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CHAPTER VII.

EXTRACTS FROM MR. TRAILL'S CORRESPONDENCE.

KNOCKDAILIE, Jan. 20th, 1667.

A DARK night is at hand. The four winds of the earth are loose. The foundations of the earth are out of course. The "sword of the wilderness" has received its commission; it has been drawn from its scabbard, and who can tell when it will be returned. The country is overrun with soldiers. Sir James Turner has been withdrawn, but Sir William Bannatyne has succeeded him; so Galloway is not likely to profit by the exchange. Dalzell of Binns, and Sir Maxwell Murray, are in the west, and reports are daily reaching us of their exactions and oppressions. Fines to the amount of fifty thousand merks have, within a few weeks, been levied in the shire of Ayr alone. Several families have been ruined. For having been in Lanark when the Pentland army passed through it, and for refusing or failing to give satisfactory answers anent certain whig families in the parish and neighbourhood of Newmilns, David Finlay, a native of that parish, has been shot within a stone-cast of his father's dwelling. Sir William Bannatyne is in the neighbourhood. He has brought with him four hundred foot and a troop of horsemen. They are living at free quarters. Several have fled eastward at their approach,

and some have taken refuge among the rocks We are daily looking for a visit.

and in caves.

KNOCKDAILIE, February 1st, 1667. The cloud has passed over. Yesterday morning the trampling of horses' feet, a loud knocking at the door, and the screaming of the terrified servants, announced the arrival of Sir William Bannatyne with a party of soldiers. Desiring us to keep our seats and be calm, your father went out. "Sir William Bannatyne!" he said, addressing a tall, stern, soldier-looking man, whom at once he recognized as the leader of the troop. "The same, the same," replied Sir William, adding, "I suppose that I am speaking to Knockdailie;" and, without giving your father time to answer, continued, "this is rather an early visit, Knockdailie, but soldiers you know," with an allusion to your father's having been himself in the army, and with a profane scriptural allusion, "are men under authority; they must not sleep whom the king sends."

Having given orders to an officer to surround the house, and giving his horse to one of the soldiers, he said, "Mr. Welwood, I shall now follow you in."

By this time Mrs. Welwood and Alison had withdrawn to their own apartments, where they awaited in fear and trembling the issues of our interview with one who, inferior to Dalzell and Claverhouse in courage, was equal to both in cruelty. On seeing me, he said, "So Mr. Welwood, you have strangers; may I ask you the gentleman's name? an intercommuned rebel, I doubt not, of whose company it will doubtless be my duty to deprive you,"

"Sir," said your father, "the gentleman is no rebel, but my children's tutor, and their father's friend-the Rev. Gilbert Traill."

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Then, Mr. Traill, you have not been concerned in this infamous rising? nor is your name in the dittay of denounced rebels ?—let me see," taking out a paper which contained at once an indictment against the individuals named in it, and his instructions for pursuing and seizing them, as well as fining and carrying to prison those found or suspected to have aided, concealed, or abetted them "let me see,-Wallace; Learmont; Maxwell of Monrief, younger; Mac Lellan of Barscob; Gordon of Knockbreck; Gordon of Earlston; MacLellan of Barmageichan; Cannon of Burnshalloch, younger; Murray of Montdroggat; Welsh of Skar; Row, chaplain to Scot of Scotstarvet; &c. &c. No, there is no Traill in the black list; nor, for the matter of that, is yours here either, Knockdailie; but my instructions were not to visit you for being in that bloody and infamous rising, but resetting and intercommuning with those that were. This do you acknowledge?"

"That I did receive into my house and entertain, as is my wont, two wayfaring men, Sir William Bannatyne," said your father, "is what I am not careful to deny; this was an act of humanity which"

"I will hear no more," said Sir William, sternly, "I know nothing of your distinctions; you are a Covenanter, Knockdailie, and to make distinctions comes as natural to you as to reset rebels; I am a simple soldier, and do not understand such distinctions; I am a loyal subject, and will not listen to them. Are the wayfaring men you speak of-in other words, are the de

clared rebels, Gordon of Earlston, and that apostle of sedition, Mr. Gabriel Semple-beneath your roof still, or in hiding on your grounds? but I am an idiot to ask, I must call in my men to search-such are my instructions. You will see it to be your duty, I hope, not to resist."

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Resist! Sir William," said your father, "ask the withered leaf not to resist the wind before which it is driven, or the heady current by which it is carried down. For me to resist indeed would be vain; I must either bend to the blast, or be broken by it. Nor am I so much pained to see my house searched, as I am to find my word suspected."

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It would be folly in me, Sir William," I ventured to add, "to hope that the credit which is not given to Knockdailie's word will be given to mine; but I feel it to be my duty to assure you that the individuals you speak of are not beneath this roof, nor within these bounds. If I entreat you to refrain from calling in the soldiers, and subjecting the house to be searched, it is for this consideration alone-a consideration that ought to be sacred to you as a man and a soldier-the pain it will give Mrs. Welwood and her daughter."

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Very fine sentiments, Mr. Traill," he replied; "but all this should have been considered sooner if Mrs. and Miss Welwood cannot bear to see the king's soldiers at Knockdailie in the discharge of their duty, they should have taken care to have rendered this painful duty unnecessary; they can moreover be brought here, where they may remain till the search is over."

The disagreeable intelligence I undertook to communicate to your mother and Alison, which

they heard with less alarm than I feared. I led them into the parlour-Alison clinging to her mother, both of them pale, but silent.

The captain of the troop was now called in, and received orders to institute an effectual search, which he immediately commenced, along with several of the soldiers-while the rest continued to surround the house-as we learned from the heavy tramping of their steel-clad boots, and the clanking of their swords as they rushed into the hall. Having searched every part of the house, beneath and above, breaking up closets and chests, and piercing the wainscot with their swords, Captain Winram returned with the report that he found no one concealed. "You may then," said Sir William, "send the men into the hall, and call in the rest, and see that they have something to drink. As for you, ladies," addressing your mother and Alison, "you may retire. It is now time, Knockdailie, that we proceed to business. You have not, I am instructed, been in your own parish church for several years. You have attended conventicles; you have held them in your own house; you have harboured seditious preachers, factious and fiery fanatics, whom the devil has driven, and through whom he is driving the people of this country to the verge of rebellion and ruin ; you have harboured, resetted, and intercommuned with rebels; this you have done on your own confession, and in doing which, as my creed has it alluding to his instructions-you have committed the crimes and incurred the pains of treason, for which I would be justified in sending you and your young friend here to the assize, that you might be punished in your persons, for a terror and example to others. But