanters to obedience to +"Us and Our laws," and were told to take up free quarters among the +disaffected, to disarm such persons as they should suspect, to carry +with them instruments of torture wherewith to subdue the refractory, and +in short to act very much in accordance with the promptings of their own +desires. Evidently the mission suited these men admirably, for they +treated all parties as disaffected, with great impartiality, and +plundered, tortured, and insulted to such an extent that after about +three months of unresisted depredation, the shame of the thing became so +obvious that Government was compelled to send them home again. They had +accomplished nothing in the way of bringing the Covenanters to reason; +but they had desolated a fair region of Scotland, spilt much innocent +blood, ruined many families, and returned to their native hills heavily +laden with booty of every kind like a victorious army. It is said that +the losses caused by them in the county of Ayr alone amounted to over +11,000 pounds sterling. + +The failure of this horde did not in the least check the proceedings of +Sharp or Lauderdale or their like-minded colleagues. They kept the +regular troops and militia moving about the land, enforcing their +idiotical and wicked laws at the point of the sword. We say idiotical +advisedly, for what could give stronger evidence of mental incapacity +than the attempt to enforce a bond upon all landed proprietors, obliging +themselves and their wives, children, and servants, as well as all their +tenants and cottars, with their wives, children, and servants, to +abstain from conventicles, and not to receive, assist, or even speak to, +any forfeited persons, intercommuned ministers, or vagrant preachers, +but to use their utmost endeavours to apprehend all such? Those who +took this bond were to receive an assurance that the troops should not +be quartered on their lands--a matter of considerable importance--for +this quartering involved great expense and much destruction of property +in most cases, and absolute ruin in some. + +After the battle of the Pentland Hills (in 1666), in which the +Covenanters, driven to desperation, made an unsuccessful effort to throw +off the tyrannical yoke, severer laws were enacted against them. Their +wily persecutor, also being well aware of the evil influence of +disagreement among men, threw a bone of contention among them in the +shape of royal acts of _Indulgence_, as they were styled, by which a +certain number of the ejected ministers were permitted to preach on +certain conditions, but only within their own parishes. To preach at a +separate meeting in a private house subjected the minister to a fine of +5000 merks (about 278 pounds). To preach in the fields was to incur the +penalty of death and confiscation of property. And these arbitrary laws +were not merely enacted for intimidation. They were rigorously +enforced. The curates in many cases became mere spies and Government +informers. Many of the best men in the land laid down their lives +rather than cease to proclaim the Gospel of love and peace and goodwill +in Jesus Christ. Of course their enemies set them down as self-willed +and turbulent fanatics. It has ever been, and ever will be, thus with +men who are indifferent to principle. They will not, as well as cannot, +understand those who are ready to fight, and, if need be, die for truth! +Their unspoken argument seems to be: "You profess to preach peace, +love, submission to authority, etcetera; very good, stand to your +principles. Leave all sorts of carnal fighting to us. Obey us. +Conform humbly to our arrangements, whatever they are, and all will be +well; but dare to show the slightest symptom of restiveness under what +you style our injustice, tyranny, cruelty, etcetera, and we will teach +you the submission which you preach but fail to practise by means of +fire and sword and torture and death!" + +Many good men and true, with gentle spirits, and it may be somewhat +exalted ideas about the rights of Royalty, accepted the Indulgence as +being better than nothing, or better than civil war. No doubt, also, +there were a few--neither good men nor true--who accepted it because it +afforded them a loophole of escape from persecution. Similarly, on the +other side, there were good men and true, who, with bolder hearts, +perhaps, and clearer brains, it may be, refused the Indulgence as a +presumptuous enactment, which cut at the roots of both civil and +religious liberty, as implying a right to withhold while it professed to +give, and which, if acquiesced in, would indicate a degree of abject +slavery to man and unfaithfulness to God that might sink Scotland into a +condition little better than that of some eastern nations at the present +day. Thus was the camp of the Covenanters divided. There were also +more subtle divisions, which it is not necessary to mention here, and in +both camps, of course there was an infusion, especially amongst the +young men, of that powerful element--love of excitement and danger for +their own sake, with little if any regard to principle, which goes far +in all ages to neutralise the efforts and hamper the energies of the +wise. + +Besides the acts of Indulgence, another and most tyrannical measure, +already mentioned, had been introduced to crush if possible the +Presbyterians. _Letters of intercommuning_ were issued against a great +number of the most distinguished Presbyterians, including several ladies +of note, by which they were proscribed as rebels and cut off from all +society. A price, amounting in some instances to 500 pounbds sterling, +was fixed on their heads, and every person, not excepting their nearest +of kin, was prohibited from conversing with or writing to them, or of +aiding with food, clothes, or any other necessary of life, on pain of +being found guilty of the same crimes as the intercommuned persons. + +The natural result of such inhuman laws was that men and women in +hundreds had to flee from their homes and seek refuge among the dens and +caves of the mountains, where many were caught, carried off to prison, +tried, tortured, and executed; while of those who escaped their foes, +numbers perished from cold and hunger, and disease brought on by lying +in damp caves and clefts of the rocks without food or fire in all +weathers. The fines which were exacted for so-called offences tempted +the avarice of the persecutors and tended to keep the torch of +persecution aflame. For example, Sir George Maxwell of Newark was fined +a sum amounting to nearly 8000 pounds sterling for absence from his +Parish Church, attendance at conventicles, and disorderly baptisms--iúeú +for preferring his own minister to the curate in the baptizing of his +children! Hundreds of somewhat similar instances might be given. Up to +the time of which we write (1678) no fewer than 17,000 persons had +suffered for attending field meetings, either by fine, imprisonment, or +death. + +Such was the state of matters when the party of dragoons under command +of Sergeant Glendinning rode towards the Mitchells' cottage, which was +not far from Black's farm. The body of soldiers being too small to +venture to interrupt the communion on Skeoch Hill, Glendinning had been +told to wait in the neighbourhood and gather information while his +officer, Captain Houston, went off in search of reinforcements. + +"There's the auld sinner himsel'," cried the Sergeant as the party came +in sight of an old, whitehaired man seated on a knoll by the side of the +road. "Hallo! Jock Mitchell, is that you? Come doon here directly, I +want to speak t'ye." + +The old man, being stone deaf, and having his back to the road, was not +aware of the presence of the dragoons, and of course took no notice of +the summons. + +"D'ye hear!" shouted the Sergeant savagely, for he was ignorant of the +old man's condition. + +Still Mitchell did not move. Glendinning, whose disposition seemed to +have been rendered more brutal since his encounter with Wallace, drew a +pistol from his holster and presented it at Mitchell. + +"Answer me," he shouted again, "or ye're a deed man." + +Mitchell did not move... There was a loud report, and next moment the +poor old man fell dead upon the ground. + +It chanced that Ramblin' Peter heard the report, though he did not +witness the terrible result, for he was returning home from the +Mitchells' cottage at the time, after escorting Jean Black and Aggie +Wilson thither. The two girls, having been forbidden to attend the +gathering on Skeoch Hill, had resolved to visit the Mitchells and spend +the Sabbath with them. Peter had accompanied them and spent the greater +part of the day with them, but, feeling the responsibility of his +position as the representative of Andrew Black during his absence, had +at last started for home. + +A glance over a rising ground sufficed to make the boy turn sharp round +and take to his heels. He was remarkably swift of foot. A few minutes +brought him to the cottage door, which he burst open. + +"The sodgers is comin', grannie!" (He so styled the old woman, though +she was no relation.) + +"Did ye see my auld man?" + +"No." + +"Away wi' ye, bairns," said Mrs. Mitchell quickly but quietly. "Oot by +the back door an' doon the burnside; they'll niver see ye for the +busses." + +"But, grannie, we canna leave you here alone," remonstrated Jean with an +anxious look. + +"An' I can fecht!" remarked Peter in a low voice, that betrayed neither +fear nor excitement. + +"The sodgers can do nae harm to _me_," returned the old woman firmly. +"Do my bidding, bairns. Be aff, I say!" + +There was no resisting Mrs. Mitchell's word of command. Hastening out +by the back door just as the troopers came in sight, Peter and his +companions, diving into the shrubbery of the neighbouring streamlet, +made their way to Black's farm by a circuitous route. There the girls +took shelter in the house, locking the door and barring the windows, +while Peter, diverging to the left, made for the hills like a hunted +hare. + +Andrew was standing alone at his post when the lithe runner came in +sight. Will Wallace had left him by that time, and was listening +entranced to the fervid exhortations of Dickson of Rutherglen. + +"The sodgers!" gasped Peter, as he flung himself down to rest. + +"Comin' this way, lad?" + +"Na. They're at the Mitchells." + +"A' safe at the ferm?" asked Andrew quickly. + +"Ay, I saw the lasses into the hoose." + +"Rin to the meetin' an' gie the alarm. Tell them to send Wallace an' +Quentin here wi' sax stoot men--weel airmed--an' anither sentry, for I'm +gaun awa'." + +Almost before the sentence was finished Ramblin' Peter was up and away, +and soon the alarming cry arose from the assembly, "The dragoons are +upon us!" + +Instantly the Clydesdale men mounted and formed to meet the expected +onset. The men of Nithsdale were not slow to follow their example, and +Gordon of Earlstoun, a tried and skilful soldier, put himself at the +head of a large troop of Galloway horse. Four or five companies of +foot, also well armed, got ready for action, and videttes and single +horsemen were sent out to reconnoitre. Thus, in a moment, was this +assembly of worshippers transformed into a band of Christian warriors, +ready to fight and die for their families and liberties. + +But the alarm, as it turned out, was a false one. Glendinning, informed +by spies of the nature of the gathering, was much too sagacious a +warrior to oppose his small force to such overwhelming odds. He +contented himself for the present with smaller game. + +After continuing in the posture of defence for a considerable time, the +assembly dispersed, those who were defenceless being escorted by armed +parties to the barns and cottages around. As they retired from the +scene the windows of heaven were opened, and the rain, which had been +restrained all day, came down in torrents, and sent the Cairn and Cluden +red and roaring to the sea. + +But long before this dispersion took place, Andrew Black, with Quentin +Dick, Will Wallace, Ramblin' Peter, and six sturdy young men, armed with +sword, gun, and pistol, had hurried down the hill to succour the +Mitchells, if need be, and see to the welfare of those who had been left +behind in the farm. + +CHAPTER FOUR. + +THE HUNTING AND HARRYING DISPLAYED. + +Being ignorant, as we have said, of the cruel murder of old Mitchell, +Ramblin' Peter's report had not seriously alarmed Black. He concluded +that the worst the troopers would do would be to rob the poor old couple +of what money they found in their possession, oblige them to take the +Oath of Supremacy, drink the health of King and bishops, and otherwise +insult and plunder them. Knowing the Mitchells intimately, he had no +fear that their opposition would invite severity. Being very fond of +them, however, he resolved, at the risk of his life, to prevent as far +as possible the threatened indignity and plunder. + +"They're a douce auld pair," he remarked to Will Wallace as they strode +down the hillside together, "quiet an' peaceable, wi' naething to speak +o' in the way of opeenions--somethin' like mysel'--an' willin' to let-be +for let-be. But since the country has been ower-run by thae Hielanders +an' sodgers, they've had little peace, and the auld man has gie'n them a +heap o' trouble, for he's as deaf as a post. Peter says the pairty o' +dragoons is a sma' ane, so I expect the sight o' us'll scare them away +an' prevent fechtin'." + +"It may be so," said Wallace, "and of course I shall not fail you in +this attempt to protect your old friends; but, to tell you the truth, I +don't quite like this readiness on the part of you Covenanters to defy +the laws, however bad they may be, and to attack the King's troops. The +Bible, which you so often quote, inculcates longsuffering and patience." + +"Hm! there speaks yer ignorance," returned the farmer with a dash of +cynicism in his tone. "Hoo mony years, think ye, are folk to submit to +tyranny an' wrang an' fierce oppression for nae sin whatever against the +laws o' God or the land? Are twunty, thretty, or forty years no' enough +to warrant oor claim to lang-sufferin'? Does submission to law-brekin' +on the pairt o' Government, an' lang-continued, high-handed oppression +frae King, courtier, an' prelate, accompanied wi' barefaced plunder and +murder--does _that_ no' justifiee oor claim to patience? To a' this the +Covenanters hae submitted for mony weary years withoot rebellion, except +maybe in the metter o' the Pentlands, when a wheen o' us were driven to +desperation. But I understand your feelin's, lad, for I'm a man o' +peace by natur', an' would gladly submit to injustice to keep things +quiet--_if possable_; but some things are _no'_ possable, an' the Bible +itsel' says we're to live peaceably wi' a' men only `as much as in us +lies.'" + +The ex-trooper was silent. Although ignorant of the full extent of +maddening persecution to which not merely the Covenanters but the people +of Scotland generally had been subjected, his own limited experience +told him that there was much truth in what his companion said; still, +like all loyal-hearted men, he shrank from the position of antagonism to +Government. + +"I agree with you," he said, after a few minutes' thought, "but I have +been born, I suppose, with a profound respect for law and legally +constituted authority." + +"Div ye think, lad," returned Black, impressively, "that naebody's been +born wi' a high respec' for law but yersel'? I suppose ye admit that +the King is bound to respec' the law as weel as the people?" + +"Of course I do. I am no advocate of despotism." + +"Weel then," continued the farmer with energy, "in the year saxteen +forty-ane, an' at ither times, kings an' parliaments hae stamped the +Covenants o' Scotland as bein' pairt o' the law o' this land--whereby +freedom o' conscience an' Presbyterian worship are secured to us a'. +An' here comes Chairles the Second an' breks the law by sendin' that +scoondrel the Duke o' Lauderdale here wi' full poors to dae what he +likes--an' Middleton, a man wi' nae heart an' less conscience, that was +raised up frae naething to be a noble, nae less! My word, nobles are +easy made, but they're no' sae easy unmade! An' this Lauderdale maks a +cooncil wi' Airchbishop Sherp--a traiter and a turncoat--an' a wheen +mair like himsel', and they send sodgers oot ower the land to eat us up +an' cram Prelacy doon oor throats, an' curates into oor poo'pits whether +we wull or no'. An' that though Chairles himsel' signed the Covenant at +the time he was crooned! Ca' ye _that_ law or legally constituted +authority?" + +Although deeply excited by this brief recital of his country's wrongs, +Black maintained the quiet expression of feature and tone of voice that +were habitual to him. Further converse on the subject was interrupted +by their arrival at the farm, where they found all right save that Jean +and Aggie were in a state of tearful anxiety about their poor +neighbours. + +While the farmer was seeing to the security of his house and its +arrangements, preparatory to continuing the march to the Mitchells' +cottage, the rest of the party stood about the front door conversing. +Will Wallace was contemplating Jean Black with no little admiration, as +she moved about the house. There was something peculiarly attractive +about Jean. A winsome air and native grace, with refinement of manner +unusual in one of her station, would have stamped her with a powerful +species of beauty even if she had not possessed in addition a modest +look and fair young face. + +The ex-trooper was questioning, in a dreamy way, whether he had ever +before seen such a pretty and agreeable specimen of girlhood, when he +experienced a shock of surprise on observing that Jean had gone to a +neighbouring spring for water and was making something very like a +signal to him to follow her. + +The surprise was mingled with an uncomfortable feeling of regret, for +the action seemed inconsistent with the maiden's natural modesty. + +"Forgie me, sir," she said, "for being so bold, but oh! sir, if ye knew +how anxious I am about Uncle Black, ye would understand--he is wanted so +much, an' there's them in the hidy-hole that would fare ill if he was +taken to prison just now. If--ye--would--" + +"Well, Jean," said Will, sympathising with the struggle it evidently +cost the girl to speak to him--"don't hesitate to confide in me. What +would you have me do?" + +"Only to keep him back frae the sodgers if ye can. He's such an awfu' +man to fecht when he's roosed, that he's sure to kill some o' them if +he's no' killed himsel'. An' it'll be ruin to us a' an' to the +Mitchells too, if--" + +She was interrupted at this point by Black himself calling her name. + +"Trust me," said Wallace earnestly, "I understand what you wish, and +will do my best to prevent evil." + +A grateful look was all the maiden's reply as she hurried away. + +Our hero's perplexity as to how this promise was to be fulfilled was, +however, needless, for on reaching the Mitchells' hut it was found that +the troopers had already left the place; but the state of things they +had left behind them was enough to stir deeply the pity and the +indignation of the party. + +Everything in confusion--broken furniture, meal and grain scattered on +the floor, open chests and cupboards--told that the legalised brigands +had done their worst. Poor Mrs. Mitchell had objected to nothing that +they said or did or proposed to her. She feebly drank the health of +King and prelates when bidden to do so, and swore whatever test-oaths +they chose to apply to her till they required her to admit that the King +was lord over the kirk and the conscience. Then her spirit fired, and +with a firm voice she declared that no king but Christ should rule over +her kirk or conscience--to which she boldly added that she _had_ +attended conventicles, and would do so again! + +Having obtained all they wanted, the dragoons went away, leaving the old +woman among the ruins of her home, for they probably did not consider it +worth while carrying off a prisoner who would in all likelihood have +died on the road to prison. + +In the midst of all the noise and confusion it had struck the old woman +as strange that they never once asked about her husband. After they had +gone, however, the arrival of two neighbours bearing his dead body +revealed the terrible reason. She uttered no cry when they laid his +corpse on the floor, but sat gazing in horror as if turned to stone. +Thus Black and his friends found her. + +She could not be roused to speak, and looked, after a few minutes, like +one who had not realised the truth. + +In this state she was conveyed to Black's cottage and handed over to +Jean, whom every one seemed intuitively to regard as her natural +comforter. The poor child led her into her own room, sat down beside +her on the bed, laid the aged head on her sympathetic bosom and sobbed +as if her heart was breaking. But no response came from the old woman, +save that once or twice she looked up feebly and said, "Jean, dear, what +ails ye?" + +In the Council Chamber at Edinburgh, Lauderdale, learning on one +occasion that many persons both high and low had refused to take the +bond already referred to, which might well have been styled the bond of +slavery, bared his arm in fury, and, smiting the table with his fist, +swore with a terrific oath that he would "force them to take the bond." + +What we have described is a specimen of the manner in which the force +was sometimes applied. The heartless despot and his clerical coadjutors +had still to learn that tyranny has not yet forged the weapon that can +separate man from his God. + +"What think ye noo?" asked Andrew Black, turning to Wallace with a quiet +but stern look, after old Mrs. Mitchell had been carried in, "what think +ye _noo_, lad, o' us Covenanters an' oor lack o' lang-sufferin' an' oor +defyin' the laws? Aren't these laws we _ought_ to defy, but havena +properly defied yet, laws illegally made by a perjured King and an +upstart Cooncil?" + +"Mr. Black," said the ex-trooper, seizing his companion's hand with an +iron grip, "from this day forward I am with you--heart and soul." + +Little did Wallace think, when he came to this decision, that he had +still stronger reason for his course of action than he was aware of at +the moment. + +It was night when Mrs. Mitchell was brought into the farm-house, and +preparations were being made for a hasty meal, when Ramblin' Peter came +in with the news that a number of people in the Lanarkshire district had +been intercommuned and driven from their homes--amongst others David +Spence, Will Wallace's uncle, with whom his mother had taken up her +abode. + +The distracted looks of poor Wallace on hearing this showed the powerful +effect the news had upon him. + +"Keep yersel' quiet, noo," said Black in an encouraging tone, as he took +the youth's arm and led him out of the house. "These are no' times to +let our hearts rin awa wi' oor heids. Yer mither must be looked after; +but i' the meantime let me tell ye that yer uncle Daavid is a douce, +cliver felly, an' fears naething i' this warld. If he did, he wadna be +amang the intercommuned. Be sure he's no' the man to leave his sister +Maggie in trouble. Of course ye'll be wantin' to be aff to look after +her." + +"Of course--instantly," said Wallace. + +"Na. Ye'll hae yer supper first--an' a guid ain--for ye'll need it. +Have patience, noo, an' listen to me, for I'll do the very best I can +for ye in this strait--an' it's no muckle ye can do for yersel' withoot +help." + +There was something so decided yet kindly and reassuring in the farmer's +tone and manner that Wallace felt relieved in spite of his anxieties, +and submitted to his guidance in all things. Black then explained that +he had a friend in Lanark who owed him money on lambs sold to him the +previous year; that he meant to send his man Quentin Dick first to +collect that money, and then proceed to Edinburgh, for the purpose of +making further arrangements there about cattle. + +"Noo," continued Black, "I've gotten a mither as weel as you, an' she +lives in the Can'lemaker Raw, close to the Greyfriars' Kirkyaird--where +they signed the Covenants, ye ken. Weel, I wad advise you to gang to +Lanark wi' Quentin, an' when ye find yer mither tak' her to Edinbro' an' +let her live wi' my mither i' the meantime, till we see what the Lord +has in store for this puir persecuted remnant. I'm sorry to pairt wi' +ye, lad, sae unexpectedly, but in thae times, when folk are called on to +pairt wi' their heids unexpectedly, we mauna compleen." + +"I'll take your advice gladly," said Wallace. "When will Quentin Dick +be ready to start?" + +"In less than an hour. The moon'll be up soon after that. It's o' nae +use startin' on sae dark a nicht till she's up, for ye'll hae to cross +some nasty grund. Noo, lad, though I'm no a minister, my advice to ye +is, to gang doon into the hidy-hole an' pray aboot this matter. Niver +mind the folk ye find there. They're used to prayin'. It's my opeenion +that if there was less preachin' an' mair prayin', we'd be a' the better +for 't. It's a thrawn warld we live in, but we're bound to mak' the +best o't." + +Although not much in the habit of engaging in prayer--save at the formal +periods of morning and evening--our ex-trooper was just then in the mood +to take his friend's advice. He retired to the place of refuge under +Black's house, where he found several people who had evidently been at +the communion on Skeoch Hill. These were engaged in earnest +conversation, and took little notice of him as he entered. The place +was very dimly lighted. One end of the low vaulted chamber was involved +in obscurity. Thither the youth went and knelt down. From infancy his +mother had taught him "to say his prayers," and had sought to induce him +to pray. It is probable that the first time he really did so was in +that secret chamber where, in much anxiety of soul, he prayed for +herself. + +After a hasty but hearty supper, he and Quentin Dick set out on their +night journey. They carried nothing with them except two wallets, +filled, as Wallace could not