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CHAPTER IX.

DOMESTIC DESOLATION.

NEXT morning I rose early, and went out as soon as it was day. Snow had fallen during the night, and was lying several inches thick upon the ground. The sky, however, was clear; the sun was shining, and the snow, crisped and curled into a thousand fantastic shapes, glittered in his beams. Early as I had risen, Ringan Craigie had risen earlier. I observed him com

ing hurriedly towards me.

On asking him where he had been so early,

I have been, Mr. Patrick," said the old man, "at the smiddy of Kinzeancleugh, where I have heard news that concern Mr. Traill, and indeed I may say, all in Knockdailie.”

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Well, Ringan," said I, "let me hear them; I have prayed this morning that mine ears might be kept from evil tidings,' but I hope to be enabled to hear them and to bear them.' "Look," said Ringan, "to this paper.

It was the " Act of Intercommuning," which Mr. Scougal had procured from Edinburgh, and, as it will appear, with no friendly intentions towards Mr. Traill or my father's family. This was an "act" of outlawry which Lauderdale had passed, not only against the ejected ministers, but against those who heard or harboured them. By it the nearest relations were forbidden to hold intercourse with their intercommuned kin

dred. Parents were to expel their children from their houses, and to discover even their hidings. Children also were to discover the hiding-places of their parents; and if either refused to give the information they possessed, or were supposed to possess, they might be put to torture with the instruments of which the soldiery stationed over the country were supplied. The hungry, if intercommuned, were not to receive food, the naked were not to receive raiment, the sick and the dying even were not to be visited. Such was the horrible act, by which the tenderest ties of nature were to be sundered, the most peacable inhabitants of the country driven from the pale of society-penned up in the wilderness like sheep for the slaughter, and there miserably to perish. After I had read the Act, and was returning it to Ringan, he said,

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'You are aware, Mr. Patrick, that for some time a troop of Crichton's dragoons have been quartered at Shielbrae-it's the smith's belief that we may hae a visit o' them ere lang, and that Mr. Traill should mak' his escape this very day."

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Ringan," said I, "return that paper to the smith instantly-say you nothing to any one about it—the smith, for his own sake, will be quiet; in the meantime, I hasten home; there is not a moment to be lost."

I found Mr. Traill at the door; I told him what I had learned from Ringan Craigie.

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I am," said he, "ready to depart; I have long expected this sharp summons; I only wonder it has not been sooner."

"But have you,'

," said I, "considered whither you are to go, and the dangers you may have to encounter?"

"The country," he replied, "I am aware is studded with garrisons-it is swarming with soldiers-but by making for the moorlands, by keeping concealed during the day, and by travelling only at night-which my knowledge of the country will enable me to do I hope to make my escape towards the south, where the persecution is less hot than it is in the west and in Galloway. Should the paths leading to the uplands be cut off, as I have reason to fear they may, you know the cave in the glen, I shall take refuge there till nightfall. And now, dear Patrick, whom I shall ever love and ever remember for your own sake-for your father's sake, of blessed memory-and for the sake of your father's family, whose kindness to me I can never repay, but which I can never forget-I must bid you farewell. Mrs. Welwood and Alison have not yet risen; you will explain to them the reason of my abrupt departure. We may meet again—I trust we shall;-if not, like ships bound for the same port, and which, after having long kept one another company, are parted by storms-we shall meet in the haven of eternal calm. The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, and the God of your father, be with you and yours." Thus saying, he departed, and I saw him no more.

Stunned and bewildered, I returned to the house.

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Patrick," said Alison, "are you ill? I fear something distressing, has occurred?"

"Yes, Alison," I replied, " something distressing has occurred." I then told them what had

taken place.

That morning, when it was known that Mr. Traill had been forced to flee, there was not a

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dry cheek in Knockdailie. Alas! could any one have foreseen the desolations that were at that moment gathering over, and on the very eve of bursting on our own heads, he would have said, Weep not for him, but weep for yourselves." O, morning of beauty, how soon was thy beauty stained! how soon was thy brightness overcast! by what a day of blackness wast thou succeeded! by what a night of horror! "There is no con

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demnation, we know, to them who are in Christ Jesus." Those whom God has blessed, no one, not even the Evil One himself, can curse. In vain do the wicked invoke the powers of darkness against the children of light. In vain do they call spirits from the "vasty deep," saying, Come, curse for us this people;" even the powers of evil must reply, "How shall we curse whom the Lord hath not cursed, or defy whom the Lord hath not defied." If I could believe, however, that one day in my life was curse-smittenthat some mighty and malignant power had pronounced over it a spell like this, "Let that day in Knockdailie be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it. Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it. As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months. Lo, let that night be solitary; let no joyful voice come therein; let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none. Neither let it see the dawning of the day." In the darkness of my soul, in the bitterness of my spirit, I would have said, the spell has succeeded-for once causeless a curse has come."

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But to return. We had met at the usual hour for worship, in which, for the first time in my father's house, it now devolved on me to take the lead-our Psalm was the 57th, which Alison had frequently said she could never read or sing without tears. We had sung these lines

to" Martyrs," my father's favourite tune

Often as I had admired, and felt the music of my sister's voice, that morning as we sung the Lord's song, it seemed to me more melodious than ever. Often in the hush and silence of night, in my hidings in caves and dens, in wanderings on the hills, in the heart of the tolbooth at Edinburgh, at midnight when the city lay sunk in silence and sleep, in the depth and darkness of the dungeon in which I am now writing, amid the loud and everlasting roar of waters; as it rose that morning on the wings of ecstasy to heaven, -I have seemed, yea, at this moment I seem to hear it still. I know it is fantasy, ay, it is fantasy; that voice has been long silent in the grave, nor shall it ever come to cheer her mother's heart or mine, till we hear it amid the halleluias