they told me you were safe-that they had come to question Alison-that she must go out, but that no harm was intended her. I did not credit their words: their tones were crueltheir looks were fierce. I entreated them-I went down upon my knees-I, who had never knelt but to God, knelt to them. I called upon them to pity my grey hairs to take all that was in the house-silver, gold, goods—to drive the sheep from the hills and the cattle from the stall-but, as they hoped for mercy at last, not to take from me my child. The shipwrecked seaman might as well have prayed to the deaf I entreated them in vain; she was carried out in life, and what she now is she was carried in. Oh my God," she said, looking up to heaven, "I bow to thy will. Break not the bruised reed. I am a frail vessel; hold, Lord, for I can hold no more; or if thou seest meet to try thine handmaid yet more, strengthen her that she may endure that she may glorify thee in the way of thy judgments."

sea.

"Mother, dear mother," said I, "it's only a swoon. I shall speak to her; she will hear my voice; she will come back soon."

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'No, Patrick," said my mother: "I have seen death too often to be deceived. The bird will come back to its bower; the bud will come back to the tree; the summer will come back to Knockdailie; the voice of spring will come back to Glengarlie-but the voice of Alison Welwood will no more be heard in her mother's dwelling: she who lies there is a dying one-the shadow that sits on these gentle eyelids, is the shadow of death.

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CHAPTER X.

ALISON'S DEATH.

KNOCKDAILIE was a lonely place: except the ploughman's and the herdsman's shielings, there was not another house nearer than Kinzeancleugh. The report, however, that Crichton's dragoons were seen on their way to Knockdailie, spread like wildfire through the parish. Great numbers, some out of curiosity, and some out of concern, had by this time been drawn together. When they heard how I had been tortured; when they saw Ringan Craigie, lying in his blood; when they heard how Alison had been carried in insensible, and apparently dying, their grief and rage burst forth like the breaking up of an ice-bound river. I heard their lamentations; and, leaving my mother with two of the servants to wait upon Alison, I went into the hall in which they had collected. They crowded around me, who seemed to them more like a dead than a living man. I showed them my hand, crushed and mangled, "You have heard," I said to them, "whose work this is. You already know why I have been thus treated. You have already heard how-because I would not consent to betray the hidingplace of Mr. Traill, my father's friend, and my own, and yours also; for was he not the friend of all? was there a sick couch in Kinzeancleugh that, in the wildest nights, and at the latest

hour, he refused to visit? was there a death-bed by which he did not stand? was there a dying man that he did not comfort? was there a dead man carried to his long home, and he was not in the funeral procession? was there a house of mourning to which he did not carry counsel and comfort? was there a widow woman whose heart he did not cause to sing? was there a fatherless band to which he did not carry help and fatherhood?"

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None, none," they all exclaimed, "none." 'You say right," I continued, "there was none; yet for giving house-room to this friend of God and man-for refusing to deliver him up into the hands of his enemies—you have heard, I say, how I have this day been put to the torture-how I was left on the hill-side weltering in my blood: you have heard how he who lies there stark and stiff-that good and gentle old man-who carried me and many of you here, when we were children, on his shoulders, has, for the same reason, and for avowing his attachment to the Covenant and the Kirk of Scotland, met his death this day. I did not see him die; I heard, however, his death-shot; and there he lies, his thin grey hairs sprinkled with his blood. But this was not enough-it was not the blood of this aged man only that could slocken their cruel cursed thirst. My sister was torn from her mother's arms-she was carried forth, that on her tender frame they might ply the engines of their cruelty. What was the torture they subjected her to, I know not; but she has, I fear, met her death at their hands this day."

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'I know," said a voice from the crowd, "and can testify to the cruel treatment of Miss Welwood."

"Come forward, then," several voices exclaimed, "and do so." It was John Bruce, a young man whom I had seen in Edinburgh, where he was attending the University; and whose father, David Bruce of Ashiestane, had been shot sometime before this, as he was returning from a meeting in the fields.

"I had gone," said he, "this morning to Kinzeancleugh; I met the dragoons on their way to Knockdailie, and on hearing them approach, I took refuge in the woods till they had passed. On returning, I saw them coming down to the water edge; I crept along the opposite bankthere was only the water between us; I hid myself among the hazel bushes, and there saw the whole scene. Miss Welwood was led down the brae between Captain Crichton and the Curate. On reaching the water edge, they formed around her a half circle. Her face was pale; but she was calm.

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You may now question her,' said Crichton to the Curate. On this Mr. Scougal went forward to Miss Welwood, and put to her questions like these:

"Do you say, Miss Welwood, that I am an intruder into the parish of Kinzeancleugh, and that because I have not come in with the call and consent of the people, that I am not a true minister?'

I do. It is written, He that cometh not in by the door, but climbeth up another way, the same is a thief and a robber."

"Do you hold that Bishops are not a scriptural order?'

"I hold that Presbyters are Bishops; that their authority to preach and ordain is divine; that Mr. Halyburton, who was turned out of

M

the parish to make room for you, was our true minister; and if he be alive, is so to this day: if he be not alive, we have none else, as we have called none, nor has any one been set over us by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery.' You own yourself then to be of Presbyterian principles?'.

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"I do.'

“Have you ever attended field-meetings?' "I have.'

"Did you not know that this was contrary to the law?'

"I knew it was contrary to the law as it is now, but not contrary to the ancient laws of Scotland; nor to the law of God.'

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Do you not think it a sin to disobey the church?"

66 6 I know no church but the Kirk of Scotland. Of this kirk I am a member; and her I am bound to obey, in so far as she obeys her King and Head, the Lord Jesus Christ.'

"Did Mr. Traill teach you these sentiments?" "He did, but I was taught them before I knew him.'

"Do you know where he is concealed?' "I do not.'

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· If you did, would you discover his conceal

ment?'

"Then die you must; and that too this day.' "Then this will be the best day that ever I saw. This clay body will sleep as soundly in a bloody winding sheet, as if it were wrapped in cloth of gold; and while you may be permitted -for this is your hour and the power of darkness to mangle it, you will send my spirit to heaven, where it shall walk in white with those