help thinking, with a needlessly large +amount of provisions. Of course they were unarmed, for they travelled +in the capacity of peaceful drovers, with plaids on their shoulders, and +the usual staves in their hands. + +"One would think we were going to travel for a month in some wilderness, +to judge from the weight of our haversacks," observed Wallace, after +trudging along for some time in silence. + +"Maybe we'll be langer than a month," returned Quentin, "ann the +wulderness hereaway is warse than the wulderness that Moses led his folk +through. They had manna there. Mony o' us hae _naething_ here." + +Quentin Dick spoke with cynicism in his tone, for he was a stern +straightforward man, on whom injustice told with tremendous power, and +who had not yet been taught by adversity to bow his head to man and +restrain his indignation. + +Before Wallace had time to make any rejoinder, something like the +appearance of a group of horsemen in front arrested them. They were +still so far distant as to render their tramp inaudible. Indeed they +could not have been seen at all in so dark a night but for the fact that +in passing over the crest of a hill they were for a moment or two dimly +defined against the sky. + +"Dragoons--fowr o' them," muttered Quentin. "We'll step aside here an' +let them gang by." + +Clambering up the somewhat rugged side of the road, the two men +concealed themselves among the bushes, intending to wait till the +troopers should pass. + +"What can they be doing in this direction, I wonder?" whispered Wallace. + +"My freend," answered Quentin, "dinna whisper when ye're hidin'. Of a' +the sounds for attractin' attention an' revealin' secrets a whisper is +the warst. Speak low, if ye maun speak, but sometimes it's wiser no to +speak ava'. Dootless the sodgers'll be giein' Andrew Black a ca', but +he kens brawly hoo to tak' care o' himsel'." + +When the horseman approached it was seen that they were driving before +them a boy, or lad, on foot. Evidently they were compelling him to act +as their guide. + +"It's Ramblin' Peter they've gotten haud o', as sure as I'm a leevin' +man," said the shepherd with a low chuckle; "I'd ken him amang a +thoosand by the way he rins." + +"Shall we not rescue him?" exclaimed Wallace, starting up. + +"Wheesht! keep still, man. Nae fear o' Peter. He'll lead them in amang +the bogs o' some peat-moss or ither, gie them the slip there, an' leave +them to find their way oot." + +Just as the troop trotted past an incident occurred which disconcerted +the hiders not a little. A dog which the soldiers had with them scented +them, stopped, and after snuffing about for a few seconds, began to bark +furiously. The troop halted at once and challenged. + +"Tak' nae notice," remarked Quentin in a low voice, which went no +farther than his comrade's ear. + +A bright flash and sharp report followed the challenge, and a ball +whistled through the thicket. + +"Ay, fire away," soliloquised Quentin. "Ye seldom hit when ye can see. +It's no' likely ye'll dae muckle better i' the dark." + +The dog, however, having discovered the track of the hidden men, rushed +up the bank towards them. The shepherd picked up a stone, and, waiting +till the animal was near enough, flung it with such a true aim that the +dog went howling back to the road. On this a volley from the carbines +of the troopers cut up the bushes all around them. + +"That'll dae noo. Come awa', Wull," said the shepherd, rising and +proceeding farther into the thicket by a scarce visible footpath. "The +horses canna follow us here unless they hae the legs an' airms o' +puggies. As for the men, they'd have to cut a track to let their big +boots pass. We may tak' it easy, for they're uncommon slow at loadin'." + +In a few minutes the two friends were beyond all danger. Returning then +to the road about a mile farther on, they continued to journey until +they had left the scene of the great communion far behind them, and when +day dawned they retired to a dense thicket in a hollow by the banks of a +little burn, and there rested till near sunset, when the journey was +resumed. That night they experienced considerable delay owing to the +intense darkness. Towards dawn the day following Quentin Dick led his +companion into a wild, thickly-wooded place which seemed formed by +nature as a place of refuge for a hunted creature--whether man or beast. + +Entering the mouth of what seemed to be a cavern, he bade his companion +wait. Presently a sound, as of the cry of some wild bird, was heard. +It was answered by a similar cry in the far distance. Soon after the +shepherd returned, and, taking his companion by the hand, led him into +the cave which, a few paces from its mouth, was profoundly dark. Almost +immediately a glimmering light appeared. A few steps farther, and +Wallace found himself in the midst of an extraordinary scene. + +The cavern at its inner extremity was an apartment of considerable size, +and the faint light of a few lanterns showed that the place was clouded +by smoke from a low fire of wood that burned at the upper end. Here, +standing, seated, and reclining, were assembled all sorts and conditions +of men--some in the prime and vigour of life; some bowed with the weight +of years; others, both young and old, gaunt and haggard from the +influence of disease and suffering, and many giving evidence by their +aspect that their days on earth were numbered. Some, by the stern +contraction of brow and lip, seemed to suggest that submission was the +last thought that would enter their minds, but not a few of the party +wore that look of patient endurance which is due to the influence of the +Spirit of God--not to mere human strength of mind and will. All seemed +to be famishing for want of food, while ragged clothes, shaggy beards, +hollow cheeks, and unkempt locks told eloquently of the long years of +bodily and mental suffering which had been endured under ruthless +persecution. + +CHAPTER FIVE. + +RISKS AND REFUGES. + +Immediately on entering the cave in which this party of Covenanters had +found a temporary shelter, Will Wallace learned the reason of the large +supply of provisions which he and his comrade had carried. + +"I've brought this for ye frae Andrew Black," said Quentin, taking the +wallet from his shoulder and presenting it to a man in clerical costume +who advanced to welcome him. "He thought ye might stand in need o' +victuals." + +"Ever thoughtful of his friends; I thank him heartily," said the +minister, accepting the wallet--as also that handed to him by Wallace. +"Andrew is a true helper of the persecuted; and I thank the Lord who has +put it into his heart to supply us at a time when our provisions are +well-nigh exhausted. Our numbers have been unexpectedly increased by +the arrival of some of the unfortunates recently expelled from Lanark." + +"From Lanark!" echoed Wallace as he glanced eagerly round on the forlorn +throng. "Can you tell me, sir, if a Mr. David Spence and a Mrs. Wallace +have arrived from that quarter?" + +"I have not heard of them," returned the minister, as he emptied the +wallets and began to distribute their contents to those around +him.--"Ah, here is milk--I'm glad our friend Black thought of that, for +we have a poor dying woman here who can eat nothing solid. Here, +Webster, take it to her." + +With a sudden sinking at the heart Wallace followed the man to whom the +milk had been given. Might not this dying woman, he thought, be his own +mother? True, he had just been told that no one with her name had yet +sought refuge there; but, there was a bare possibility and--anxiety does +not reason! As he crossed to a spot where several persons were bending +over a couch of straw, a tremendous clap of thunder shook the solid +walls of the cavern. This was immediately followed by a torrent of +rain, the plashing of which outside suggested that all the windows of +heaven had been suddenly opened. The incident was natural enough in +itself, but the anxious youth took it as a bad omen, and trembled as he +had never before trembled at the disturbances of nature. One glance, +however, sufficed to relieve his mind. The dying woman was young. +Delicate of constitution by nature, long exposure to damp air in caves, +and cold beds on the ground, with bad and insufficient food, had sealed +her doom. Lying there, with hollow cheeks, eyes closed and lips deathly +pale, it seemed as if the spirit had already fled. + +"Oh, my ain Lizzie!" cried a poor woman who knelt beside her. + +"Wheesht, mither," whispered the dying woman, slowly opening her eyes; +"it is the Lord's doing--shall not the Judge of a' the earth do right? +We'll understand it a' some day--for ever wi' the Lord!" + +The last words were audible only to the mother's ear. Food for the +body, even if it could have availed her, came too late. Another moment +and she was in the land where hunger and thirst are unknown--where the +wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest. + +The mourners were still standing in silence gazing on the dead, when a +loud noise and stamping of feet was heard at the entrance of the cave. +Turning round they saw several drenched and haggard persons enter, among +them a man supporting--almost carrying--a woman whose drooping figure +betokened great exhaustion. + +"Thank you, O thank you; I--I'm better now," said the woman, looking up +with a weary yet grateful expression at her protector. + +Will Wallace sprang forward as he heard the voice. "Mother! mother!" he +cried, and, next moment, he had her in his arms. + +The excitement coupled with extreme fatigue was almost too much for the +poor woman. She could not speak, but, with a sigh of contentment, +allowed her head to fall upon the broad bosom of her son. + +Accustomed as those hunted people were to scenes of suffering, wild +despair, and sometimes, though not often, to bursts of sudden joy, this +incident drew general attention and sympathy--except, indeed, from the +mother of the dead woman, whose poor heart was for the moment stunned. +Several women--one of whom was evidently a lady of some position-- +crowded to Will's assistance, and conveyed Mrs. Wallace to a recess in +the cave which was curtained off. Here they gave her food, and changed +her soaking garments. Meanwhile her brother, David Spence--a +grand-looking old man of gentle manners and refined mind--gave his +nephew an account of the manner in which they had been driven from their +home. + +"What is the matter with your hands, uncle?" asked Will, observing that +both were bandaged. + +"They tried the thumbscrews on me," said Spence with a pitiful smile, +glancing at his injured members. "They wanted to force me to sign the +Bond, which I declined to do--first, because it required me to perform +impossibilities; and, second, because it was such as no Government in +the world has a right to exact or freeman to sign. They were going to +put the boot on me at first, but the officer in command ordered them to +try the thumbscrews. This was lucky, for a man may get along with +damaged thumbs, but it would have been hard to travel with crippled +legs! I held out though, until the pain became so great that I couldn't +help giving a tremendous yell. This seemed to touch the officer with +pity, for he ordered his men to let me be. Soon afterwards your mother +and I managed to give them the slip, and we came on here." + +"But why came you here, uncle?" asked Will. + +"Because I don't want to be taken to Edinburgh and hanged. Besides, +after hearing of your temporary settlement with Black, I thought the +safest place for your mother would be beside yourself." + +When Wallace explained the cause of his own journey, and the condition +of the district around Black's farm, the plans of David Spence had to be +altered. He resolved, after consideration and prayer, to take to the +mountains and remain in hiding, while Mrs. Wallace should go to +Edinburgh, as already planned, and live with Mrs. Black. + +"But it will never do to take her along with yourself, Will," said +Spence. "She cannot walk a step farther. We must try to get her a +horse, and let her journey along with some o' the armed bands that +attended the conventicle at Skeoch Hill. They will be sure to be +returning this way in a day or two." + +"You are right," said the minister who has already been introduced, and +who overheard the concluding remark as he came forward. "The armed men +will be passing this way in a day or two, and we will take good care of +your mother, young sir, while she remains with us." + +"Just so," rejoined Spence. "I'll see to that; so, nephew, you and your +comrade Quentin may continue your journey with easy minds. You'll need +all your caution to avoid being taken up and convicted, for the tyrants +are in such a state of mind just now that if a man only _looks_ +independent they suspect him, and there is but a short road between +suspicion and the gallows now." + +"Humph! we'll be as innocent-lookin' an' submissive as bairns," remarked +Quentin Dick, with a grim smile on his lips and a frown on his brow that +were the reverse of childlike. + +Convinced that Spence's arrangement for his mother's safety was the best +in the circumstances, Wallace left her, though somewhat reluctantly, in +the care of the outlawed Covenanters, and resumed his journey with the +shepherd after a few hours' rest. + +Proceeding with great caution, they succeeded in avoiding the soldiers +who scoured the country until, towards evening, while crossing a rising +ground they were met suddenly by two troopers. A thicket and bend in +the road had, up to that moment, concealed them from view. Level +grass-fields bordered the road on either side, so that successful flight +was impossible. + +"Wull ye fecht?" asked Quentin, in a quick subdued voice. + +"Of course I will," returned Wallace. + +"Ca' canny at first, then. Be humble an' _awfu'_ meek, till I say +`_Noo_!'" + +The troopers were upon them almost as soon as this was uttered. + +"Ho! my fine fellows," exclaimed one of them, riding up to Quentin with +drawn sword, "fanatics, I'll be bound. Where from and where away now?" + +"We come, honoured sir, frae Irongray, an' we're gaun to Ed'nbury t' buy +cattle," answered Quentin with downcast eyes. + +"Indeed, oho! then you must needs have the cash wherewith to buy the +cattle. Where is it?" + +"In ma pooch," said the shepherd with a deprecating glance at his +pocket. + +"Hand it over, then, my good fellow. Fanatics are not allowed to have +money or to purchase cattle nowadays." + +"But, honoured sir, we're no fannyteeks. We're honest shepherds." + +The lamb-like expression of Quentin Dick's face as he said this was such +that Wallace had considerable difficulty in restraining an outburst of +laughter, despite their critical position. He maintained his gravity, +however, and firmly grasped his staff, which, like that of his +companion, was a blackthorn modelled somewhat on the pattern of the club +of Hercules. + +"Here, Melville," said the first trooper, "hold my horse while I ease +this `honest shepherd' of his purse." + +Sheathing his sword, he drew a pistol from its holster, and, handing the +reins to his companion, dismounted. + +"NOO!" exclaimed Quentin, bringing his staff down on the trooper's iron +headpiece with a terrific thwack. Like a flash of lightning the club of +Wallace rang and split upon that of the other horseman, who fell +headlong to the ground. + +Strong arms have seldom occasion to repeat a well-delivered blow. While +the soldiers lay prone upon the road their startled horses galloped back +the way they had come. + +"That's unfort'nit," said Quentin. "Thae twa look like an +advance-gaird, an' if so, the main body'll no be lang o' gallopin' up to +see what's the maitter. It behoves us to rin!" + +The only port of refuge that appeared to them as they looked quickly +round was a clump of trees on a ridge out of which rose the spire of a +church. + +"The kirk's but a puir sanctuary nooadays," remarked the shepherd, as he +set off across the fields at a quick run, "but it's oor only chance." + +They had not quite gained the ridge referred to when the danger that +Quentin feared overtook them. A small company of dragoons was seen +galloping along the road. + +"We may gain the wood before they see us," suggested Will Wallace. + +"If it _was_ a wud I wadna care for the sodgers," replied his comrade, +"but it's only a bit plantation. We'll jist mak' for the manse an' hide +if we can i' the coal-hole or some place." + +As he spoke a shout from the troopers told that they had been seen, and +several of them leaving the road dashed across the field in pursuit. + +Now, it chanced that at that quiet evening hour the young curate of the +district, the Reverend Frank Selby, was enjoying a game of quoits with a +neighbouring curate, the Reverend George Lawless, on a piece of ground +at the rear of the manse. The Reverend Frank was a genial Lowlander of +the muscular type. The Reverend George was a renegade Highland-man of +the cadaverous order. The first was a harum-scarum young pastor with a +be-as-jolly-as-you-can spirit, and had accepted his office at the +recommendation of a relative in power. The second was a mean-spirited +wolf in sheep's clothing, who, like his compatriot Archbishop Sharp, had +sold his kirk and country as well as his soul for what he deemed some +personal advantage. As may well be supposed, neither of those curates +was a shining light in the ministry. + +"Missed again! I find it as hard to beat you, Lawless, as I do to get +my parishioners to come to church," exclaimed the Reverend Frank with a +good-humoured laugh as his quoit struck the ground and, having been +badly thrown, rolled away. + +"That's because you treat your quoits carelessly, as you treat your +parishioners," returned the Reverend George, as he made a magnificent +throw and ringed the tee. + +"Bravo! that's splendid!" exclaimed Selby. + +"Not bad," returned Lawless. "You see, you want more decision with the +throw--as with the congregation. If you will persist in refusing to +report delinquents and have them heavily fined or intercommuned, you +must expect an empty church. Mine is fairly full just now, and I have +weeded out most of the incorrigibles." + +"I will never increase my congregation by such means, and I have no wish +to weed out the incorrigibles," rejoined Selby, becoming grave as he +made another and a better throw. + +At that moment our fugitive shepherds, dashing round the corner of the +manse, almost plunged into the arms of the Reverend Frank Selby. They +pulled up, panting and uncertain how to act. + +"You seem in haste, friends," said the curate, with an urbane smile. + +"Oot o' the fryin'-pan into the fire!" growled Quentin, grasping his +staff and setting his teeth. + +"If you will condescend to explain the frying-pan I may perhaps relieve +you from the fire," said Selby with emphasis. + +Wallace observed the tone and grasped at the forlorn hope. + +"The dragoons are after us, sir," he said eagerly; "unless you can hide +us we are lost!" + +"If you are honest men," interrupted the Reverend George Lawless, with +extreme severity of tone and look, "you have no occasion to hide--" + +"Bub we're _not_ honest men," interrupted Quentin in a spirit of almost +hilarious desperation, "we're fannyteeks,--rebels,--Covenanters,--born +eediots--" + +"Then," observed Lawless, with increasing austerity, "you richly +deserve--" + +"George!" said the Reverend Frank sharply, "you are in my parish just +now, and I expect you to respect my wishes. Throw your plaids, sticks, +and bonnets behind that bush, my lads--well out of sight--so. Now, cast +your coats, and join us in our game." + +The fugitives understood and swiftly obeyed him. While they were +hastily stripping off their coats Selby took his brother curate aside, +and, looking him sternly in the face, said--"Now, George Lawless, if you +by word or look interfere with my plans, I will give you cause to repent +it to the latest day of your life." + +If any one had seen the countenance of the Reverend George at that +moment he would have observed that it became suddenly clothed with an +air of meekness that was by no means attractive. + +At the time we write of, any curate might, with the assistance of the +soldiers, fine whom he pleased, and as much as he pleased, or he might, +by reporting a parishioner an absentee from public worship, consign him +or her to prison, or even to the gallows. But though all the curates +were in an utterly false position they were not all equally depraved. +Selby was one who felt more or less of shame at the contemptible part he +was expected to play. + +When the troopers came thundering round the corner of the manse a few +minutes later, Quentin Dick, in his shirt sleeves, was in the act of +making a beautiful throw, and Will Wallace was watching him with +interest. Even the Reverend George seemed absorbed in the game, for he +felt that the eyes of the Reverend Frank were upon him. + +"Excuse me, gentlemen," said the officer in command of the soldiers, +"did you see two shepherds run past here?" + +"No," answered the Reverend Frank with a candid smile, "I saw no +shepherds run past here." + +"Strange!" returned the officer, "they seemed to enter your shrubbery +and to disappear near the house." + +"Did you see the path that diverges to the left and takes down to the +thicket in the hollow?" asked Selby. + +"Yes, I did, but they seemed to have passed that when we lost sight of +them." + +"Let me advise you to try it now," said Selby. + +"I will," replied the officer, wheeling his horse round and galloping +off, followed by his men. + +"Now, friends, I have relieved you from the fire, as I promised," said +the Reverend Frank, turning to the shepherds; "see that you don't get +into the frying-pan again. Whether you deserve hanging or not is best +known to yourselves. To say truth, you don't look like it, but, judging +from appearance, I should think that in these times you're not unlikely +to get it. On with your coats and plaids and be off as fast as you +can--over the ridge yonder. In less than half-an-hour you'll be in +Denman's Dean, where a regiment of cavalry would fail to catch you." + +"We shall never forget you--" + +"There, there," interrupted the Reverend Frank, "be off. The troopers +will soon return. I've seen more than enough of hanging, quartering, +and shooting to convince me that Presbytery is not to be rooted out, nor +Prelacy established, by such means. Be off, I say!" + +Thus urged, the fugitives were not slow to avail themselves of the +opportunity, and soon were safe in Denman's Dean. + +"Now, Lawless," said the Reverend Frank in a cheerful tone, "my +conscience, which has been depressed of late, feels easier this evening. +Let us go in to supper; and _remember_ that no one knows about this +incident except you--and I. So, there's no chance of its going +further." + +"The two rebels know it," suggested Lawless. + +"No, they don't!" replied the other airily. "They have quite forgotten +it by this time, and even if it should recur to memory their own +interest and gratitude would seal their lips--so we're quite safe, you +and I; quite safe--come along." + +Our travellers met with no further interruption until they reached +Edinburgh. It was afternoon when they arrived, and, entering by the +road that skirts the western base of the Castle rock, proceeded towards +the Grassmarket. + +Pushing through the crowd gathered in that celebrated locality, Quentin +and Wallace ascended the steep street named Candlemaker Row, which led +and still leads to the high ground that has since been connected with +the High Street by George the Fourth Bridge. About half-way up the +ascent they came to a semicircular projection which encroached somewhat +on the footway. It contained a stair which led to the interior of one +of the houses. Here was the residence of Mrs. Black, the mother of our +friend Andrew. The good woman was at home, busily engaged with her +knitting needles, when her visitors entered. + +A glance sufficed to show Wallace whence Andrew Black derived his grave, +quiet, self-possessed character, as well as his powerful frame and +courteous demeanour. + +She received Quentin Dick, to whom she was well known, with a mixture of +goodwill and quiet dignity. + +"I've brought a freend o' Mr. Black's to bide wi' ye for a wee while, if +ye can take him in," said Quentin, introducing his young companion as +"Wull Wallace." + +"I'm prood to receive an' welcome ony freend o' my boy Andry," returned +the good woman, with a slight gesture that would have become a duchess. + +"Ay, an' yer son wants ye to receive Wallace's mither as weel. She'll +likely be here in a day or twa. She's been sair persecooted of late, +puir body, for she's a staunch upholder o' the Covenants." + +There have been several Covenants in Scotland, the most important +historically being the National Covenant of 1638, and the Solemn League +and Covenant of 1643. It was to these that Quentin referred, and to +these that he and the great majority of the Scottish people clung with +intense, almost superstitious veneration; and well they might, for these +Covenants--which some enthusiasts had signed with their blood--contained +nearly all the principles which lend stability and dignity to a people-- +such as a determination to loyally stand by and "defend the King," and +"the liberties and laws of the kingdom," to have before the eyes "the +glory of God, the advancement of the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour +Jesus Christ, the honour and happiness of the King and his posterity, as +well as the safety and peace of the people; to preserve the rights and +privileges of Parliament, so that arbitrary and unlimited power should +never be suffered to fall into the hands of rulers, and to vindicate and +maintain the liberties of the subjects in all these things which concern +their consciences, persons, and estates." In short, it was a testimony +for constitutional government in opposition to absolutism. + +Such were the principles for which Mrs. Black contended with a +resolution equal, if not superior, to that of her stalwart son; so that +it was in a tone of earnest decision that she assured her visitors that +nothing would gratify her more than to receive a woman who had suffered +persecution for the sake o' the Master an' the Covenants. She then +ushered Wallace and Quentin Dick into her little parlour--a humble but +neatly kept apartment, the back window of which--a hole not much more +than two feet square--commanded a view of the tombstones and monuments +of Greyfriars' Churchyard. + +CHAPTER SIX. + +TELLS OF OVERWHELMING REVERSES. + +Mrs. Black was a woman of sedate character and considerable knowledge +for her station in life--especially in regard to Scripture. Like her +son she was naturally grave and thoughtful, with a strong tendency to +analyse, and to inquire into the nature and causes of things. Unlike +Andrew, however, all her principles and her creed were fixed and well +defined--at least in her own mind, for she held it to be the bounden +duty of every Christian to be ready at all times to give a "reason" for +the hope that is in him, as well as for every opinion that he holds. +Her natural kindness was somewhat concealed by slight austerity of +manner. + +She was seated, one evening, plying her ever active needle, at the same +small window which overlooked the churchyard. The declining sun was +throwing dark shadows across the graves. A ray of it gleamed on a +corner of the particular tombstone which, being built against her house, +slightly encroached upon her window. No one was with the old woman save +a large cat, to whom she was in the habit of addressing occasional +remarks of a miscellaneous nature, as if to relieve the tedium of +solitude with the fiction of intercourse. + +"Ay, pussie," she said, "ye may weel wash yer face an' purr, for there's +nae fear o' _you_ bein' dragged before Airchbishop Sherp to hae yer +thoombs screwed, or yer legs squeezed in the--" + +She stopped abruptly, for heavy footsteps were heard on the spiral +stair, and next moment Will Wallace entered. + +"Well, Mrs. Black," he said, sitting down in front of her, "it's all +settled with Bruce. I'm engaged to work at his forge, and have already +begun business." + +"So I see, an' ye look business-like," answered the old woman, with a +very slight smile, and a significant glance at our hero's costume. + +A considerable change had indeed taken place in the personal appearance +of Will Wallace since his arrival in Edinburgh, for in place of the +shepherd's garb, with which he had started from the "bonnie hills of +Galloway," he wore the leathern apron and other habiliments of a +blacksmith. Moreover his hair had been allowed to grow in luxuriant +natural curls about his head, and as the sun had bronzed him during his +residence with Black, and a young beard and moustache had begun to +assert themselves in premature vigour, his whole aspect was that of a +grand heroic edition of his former self. + +"Yes, the moment I told your friend," said Wallace, "that you had sent +me to him, and that I was one of those who had good reason to conceal +myself from observation, he gave me a hearty shake of the hand and +accepted my offer of service; all the more that, having already some +knowledge of his craft, I did not require teaching. So he gave me an +apron and set me to work at once. I came straight from the forge just +as I left off work to see what you would think of my disguise." + +"Ye'll do, ye'll do," returned Mrs. Black, with a nod of approval. "Yer +face an' hands need mair washin' than my pussie gies her nose! But +wheesht! I hear a fit on the stair. It'll be Quentin Dick. I sent him +oot for a red herrin' or twa for supper." + +As she spoke, Quentin entered with a brown paper parcel, the contents of +which were made patent by means of scent without the aid of sight. + +The shepherd seemed a little disconcerted at sight of a stranger, for, +as Wallace stood up, the light did not fall on his face; but a second +glance sufficed to enlighten him. + +"No' that bad," he said, surveying the metamorphosed shepherd, "but I +doot yer auld friends the dragoons wad sune see through 't--considerin' +yer size an' the soond o' yer voice." + +So saying he proceeded to place the red herrings on a gridiron, as if he +were the recognised cook of the establishment. + +Presently Bruce himself--Mrs. Black's friend the blacksmith--made his +appearance, and the four were soon seated round a supper of oat-cakes, +mashed potatoes, milk, and herring. For some time they discussed the +probability of Wallace being recognised by spies as one who had attended +the conventicle at Irongray, or by dragoons as a deserter; then, as +appetite was appeased, they diverged to the lamentable state of the +country, and the high-handed doings of the Privy Council. + +"The Airchbishop cam' to the toon this mornin'," remarked Mrs. Black, +"so there'll be plenty o' torterin' gaun on." + +"I fear you're right," said Bruce, who, having sojourned a considerable +time in England, had lost much of his northern language and accent. +"That horrible instrument, the _boot_, was brought this very morning to +my smiddy for repair. They had been so hard on some poor wretch, I +suppose, that they broke part of it, but I put a flaw into its heart +that will force them to be either less cruel or to come to me again for +repairs!" + +"H'm! if ye try thae pranks ower often they'll find it oot," said +Quentin. "Sherp is weel named, and if he suspects what ye've done, +ye'll get a taste of the buit yersel'." + +The hatred with which by far the greater part of the people of Scotland +regarded Archbishop Sharp of Saint Andrews is scarcely a matter of +wonder when the man's character and career is considered. Originally a +Presbyterian, and Minister of Crail, he was sent to Court by his +brethren and countrymen as their advocate and agent, and maintained +there at their expense for the express purpose of watching over the +interests of their church. Sharp not only betrayed his trust but went +over to what might well at that time be described as "the enemy," and +secretly undermined the cause which he was bound in honour to support. +Finally he threw off all disguise, and was rewarded by being made +Archbishop of Saint Andrews and Primate of Scotland! This was bad +enough, but the new Prelate, not satisfied with the gratification of his +ambition, became, after the manner of apostates, a bitter persecutor of +the friends he had betrayed. Charles the Second, who was indolent, +incapable and entirely given over to self-indulgence, handed over the +affairs of Scotland to an unprincipled cabal of laymen and churchmen, +who may be fittingly described as drunken libertines. By these men--of +whom Middleton, Lauderdale, and Sharp were the chief--all the laws +passed in favour of Presbytery were rescinded; new tyrannical laws such +as we have elsewhere referred to were enacted and ruthlessly enforced; +Prelacy was established; the Presbyterian Church was laid in ruins, and +all who dared to question the righteousness of these transactions were +pronounced rebels and treated as such. There was no impartial tribunal +to which the people could appeal. The King, who held Presbyterianism to +be unfit for a gentleman, cared for none of these things, and even if he +had it would have mattered little, for those about him took good care +that he should not be approached or enlightened as to the true state of +affairs in Scotland. + +Sharp himself devised and drafted a new edict empowering any officer or +sergeant to kill on the spot any armed man whom he found returning from +or going to a conventicle, and he was on the point of going to London to +have this edict confirmed when his murderous career was suddenly +terminated. + +In the days of James the Sixth and Charles the First, the bishops, +although forced on the Scottish Church and invested with certain +privileges, were subject to the jurisdiction of the General Assembly, +but soon after Charles the Second mounted the throne ecclesiastical +government was vested entirely in their hands, and all the ministers who +refused to recognise their usurped authority were expelled. + +It was in 1662 that the celebrated Act was passed by Middleton and his +colleagues in Glasgow College. It provided that all ministers must +either submit to the bishops or remove themselves and families out of +their manses, churches, and parishes within a month. It was known as +the "Drunken Act of Glasgow," owing to the condition of the legislators. +Four hundred brave and true men left their earthly all at that time, +rather than violate conscience and forsake God. Their example +ultimately saved the nation from despotism. + +The Archbishop of Saint Andrews was chief in arrogance and cruelty among +his brethren. He afterwards obtained permission to establish a High +Commission Court in Scotland--in other words, an Inquisition--for +summarily executing all laws, acts, and orders in favour of Episcopacy +and against recusants, clergy and laity. It was under this authority +that all the evil deeds hitherto described were done, and of this +Commission Sharp was constant president. + +It may be well to remark here that the Prelacy which was so detested by +the people of Scotland was not English Episcopacy, but Scotch Prelacy. +It was, in truth, little better at that time than Popery disguised--a +sort of confused religio-political Popery, of which system the King was +self-constituted Pope, while his unprincipled minions of the council +were cardinals. + +No wonder, then, that at the mere mention of Sharp's name Mrs. Black +shook her head sorrowfully, Bruce the blacksmith frowned darkly, and +Quentin Dick not only frowned but snorted vehemently, and smote the +table with such violence that the startled pussie fled from the scene in +dismay. + +"Save us a'! Quentin," said Mrs. Black, "ye'll surely be hanged or shot +if ye dinna learn to subdue yer wrath." + +"Subdue my wrath, wumman!" exclaimed the shepherd, grinding his teeth; +"if ye had seen the half o' what I've seen ye wad--but ye ken 'maist +naething aboot it! Gie me some mair tatties an' mulk, it'll quiet me +maybe." + +In order that the reader may know something of one of the things about +which Mrs. Black, as well as Quentin Dick himself, was happily ignorant +at that time, we must change the scene once more to the neighbourhood of +Andrew Black's cottage. + +It was early in the day, and the farmer was walking along the road that +led to Cluden Ford, bent on paying a visit to Dumfries, when he was +overtaken by a troop of about twenty horsemen. They had ridden out of +the bush and come on the road so suddenly that Black had no time to +secrete himself. Knowing that he was very much "wanted," especially +after the part he had played at the recent conventicle on Skeoch Hill, +he at once decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and +took to his heels. + +No man in all the country-side could beat the stout farmer at a race +either short or long, but he soon found that four legs are more than a +match for two. The troopers soon gained on him, though he ran like a +mountain hare. Having the advantage, however, of a start of about three +hundred yards, he reached the bend in the road where it begins to +descend towards the ford before his pursuers overtook him. But Andrew +felt that the narrow strip of wood beside which he was racing could not +afford him shelter and that the ford would avail him nothing. In his +extremity he made up his mind to a desperate venture. + +On his right an open glade revealed to him the dark gorge through which +the Cluden thundered. The stream was in flood at the time, and +presented a fearful aspect of seething foam mingled with black rocks, as +it rushed over the lynn and through its narrow throat below. A path led +to the brink of the gorge which is now spanned by the Routen Bridge. +From the sharp-edged cliff on one side to the equally sharp cliff on the +other was a width of considerably over twenty feet. Towards this point +Andrew Black sped. Close at his heels the dragoons followed, +Glendinning, on a superb horse, in advance of the party. It was an +untried leap to the farmer, who nevertheless went at it like a +thunderbolt and cleared it like a stag. The troopers behind, seeing the +nature of the ground, pulled up in time, and wheeling to the left, made +for the ford. Glendinning, however, was too late. The reckless +sergeant, enraged at being so often baulked by the farmer, had let his +horse go too far. He tried to pull up but failed. The effort to do so +rendered a leap impossible. So near was he to the fugitive that the +latter was yet in the midst of his bound when the former went over the +precipice; head foremost, horse and all. The poor steed fell on the +rocks below and broke his neck, but the rider was shot into the deep +dark pool round which the Cluden whirled in foam-flecked eddies. In the +midst of its heaving waters he quickly arose flinging his long arms +wildly about, and shouting for help with bubbling cry. + +The iron helm, jack-boots, and other accoutrements of a seventeenth +century trooper were not calculated to assist flotation. Glendinning +would have terminated his career then and there if the flood had not +come to his aid by sweeping him into the shallow water at the lower end +of the pool, whence some of his men soon after rescued him. Meanwhile, +Andrew Black, plunging into the woods on the opposite side of the river, +was soon far beyond the reach of his foes. + +But escape was not now the chief anxiety of our farmer, and selfishness +formed no part of his character. When he had left home, a short time +before, his niece Jean was at work in the dairy, Ramblin' Peter was +attending to the cattle, Marion Clark and her comrade, Isabel Scott were +busy with domestic affairs, and old Mrs. Mitchell--who never quite +recovered her reason--was seated in the chimney corner calmly knitting a +sock. + +To warn these of their danger was now the urgent duty of the farmer, for +well he knew that the disappointed soldiers would immediately visit his +home. Indeed, he saw them ride away in that direction soon afterwards, +and started off to forestall them if possible by taking a short cut. +Glendinning had borrowed the horse of a trooper and left the dismounted +man to walk after them. + +But there was no particularly short cut to the cottage, and in spite of +Andrew's utmost exertions the dragoons arrived before him. Not, +however, before the wary Peter had observed them, given the alarm, got +all the inmates of the farm--including Mrs. Mitchell--down into the +hidy-hole and established himself in the chimney corner with a look of +imbecile innocence that was almost too perfect. + +Poor Peter! his heart sank when the door was flung violently open and +there entered a band of soldiers, among whom he recognised some of the +party which he had so recently led into the heart of a morass and so +suddenly left to find their way out as they best could. But no +expression on Peter's stolid countenance betrayed his feelings. + +"So, my young bantam cock," exclaimed a trooper, striding towards him, +and bending down to make sure, "we've got hold of you at last?" + +"Eh?" exclaimed Peter interrogatively. + +"You're a precious scoundrel, aren't you?" continued the trooper. + +"Ay," responded Peter. + +"I told you the lad was an idiot," said a comrade. The remark was not +lost upon the boy, whose expression immediately became still more +idiotic if possible. + +"Tell me," said Glendinning, grasping Peter savagely by one ear, "where +is your master?" + +"I dinna ken, sir." + +"Is there nobody in the house but you?" + +"Naebody but me," said Peter, "an' _you_," he added, looking vacantly +round on the soldiers. + +"Now, look 'ee here, lad, I'm not to be trifled with," said the +sergeant. "Where are the rest of your household hidden? Answer; +quick." + +Peter looked into the sergeant's face with a vacant stare, but was +silent. Glendinning, whose recent misfortune had rendered him unusually +cruel, at once knocked the boy down and kicked him; then lifting him by +the collar and thrusting him violently into the chair, repeated the +question, but received no answer. + +Changing his tactics he tried to cajole him and offered him money, but +with similar want of success. + +"Hand me your sword-belt," cried the sergeant to a comrade. + +With the belt he thrashed Peter until he himself grew tired, but neither +word nor cry did he extract, and, again flinging him on the floor, he +kicked him severely. + +"Here's a rope, sergeant," said one of the men at this point, "and +there's a convenient rafter. A lad that won't speak is not fit to +live." + +"Nay, hanging is too good for the brute," said Glendinning, drawing a +pistol from his belt. "Tie a cloth over his eyes." + +Peter turned visibly paler while his eyes were being bandaged, and the +troopers thought that they had at last overcome his obstinacy, but they +little knew the heroic character they had to deal with. + +"Now," said the sergeant, resting the cold muzzle of his weapon against +the boy's forehead, "at the word three your brains are on the floor if +you don't tell me where your people are hid--one--two--" + +"Stop, sergeant, let him have a taste of the thumbscrews before you +finish him off," suggested one of the men. + +"So be it--fetch them." + +The horrible instrument of torture was brought. It was constantly used +to extract confession from the poor Covenanters during the long years of +persecution of that black period of Scottish history. Peter's thumbs +were placed in it and the screw was turned. The monsters increased the +pressure by slow degrees, repeating the question at each turn of the +screw. At first Peter bore the pain unmoved, but at last it became so +excruciating that his cheeks and lips seemed to turn grey, and an +appalling shriek burst from him at last. + +Talk of devils! The history of the human race has proved that when men +have deliberately given themselves over to high-handed contempt of their +Maker there is not a devil among all the legions in hell who could be +worse: he might be cleverer, he could not be more cruel. The only +effect of the shriek upon Glendinning was to cause him to order another +turn of the screw. + +Happily, at the moment the shriek was uttered Andrew Black arrived, and, +finding the troop-horses picketed outside, with no one apparently to +guard them, he looked in at the window and saw what was going on. + +With a fierce roar of mingled horror, surprise, and rage, he sprang into +the room, and his huge fist fell on the brow of Glendinning like the +hammer of Thor. His left shot full into the face of the man who had +worked the screws, and both troopers fell prone upon the floor with a +crash that shook the building. The act was so quick, and so +overpoweringly violent that the other troopers were for a moment +spellbound. That moment sufficed to enable Black to relieve the screws +and set Peter free. + +"C'way oot, lad, after me!" cried Andrew, darting through the doorway, +for he felt that without more space to fight he would be easily +overpowered. The dragoons, recovering, darted after him. The farmer +caught up a huge flail with which he was wont to thresh out his oats. +It fell on the headpiece of the first trooper, causing it to ring like +an anvil, and stretching its owner on the ground. The second trooper +fared no better, but the head of the flail broke into splinters on his +iron cap, and left Andrew with the stump only to continue the combat. +This, however, was no insignificant weapon, and the stout farmer laid +about him with such fierce rapidity as to check for a few moments the +overwhelming odds against him. Pistols would certainly have been used +had not Glendinning, recovering his senses, staggered out and shouted, +"Take him _alive_, men!" This was quickly done, for two troopers leaped +on Andrew behind and pinioned his arms while he was engaged with four in +front. The four sprang on him at the same instant. Even then Andrew +Black's broad back--which was unusually "up"--proved too strong for +them, for he made a sort of plunging somersault and carried the whole +six along with him to the ground. Before he could rise, however, more +troopers were on the top of him. Samson himself would have had to +succumb to the dead weight. In a few seconds he was bound with ropes +and led into the house. Ramblin' Peter had made a bold assault on a +dragoon at the beginning of the fray, but could do nothing with his poor +maimed hands, and was easily secured. + +"Let him taste the thumbscrews," growled Glendinning savagely, and +pointing to Black. + +"Dae yer warst, ye born deevil," said Black recklessly--for oppression +driveth even a wise man mad. + +"Very good--fetch the boot," said the sergeant. + +The instrument of torture was brought and affixed to the farmer's right +leg; the wedge was inserted, and a blow of the mallet given. + +Black's whole visage seemed to darken, his frowning brows met, and his +lips were compressed with a force that meant endurance unto the death. + +At that moment another party of dragoons under Captain Houston galloped +up, the captain entered, and, stopping the proceedings of his +subordinate, ordered Black and Peter to be set on horseback and bound +together. + +"Fire the place," he added. "If there are people in it anywhere, that +will bring them out." + +"Oh dear!" gasped Peter, "the hidy--" + +"Wheesht, bairn," said Black in a low voice. "They're safe enough. The +fire'll no' touch them, an' besides, they're in the Lord's hands." + +A few minutes more and the whole farm-steading was in flames. The +dragoons watched the work of destruction until the roof of the cottage +fell in; then, mounting their horses, they descended to the road with +the two prisoners and turned their faces in the direction of Edinburgh. + +CHAPTER SEVEN. + +MORE THAN ONE NARROW ESCAPE. + +One day, about a week after the burning of Black's farm, a select +dinner-party of red-hot rebels--as Government would have styled them; +persecuted people as they called themselves--assembled in Mrs. Black's +little room in Candlemaker Row. Their looks showed that their meeting +was not for the purpose of enjoyment. The party consisted of Mrs. +Black, Mrs. Wallace, who had reached Edinburgh in company with her +brother David Spence, Jean Black, Will Wallace, Quentin Dick, and Jock +Bruce the blacksmith. + +"But I canna understand, lassie," said Mrs. Black to Jean, "hoo ye +werena a' roasted alive i' the hidy-hole, or suffocated at the best; an' +hoo did ye ever get oot wi' the ruckle o' burning rafters abune ye?" + +"It was easy enough," answered the girl, "for Uncle Andry made the roof +o' the place uncommon thick, an' there's a short tunnel leadin' to some +bushes by the burn that let us oot at a place that canna be seen frae +the hoose. But oh, granny, dinna ask me to speak aboot thae things, for +they may be torturin' Uncle Andry at this vera moment. Are you sure it +was him ye saw?" she added, turning to Bruce. + +"Quite sure," replied the smith. "I chanced to be passing the Tolbooth +at the moment the door opened. A party of the City Guard suddenly came +out with Black in the midst, and led him up the High Street." + +"I'm _sure_ they'll torture him," said the poor girl, while the tears +began to flow at the dreadful thought. "They stick at naethin' now." + +"I think," said Will Wallace, in a tone that was meant to be comforting, +"that your uncle may escape the torture, for the Archbishop does not +preside at the Council to-day. I hear that he has gone off suddenly to +Saint Andrews." + +"That won't serve your uncle much," remarked Bruce sternly, "for some of +the other bishops are nigh as bad as Sharp, and with that raving monster +Lauderdale among them they're likely not only to torture but to hang +him, for he is well known, and has been long and perseveringly hunted." + +In his indignation the smith did not think of the effect his foreboding +might have on his friend's mother, but the sight of her pale cheeks and +quivering lips was not lost upon Wallace, whose sympathies had already +been stirred deeply not only by his regard for Black, but also by his +pity for tender-hearted Jean. + +"By heaven!" he exclaimed, starting up in a sudden burst of enthusiasm, +"if you will join me, friends, I am quite ready to attempt a rescue at +once." + +A sort of pleased yet half-cynical smile crossed the grave visage of +Quentin Dick as he glanced at the youth. + +"Hoots, man! sit doon," he said quietly; "ye micht as weel try to rescue +a kid frae the jaws o' a lion as rescue Andry Black frae the fangs o' +Lauderdale an' his crew. But something may be dune when they're takin' +him back to the Tolbooth--if ye're a' wullin' to help. We mak' full +twunty-four feet amangst us, an' oor shoothers are braid!" + +"I'm ready," said David Spence, in the quiet tone of a man who usually +acts from principle. + +"An' so am I," cried Bruce, smiting the table with the fist of a man who +usually acts from impulse. + +While Wallace calmed his impatient spirit, and sat down to hatch a plot +with his brother conspirators, a strange scene was enacting in the +Council Chamber, where the perjured prelates and peers were in the habit +of practising cruelty, oppression, and gross injustice under the name of +law. + +They sat beside a table which was covered with books and parchments. In +front of them, seated on a chair with his arms pinioned, was Andrew +Black. His face was pale and had a careworn look, but he held his head +erect, and regarded his judges with a look of stern resolution that +seemed to exasperate them considerably. On the table lay a pair of +brass-mounted thumbscrews, and beside them the strange-looking +instrument of torture called the boot. In regard to these machines +there is a passage in the Privy Council Records which gives an idea of +the spirit of the age about which we write. It runs thus: "Whereas the +_boots_ were the ordinary way to explicate matters relating to the +Government, and there is now a new invention and engine called the +_Thumbkins_, which will be very effectual to the purpose aforesaid, the +Lords ordain that when any person shall by their order be put to the +torture, the said boots and thumbkins be applied to them, as it shall be +found fit and convenient." + +Lauderdale on this occasion found it fit and convenient to apply the +torture to another man in the presence of Black, in order that the +latter might fully appreciate what he had to expect if he should remain +contumacious. The poor man referred to had not been gifted with a +robust frame or a courageous spirit. When asked, however, to reveal the +names of some comrades who had accompanied him to a field-preaching he +at first loyally and firmly refused to do so. Then the boot was +applied. It was a wooden instrument which enclosed the foot and lower +limb of the victim. Between it and the leg a wedge was inserted which, +when struck repeatedly, compressed the limb and caused excruciating +agony. In some cases this torture was carried so far that it actually +crushed the bone, causing blood and marrow to spout forth. It was so in +the case of that well-known martyr of the Covenant, Hugh McKail, not +long before his execution. + +The courage of the poor man of whom we now write gave way at the second +stroke of the mallet, and, at the third, uttering a shriek of agony, he +revealed, in short gasps, the names of all the comrades he could recall. +Let us not judge him harshly until we have undergone the same ordeal +with credit! A look of intense pity overspread the face of Andrew Black +while this was going on. His broad chest heaved, and drops of +perspiration stood on his brow. He had evidently forgotten himself in +his strong sympathy with the unhappy martyr. When the latter was +carried out, in a half fainting condition, he turned to Lauderdale, and, +frowning darkly, said-- + +"Thou meeserable sinner, cheeld o' the deevil, an' enemy o' a' +righteousness, div 'ee think that your blood-stained haund can owerturn +the cause o' the Lord?" + +This speech was received with a flush of anger, quickly followed by a +supercilious smile. + +"We shall see. Get the boot ready there. Now, sir," (turning to +Black), "answer promptly--Will you subscribe the oath of the King's +supremacy?" + +"No--that I wull _not_. I acknowledge nae king ower my conscience but +the King o' Kings. As for that perjured libertine on the throne, for +whom there's muckle need to pray, I tell ye plainly that I consider the +freedom and welfare o' Scotland stands higher than the supposed rights +o' king and lords. Ye misca' us rebels! If ye ken the history o' yer +ain country--whilk I misdoot--ye would ken that the Parliaments o' baith +Scotland an' England have laid it doon, in declaration and in practice, +that resistance to the exercise o' arbitrary power is _lawfu'_, +therefore resistance to Chairles and you, his shameless flunkeys, is nae +mair rebellion than it's rebellion in a cat to flee in the face o' a +bull-doug that wants to worry her kittens. Against the tyrant that has +abused his trust, an' upset oor constitution, an' broken a' the laws o' +God and man, I count it to be my bounden duty to fecht wi' swurd an' lip +as lang's I hae an airm to strike an' a tongue to wag. Noo, ye may dae +yer warst!" + +At a signal the executioner promptly fitted the boot to the bold man's +right leg. + +Black's look of indignant defiance passed away, and was replaced by an +expression of humility that, strangely enough, seemed rather to +intensify than diminish his air of fixed resolve. While the instrument +of torture was being arranged he turned his face to the Bishop of +Galloway, who sat beside Lauderdale silently and sternly awaiting the +result, and with an almost cheerful air and quiet voice said-- + +"God has, for His ain wise ends, made the heart o' the puir man that has +just left us tender, an' He's made mine teuch, but tak' notice, thou +wolf in sheep's clothing, that it's no upon its teuchness but upon the +speerit o' the Lord that I depend for grace to withstand on this evil +day." + +"Strike!" said the Duke, in a low stern voice. + +The mallet fell; the wedge compressed the strong limb, and Andrew +compressed his lips. + +"Again!" + +A second time the mallet fell, but no sign did the unhappy man give of +the pain which instantly began to shoot through the limb. After a few +more blows the Duke stayed the process and reiterated his questions, but +Black took no notice of him whatever. Large beads of sweat broke out on +his brow. These were the only visible signs of suffering, unless we +except the deathly pallor of his face. + +"Again!" said the merciless judge. + +The executioner obeyed, but the blow had been barely delivered when a +loud snap was heard, and the tortured man experienced instant relief. +Jock Bruce's little device had been successful, the instrument of +torture was broken! + +"Thanks be to Thy name, O God, for grace to help me thus far," said +Black in a quiet tone. + +"Fix on the other boot," cried Lauderdale savagely, for the constancy as +well as the humility of the martyr exasperated him greatly. + +The executioner was about to obey when a noise was heard at the door of +the Council Chamber, and a cavalier, booted and spurred and splashed +with mud, as if he had ridden fast and far, strode hastily up to the +Duke and whispered in his ear. The effect of the whisper was striking, +for an expression of mingled surprise, horror, and alarm overspread for +a few moments even his hard visage. At the same time the Bishop of +Galloway was observed to turn deadly pale, and an air of consternation +generally marked the members of Council. + +"Murdered--in cold blood!" muttered the Duke, as if he could not quite +believe the news,--and perhaps realised for the first time that there +were others besides the Archbishop of Saint Andrews who richly deserved +a similar fate. + +Hastily ordering the prisoner to be removed to the Tolbooth, he retired +with his infamous companions to an inner room. + +The well-known historical incident which was thus announced shall +receive but brief comment here. There is no question at all as to the +fact that Sharp was unlawfully killed, that he was cruelly slain, +without trial and without judicial condemnation, by a party of +Covenanters. Nothing justifies illegal killing. The justice of even +legal killing is still an unsettled question, but one which does not +concern us just now. We make no attempt to defend the deed of those +men. It is not probable that any average Christian, whether in favour +of the Covenanters or against them, would justify the killing of an old +man by illegal means, however strongly he might hold the opinion that +the old man deserved to die. In order to form an unprejudiced opinion +on this subject recourse must be had to facts. The following are +briefly the facts of the case. + +A merchant named William Carmichael, formerly a bailie of Edinburgh, was +one of Sharp's favourites, and one of his numerous commissioners for +suppressing conventicles in Fife. He was a licentious profligate, +greedy of money, and capable of undertaking any job, however vile. This +man's enormities were at last so unbearable that he became an object of +general detestation, and his excessive exactions had ruined so many +respectable lairds, owners, and tenants, that at last nine of these (who +had been outlawed, interdicted the common intercourse of society, and +hunted like wild beasts on the mountains) resolved, since all other +avenues of redressing their unjust sufferings were denied them, to take +the law into their own hands and personally chastise Carmichael. +Accordingly, hearing that the commissioner was hunting on the moors in +the neighbourhood of Cupar, they rode off in search of him. They failed +to find him, and were about to disperse, when a boy brought intelligence +that the coach of Archbishop Sharp was approaching. + +Baffled in their previous search, and smarting under the sense of their +intolerable wrongs, the party regarded this as a providential +deliverance of their arch-enemy into their hands. Here was the chief +cause of all their woes, the man who, more almost than any other, had +been instrumental in the persecution and ruin of many families, in the +torture and death of innumerable innocent men and women, and the +banishment of some of their nearest and dearest to perpetual exile on +the plantations, where they were treated as slaves. They leaped at the +sudden and unexpected opportunity. They reasoned that what had been +done in the past, and was being done at the time, would continue to be +done in the future, for there was no symptom of improvement, but rather +of increasing severity in the Government and ecclesiastics. Overtaking +the coach, which contained the Prelate and his daughter, they stopped +it, made Archbishop Sharp step out, and slew him there on Magus Moor. + +It was a dark unwarrantable deed, but it was unpremeditated, and +necessarily unknown, at first, to any but the perpetrators, so that it +would be inexcusably unfair to saddle it upon the great body of the +Covenanters, who, as far as we can ascertain from their writings and +opinions, condemned it, although, naturally, they could not but feel +relieved to think that one of their chief persecutors was for evermore +powerless for further evil, and _some_ of them refused to admit that the +deed was murder. They justified it by the case of Phinehas. A better +apology lies in the text, "oppression maketh a wise man mad." + +This event had the effect, apparently, of causing the Council to forget +our friends Black and Ramblin' Peter for a time, for they were left in +the Tolbooth for about three weeks after that, whereat Andrew was much +pleased, for it gave his maimed limb time to recover. As Peter remarked +gravely, "it's an ill wund that blaws naebody guid!" + +A robust and earnest nation cannot be subdued by persecution. The more +the Council tyrannised over and trampled upon the liberties of the +people of Scotland, the more resolutely did the leal-hearted and brave +among them resist the oppressors. It is ever thus. It ever _should_ be +thus; for while an individual man has a perfect right, if he chooses, to +submit to tyranny on his own account, he has no right to stand tamely by +and see gross oppression and cruelty exercised towards his family, and +neighbours, and country. At least, if he does so, he earns for himself +the character of an unpatriotic poltroon. True patriotism consists in a +readiness to sacrifice one's-self to the national well-being. As far as +things temporal are concerned, the records of the Scottish Covenanters +prove incontestably that those long-tried men and women submitted with +unexampled patience for full eight-and-twenty years to the spoiling of +their goods and the ruin of their prospects; but when it came to be a +question of submission to the capricious will of the King or loyalty to +Jesus Christ, thousands of them chose the latter alternative, and many +hundreds sealed their testimony with their blood. + +When at last the question arose, "Shall we consent to the free preaching +of the Gospel being suppressed altogether, or shall we assert our rights +at the point of the sword?" there also arose very considerable +difference of opinion among the Covenanters. Many of those who held the +peace-at-almost-any-price principle, counselled submission. Others, +such as Richard Cameron, Donald Cargill, and Thomas Douglas, who +believed in the right of self-defence, and in such a text as "smite a +scorner and the simple will beware," advocated the use of carnal weapons +for _protection alone_, although, when driven to desperation, they were +compelled to go further. Some of the ejected ministers, such as +Blackadder and Welsh, professed to be undecided on this point, and leant +to a more or less submissive course. + +Matters were now hastening to a crisis. A lawless Government had forced +a law-abiding people into the appearance, though not the reality, of +rebellion. The bands of armed men who assembled at conventicles became +so numerous as to have the appearance of an army. The council, +exasperated and alarmed, sent forth more troops to disperse and suppress +these, though they had been guilty of no act of positive hostility. + +At this crisis, Cargill and his friends, the "ultra-Covenanters," as +they were styled, resolved to publish to the world their "Testimony to +the cause and truth which they defended, and against the sins and +defections of the times." They chose the 29th of May for this purpose, +that being the anniversary of the King's birth and restoration. Led by +Robert Hamilton, a small party of them rode into the royal burgh of +Rutherglen; and there, after burning various tyrannical Acts--as their +adversaries had previously burnt the Covenants--they nailed to the cross +a copy of what is now known as the Declaration of Rutherglen, in which +all their grievances were set forth. + +The news of this daring act spread like wildfire, and the notorious +Graham of Claverhouse was sent to seize, kill, and destroy, all who took +any part in this business. How Claverhouse went with his disciplined +dragoons, seized John King, chaplain to Lord Cardross, with about +fourteen other prisoners, in passing through Hamilton, tied them in +couples, drove them before the troops like sheep, attacked the +Covenanters at Drumclog, received a thorough defeat from the +undisciplined "rebels," who freed the prisoners, and sent the dragoons +back completely routed to Glasgow, is matter of history. + +While these stirring events were going on, our friend Andrew Black and +Ramblin' Peter were languishing in the unsavoury shades of the Tolbooth +Prison. + +One forenoon Andrew was awakened from an uneasy slumber. They bade him +rise. His arms were bound with a rope, and he was led up the Canongate +towards the well-remembered Council Chamber, in company with Ramblin' +Peter, who, owing to his size and youth, was not bound, but merely held +in the grasp of one of the guards. + +At the mouth of one of the numerous closes which lead down to the +Cowgate and other parts of the old town stood Will Wallace, Quentin +Dick, David Spence, and Jock Bruce, each armed with a heavy blackthorn. +Bruce had been warned by a friendly turnkey of what was pending--hence +their opportune presence. + +As soon as the prison party was opposite the close, the rescue party +made a united rush--and the united rush of four such strapping fellows +was worth seeing. So thought the crowd, and cheered. So thought not +the City Guard, four of whom went down like ninepins. Black's bonds +were cut and himself hurried down the close almost before the guard had +recovered from the surprise. No doubt that guard was composed of brave +men; but when they met two such lions in the mouth of the close as +Wallace and Quentin--for these two turned at bay--they paused and +levelled their pikes. Turning these aside like lightning the lions +felled their two foremost adversaries. The two who followed them met a +similar fate. Thinking that four were sufficient to block the entry, at +least for a few moments, our heroes turned, unlionlike, and fled at a +pace that soon left the enemy far behind. + +This delay had given time to Black and his other friends to make good +their retreat. Meanwhile Ramblin' Peter, taking advantage of the +confusion, wrenched himself suddenly free from the guard who held him, +and vanished down another close. The rescue having been effected, the +party purposely scattered. Black's leg, however, prevented him from +running fast. He therefore thought it best to double round a corner, +and dash into a doorway, trusting to having been unobserved. In this, +however, he was mistaken. His enemies, indeed, saw him not, but +Ramblin' Peter chanced to see him while at some distance off, and made +for the same place of refuge. + +Springing up a spiral stair, three steps at a time, Black did not stop +till he gained the attics, and leaped through the open doorway of a +garret, where he found an old woman wailing over a bed on which lay the +corpse of a man with a coffin beside it. + +"What want ye here?" demanded the old creature angrily. + +"Wow! wumman, I'm hard pressed! They're at my heels!" said Black, +looking anxiously at the skylight as if meditating a still higher +flight. + +"Are ye ane o' the persecuted remnant?" asked the woman in a changed +tone. + +"Ay, that am I." + +"Hide, then, hide, man--haste ye!" + +"Where?" asked the perplexed fugitive. "There," said the woman, +removing the coffin lid. Andrew hesitated. Just then hurrying +footsteps were heard on the stair. He hesitated no longer. Stepping +into the coffin he lay down, and the woman covered him up. + +"Oh, wumman!" said Black, lifting the lid a little, "tak' care ye dinna +meddle wi' the screw-nails. They may--" + +"Wheesht! Haud yer tongue!" growled the woman sharply, and reclosed the +lid with a bang, just as Ramblin' Peter burst into the room. + +"What want ye here, callant?" + +Peter drew back in dismay. + +"I'm lookin' for--I was thinkin'--Did 'ee see a man--?" + +The lid of the coffin flew off as he spoke, and his master sprang out. + +"Man, Peter," gasped the farmer, "yours is the sweetest voice I've heard +for mony a day. I verily thocht I was doomed--but come awa', lad. +Thank 'ee kindly, auld wife, for the temporary accommodation." + +The intruders left as abruptly as they had entered. That night the +whole party was reassembled in Mrs. Black's residence in Candlemaker +Row, where, over a supper "o' parritch an' soor mulk," Andrew Black +heard from Jock Bruce all about the Declaration of Rutherglen, and the +defeat of Claverhouse by the Covenanters at Drumclog. + +"The thundercloods are gatherin'," said Black with a grave shake of the +head, as the party broke up and were about to separate for the night. +"Tak' my word for 't, we'll hear mair o' this afore lang." + +We need scarcely add that on this occasion Andrew was a true prophet. + +CHAPTER EIGHT. + +BOTHWELL BRIDGE. + +Matters had now come to such a pass that it was no longer possible to +defer the evil day of civil war. + +Persecuted inhumanly and beyond endurance, with every natural avenue of +redress closed, and flushed with recent victory, the Covenanters +resolved not only to hold together for defensive purposes, but to take +the initiative, push their advantage, and fight for civil and religious +liberty. It was the old, old fight, which has convulsed the world +probably since the days of Eden--the uprising of the persecuted many +against the tyrannical few. In the confusions of a sin-stricken world, +the conditions have been occasionally and partially reversed; but, for +the most part, history's record tells of the abuse of power on the part +of the few who possess it, and the resulting consequence that:-- + + "Man's inhumanity to man + Makes countless thousands mourn--" + +Until the down-trodden have turned at bay, and, like the French in 1793, +have taken fearful vengeance, or, as in the case of the Covenanters at +the time of which we write, have reaped only disaster and profounder +woe. + +There were, however, two elements of weakness among the Covenanters in +1679 which rendered all their efforts vain, despite the righteousness of +their cause. One was that they were an undisciplined body, without +appointed and experienced officers; while their leader, Robert Hamilton, +was utterly unfitted by nature as well as training for a military +command. The other weakness was, that the unhappy differences of +opinion among them as to lines of duty, to which we have before +referred, became more and more embittered, instead of being subordinated +to the stern necessities of the hour. + +The earnest men of God amongst them could no doubt have brought things +to a better state in this crisis if their counsels had prevailed, but +the men whose powers of endurance had at last given way were too many +and strong for these; so that, instead of preparing for united action, +the turbulent among them continued their dissensions until too late. + +After Drumclog, Hamilton led his men to Glasgow to attack the enemy's +headquarters there. He was repulsed, and then retired to Hamilton, +where he formed a camp. + +The Privy Council meanwhile called out the militia, and ordered all the +heritors and freeholders to join with the Regulars in putting down the +insurrection. A good many people from all quarters had joined the +Covenanters after the success at Drumclog; but it is thought that their +numbers never exceeded 4000. The army which prepared to meet them under +the command of the Duke of Monmouth and Buccleuch was said to be 10,000 +strong--among them were some of the best of the King's troops. + +The Duke was anxious to delay matters, apparently with some hope of +reconciliation. Many of the Covenanters were like-minded; and it is +said that Mr. Welsh visited the royal camp in disguise, with a view to a +peaceful solution; but the stern spirits in both camps rendered this +impossible. Some from principle, others from prejudice, could not see +their way to a compromise; while the unprincipled on either side "cried +havoc, and let slip the dogs of war!" + +It was on Sabbath the 22nd of June that the Duke's army reached Bothwell +Moor; the advanced guards entering Bothwell town within a quarter of a +mile of the bridge which spans the Clyde. The Covenanters lay encamped +on Hamilton Moor, on the southern side of the river. + +That morning a company of stalwart young men, coming from the direction +of Edinburgh, had crossed Bothwell Bridge before the arrival of the +royal army and joined the Covenanters. They were preceded by two men on +horseback. + +"It seems a daft-like thing," said one horseman to the other as they +traversed the moor, "that the likes o' me should be ridin' to battle +like a lord, insteed o' trudgin' wi' the men on futt; but, man, it's no' +easy to walk far efter wearin' a ticht-fittin' buit--though it was only +for a wee while I had it on. It's a' verra weel for you, Wull, that's +oor eleckit captain, an' can sit yer horse like a markis; but as for me, +I'll slip aff an' fecht on my legs when it comes to that." + +"There's no military law, Andrew, against fighting on foot," returned +the captain, who, we need scarcely say, was Will Wallace; "but if you +are well advised you'll stick to the saddle as long as you can. See, +yonder seems to be the headquarters of the camp. We will report our +arrival, and then see to breakfast." + +"Ay--I'll be thankfu' for a bite o' somethin', for I'm fair famished; +an' there's a proverb, I think, that says it's ill fechtin' on an emp'y +stammack. It seems to me there's less order an' mair noise yonder than +befits a camp o' serious men--specially on a Sabbath mornin'." + +"The same thought occurred to myself," said Wallace. "Perhaps they have +commenced the services, for you know there are several ministers among +them." + +"Mair like disputation than services," returned the farmer with a grave +shake of his head. + +Finding that Andrew was correct, and that the leaders of the little army +were wasting the precious moments in irrelevant controversy, the +Edinburgh contingent turned aside and set about preparing a hasty +breakfast. This reinforcement included Quentin Dick, Jock Bruce, David +Spence, and Ramblin' Peter; also Tam Chanter, Edward Gordon, and +Alexander McCubine, who had been picked up on the march. + +Of course, while breaking their fast they discussed the _pros_ and +_cons_ of the situation freely. + +"If the King's troops are as near as they are reported to be," said +Wallace, "our chances of victory are small." + +"I fear ye're richt," said Black. "It becomes Ignorance to haud its +tongue in the presence o' Knowledge, nae doot--an' I confess to bein' as +ignorant as a bairn o' the art o' war; but common sense seems to say +that haverin' aboot theology on the eve o' a fecht is no sae wise-like +as disposin' yer men to advantage. The very craws might be ashamed o' +sic a noise!" + +Even while he spoke a cry was raised that the enemy was in sight; and +the confusion that prevailed before became redoubled as the necessity +for instant action arose. In the midst of it, however, a few among the +more sedate and cool-headed leaders did their best to reduce the little +army to something like order, and put it in battle array. There was no +lack of personal courage. Men who had, for the sake of righteousness, +suffered the loss of all things, and had carried their lives in their +hands for so many years, were not likely to present a timid front in the +hour of battle. And leaders such as John Nisbet of Hardhill, one of the +most interesting sufferers in the twenty-eight years' persecution; +Clelland, who had fought with distinguished courage at Drumclog; Henry +Hall of Haughhead; David Hackston of Rathillet; John Balfour of Burley; +Turnbull of Bewlie; with Major Learmont and Captain John Paton of +Meadowhead--two veterans who had led the Westland Covenanters in their +first battle at the Pentland Hills--such men were well able to have led +a band of even half-disciplined men to victory if united under a capable +general. But such was not to be. The laws of God, whether relating to +physics or morals, are inexorable. A divided army cannot conquer. They +had assembled to fight; instead of fighting they disputed, and that so +fiercely that two opposing parties were formed in the camp, and their +councils of war became arenas of strife. The drilling of men had been +neglected, officers were not appointed, stores of ammunition and other +supplies were not provided, and no plan of battle was concerted. All +this, with incapacity at the helm, resulted in overwhelming disaster and +the sacrifice of a body of brave, devoted men. It afterwards +intensified persecution, and postponed constitutional liberty for many +years. + +In this state of disorganisation the Covenanters were found by the royal +troops. The latter were allowed quietly to plant their guns and make +arrangements for the attack. + +But they were not suffered to cross Bothwell Bridge with impunity. Some +of the bolder spirits, leaving the disputants to fight with tongue and +eye, drew their swords and advanced to confront the foe. + +"It's every man for himsel' here," remarked Andrew Black indignantly, +wiping his mouth with his cuff, as he rose from the meal which he was +well aware might be his last. "The Lord hae mercy on the puir +Covenanters, for they're in sair straits this day. Come awa', Wull +Wallace--lead us on to battle." + +Our hero, who was busily forming up his men, needed no such exhortation. +Seeing that there was no one in authority to direct his movements, he +resolved to act "for his own hand." He gave the word to march, and set +off at a quick step for the river, where the fight had already begun. +Soon he and his small band were among those who held the bridge. Here +they found Hackston, Hall, Turnbull, and the lion-like John Nisbet, each +with a small band of devoted followers sternly and steadily defending +what they knew to be the key to their position. Distributing his men in +such a way among the coppices on the river's bank that they could assail +the foe to the greatest advantage without unnecessarily exposing +themselves, Wallace commenced a steady fusillade on the King's +foot-guards, who were attempting to storm the bridge. The Covenanters +had only one cannon and about 300 men with which to meet the assault; +but the gun was effectively handled, and the men were staunch. + +On the central arch of the old bridge--which was long and narrow--there +stood a gate. This had been closed and barricaded with beams and trees, +and the parapets on the farther side had been thrown down to prevent the +enemy finding shelter behind them. These arrangements aided the +defenders greatly, so that for three hours the gallant 300 held the +position in spite of all that superior discipline and numerous guns +could do. At last, however, the ammunition of the defenders began to +fail. + +"Where did ye tether my horse?" asked Will Wallace, addressing Peter, +who acted the part of aide-de-camp and servant to his commander. + +"Ayont the hoose there," replied Peter, who was crouching behind a +tree-stump. + +"Jump on its back, lad, and ride to the rear at full speed. Tell them +we're running short of powder and ball. We want more men, too, at once. +Haste ye!" + +"Ay, an' tell them frae me, that if we lose the brig we lose the day," +growled Andrew Black, who, begrimed with powder, was busily loading and +firing his musket from behind a thick bush, which, though an admirable +screen from vision, was a poor protection from bullets, as the passage +of several leaden messengers had already proved. But our farmer was too +much engrossed with present duty to notice trifles! + +Without a word, except his usual "Ay," Ramblin' Peter jumped up and ran +to where his commander's steed was picketed. In doing so he had to pass +an open space, and a ball striking his cap sent it spinning into the +air; but Peter, like Black, was not easily affected by trifles. Next +moment he was on the back of Will's horse--a great long-legged +chestnut--and flying towards the main body of Covenanters in rear. + +The bullets were whistling thickly past him. One of these, grazing some +tender part of his steed's body, acted as a powerful spur, so that the +alarmed creature flew over the ground at racing speed, much to its +rider's satisfaction. When they reached the lines, however, and he +attempted to pull up, Peter found that the great tough-mouthed animal +had taken the bit in its teeth and bolted. No effort that his puny arm +could make availed to check it. Through the ranks of the Covenanters he +sped wildly, and in a short time was many miles from the battlefield. +How long he might have continued his involuntary retreat is uncertain, +but the branch of a tree brought it to a close by sweeping him off the +saddle. A quarter of an hour later an old woman found him lying on the +ground insensible, and with much difficulty succeeded in dragging him to +her cottage. + +Meanwhile the tide of war had gone against the Covenanters. Whatever +may be said of Hamilton, unquestionably he did not manage the fight +well. No ammunition or reinforcements were sent to the front. The +stout defenders of the bridge were forced to give way in such an unequal +conflict. Yet they retired fighting for every inch of the ground. +Indeed, instead of being reinforced they were ordered to retire; and at +last, when all hope was gone, they reluctantly obeyed. + +"Noo this bates a'!" exclaimed Black in a tone of ineffable disgust, as +he ran to the end of the bridge, clubbed his musket, and laid about him +with the energy of despair. Will Wallace was at his side in a moment; +so was Quentin Dick. They found Balfour and Hackston already there; and +for a few moments these men even turned the tide of battle, for they +made an irresistible dash across the bridge, and absolutely drove the +assailants from their guns, but, being unsupported, were compelled to +retire. If each had been a Hercules, the gallant five would have had to +succumb before such overwhelming odds. A few minutes more and the +Covenanters were driven back. The King's troops poured over the bridge +and began to form on the other side. + +Then it was that Graham of Claverhouse, seeing his opportunity, led his +dragoons across the bridge and charged the main body of the Covenanters. +Undisciplined troops could not withstand the shock of such a charge. +They quickly broke and fled; and now the battle was changed to a regular +rout. + +"Kill! kill!" cried Claverhouse; "no quarter!" + +His men needed no such encouragement. From that time forward they +galloped about the moor, slaying remorselessly all whom they came +across. + +The gentle-spirited Monmouth, seeing that the victory was gained, gave +orders to cease the carnage; but Claverhouse paid no attention to this. +He was like the man-eating tigers,--having once tasted blood he could +not be controlled, though Monmouth galloped about the field doing his +best to check the savage soldiery. + +It is said that afterwards his royal father--for he was an illegitimate +son of the King--found fault with him for his leniency after Bothwell. +We can well believe it; for in a letter which he had previously sent to +the council Charles wrote that it was "his royal will and pleasure that +they should prosecute the rebels with fire and sword, and all other +extremities of war." Speaking at another time to Monmouth about his +conduct, Charles said, "If I had been present there should have been no +trouble about prisoners." To which Monmouth replied, "If that was your +wish, you should not have sent me but a _butcher_!" + +In the general flight Black, owing to his lame leg, stumbled over a +bank, pitched on his head, and lay stunned. Quentin Dick, stooping to +succour him, was knocked down from behind, and both were captured. +Fortunately Monmouth chanced to be near them at the time and prevented +their being slaughtered on the spot, like so many of their countrymen, +of whom it is estimated that upwards of four hundred were slain in the +pursuit that succeeded the fight--many of them being men of the +neighbourhood, who had not been present on the actual field of battle at +all. Among others Wallace's uncle, David Spence, was killed. Twelve +hundred, it is said, laid down their arms and surrendered at discretion. + +Wallace himself, seeing that the day was lost and further resistance +useless, and having been separated from his friends in the general +_melee_, sought refuge in a clump of alders on the banks of the river. +Another fugitive made for the same spot about the same time. He was an +old man, yet vigorous, and ran well; but the soldiers who pursued soon +came up and knocked him down. Having already received several dangerous +wounds in the head, the old man seemed to feel that he had reached the +end of his career on earth, and calmly prepared for death. But the end +had not yet come. Even among the blood-stained troops of the King there +were men whose hearts were not made of flint, and who, doubtless, +disapproved of the cruel work in which it was their duty to take part. +Instead of giving the old man the _coup de grace_, one of the soldiers +asked his name. + +"Donald Cargill," answered the wounded man. + +"That name sounds familiar," said the soldier. "Are not you a +minister?" + +"Yea, I have the honour to be one of the Lord's servants." + +Upon hearing this the soldiers let him go, and bade him get off the +field as fast as possible. + +Cargill was not slow to obey, and soon reached the alders, where he fell +almost fainting to the ground. Here he was discovered by Wallace, and +recognised as the old man whom he had met in Andrew Black's hidy-hole. +The poor man could scarcely walk; but with the assistance of his stout +young friend, who carefully dressed his wounds, he managed to escape. +Wallace himself was not so fortunate. After leaving Cargill in a place +of comparative safety, he had not the heart to think only of his own +escape while uncertain of the fate of his friends. He was aware, +indeed, of his uncle's death, but knew nothing about Andrew Black, +Quentin Dick, or Ramblin' Peter. When, therefore, night had put an end +to the fiendish work, he returned cautiously to search the field of +battle; but, while endeavouring to clamber over a wall, was suddenly +pounced upon by half a dozen soldiers and made prisoner. + +At an earlier part of the evening he would certainly have been murdered +on the spot, but by that time the royalists were probably tired of +indiscriminate slaughter, for they merely bound his arms and led him to +a spot where those Covenanters who had been taken prisoners were +guarded. + +The guarding was of the strangest and cruellest. The prisoners were +made to lie flat down on the ground--many of them having been previously +stripped nearly naked; and if any of them ventured to change their +positions, or raise their heads to implore a draught of water, they were +instantly shot. + +Next day the survivors were tied together in couples and driven off the +ground like a herd of cattle. Will Wallace stood awaiting his turn, and +watching the first band of prisoners march off. Suddenly he observed +Andrew Black coupled to Quentin Dick. They passed closed to him. As +they did so their eyes met. + +"Losh, man, is that you?" exclaimed Black, a gleam of joy lighting up +his sombre visage. "Eh, but I _am_ gled to see that yer still leevin'!" + +"Not more glad than I to see that you're not dead," responded Will +quickly. "Where's Peter and Bruce?" + +A stern command to keep silence and move on drowned the answer, and in +another minute Wallace, with an unknown comrade-in-arms, had joined the +procession. + +Thus they were led--or rather driven--with every species of cruel +indignity, to Edinburgh; but the jails there were already full; there +was no place in which to stow such noxious animals! Had Charles the +Second been there, according to his own statement, he would have had no +difficulty in dealing with them; but bad as the Council was, it was not +quite so brutal, it would seem, as the King. + +"Put them in the Greyfriars Churchyard," was the order--and to that +celebrated spot they were marched. + +Seated at her back window in Candlemaker Row, Mrs. Black observed, with +some surprise and curiosity, the sad procession wending its way among +the tombs and round the church. The news of the fight at Bothwell +Bridge had only just reached the city, and she knew nothing of the +details. Mrs. Wallace and Jean Black were seated beside her knitting. + +"Wha'll they be, noo?" soliloquised Mrs. Black. + +"Maybe prisoners taken at Bothwell Brig," suggested Mrs. Wallace. + +Jean started, dropped her knitting, and said in a low, anxious voice, as +she gazed earnestly at the procession, "If--if it's them, uncle Andrew +an'--an'--the others may be amang them!" + +The procession was not more than a hundred yards distant--near enough +for sharp, loving eyes to distinguish friends. + +"I see them!" cried Jean eagerly. + +Next moment she had leaped over the window, which was not much over six +feet from the ground. She doubled round a tombstone, and, running +towards the prisoners, got near enough to see the head of the procession +pass through a large iron gate at the south-west corner of the +churchyard, and to see clearly that her uncle and Quentin Dick were +there--tied together. Here a soldier stopped her. As she turned to +entreat permission to pass on she encountered the anxious gaze of Will +Wallace as he passed. There was time for the glance of recognition, +that was all. A few minutes more and the long procession had passed +into what afterwards proved to be one of the most terrible prisons of +which we have any record in history. + +Jean Black was thrust out of the churchyard along with a crowd of others +who had entered by the front gate. Filled with dismay and anxious +forebodings, she returned to her temporary home in the Row. + +CHAPTER NINE. + +AMONG THE TOMBS. + +The enclosure at the south-western corner of Greyfriars Churchyard, +which had been chosen as the prison of the men who were spared after the +battle of Bothwell Bridge, was a small narrow space enclosed by very +high walls, and guarded by a strong iron gate--the same gate, probably, +which still hangs there at the present day. + +There, among the tombs, without any covering to shelter them from the +wind and rain, without bedding or sufficient food, with the dank grass +for their couches and graves for pillows, did most of these +unfortunates--from twelve to fifteen hundred--live during the succeeding +five months. They were rigorously guarded night and day by sentinels +who were held answerable with their lives for the safe keeping of the +prisoners. During the daytime they stood or moved about uneasily. At +nights if any of them ventured to rise the sentinels had orders to fire +upon them. If they had been dogs they could not have been treated +worse. Being men, their sufferings were terrible--inconceivable. Ere +long many a poor fellow found a death-bed among the graves of that +gloomy enclosure. To add to their misery, friends were seldom permitted +to visit them, and those who did obtain leave were chiefly females, who +were exposed to the insults of the guards. + +A week or so after their being shut up here, Andrew Black stood one +afternoon leaning against the headstone of a grave on which Quentin Dick +and Will Wallace were seated. It had been raining, and the grass and +their garments were very wet. A leaden sky overhead seemed to have +deepened their despair, for they remained silent for an unusually long +time. + +"This _is_ awfu'!" said Black at last with a deep sigh. "If there was +ony chance o' makin' a dash an' fechtin' to the end, I wad tak' comfort; +but to be left here to sterve an' rot, nicht an' day, wi' naethin' to do +an' maist naethin' to think on--it's--it's awfu'!" + +As the honest man could not get no further than this idea--and the idea +itself was a mere truism--no response was drawn from his companions, who +sat with clenched fists, staring vacantly before them. Probably the +first stage of incipient madness had set in with all of them. + +"Did Jean give you any hope yesterday?" asked Wallace languidly; for he +had asked the same question every day since the poor girl had been +permitted to hold a brief conversation with her uncle at the iron gate, +towards which only one prisoner at a time was allowed to approach. The +answer had always been the same. + +"Na, na. She bids me hope, indeed, in the Lord--an' she's right there; +but as for man, what can we hope frae _him_?" + +"Ye may weel ask that!" exclaimed Quentin Dick, with sudden and bitter +emphasis. "Man indeed! It's my opeenion that man, when left to +hissel', is nae better than the deevil. I' faith, I think he's waur, +for he's mair contemptible." + +"Ye may be right, Quentin, for a' I ken; but some men are no' left to +theirsel's. There's that puir young chiel Anderson, that was shot i' +the lungs an' has scarce been able the last day or twa to crawl to the +yett to see his auld mither--he's deeing this afternoon. I went ower to +the tombstane that keeps the east wund aff him, an' he said to me, +`Andry, man,' said he, `I'll no' be able to crawl to see my mither the +day. I'll vera likely be deid before she comes. Wull ye tell her no' +to greet for me, for I'm restin' on the Lord Jesus, an' I'll be a free +man afore night, singing the praises o' redeeming love, and waitin' for +_her_ to come?'" + +Quentin had covered his face with his hands while Black spoke, and a low +groan escaped him; for the youth Anderson had made a deep impression on +the three friends during the week they had suffered together. Wallace, +without replying, went straight over to the tomb where Anderson lay. He +was followed by the other two. On reaching the spot they observed that +he lay on his back, with closed eyes and a smile resting on his young +face. + +"He sleeps," said Wallace softly. + +"Ay, he sleeps weel," said Black, shaking his head slowly. "I ken the +look o' _that_ sleep. An' yonder's his puir mither at the yett. Bide +by him, Quentin, while I gang an' brek it to her." + +It chanced that Mrs. Anderson and Jean came to the gate at the same +moment. On hearing that her son was dead the poor woman uttered a low +wail, and would have fallen if Jean had not caught her and let her +gently down on one of the graves. Jean was, as we have said, singularly +sympathetic. She had overheard what her uncle had said, and forthwith +sat down beside the bereaved woman, drew her head down on her breast and +tried to comfort her, as she had formerly tried to comfort old Mrs. +Mitchell. Even the guards were softened for a few minutes; but soon +they grew impatient, and ordered them both to leave. + +"Bide a wee," said Jean, "I maun hae a word wi' my uncle." + +She rose as she spoke, and turned to the gate. + +"Weel, what luck?" asked Black, grasping both her hands through the +bars. + +"No luck, uncle," answered Jean, whimpering a little in spite of her +efforts to keep up. "As we ken naebody o' note here that could help us, +I just went straight to the Parliament Hoose an' saw Lauderdale himsel', +but he wouldna listen to me. An' what could I say? I couldna tell him +a lee, ye ken, an' say ye hadna been to conventicles or sheltered the +rebels, as they ca' us. But I said I was _sure_ ye were sorry for what +ye had done, an' that ye would never do it again, if they would only let +you off--" + +"Oh, Jean, Jean, ye're a gowk, for that was twa lees ye telt him!" +interrupted Black, with a short sarcastic laugh; "for I'm no' a bit +sorry for what I've done; an' I'll do't ower again if ever I git the +chance. Ne'er heed, lass, you've done your best. An' hoo's mither an' +Mrs. Wallace?" + +"They're baith weel; but awfu' cast doon aboot you, an'--an'--Wull and +Quentin. An'--I had maist forgot--Peter has turned up safe an' soond. +He says that--" + +"Come, cut short your haverin'," said the sentinel who had been induced +to favour Jean, partly because of her sweet innocent face, and partly +because of the money which Mrs. Black had given her to bribe him. + +"Weel, tell Peter," said Black hurriedly, "to gang doon to the ferm an' +see if he can find oot onything aboot Marion Clerk an' Isabel Scott. +I'm wae for thae lassies. They're ower guid to let live in peace at a +time like this. Tell him to tell them frae me to flee to the hills. +Noo that the hidy-hole is gaen, there's no' a safe hoose in a' the land, +only the caves an' the peat-bogs, and even they are but puir +protection." + +"Uncle dear, is not the Lord our hiding-place until these calamities be +overpast?" said Jean, while the tears that she could not suppress ran +down her cheeks. + +"Ye're right, bairn. God forgi'e my want o' faith. Rin awa' noo. I +see the sentry's getting wearied. The Lord bless ye." + +The night chanced to be very dark. Rain fell in torrents, and wind in +fitful gusts swept among the tombs, chilling the prisoners to the very +bone. It is probable that the guards would, for their own comfort, have +kept a slack look-out, had not their own lives depended a good deal on +their fidelity. As it was, the vigil was not so strict as it might have +been; and they found it impossible to see the whole of that long narrow +space of ground in so dark a night. About midnight the sentry fancied +he saw three figures flitting across the yard. Putting his musket +through the bars of the gate he fired at once, but could not see whether +he had done execution; and so great was the noise of the wind and rain +that the report of his piece was not audible more than a few paces from +where he stood, except to leeward. Alarms were too frequent in those +days to disturb people much. A few people, no doubt, heard the shot; +listened, perchance, for a moment or two, and then, turning in their +warm beds, continued their repose. The guard turned out, but as all +seemed quiet in the churchyard-prison when they peered through the iron +bars, they turned in again, and the sentinel recharged his musket. + +Close beside one of the sodden graves lay the yet warm body of a dead +man. The random bullet had found a billet in his heart, and "Nature's +sweet restorer" had been merged into the sleep of death. Fortunate man! +He had been spared, probably, months of slow-timed misery, with almost +certain death at the end in any case. + +Three men rose from behind the headstone of that grave, and looked +sorrowfully on the drenched figure. + +"He has passed the golden gates," said one in a low voice. "A wonderful +change." + +"Ay, Wull," responsed another of the trio; "but it's noo or niver wi' +us. Set yer heid agin' the wa', Quentin." + +The shepherd obeyed, and the three proceeded to carry out a plan which +they had previously devised--a plan which only very strong and agile men +could have hoped to carry through without noise. Selecting a suitable +part of the wall, in deepest shadow, where a headstone slightly aided +them, Quentin planted his feet firmly, and, resting his arms on the +wall, leaned his forehead against them. Black mounted on his shoulders, +and, standing erect, assumed the same position. Then Wallace, grasping +the garments of his friends, climbed up the living ladder and stood on +Black's shoulders, so that he could just grip the top of the wall and +hang on. At this point in the process the conditions were, so to speak, +reversed. Black grasped Wallace with both hands by one of his ankles, +and held on like a vice. The living ladder was now hanging from the top +of the wall instead of standing at the foot of it, and Quentin--the +lowest rung, so to speak--became the climber. From Wallace's shoulders, +he easily gained the top of the wall, and was able to reach down a +helping hand to Black as he made his way slowly up Wallace's back. Then +both men hauled Wallace up with some trouble, for the strain had been +almost too much for him, and he could hardly help himself. + +At this juncture the sentinel chanced to look up, and, dark though it +was, he saw the three figures on the wall a little blacker than the sky +behind. Instantly the bright flash of his musket was seen, and the +report, mingled with his cry of alarm, again brought out the guard. A +volley revealed the three prisoners for a moment. + +"Dinna jump!" cried Black, as the bullets whizzed past their heads. +"Ye'll brek yer legs. Tak' it easy. They're slow at loadin'; an' `the +mair hurry the less speed!'" + +The caution was only just in time, for the impulsive Wallace had been on +the point of leaping from the wall; instead of doing which he assisted +in reversing the process which has just been described. It was much +easier, however; and the drop which Wallace had to make after his +friends were down was broken by their catching him in their arms. +Inexperience, however, is always liable to misfortune. The shock of +such a heavy man dropping from such a height gave them a surprise, and +sent them all three violently to the ground; but the firing, shouting, +and confusion on the other side of the wall caused them to jump up with +wonderful alacrity. + +"Candlemaker Raw!" said Black in a hoarse whisper, as they dashed off in +different directions, and were lost in blackness of night. + +With a very sad face, on which, however, there was an air of calm +resignation, Mrs. Black sat in her little room with her Bible open +before her. She had been reading to Mrs. Wallace and Jean, preparatory +to retiring for the night. + +"It's awful to think of their lying out yonder, bedless, maybe +supperless, on a night like this," said Mrs. Wallace. + +Jean, with her pretty face in that condition which the Scotch and +Norwegian languages expressively call begrutten, could do nothing but +sigh. + +Just then hurried steps were heard on the stair, and next moment a loud +knocking shook the door. + +"Wha's that?" exclaimed Mrs. Black, rising. + +"It's me, mither. Open; quick!" + +Next moment Andrew sprang in and looked hastily round. + +"Am I the first, mither?" + +Before the poor woman could recover from her joy and amazement +sufficiently to reply, another step was heard on the stair. + +"That's ane o' them," said Black, turning and holding the door, so as to +be ready for friend or foe. He was right. Mrs. Wallace uttered a +little scream of joy as her son leaped into the room. + +"Whaur's Quentin?" asked Black. + +The question was scarcely put when the shepherd himself bounded up the +stair. + +"They've gotten sight o' me, I fear," he said. "Have ye a garret, +wummin--onywhere to hide?" + +"No' a place in the hoose big enough for a moose to hide in," said Mrs. +Black with a look of dismay. + +As she spoke a confused noise of voices and hurrying steps was heard in +the street. Another moment and they were at the foot of the stair. The +three men seized the poker, tongs, and shovel. Mrs. Black opened her +back window and pointed to the churchyard. + +"Yer only chance!" she said. + +Andrew Black leaped out at once. Wallace followed like a harlequin. +Quentin Dick felt that there was no time for him to follow without being +seen. Dropping his poker he sprang through the doorway, and, closing +the door on himself, began to thunder against it, just as an officer +leading some of the town-guard reached the landing. + +"Open, I say!" cried Quentin furiously, "I'm _sure_ the rebels cam in +here. Dinna be keepin' the gentlemen o' the gaird waitin' here. Open, +I say, or I'll drive the door in!" + +Bursting the door open, as though in fulfilment of his threat, Quentin +sprang in, and looking hastily round, cried, as if in towering wrath, +"Whaur are they? Whaur are thae pestiferous rebels?" + +"There's nae rebels here, gentlemen," said Mrs. Black. "Ye're welcome +to seek." + +"They maun hae gaen up the next stair," said Quentin, turning to the +officer. + +"And pray, who are you, that ye seem so anxious to catch the rebels?" + +"Wha am I?" repeated Quentin with glaring eyes, and a sort of grasping +of his strong fingers that suggested the idea of tearing some one to +pieces. "Div 'ee no see that I'm a shepherd? The sufferin's than I hae +gaen through an' endured on accoont o' thae rebels is past--But c'way, +sirs, they'll escape us if we stand haverin' here." + +So saying the bold man dashed down the stair and into the next house, +followed by the town-guards, who did not know him. The prisoners' +guards were fortunately searching in another direction. A strict search +was made in the next house, at which Quentin assisted. When they were +yet in the thick of it he went quietly down-stairs and walked away from +the scene, as he expressed it, "hotchin'"--by which he meant chuckling. + +But poor Andrew Black and Will Wallace were not so fortunate. A search +which was made in the outer churchyard resulted in their being +discovered among the tombs, and they were forthwith conducted to the +Tolbooth prison. + +When Ramblin' Peter, after many narrow escapes, reached the farm in +Dumfries in a half-famished state, he sat down among the desolate ruins +and howled with grief. Having thus relieved his feelings, he dried his +eyes and proceeded in his usual sedate manner to examine things in +detail. He soon found that his master had been wrong in supposing that +the hidy-hole had been discovered or destroyed. As he approached the +outer end of the tunnel a head suddenly appeared above ground, and as +suddenly vanished. + +"Hallo!" exclaimed Peter in surprise. + +"Hallo!" echoed the head, and reappeared blazing with astonishment. "Is +that you, Peter?" + +"Ay, McCubine, that's me. I thought ye was a' deid. Hae ye ony +parritch i' the hole? I'm awfu' hungry." + +"C'way in, lad: we've plenty to eat here, an guid company as weel--the +Lord be thankit." + +The man led the way--familiar enough to Peter; and in the hidy-hole he +found several persons, some of whom, from their costume, were evidently +ministers. They paid little attention to the boy at first, being +engaged in earnest conversation. + +"No, no, Mr. Cargill," said one. "I cannot agree with you in the stern +line of demarcation which you would draw between us. We are all the +servants of the most high God, fighting for, suffering for, the truth as +it is in Jesus. It is true that rather than bow to usurped power I +chose to cast in my lot with the ejected; but having done that, and +suffered the loss of all things temporal, I do not feel called on to +pronounce such absolute condemnation on my brethren who have accepted +the Indulgence. I know that many of them are as earnest followers of +Christ as ourselves--it may be more so--but they think it right to bow +before the storm rather than risk civil war; to accept what of +toleration they can get, while they hope and pray for more." + +"In that case, Mr. Welsh," replied Cargill, "what comes of their +testimony for the truth? Is not Christ King in his own household? +Charles is king in the civil State. The oath which he requires of every +minister who accepts the Indulgence distinctly recognises him--the +king--as lord of the conscience, ruler of the spiritual kingdom of this +land. To take such an oath is equivalent to acknowledging the justice +of his pretensions." + +"They do not see it in that light," returned Mr. Welsh. "I agree with +your views, and think our Indulged brethren in the wrong; but I counsel +forbearance, and cannot agree with the idea that it is our duty to +refuse all connection with them, and treat them as if they belonged to +the ranks of the malignants. See what such opinions have cost us +already in the overwhelming disaster at Bothwell Brig." + +"Overwhelming disaster counts for nothing in such a cause as this," +rejoined Cargill gravely. "The truth has been committed to us, and we +are bound to be valiant for the truth--even to death. Is it not so, Mr. +Cameron?" + +The young man to whom the old Covenanter turned was one of the most +noted among the men who fought and died for the Covenant. An earnest +godly young minister, he had just returned from Holland with the +intention of taking up the standard which had been almost dropped in +consequence of the hotter persecutions which immediately followed the +battle of Bothwell Bridge. + +"Of course you know that I agree with you, Mr. Cargill. When you +licensed me to preach the blessed Gospel, Mr. Welsh, you encouraged me +to independent thought. Under the guidance, I believe, of the Holy +Spirit, I have been led to see the sinfulness of the Indulgence, and I +am constrained to preach against it. Truly my chief concern is for the +salvation of souls--the bringing of men and women and children to the +Saviour; but after that, or rather along with that, to my mind, comes +the condemnation of sin, whether public or private. Consider what the +Indulgence and persecution together have done now. Have they not +well-nigh stopped the field-preaching altogether, so that, with the +exception of yourselves and Mr. Thomas Douglas and a few others, there +is no one left to testify? Part of my mission has been to go round +among the ministers on this very point, but my efforts have been in vain +as far as I have yet gone. It has been prophesied," continued Cameron +with a sad smile, "that I shall yet lose my head in this cause. That +may well be, for there is that in my soul which will not let me stand +still while my Master is dishonoured and sin is triumphant. As to the +King, he may, so far as I know, be truly descended from the race of our +kings, but he has so grievously departed from his duty to the people--by +whose authority alone magistrates exist--and has so perjured himself, +usurped authority in Church matters, and tyrannised in matters civil, +that the people of Scotland do no longer owe him allegiance; and +although I stand up for governments and governors, such as God's Word +and our covenants allow, I will surely--with all who choose to join me-- +disown Charles Stuart as a tyrant and a usurper." + +The discussion had continued so long that the ministers, as if by mutual +consent, dropped it after this point, and turned to Ramblin' Peter, who +was appeasing his hunger with a huge "luggie o' parritch." But the poor +boy had no heart to finish his meal on learning that Marion Clark and +Isabel Scott--of whom he was very fond--had been captured by the +soldiers and sent to Edinburgh. Indeed nothing would satisfy him but +that he should return to the metropolis without delay and carry the bad +news to his master. + +That same night, when darkness rendered it safe, Cargill, Cameron, +Welsh, and Douglas, with some of their followers, left Black's place of +concealment, and went off in different directions to risk, for a brief +space, the shelter of a friendly cottage, where the neighbours would +assemble to hear the outlawed ministers while one of them kept watch, or +to fulfil their several engagements for the holding of conventicles +among the secret places of the hills. + +CHAPTER TEN. + +FIERCER AND FIERCER. + +After his escape, Quentin Dick, hearing of the recapture of his +comrades, and knowing that he could not in any way help them, resolved +to go back to Dumfries to make inquiries about the servant lassies +Marion and Isabel, being ignorant of the fact that Ramblin' Peter had +been sent on the same errand before him. + +Now, although the one was travelling to, and the other from, Edinburgh, +they might easily have missed each other, as they travelled chiefly at +night in order to escape observation. But, hearing on the way that the +much-loved minister, Mr. Welsh, was to preach in a certain locality, +they both turned aside to hear him, and thus came together. + +A price of 500 pounds sterling had been set on the head of Mr. Welsh, +and for twenty years he had been pursued by his foes, yet for that long +period he succeeded in eluding his pursuers--even though the resolute +and vindictive Claverhouse was among them,--and in continuing his work +of preaching to the people. Though a meek and humble man, Welsh was +cool, courageous, and self-possessed, with, apparently, a dash of humour +in him--as was evidenced by his preaching on one occasion in the middle +of the frozen Tweed, so that either he "might shun giving offence to +both nations, or that two kingdoms might dispute his crime!" + +The evening before the meeting at which Quentin and Peter unwittingly +approached each other, Mr. Welsh found himself at a loss where to spend +the night, for the bloodhounds were already on his track. He boldly +called at the house of a gentleman who was personally unknown to him, +but who was known to be hostile to field-preachers in general, and to +himself in particular. As a stranger Mr. Welsh was kindly received. +Probably in such dangerous times it was considered impolite to make +inquiry as to names. At all events the record says that he remained +unknown. In course of conversation his host referred to Welsh and the +difficulty of getting hold of him. + +"I am sent," said Welsh, "to _apprehend rebels_. I know where Mr. Welsh +is to preach to-morrow, and will give you the rebel by the hand." + +Overjoyed at this news the gentleman agreed to accompany him to the +meeting on the morrow. Arriving next day at the rendezvous, the +congregation made way for the minister and his host. The latter was +then invited to take a seat, and, to his great amazement, his guest of +the previous night stood up and preached. At the close of the sermon +Mr. Welsh held out his hand to his host. + +"I promised," he said, "to give you Mr. Welsh by the hand." + +"Yes," returned the gentleman, who was much affected, as he grasped the +hand, "and you said that you were sent to apprehend rebels. Let me +assure you that I, a rebellious sinner, have been apprehended this day." + +It was at this interesting moment that Quentin and Peter recognised each +other, and, forgetting all other points of interest, turned aside to +discuss their own affairs. + +"Then there's nae use o' my gaun ony farer," said the shepherd +thoughtfully. + +"Nane whatever," said Peter; "ye'd best c'way back t' toon wi' me. +Ye'll be safer there nor here, an' may chance to be o' service to the +lassies." + +Alas for the poor lassies! They were in the fangs of the wolves at that +very time. In that council-room where, for years, the farce of "trial" +and the tragedy of cruel injustice had been carried on, Marion Clark and +Isabel Scott were standing before their civil and clerical inquisitors. +The trial was nearly over. Proceeding upon their mean principle of +extracting confession by the method of entrapping questions, and thus +obtaining from their unsuspecting victims sufficient evidence--as they +said--to warrant condemnation, they had got the poor serving-maids to +admit that they had attended field-preachings; had conversed with some +whom the Government denounced as rebels; and other matters which +sufficed to enable them to draw up a libel. Those two innocent girls +were then handed over to the Justiciary Court, before which they were +charged with the crime of receiving and corresponding with Mr. Donald +Cargill, Mr. Thomas Douglas, Mr. John Welsh, and Mr. Richard Cameron; +with the murderers of Archbishop Sharp; and with having heard the said +ministers preach up treason and rebellion! + +When the indictment was read to them the poor things meekly admitted +that it was correct, except in so far as it called the ministers rebels +and asserted that they preached up treason. The jury were exceedingly +unwilling to serve on the trial, but were compelled to do so under +threat of fine. After deliberating on the evidence they found the girls +both guilty, by their own confession, of holding the opinions charged +against them, but that as actors, or receivers of rebels, the charge was +not proven. + +Upon this they were condemned to die, but before leaving the court +Isabel Scott said impressively: "I take all witness against another at +you to your appearance before God, that your proceeding against us this +day is only for owning Christ, His Gospel, and His members." [See _A +Cloud of Witnesses_, page 122 (edition 1871.)] They were then led back +to prison. + +When Quentin and Peter arrived in Edinburgh, two days later, they passed +under the West Port, which was decorated with the shrivelled heads and +hands of several martyrs, and made their way to the Grassmarket, which +they had to traverse in going towards Candlemaker Row. Here they found +a large crowd surrounding the gallows-tree which did such frequent +service there. Two female figures were swinging from the beam. + +"The auld story," said the shepherd in a low sad voice. "What was their +crime?" he inquired of a bystander. + +"They tried to serve the Lord, that was a'," replied the man bitterly. +"But they ended their coorse bravely. Ane sang the 84th Psalm and the +ither spake of God's great love an' free grace to her and to sinfu' +man." + +"Puir things!" exclaimed Quentin with tremulous voice. "It's ower noo. +They're fairly inside o' the celestial gates." + +The sight was all too common in those dark days to induce delay, but the +two friends had to pass near the gallows, and naturally looked up in +passing. + +"Quentin!" gasped Peter, stretching out both hands towards the martyrs, +whose now soulless frames were hanging there, "it's--it's Marion an'--" + +A low wail followed, as the poor boy fell over in a swoon. + +The shepherd's heart almost stood still, and his great chest quivered +for a moment as he gazed, but he was a man of strong will and iron +mould. Stooping, he picked up his little friend and carried him +silently away. + +Their grief was, however, diverted to other channels on reaching the +abode of Mrs. Black, for there they found her and Mrs. Wallace and Jean +in deepest sorrow over the terrible news just brought to them by Jock +Bruce. + +Andrew Black, he told them, had been sent a prisoner to the Bass Rock, +and Will Wallace, with two hundred others, had been banished to the +plantations in Barbadoes, where they were to be sold as slaves. + +Quentin sat down, covered his face with both hands, and groaned aloud on +hearing this. Peter, who had recovered by that time, looked about him +with the expressionless face of one whose reason has been unseated. +Observing that Jean was sitting apart, sobbing as if her heart would +break, he went quietly to her, and, taking one of her hands, began to +stroke it gently. "Dinna greet, Jean," he said; "the Lord will deliver +them. Marion aye telt me that, an' I believe she was richt." + +Truly these unfortunate people needed all the consolation that the Word +could give them, for banishment to the plantations usually meant +banishment for life, and as to the hundreds who found a prison on the +bleak and rugged Bass Rock at the mouth of the Forth, many of these also +found a grave. + +After the battle of Bothwell Bridge the persecutions which had been so +severe for so many years were continued with intensified bitterness. +Not only were all the old tyrannical laws carried into force with +increased severity, but new and harsher laws were enacted. Among other +things the common soldiers were given the right to carry these laws into +effect--in other words, to murder and plunder according to their own +will and pleasure. And now, in 1680, began what has been termed _the +killing-time_; in which Graham of Claverhouse (afterwards Viscount +Dundee), Grierson of Lagg, Dalziel, and others, became pre-eminently +notorious for their wanton cruelty in slaughtering men, women, and even +children. + +On 22nd June 1680 twenty armed horsemen rode up the main street of the +burgh of Sanquhar. The troop was headed by Richard Cameron and his +brother Michael, who, dismounting, nailed to the cross a paper which the +latter read aloud. It was the famous "Declaration of Sanquhar," in +which Charles Stuart was publicly disowned. + +While the fields of Scotland were being traversed and devastated by a +lawless banditti, authorised by a lawless and covenant-breaking king and +Government, those indomitable men who held with Cameron and Cargill +united themselves more closely together, and thus entered into a new +bond pledging themselves to be faithful to God and to each other in +asserting their civil and religious rights, which they believed could +only be secured by driving from the throne that "perfidious +covenant-breaking race, untrue both to the most high God and to the +people over whom for their sins they were set." + +If the Cameronians were wrong in this opinion then must the whole nation +have been wrong, when, a few years later, it came to hold the same +opinion, and acted in accordance therewith! As well might we find fault +with Bruce and Wallace as with our covenanting patriots. + +Be this as it may, Richard Cameron with his followers asserted the +principle which afterwards became law--namely, that the House of Stuart +should no longer desecrate the throne. He did not, however, live to see +his desire accomplished. + +At Airsmoss--in the district of Kyle--with a band of his followers, +numbering twenty-six horse and forty foot, he was surprised by a party +of upwards of one hundred and twenty dragoons under command of Bruce of +Earlshall. The Cameronians were headed by Hackston of Rathillet, who +had been present at the murder of Sharp, though not an active +participator. Knowing that no mercy was to be expected they resolved to +fight. Before the battle Cameron, engaging in a brief prayer, used the +remarkable words: "Lord, take the ripe, but spare the green." The issue +against such odds was what might have been expected. Nearly all the +Covenanters were slain. Richard Cameron fell, fighting back to back +with his brother. Some of the foot-men escaped into the moss. Hackston +was severely wounded and taken prisoner. Cameron's head and hands were +cut off and taken to Edinburgh, where they were cruelly exhibited to his +father--a prisoner at the time. "Do ye know them?" asked the wretch who +brought them. The old man, kissing them, replied, "Ay, I know them! +They are my son's--my own dear son's! It is the Lord; good is the will +of the Lord, who cannot wrong me nor mine, but has made goodness and +mercy to follow us all our days." A wonderful speech this from one +suffering under, perhaps, the severest trial to which poor human nature +can be subjected. Well might be applied to him the words--slightly +paraphrased--"O man, great was thy faith!" + +Hackston was taken to Edinburgh, which he entered on a horse with his +head bare and his face to the tail, the hangman carrying Cameron's head +on a halter before him. The indignities and cruelties which were +perpetrated on this man had been minutely pre-arranged by the Privy +Council. We mention a few in order that the reader may the better +understand the inconceivable brutality of the Government against which +the Scottish Covenanters had to contend. Besides the barbarities +connected with poor Cameron's head and hands, it was arranged that +Hackston's body was to be drawn backward on a hurdle to the cross of +Edinburgh, where, in the first place, his right hand was to be struck +off, and after some time his left hand. Thereafter he was to be hanged +up and cut down alive; his bowels to be taken out and his heart shown to +the people by the hangman, and then to be burnt in a fire on the +scaffold. Afterwards his head was to be cut off, and his body, divided +into four quarters, to be sent respectively to Saint Andrews, Glasgow, +Leith, and Burntisland. + +In carrying out his fiendish instructions the bungling executioner was a +long time mangling the wrist of Hackston's right arm before he succeeded +in separating the hand. Hackston quietly advised him to be more careful +to strike in the joint of the left. Having been drawn up and let fall +with a jerk, three times, life was not extinct, for it is said that when +the heart was torn out it moved after falling on the scaffold. + +Several others who had been with Cameron were betrayed at this time, by +apostate comrades, tried under torture, and executed; and the +persecution became so hot that field-preaching was almost extinguished. +The veteran Donald Cargill, however still maintained his ground. + +This able, uncompromising, yet affectionate and charitable man had +prepared a famous document called the "Queensferry Paper," of which it +has been said that it contains "the very pith of sound constitutional +doctrine regarding both civil and ecclesiastical rights." Once, +however, he mistook his mission. In the presence of a large +congregation at Torwood he went so far as to excommunicate Charles the +Second; the Dukes of York, Lauderdale, and Rothes; Sir Cú McKenzie and +Dalziel of Binns. That these despots richly deserved whatever +excommunication might imply can hardly be denied, but it is equally +certain that prolonged and severe persecution had stirred up poor +Cargill upon this occasion to overstep his duty as a teacher of love to +God and man. + +Heavily did Cargill pay for his errors--as well as for his long and +conscientious adherence to duty. Five thousand merks were offered for +him, dead or alive. Being captured, he was taken to Edinburgh on the +15th of July, and examined by the Council. On the 26th he was tried and +condemned, and on the 27th he was hanged, after having witnessed a good +confession, which he wound up with the words: "I forgive all men the +wrongs they have done against me. I pray that the sufferers may be kept +from sin and helped to know their duty." + +About this time a _test_ oath was ordered to be administered to all men +in position or authority. The gist of it was that King Charles the +Second was the only supreme governor in the realm over all causes, as +well ecclesiastical as civil, and that it was unlawful for any subject +upon pretence of reformation, or any pretence whatever, to enter into +covenants or leagues, or to assemble in any councils, conventicles, +assemblies, etcetera, ecclesiastical or civil, without his special +permission. + +Pretty well this for a king who had himself signed the covenant--without +which signing the Scottish nation would never have consented to assist +in putting him on the throne! The greater number of the men in office +in Scotland took the oath, though there were several exceptions--the +Duke of Argyll, the Duke of Hamilton, John Hope of Hopetoun, the Duchess +of Rothes, and others--among whom were eighty of the conforming clergy +whose loyalty could not carry them so far, and who surrendered their +livings rather than their consciences. + +It would require a volume to record even a bare outline of the deeds of +darkness that were perpetrated at this time. We must dismiss it all and +return to the actors in our tale. + +Will Wallace, after being recaptured, as already stated, was sent off to +the plantations in a vessel with about two hundred and fifty other +unfortunates, many of whom were seriously ill, if not dying, in +consequence of their long exposure in the Greyfriars' Churchyard. +Packed in the hold of the ship so closely that they had not room to lie +down, and almost suffocated with foul air and stench, the sufferings +which they endured were far more terrible than those they experienced +when lying among the tombs; but God sent most of them speedy +deliverance. They were wrecked on the coast of Orkney. At night they +were dashed on the rocks. The prisoners entreated to be let out of +their prison, but the brutal captain ordered the hatches to be chained +down. A tremendous wave cleft the deck, and a few of the more energetic +managed to escape and reach the shore. The remainder--at least two +hundred--were drowned in the hold. Will Wallace was among the saved, +but was taken to Leith and transferred to another vessel. After several +months of tossings on the deep he reached his destination and was sold +into slavery. + +Many months--even years--passed away, but no news reached Candlemaker +Row regarding the fate of the banished people. As to Andrew Black, the +only change that took place in his condition during his long captivity +was his transference--unknown to his kindred--from the gloomy prison of +the Bass Rock to the still gloomier cells of Dunnottar Castle. + +During all this time, and for some years after, the persecutions were +continued with ever-increasing severity: it seemed as if nothing short +of the extirpation of the Covenanters altogether was contemplated. In +short, the two parties presented at this period an aspect of human +affairs which may well be styled monstrous. On the one hand a people +suffering and fighting to the death to uphold law, and on the other a +tyrant king and arrogant ecclesiastics and nobles, with their paid +slaves and sycophants, deliberately violating the same! + +Quentin Dick and Ramblin' Peter had been drawn closer together by +powerful sympathy after the imprisonment of Black and the banishment of +Will Wallace. They were like-minded in their aspirations, though very +dissimilar in physical and mental endowment. Feeling that Edinburgh was +not a safe place in which to hide after his recent escape, Quentin +resolved to return to Dumfries to inquire after, and if possible to aid, +his friends there. + +Peter determined to cast in his lot with him. In size he was still a +boy though he had reached manhood. + +"We maun dae our best to help the wanderers," said the shepherd, as they +started on their journey. + +"Ay," assented Peter. + +Arrived in Galloway they were passing over a wide moorland region one +afternoon when a man suddenly appeared before them, as if he had dropped +from the clouds, and held out his hand. + +"What! McCubine, can that be you?" exclaimed Quentin, grasping the +proffered hand. "Man, I _am_ glad to see ye. What brings ye here?" + +McCubine explained that he and his friend Gordon, with four comrades, +were hiding in the Moss to avoid a party of dragoons who were pursuing +them. "Grierson of Lagg is with them, and Captain Bruce is in command," +he said, "so we may expect no mercy if they catch us. Only the other +day Bruce and his men dragged puir old Tam McHaffie out o' his bed, tho' +he was ill wi' fever, an' shot him." + +Having conducted Quentin and Peter to the secret place where his friends +were hidden, McCubine was asked anxiously, by the former, if he knew +anything about the Wilsons. + +"Ay, we ken this," answered Gordon, "that although the auld folk have +agreed to attend the curates for the sake o' peace, the twa lassies have +refused, and been driven out o' hoose an' hame. They maun hae been +wanderin' amang the hills noo for months--if they're no catched by this +time." + +Hearing this, Quentin sprang up. + +"We maun rescue them, Peter," he said. + +"Ay," returned the boy. "Jean Black will expect that for Aggie's sake; +she's her bosom freend, ye ken." + +Refusing to delay for even half an hour, the two friends hurried away. +They had scarcely left, and the six hunted men were still standing on +the road where they had bidden them God-speed, when Bruce with his +dragoons suddenly appeared--surprised and captured them all. With the +brutal promptitude peculiar to that well-named "killing-time," four of +them were drawn up on the road and instantly shot, and buried where they +fell, by Lochenkit Moor, where a monument now marks their resting place. + +The two spared men, Gordon and McCubine, were then, without reason +assigned, bound and carried away. Next day the party came to the Cluden +Water, crossing which they followed the road which leads to Dumfries, +until they reached the neighbourhood of Irongray. There is a field +there with a mound in it, on which grows a clump of old oak-trees. Here +the two friends were doomed without trial to die. It is said that the +minister of Irongray at that time was suspected of favourable leanings +toward the Covenanters, and that the proprietor of the neighbouring farm +of Hallhill betrayed similar symptoms; hence the selection of the +particular spot between the two places, in order to intimidate both the +minister and the farmer. This may well have been the case, for history +shows that a very strong and indomitable covenanting spirit prevailed +among the parishioners of Irongray as well as among the people of the +South and West of Scotland generally. Indeed Wodrow, the historian, +says that the people of Irongray were the first to offer strenuous +opposition to the settlement of the curates. + +When Gordon and McCubine were standing under the fatal tree with the +ropes round their necks, a sorrowing acquaintance asked the latter if he +had any word to send to his wife. + +"Yes," answered the martyr; "tell her that I leave her and the two babes +upon the Lord, and to his promise: `A father to the fatherless and a +husband to the widow is the Lord in His holy habitation.'" + +Hearing this, the man employed to act the part of executioner seemed +touched, and asked forgiveness. + +"Poor man!" was the reply, "I forgive thee and all men." + +They died, at peace with God and man. An old tombstone, surrounded by +an iron rail, marks to this day the spot among the old oak-trees where +the bodies of McCubine and Gordon were laid to rest. + +Commenting on this to his friend Selby, the Reverend George Lawless gave +it as his opinion that "two more fanatics were well out of the world." + +To which the Reverend Frank replied very quietly: + +"Yes, George, well out of it indeed; and, as I would rather die with the +fanatics than live with the godless, I intend to join the Covenanters +to-night--so my pulpit shall be vacant to-morrow." + +CHAPTER ELEVEN. + +COMING EVENTS CAST SHADOWS. + +In February 1685 Charles the Second died--not without some suspicion of +foul play. His brother, the Duke of York, an avowed Papist, ascended +the throne as James the Second. This was a flagrant breach of the +Constitution, and Argyll--attempting to avert the catastrophe by an +invasion of Scotland at the same time that Monmouth should invade +England--not only failed, but was captured and afterwards executed by +the same instrument--the "Maiden"--with which his father's head had been +cut off nigh a quarter of a century before. As might have been +expected, the persecutions were not relaxed by the new king. + +When good old Cargill was martyred, a handsome fair young man was +looking on in profound sorrow and pity. He was a youth of great moral +power, and with a large heart. His name was James Renwick. From that +hour this youth cast in his lot with the persecuted wanderers, and, +after the martyrdom of Cameron and Cargill, and the death of Welsh, he +was left almost alone to manage their affairs. The "Strict Covenanters" +had by this time formed themselves into societies for prayer and +conference, and held quarterly district meetings in sequestered places, +with a regular system of correspondence--thus secretly forming an +organised body, which has continued down to modern times. + +It was while this young servant of God--having picked up the mantle +which Cargill dropped--was toiling and wandering among the mountains, +morasses, and caves of the west, that a troop of dragoons was seen, one +May morning, galloping over the same region "on duty." They swept over +hill and dale with the dash and rattle of men in all the pride of youth +and strength and the panoply of war. They were hasting, however, not to +the battlefield but to the field of agriculture, there to imbrue their +hands in the blood of the unarmed and the helpless. + +At the head of the band rode the valiant Graham of Claverhouse. Most +people at that time knew him as the "bloody Clavers," but as we look at +the gay cavalier with his waving plume, martial bearing, beautiful +countenance, and magnificent steed, we are tempted to ask, "Has there +not been some mistake here?" Some have thought so. One or two literary +men, who might have known better, have even said so, and attempted to +defend their position! + +"Methinks this is our quarry, Glendinning," said Claverhouse, drawing +rein as they approached a small cottage, near to which a man was seen at +work with a spade. + +"Yes--that's John Brown of Priesthill," said the sergeant. + +"You know the pestilent fanatic well, I suppose?" + +"Ay. He gets the name o' being a man of eminent godliness," answered +the sergeant in a mocking tone; "and is even credited with having +started a Sabbath-school!" + +John Brown, known as the "Christian carrier," truly was what Glendinning +had sneeringly described him. On seeing the cavalcade approach he +guessed, no doubt, that his last hour had come, for many a time had he +committed the sin of succouring the outlawed Covenanters, and he had +stoutly refused to attend the ministry of the worthless curate George +Lawless. Indeed it was the information conveyed to Government by that +reverend gentleman that had brought Claverhouse down upon the +unfortunate man. + +The dragoons ordered him to proceed to the front of his house, where his +wife was standing with one child in her arms and another by her side. +The usual ensnaring questions as to the supremacy of the King, etcetera, +were put to him, and the answers being unsatisfactory, Claverhouse +ordered him to say his prayers and prepare for immediate death. Brown +knew that there was no appeal. All Scotland was well aware by that time +that soldiers were empowered to act the part of judge, jury, witness, +and executioner, and had become accustomed to it. The poor man obeyed. +He knelt down and prayed in such a strain that even the troopers, it is +said, were impressed--at all events, their subsequent conduct would seem +to countenance this belief. Their commander, however, was not much +affected, for he thrice interrupted his victim, telling him that he had +"given him time to pray, but not to preach." + +"Sir," returned Brown, "ye know neither the nature of preaching nor +praying if ye call this preaching." + +"Now," said Claverhouse, "take farewell of your wife and children." + +After the poor man had kissed them, Claverhouse ordered six of his men +to fire; but they hesitated and finally refused. Enraged at this their +commander drew a pistol, and with his own hand blew out John Brown's +brains. + +"What thinkest thou of thy husband now, woman?" he said, turning to the +widow. + +"I ever thought much good of him," she answered, "and as much now as +ever." + +"It were but justice to lay thee beside him," exclaimed the murderer. + +"If you were permitted," she replied, "I doubt not but your cruelty +would go that length." + +Thus far the excitement of the dreadful scene enabled the poor creature +to reply, but nature soon asserted her sway. Sinking on her knees by +the side of the mangled corpse, the widow, neither observing nor caring +for the departure of the dragoons, proceeded to bind up her husband's +shattered skull with a kerchief, while the pent-up tears burst forth. + +The house stood in a retired, solitary spot, and for some time the +bereaved woman was left alone with God and her children; but before +darkness closed in a human comforter was sent to her in the person of +Quentin Dick. + +On his arrival in Wigtown, Quentin, finding that his friends the Wilson +girls had been imprisoned with an old covenanter named Mrs. McLachlan, +and that he could not obtain permission to see them, resolved to pay a +visit to John Brown, the carrier, who was an old friend, and who might +perhaps afford him counsel regarding the Wilsons. Leaving Ramblin' +Peter behind to watch every event and fetch him word if anything +important should transpire, he set out and reached the desolated cottage +in the evening of the day on which his friend was shot. + +Quentin was naturally a reserved man, and had never been able to take a +prominent part with his covenanting friends in conversation or in public +prayer, but the sight of his old friend's widow in her agony, and her +terrified little ones, broke down the barrier of reserve completely. +Although a stern and a strong man, not prone to give way to feeling, he +learned that night the full meaning of what it is to "weep with those +that weep." Moreover, his tongue was unloosed, and he poured forth his +soul in prayer, and quoted God's Word in a way that cheered, in no small +degree, his stricken friend. During several days he remained at +Priesthill, doing all in his power to assist the family, and receiving +some degree of comfort in return; for strong sympathy and fellowship in +sorrow had induced him to reveal the fact that he loved Margaret Wilson, +who at that time lay in prison with her young sister Agnes, awaiting +their trial in Wigtown. + +Seated one night by the carrier's desolated hearth, where several +friends had assembled to mourn with the widow, Quentin was about to +commence family worship, when he was interrupted by the sudden entrance +of Ramblin' Peter. The expression of his face told eloquently that he +brought bad news. "The Wilsons," he said, "are condemned to be drowned +with old Mrs. McLachlan." + +"No' baith o' the lasses," he added, correcting himself, "for the +faither managed to git ane o' them off by a bribe o' a hundred pounds-- +an' that's every bodle that he owns." + +"Which is to be drooned?" asked Quentin in a low voice. + +"Marget--the auldest." + +A deep groan burst from the shepherd as the Bible fell from his hands. + +"Come!" he said to Peter, and passed quickly out of the house, without a +word to those whom he left behind. + +Arrived in Wigtown, the wretched man went about, wildly seeking to move +the feelings of men whose hearts were like the nether millstone. + +"Oh, if I only had siller!" he exclaimed to the Wilsons' father, +clasping his hands in agony. "Hae ye nae mair?" + +"No' anither plack," said the old man in deepest dejection. "They took +all I had for Aggie." + +"Ye are strang, Quentin," suggested Peter, who now understood the reason +of his friend's wild despair. "Could ye no' waylay somebody an' rob +them? Surely it wouldna be coonted wrang in the circumstances." + +"Sin is sin, Peter. Better death than sin," returned Quentin with a +grave look. + +"Aweel, we maun just dee, then," said Peter in a tone of resignation. + +Nothing could avert the doom of these unfortunate women. Their judges, +of whom Grierson, Laird of Lagg, was one, indicted this young girl and +the old woman with the ridiculous charge of rebellion, of having been at +the battles of Bothwell Bridge and Airsmoss and present at twenty +conventicles, as well as with refusing to swear the abjuration oath! + +The innocent victims were carried to the mouth of the river Bladenoch, +being guarded by troops under Major Winram, and followed by an immense +crowd both of friends and spectators. Quentin Dick and his little +friend Peter were among them. The former had possessed himself of a +stick resembling a quarter-staff. His wild appearance and bloodshot +eyes, with his great size and strength, induced people to keep out of +his way. He had only just reached the spot in time. No word did he +speak till he came up to Major Winram. Then he sprang forward, and said +in a loud voice, "I forbid this execution in the name of God!" at the +same time raising his staff. + +Instantly a trooper spurred forward and cut him down from behind. + +"Take him away," said Winram, and Quentin, while endeavouring to stagger +to his feet, was ridden down, secured, and dragged away. Poor Peter +shared his fate. So quickly and quietly was it all done that few except +those quite close to them were fully aware of what had occurred. The +blow on his head seemed to have stunned the shepherd, for he made no +resistance while they led him a considerable distance back into the +country to a retired spot, and placed him with his back against a cliff. +Then the leader of the party told off six men to shoot him. + +Not until they were about to present their muskets did the shepherd seem +to realise his position. Then an eager look came over his face, and he +said with a smile, "Ay, be quick! Maybe I'll git there first to welcome +her!" + +A volley followed, and the soul of Quentin Dick was released from its +tenement of clay. + +Peter, on seeing the catastrophe, fell backwards in a swoon, and the +leader of the troop, feeling, perhaps, a touch of pity, cast him loose +and left him there. Returning to the sands, the soldiers found that the +martyrdom was well-nigh completed. + +The mouth of the Bladenoch has been considerably modified. At this time +the river's course was close along the base of the hill on which Wigtown +stands. The tide had turned, and the flowing sea had already reversed +the current of the river. The banks of sand were steep, and several +feet high at the spot to which the martyrs were led, so that people +standing on the edge were close above the inrushing stream. Two stakes +had been driven into the top of the banks--one being some distance lower +down the river than the other. Ropes of a few yards in length were +fastened to them, and the outer ends tied round the martyrs' waists--old +Mrs. McLachlan being attached to the lower post. They were then bidden +prepare for death, which they did by kneeling down and engaging in +fervent prayer. It is said that the younger woman repeated some +passages of Scripture, and even sang part of the 25th Psalm. + +At this point a married daughter of Mrs. McLachlan, named Milliken, who +could not believe that the sentence would really be carried out, gave +way to violent lamentations, and fainted when she saw that her mother's +doom was fixed. They carried the poor creature away from the dreadful +scene. + +The old woman was first pushed over the brink of the river, and a +soldier, thrusting her head down into the water with a halbert, held it +there. This was evidently done to terrify the younger woman into +submission, for, while the aged martyr was struggling in the agonies of +death, one of the tormentors asked Margaret Wilson what she thought of +that sight. + +"What do I see?" was her reply. "I see Christ in one of His members +wrestling there. Think ye that we are sufferers? No! it is Christ in +us; for He sends none a warfare on his own charges." + +These were her last words as she was pushed over the bank, and, like her +companion, forcibly held, down with a halbert. Before she was quite +suffocated, however, Winram ordered her to be dragged out, and, when +able to speak, she was asked if she would pray for the King. + +"I wish the salvation of all men," she replied, "and the damnation of +none." + +"Dear Margaret," urged a bystander in a voice of earnest entreaty, "say +`God save the King,' say `God save the King.'" + +"God save him if He will," she replied. "It is his salvation I desire." + +"She has said it! she has said it!" cried the pitying bystanders +eagerly. + +"That won't do," cried the Laird of Lagg, coming forward at the moment, +uttering a coarse oath; "let her take the test-oaths." + +As this meant the repudiation of the Covenants and the submission of her +conscience to the King--to her mind inexcusable sin--the martyr firmly +refused to obey. She was immediately thrust back into the water, and in +a few minutes more her heroic soul was with her God and Saviour. + +The truth of this story--like that of John Brown of Priesthill, though +attested by a letter of Claverhouse himself [See Dr. Cunningham's +_History of the Church of Scotland_, volume two, page 239.]--has been +called in question, and the whole affair pronounced a myth! We have no +space for controversy, but it is right to add that if it be a myth, the +records of the Kirk-sessions of Kirkinner and Penninghame--which exist, +and in which it is recorded--must also be mythical. The truth is, that +both stories have been elaborately investigated by men of profound +learning and unquestionable capacity, and the truth of them proved "up +to the hilt." + +As to Graham of Claverhouse--there are people, we believe, who would +whitewash the devil if he were only to present himself with a dashing +person and a handsome face! But such historians as Macaulay, McCrie, +McKenzie, and others, refuse to whitewash Claverhouse. Even Sir Walter +Scott--who was very decidedly in sympathy with the Cavaliers--says of +him in _Old Mortality_: "He was the unscrupulous agent of the Scottish +Privy Council in executing the merciless seventies of the Government in +Scotland during the reigns of Charles the Second and James the Second;" +and his latest apologist candidly admits that "it is impossible +altogether to acquit Claverhouse of the charges laid to his account." +We are inclined to ask, with some surprise, Why should he wish to acquit +him? But Claverhouse himself, as if in prophetic cynicism, writes his +own condemnation as to character thus: "In any service I have been in, I +never inquired further in the laws than the orders of my superior +officer." An appropriate motto for a "soldier of fortune," which might +be abbreviated and paraphrased into "Stick at nothing!" + +Coupling all this with the united testimony of tradition, and nearly all +ancient historians, we can only wonder at the prejudice of those who +would still weave a chaplet for the brow of "Bonnie Dundee." + +Turning now from the south-west of Scotland, we direct attention to the +eastern seaboard of Kincardine, where, perched like a sea-bird on the +weatherbeaten cliffs, stands the stronghold of Dunnottar Castle. + +Down in the dungeons of that rugged pile lies our friend Andrew Black, +very different from the man whose fortunes we have hitherto followed. +Care, torment, disease, hard usage, long confinement, and desperate +anxiety have graven lines on his face that nothing but death can smooth +out. Wildly-tangled hair, with a long shaggy beard and moustache, +render him almost unrecognisable. Only the old unquenchable fire of his +eye remains; also the kindliness of his old smile, when such a rare +visitant chances once again to illuminate his worn features. Years of +suffering had he undergone, and there was now little more than skin and +bone of him left to undergo more. + +"Let me hae a turn at the crack noo," he said, coming forward to a part +of the foul miry dungeon where a crowd of male and female prisoners were +endeavouring to inhale a little fresh air through a crevice in the wall. +"I'm fit to choke for want o' a breath o' caller air." + +As he spoke a groan from a dark corner attracted his attention. At once +forgetting his own distress, he went to the place and discovered one of +the prisoners, a young man, with his head pillowed on a stone, and mire +some inches deep for his bed. + +"Eh, Sandy, are ye sae far gane?" asked Black, kneeling beside him in +tender sympathy. + +"Oh, Andry, man--for a breath o' fresh air before I dee!" + +"Here! ane o' ye," cried Black, "help me to carry Sandy to the crack. +Wae's me, man," he added in a lower voice, "I could hae carried you ye +wi' my pirlie ance, but I'm little stronger than a bairn noo." + +Sandy was borne to the other side of the dungeon, and his head put close +to the crevice, through which he could see the white ripples on the +summer sea far below. + +A deep inspiration seemed for a moment to give new life--then a +prolonged sigh, and the freed happy soul swept from the dungeons of +earth to the realms of celestial, light and liberty. + +"He's breathin' the air o' Paradise noo," said Black, as he assisted to +remove the dead man from the opening which the living were so eager to +reach. + +"Ye was up in the ither dungeon last night," he said, turning to the man +who had aided him; "what was a' the groans an' cries aboot?" + +"Torturin' the puir lads that tried to escape," answered the man with a +dark frown. + +"Hm! I thoucht as muckle. They were gey hard on them, I dar'say?" + +"They were that! Ye see, the disease that's broke oot amang them-- +whatever it is--made some o' them sae desprit that they got through the +wundy that looks to the sea an' creepit alang the precipice. It was a +daft-like thing to try in the daylight; but certain death would hae been +their lot, I suspec', if they had ventured on a precipice like that i' +the dark. Some women washin' doon below saw them and gied the alarm. +The gairds cam', the hue and cry was raised, the yetts were shut and +fifteen were catched an' brought back--but twenty-five got away. My +heart is wae for the fifteen. They were laid on their backs on benches; +their hands were bound doon to the foot o' the forms, an' burnin' +matches were putt atween every finger, an' the sodgers blew on them to +keep them alight. The governor, ye see, had ordered this to gang on +withoot stoppin' for three oors! Some o' the puir fallows were deid +afore the end o' that time, an' I'm thinkin' the survivors'll be +crippled for life." + +While listening to the horrible tale Andrew Black resolved on an attempt +to escape that very night. + +"Wull ye gang wi' me?" he asked of the only comrade whom he thought +capable of making the venture; but the comrade shook his head. "Na," he +said, "I'll no' try. They've starved me to that extent that I've nae +strength left. I grow dizzy at the vera thoucht. But d'ye think the +wundy's big enough to let ye through?" + +"Oo ay," returned Black with a faint smile. "I was ower stoot for't +ance, but it's an ill wund that blaws nae guid. Stervation has made me +thin enough noo." + +That night, when all--even the harassed prisoners--in Dunnottar Castle +were asleep, except the sentinels, the desperate man forced himself with +difficulty through the very small window of the dungeon. It was +unbarred, because, opening out on the face of an almost sheer precipice, +it was thought that nothing without wings could escape from it. Black, +however, had been accustomed to precipices from boyhood. He had +observed a narrow ledge just under the window, and hoped that it might +lead to something. Just below it he could see another and narrower +ledge. What was beyond that he knew not--and did not much care! + +Once outside, with his breast pressed against the wall of rock, he +passed along pretty quickly, considering that he could not see more than +a few yards before him. But presently he came to the end of the ledge, +and by no stretching out of foot or hand could he find another +projection of any kind. He had now to face the great danger of sliding +down to the lower ledge, and his heart beat audibly against his ribs as +he gazed into the profound darkness below. Indecision was no part of +Andrew Black's character. Breathing a silent prayer for help and +deliverance, he sat down on the ledge with his feet overhanging the +abyss. For one moment he reconsidered his position. Behind him were +torture, starvation, prolonged misery, and almost certain death. Below +was perhaps instantaneous death, or possible escape. + +He pushed off, again commending his soul to God, and slid down. For an +instant destruction seemed inevitable, but next moment his heels struck +the lower ledge and he remained fast. With an earnest "Thank God!" he +began to creep along. The ledge conducted him to safer ground, and in +another quarter of an hour he was free! + +To get as far and as quickly as possible from Dunnottar was now his +chief aim. He travelled at his utmost speed till daybreak, when he +crept into a dry ditch, and, overcome by fatigue, forgot his sorrow in +profound unbroken slumber. Rising late in the afternoon, he made his +way to a cottage and begged for bread. They must have suspected what he +was and where he came from, but they were friendly, for they gave him a +loaf and a few pence without asking questions. + +Thus he travelled by night and slept by day till he made his way to +Edinburgh, which he entered one evening in the midst of a crowd of +people, and went straight to Candlemaker Row. + +Mrs. Black, Mrs. Wallace, Jean Black, and poor Agnes Wilson were in the +old room when a tap was heard at the door, which immediately opened, and +a gaunt, dishevelled, way-worn man appeared. Mrs. Black was startled at +first, for the man, regardless of the other females, advanced towards +her. Then sudden light seemed to flash in her eyes as she extended both +hands. + +"Mither!" was all that Andrew could say as he grasped them, fell on his +knees, and, with a profound sigh, laid his head upon her lap. + +CHAPTER TWELVE. + +THE DARKEST HOUR BEFORE THE DAWN. + +Many months passed away, during which Andrew Black, clean-shaved, +brushed-up, and converted into a very respectable, ordinary-looking +artisan, carried on the trade of a turner, in an underground cellar in +one of the most populous parts of the Cowgate. Lost in the crowd was +his idea of security. And he was not far wrong. His cellar had a way +of escape through a back door. Its grated window, under the level of +the street, admitted light to his whirling lathe, but, aided by dirt on +the glass, it baffled the gaze of the curious. + +His evenings were spent in Candlemaker Row, where, seated by the window +with his mother, Mrs. Wallace, and the two girls, he smoked his pipe and +commented on Scotland's woes while gazing across the tombs at the glow +in the western sky. Ramblin' Peter--no longer a beardless boy, but a +fairly well-grown and good-looking youth--was a constant visitor at the +Row. Aggie Wilson had taught him the use of his tongue, but Peter was +not the man to use it in idle flirtation--nor Aggie the girl to listen +if he had done so. They had both seen too much of the stern side of +life to condescend on trifling. + +Once, by a superhuman effort, and with an alarming flush of the +countenance, Peter succeeded in stammering a declaration of his +sentiments. Aggie, with flaming cheeks and downcast eyes, accepted the +declaration, and the matter was settled; that was all, for the subject +had rushed upon both of them, as it were, unexpectedly, and as they were +in the public street at the time and the hour was noon, further +demonstration might have been awkward. + +Thereafter they were understood to be "keeping company." But they were +a grave couple. If an eavesdropper had ventured to listen, sober talk +alone would have repaid the sneaking act, and, not unfrequently, +reference would have been heard in tones of deepest pathos to dreadful +scenes that had occurred on the shores of the Solway, or sorrowful +comments on the awful fate of beloved friends who had been banished to +"the plantations." + +One day Jean--fair-haired, blue-eyed, pensive Jean--was seated in the +cellar with her uncle. She had brought him his daily dinner in a tin +can, and he having just finished it, was about to resume his work while +the niece rose to depart. Time had transformed Jean from a pretty girl +into a beautiful woman, but there was an expression of profound +melancholy on her once bright face which never left it now, save when a +passing jest called up for an instant a feeble reminiscence of the sweet +old smile. + +"Noo, Jean, awa' wi' ye. I'll never get thae parritch-sticks feenished +if ye sit haverin' there." + +Something very like the old smile lighted up Jean's face as she rose, +and with a "weel, good-day, uncle," left the cellar to its busy +occupant. + +Black was still at work, and the shadows of evening were beginning to +throw the inner end of the cellar into gloom, when the door slowly +opened and a man entered stealthily. The unusual action, as well as the +appearance of the man, caused Black to seize hold of a heavy piece of +wood that leaned against his lathe. The thought of being discovered and +sent back to Dunnottar, or hanged, had implanted in our friend a +salutary amount of caution, though it had not in the slightest degree +affected his nerve or his cool promptitude in danger. He had +deliberately made up his mind to remain quiet as long as he should be +let alone, but if discovered, to escape or die in the attempt. + +The intruder was a man of great size and strength, but as he seemed to +be alone, Black quietly leaned the piece of wood against the lathe again +in a handy position. + +"Ye seem to hae been takin' lessons frae the cats lately, to judge from +yer step," said Black. "Shut the door, man, behint ye. There's a draft +i' this place that'll be like to gie ye the rheumatiz." + +The man obeyed, and, advancing silently, stood before the lathe. There +was light enough to reveal the fact that his countenance was handsome, +though bronzed almost to the colour of mahogany, while the lower part of +it was hidden by a thick beard and a heavy moustache. + +Black, who began to see that the strange visitor had nothing of the +appearance of one sent to arrest him, said, in a half-humorous, +remonstrative tone-- + +"Maybe ye're a furriner, an' dinna understan' mainners, but it's as weel +to tell ye that I expec' men to tak' aff their bannets when they come +into _my_ hoose." + +Without speaking the visitor removed his cap. Black recognised him in +an instant. + +"Wull Wallace!" he gasped in a hoarse whisper, as he sprang forward and +laid violent hands on his old friend. "Losh, man! are my een leein'? +is't possable? Can this be _you_?" + +"Yes, thank God, it is indeed--" + +He stopped short, for Andrew, albeit unaccustomed, like most of his +countrymen, to give way to ebullitions of strong feeling, threw his long +arms around his friend and fairly hugged him. He did not, indeed, +condescend on a Frenchman's kiss, but he gave him a stage embrace and a +squeeze that was worthy of a bear. + +"Your force is not much abated, I see--or rather, feel," said Will +Wallace, when he was released. + +"Abated!" echoed Black, "it's little need, in thae awfu' times. But, +man, _your_ force has increased, if I'm no mista'en." + +"Doubtless--it is natural, after having toiled with the slaves in +Barbadoes for so many years. The work was kill or cure out there. But +tell me--my mother--and yours?" + +"Oh, they're baith weel and hearty, thank the Lord," answered Black. +"But what for d'ye no speer after Jean?" he added in a somewhat +disappointed tone. + +"Because I don't need to. I've seen her already, and know that she is +well." + +"Seen her!" exclaimed Andrew in surprise. + +"Ay, you and Jean were seated alone at the little window in the +Candlemaker Raw last night about ten o'clock, and I was standing by a +tombstone in the Greyfriars Churchyard admiring you. I did not like to +present myself just then, for fear of alarming the dear girl too much, +and then I did not dare to come here to-day till the gloamin'. I only +arrived yesterday." + +"Weel, weel! The like o' this bates a'. Losh man! I hope it's no a +dream. Nip me, man, to mak sure. Sit doon, sit doon, an' let's hear a' +aboot it." + +The story was a long one. Before it was quite finished the door was +gently opened, and Jean Black herself entered. She had come, as was her +wont every night, to walk home with her uncle. + +Black sprang up. + +"Jean, my wummin," he said, hastily putting on his blue bonnet, "there's +no light eneuch for ye to be intryduced to my freend here, but ye can +hear him if ye canna see him. I'm gaun oot to see what sort o' a night +it is. He'll tak' care o' ye till I come back." + +Without awaiting a reply he went out and shut the door, and the girl +turned in some surprise towards the stranger. + +"Jean!" he said in a low voice, holding out both hands. + +Jean did not scream or faint. Her position in life, as well as her +rough experiences, forbade such weakness, but it did not forbid--well, +it is not our province to betray confidences! All we can say is, that +when Andrew Black returned to the cellar, after a prolonged and no doubt +scientific inspection of the weather, he found that the results of the +interview had been quite satisfactory--eminently so! + +Need we say that there were rejoicing and thankful hearts in Candlemaker +Row that night? We think not. If any of the wraiths of the Covenanters +were hanging about the old churchyard, and had peeped in at the +well-known back window about the small hours of the morning, they would +have seen our hero, clasping his mother with his right arm and Jean with +his left. He was encircled by an eager group--composed of Mrs. Black +and Andrew, Jock Bruce, Ramblin' Peter, and Aggie Wilson--who listened +to the stirring tale of his adventures, or detailed to him the not less +stirring and terrible history of the long period that had elapsed since +he was torn from them, as they had believed, for ever. + +Next morning Jean accompanied her lover to the workshop of her uncle, +who had preceded them, as he usually went to work about daybreak. + +"Are ye no feared," asked Jean, with an anxious look in her companion's +face, "that some of your auld enemies may recognise you? You're so big +and--and--" (she thought of the word handsome, but substituted) +"odd-looking." + +"There is little fear, Jean. I've been so long away that most of the +people--the enemies at least--who knew me must have left; besides, my +bronzed face and bushy beard form a sufficient disguise, I should +think." + +"I'm no sure o' that," returned the girl, shaking her head doubtfully; +"an' it seems to me that the best thing ye can do will be to gang to the +workshop every mornin' before it's daylight. Have ye fairly settled to +tak' to Uncle Andrew's trade?" + +"Yes. Last night he and I arranged it while you were asleep. I must +work, you know, to earn my living, and there is no situation so likely +to afford such effectual concealment. Bruce offered to take me on +again, but the smiddy is too public, and too much frequented by +soldiers. Ah, Jean! I fear that our wedding-day is a long way off yet, +for, although I could easily make enough to support you in comfort if +there were no difficulties to hamper me, there is not much chance of my +making a fortune, as Andrew Black says, by turning parritch-sticks and +peeries!" + +Wallace tried to speak lightly, but could not disguise a tone of +despondency. + +"Your new King," he continued, "seems as bad as the old one, if not +worse. From all I hear he seems to have set his heart on bringing the +country back again to Popery, and black will be the look-out if he +succeeds in doing that. He has quarrelled, they say, with his bishops, +and in his anger is carrying matters against them with a high hand. I +fear that there is woe in store for poor Scotland yet." + +"It may be so," returned Jean sadly. "The Lord knows what is best; but +He can make the wrath of man to praise Him. Perhaps," she added, +looking up with a solemn expression on her sweet face, "perhaps, like +Quentin Dick an' Margaret Wilson, you an' I may never wed." + +They had reached the east end of the Grassmarket as she spoke, and had +turned into it before she observed that they were going wrong, but +Wallace explained that he had been directed by Black to call on Ramblin' +Peter, who lived there, and procure from him some turning-tools. On the +way they were so engrossed with each other that they did not at first +observe the people hurrying towards the lower end of the market. Then +they became aware that an execution was about to take place. + +"The old story," muttered Wallace, while an almost savage scowl settled +on his face. + +"Let us hurry by," said Jean in a low tone. At the moment the unhappy +man who was about to be executed raised his voice to speak, as was the +custom in those times. + +Jean started, paused, and turned deadly pale. + +"I ken the voice," she exclaimed. + +As the tones rose in strength she turned towards the gallows and almost +dragged her companion after her in her eagerness to get near. + +"It's Mr. Renwick," she said, "the dear servant o' the Lord!" + +Wallace, on seeing her anxiety, elbowed his way through the crowd +somewhat forcibly, and thus made way for Jean till they stood close +under the gallows. It was a woeful sight in one sense, for it was the +murder of a fair and goodly as well as godly man in the prime of life; +yet it was a grand sight, inasmuch as it was a noble witnessing unto +death for God and truth and justice in the face of prejudice, passion, +and high-handed tyranny. + +The martyr had been trying to address the crowd for some time, but had +been barbarously interrupted by the beating of drums. Just then a +curate approached him and said, "Mr. Renwick, own our King, and we will +pray for you." + +"It's that scoundrel, the Reverend George Lawless," murmured Wallace in +a deep and bitter tone. + +"I am come here," replied the martyr, "to bear my testimony against you, +and all such as you are." + +"Own our King, and pray for him, whatever ye say of us," returned the +curate. + +"I will discourse no more with you," rejoined Renwick. "I am in a +little to appear before Him who is King of kings and Lord of lords, who +shall pour shame, contempt, and confusion on all the kings of the earth +who have not ruled for Him." + +After this Renwick--as was usual with the martyrs when about to finish +their course--sang, read a portion of Scripture, and prayed, in the +midst of considerable interruption from the drums. He also managed to +address the spectators. Among the sentences that reached the ears of +Jean and Wallace were the following:-- + +"I am come here this day to lay down my life for adhering to the truths +of Christ... I die as a Presbyterian Protestant... I own the Word of +God as the rule of faith and manners... I leave my testimony against +... all encroachments made on Christ's rights, who is the Prince of the +kings of the earth." + +The noise of the drums rendered his voice inaudible at this point, and +the executioner, advancing, tied a napkin over his eyes. He was then +ordered to go up the ladder. To a friend who stood by him he gave his +last messages. Among them were the words-- + +"Keep your ground, and the Lord will provide you teachers and ministers; +and when He comes He will make these despised truths glorious in the +earth." + +His last words were--"Lord, into thy hands I commit my spirit; for thou +hast redeemed me, Lord God of truth." + +Thus fell the last, as it turned out, of the martyrs of the Covenants, +on the 17th of February 1688. But it did not seem to Will Wallace that +the storm of twenty-eight long years had almost blown over, as he +glanced at the scowling brows and compressed lips of the upturned faces +around him. + +"Come--come away, Jean," he said quickly, as he felt the poor girl hang +heavily on his arm, and observed the pallor of her face. + +"Ay, let's gang hame," she said faintly. + +As Will turned to go he encountered a face that was very familiar. The +owner of it gazed at him inquiringly. It was that of his old comrade in +arms, Glendinning. Stooping over his companion as if to address her, +Wallace tried to conceal his face and pushed quickly through the crowd. +Whether Glendinning had recognised him or not, he could not be sure, but +from that day forward he became much more careful in his movements, went +regularly to his work with Andrew Black before daylight, and did not +venture to return each night till after dark. It was a weary and +irksome state of things, but better--as Black sagaciously remarked--than +being imprisoned on the Bass Rock or shut up in Dunnottar Castle. But +the near presence of Jean Black had, no doubt, more to do with the +resignation of our hero to his position than the fear of imprisonment. + +As time passed, things in the political horizon looked blacker than +ever. The King began to show himself more and more in his true +colours--as one who had thoroughly made up his mind to rule as an +absolute monarch and to reclaim the kingdom to Popery. Among other +things he brought troops over from Ireland to enforce his will, some of +his English troops having made it abundantly plain that they could not +be counted on to obey the mandates of one who wished to arrogate to +himself unlimited power, and showed an utter disregard of the rights of +the people. Indeed, on all hands the King's friends began to forsake +him, and even his own children fell away from him at last. + +Rumours of these things, more or less vague, had been reaching Edinburgh +from time to time, causing uneasiness in the minds of some and hope in +the hearts of others. + +One night the usual party of friends had assembled to sup in the +dwelling of Mrs. Black. It was the Sabbath. Wallace and Black had +remained close all day--with the exception of an hour before daylight in +the morning when they had gone out for exercise. It was one of those +dreary days not unknown to Auld Reekie, which are inaugurated with a +persistent drizzle, continued with a "Scotch mist," and dismissed with +an even down-pour. Yet it was by no means a dismal day to our friends +of Candlemaker Row. They were all more or less earnestly religious as +well as intellectual, so that intercourse in reference to the things of +the Kingdom of God, and reading the Word, with a free-and-easy +commentary by Mrs. Black and much acquiescence on the part of Mrs. +Wallace, and occasional disputations between Andrew and Bruce, kept them +lively and well employed until supper-time. + +The meal had just been concluded when heavy footfalls were heard on the +stair outside, and in another moment there was a violent knocking at the +door. The men sprang up, and instinctively grasped the weapons that +came first to hand. Wallace seized the poker--a new and heavy one-- +Andrew the shovel, and Jock Bruce the tongs, while Ramblin' Peter +possessed himself of a stout rolling-pin. Placing themselves hastily in +front of the women, who had drawn together and retreated to a corner, +they stood on the defensive while Mrs. Black demanded to know who +knocked so furiously "on a Sabbath nicht." + +Instead of answering, the visitors burst the door open, and half-a-dozen +of the town-guard sprang in and levelled their pikes. + +"Yield yourselves!" cried their leader. "I arrest you in the King's +name!" + +But the four men showed no disposition to yield, and the resolute +expression of their faces induced their opponents to hesitate. + +"I ken o' nae King in this realm," said Andrew Black in a deep stern +voice, "an' we refuse to set oor necks under the heel o' a usurpin' +tyrant." + +"Do your duty, men," said a man who had kept in the background, but who +now stepped to the front. + +"Ha! this is your doing, Glendinning," exclaimed Wallace, who recognised +his old comrade. The sergeant had obviously been promoted, for he wore +the costume of a commissioned officer. + +"Ay, I have an auld score to settle wi' you, Wallace, an' I hope to see +you an' your comrades swing in the Grassmarket before lang." + +"Ye'll niver see that, my man," said Black, as he firmly grasped the +shovel. "Ye ha'ena gotten us yet, an' it's my opeenion that you an' +your freends'll be in kingdom-come before we swing, if ye try to tak' us +alive. Oot o' this hoose, ye scoondrels!" + +So saying, Black made a spring worthy of a royal Bengal tiger, turned +aside the pike of the foremost man, and brought the shovel down on his +iron headpiece with such force that he was driven back into the passage +or landing, and fell prostrate. Black was so ably and promptly seconded +by his stalwart comrades that the room was instantly cleared. +Glendinning, driven back by an irresistible blow from the rolling-pin, +tripped over the fallen man and went headlong down the winding stairs, +at the bottom of which he lay dead, with his neck broken by the fall. + +But the repulse thus valiantly effected did not avail them much, for the +leader of the guard had reinforcements below, which he now called up. +Before the door could be shut these swarmed into the room and drove the +defenders back into their corner. The leader hesitated, however, to +give the order to advance on them, partly, it may be, because he wished +to induce submission and thus avoid bloodshed, and partly, no doubt, +because of the terrible aspect of the four desperate men, who, knowing +that the result of their capture would be almost certain death, preceded +by imprisonment, and probably torture, had evidently made up their minds +to fight to the death. + +At that critical moment a quick step was heard upon the stair, and the +next moment the Reverend Frank Selby entered the room. + +"Just in time, I see," he said in a cool nonchalant manner that was +habitual to him. "I think, sir," he added, turning to the leader of the +guard, "that it may be as well to draw off your men and return to the +guard-room." + +"I'll do that," retorted the man sharply, "when I receive orders from my +superiors. Just now I'll do my duty." + +"Of course you will do what is right, my good sir," replied the Reverend +Frank; "yet I venture to think you will regret neglecting my advice, +which, allow me to assure you, is given in quite a friendly and +disinterested spirit. I have just left the precincts of the Council +Chamber, where I was told by a friend in office that the Councillors +have been thrown into a wild and excusable state of alarm by the news +that William, Prince of Orange, who, perhaps you may know, is James's +son-in-law and nephew, has landed in Torbay with 15,000 Dutchmen. He +comes by invitation of the nobles and clergy of the kingdom to take +possession of the Crown which our friend James has forfeited, and James +himself has fled to France--one of the few wise things of which he has +ever been guilty. It is further reported that the panic-stricken Privy +Council here talks of throwing open all the prison-doors in Edinburgh, +after which it will voluntarily dissolve itself. If it could do so in +prussic acid or some chemical solvent suited to the purpose, its exit +would be hailed as all the more appropriate. Meanwhile, I am of opinion +that all servants of the Council would do well to retire into as much +privacy as possible, and then maintain a careful look-out for squalls." + +Having delivered this oration to the gaping guard, the Reverend Frank +crossed the room and went through the forbidden and dangerous +performance of shaking hands heartily with the "rebels." + +He was still engaged in this treasonable act, and the men of the +town-guard had not yet recovered from their surprise, when hurrying +footsteps were again heard on the stair, and a man of the town-guard +sprang into the room, went to his chief, and whispered in his ear. The +result was, that, with a countenance expressing mingled surprise and +anxiety, the officer led his men from the scene, and left the +long-persecuted Covenanters in peace. + +"Losh, man! div 'ee railly think the news can be true?" asked Andrew +Black, after they had settled down and heard it all repeated. + +"Indeed I do," said the Reverend Frank earnestly, "and I thank God that +a glorious Revolution seems to have taken place, and hope that the long, +long years of persecution are at last drawing to a close." + +And Frank Selby was right. The great Revolution of 1688, which set +William and Mary on the throne, also banished the tyrannical and +despotic house of Stuart for ever; opened the prison gates to the +Covenanters; restored to some extent the reign of justice and mercy; +crushed, if it did not kill, the heads of Popery and absolute power, and +sent a great wave of praise and thanksgiving over the whole land. +Prelacy was no longer forced upon Scotland. The rights and liberties of +the people were secured, and the day had at last come which crowned the +struggles and sufferings of half a century. As Mrs. Black remarked-- + +"Surely the blood o' the martyrs has not been shed in vain!" + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +But what of the fortunes of those whose adventures we have followed so +long? Whatever they were, the record has not been written, yet we have +been told by a man whose name we may not divulge, but who is an +unquestionable authority on the subject, that soon after the persecution +about which we have been writing had ceased, a farmer of the name of +Black settled down among the "bonnie hills of Galloway," not far from +the site of the famous Communion stones on Skeoch Hill, where he took to +himself a wife; that another farmer, a married man named Wallace, went +and built a cottage and settled there on a farm close beside Black; that +a certain Rú Peter became shepherd to the farmer Black, and, with his +wife, served him faithfully all the days of his life; that the families +of these men were very large, the men among them being handsome and +stalwart, the women modest and beautiful, and that all of them were +loyal subjects and earnest, enthusiastic Covenanters. It has been also +said, though we do not vouch for the accuracy of the statement, that in +the Kirk-session books of the neighbouring kirk of Irongray there may be +found among the baptisms such names as Andrew Wallace and Will Black, +Quentin Dick Black, and Jock Bruce Wallace; also an Aggie, a Marion, and +an Isabel Peter, besides several Jeans scattered among the three +families. + +It has likewise been reported, on reliable authority, that the original +Mr. Black, whose Christian name was Andrew, was a famous teller of +stories and narrator of facts regarding the persecution of the +Covenanters, especially of the awful killing-time, when the powers of +darkness were let loose on the land to do their worst, and when the +blood of Scotland's martyrs flowed like water. + +Between 1661, when the Marquis of Argyll was beheaded, and 1668, when +James Renwick suffered, there were murdered for the cause of Christ and +Christian liberty about 18,000 noble men and women, some of whom were +titled, but the most of whom were unknown to earthly fame. It is a +marvellous record of the power of God; and well may we give all honour +to the martyr band while we exclaim with the "Ayrshire Elder":-- + + "O for the brave true hearts of old, + That bled when the banner perished! + O for the faith that was strong in death-- + The faith that our fathers cherished. + + "The banner might fall, but the spirit lived, + And liveth for evermore; + And Scotland claims as her noblest names + The Covenant men of yore." + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Hunted and Harried, by R.M. 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