by John Galt
CHAPTER XLI
From the day on which the Covenant was signed, though I was owre youngto remember the change myself, I have heard it often said that a greatalteration took place in the morals and manners of the Covenanters. TheSabbath was observed by them with far more than the solemnity of timespast; and there was a strictness of walk and conversation among them,which showed how much in sincerity they were indeed regeneratedChristians. The company of persons inclined to the prelatic sect waseschewed as contagious, and all light pastimes and gayety of heart weresuppressed, both on account of their tendency to sinfulness, and becauseof the danger with which the Truth and the Word were threatened by theArminian Antichrist of the King's government.
But the more immediate effect of the renewal of the Solemn League andCovenant was the preparation for defence and resistance, which thedeceitful policy of that false monarch, King Charles the First, taughtevery one to know would be required. The men began to practise firingat butts and targets, and to provide themselves with arms and munitionsof war; while, in order to maintain a life void of offence in alltemporal concerns, they were by ordinare obedient and submissive tothose in authority over them, whether holding jurisdiction from theKing, or in virtue of baronies and feudalities.
In this there was great wisdom; for it left the sin of the provocationstill on the heads of the King and his evil counsellors, in so much thateven, when the General Assembly, holden at Glasgow, vindicated theindependence and freedom of Christ's kingdom, by continuing to sit indespite of the dissolution pronounced by King Charles' commissioner, theMarquis Hamilton, and likewise by decreeing the abolition of prelacy asan abomination, there was no political blame wherewith the people, intheir capacity of subjects to their earthly prince, could be wyted orbrought by law to punishment.
In the meantime, the King, who was as fey as he was false, mustered hisforces, and his rampant high-priest, Laud, was, with all the voices ofhis prelatic emissaries, inflaming the honest people of England to wagewar against our religious freedom. The papistical Queen of Charles wasno less busy with the priesthood of her crafty sect, and aids andpowers, both of men and money, were raised wherever they could be had,in order to reinstall the discarded episcopacy of Scotland.
The Covenanters, however, were none daunted, for they had a great allyin the Lord of Hosts; and, with Him for their captain, they neithersought nor wished for any alien assistance, though they sent letters totheir brethren in foreign parts, exhorting them to unite in theCovenant, and to join them for the battle. General Lesley, in GustavusAdolphus' army, was invited by his kinsman, the Lord Rothes, to comehome, that, if need arose, he might take the temporal command of theCovenanters.
The King having at last, according to an ancient practice of the Englishmonarchs, when war in old times was proclaimed against the Scots,summoned his nobles to attend him with their powers at York, theCovenanters girded their loins, and the whole country rung with the dinof the gathering of an host for the field.
One Captain Bannerman, who had been with Lesley in the armies ofGustavus, was sent from Edinburgh to train the men in our part; and ourhouse being central for the musters of the three adjacent parishes, hestaid a night in the week with us at Quharist for the space of betterthan two months, and his military discourse greatly instructed ourneighbours in the arts and stratagems of war.
He was an elderly man, of a sedate character, and had gone abroad withan uncle from Montrose when he was quite a youth. In his day he had seenmany strange cities, and places of wonderful strength to withstand theforce of sieges. But, though bred a soldier, and his home in the camp,he had been himself but seldom in the field of battle. In appearance hewas tall and lofty, and very erect and formal; a man of few words, butthey were well chosen; and he was patient and pains-taking; of acontented aspect, somewhat hard-favoured, and seldom given to smile. Tolittle children he was, however, bland and courteous; taking a pleasurein setting those that were of my age in battle array, for he had nopastime, being altogether an instructive soldier; or, as William, mythird brother, used to say, who was a free out-spoken lad, CaptainBannerman was a real dominie o' war.
Besides him, in our country-side, there was another officer, by nameHepburn, who had also been bred with the great Gustavus, sent to trainthe Covenanters in Irvine; but he was of a more mettlesome humour, andlacked the needful douceness that became those who were bandingthemselves for a holy cause; so that when any of his disciples were notjust so list and brisk as they might have been, which was sometimes thecase, especially among the weavers, he thought no shame, even on theGolf-fields, before all the folks and onlookers, to curse and swear atthem as if he had been himself one of the King's cavaliers, and they nobetter than ne'erdoweels receiving the wages of sin against theCovenant. In sooth to say, he was a young man of a disorderly nature,and about seven months after he left the town twa misfortunate creaturesgave him the wyte of their bairns.
Yet, for all the regardlessness of his ways and moral conduct, he wasmuch beloved by the men he had the training of; and, on the night beforehe left the town, lies were told of a most respectit and pious officerof the town's power, if he did not find the causey owre wide when hewas going home, after partaking of Captain Hepburn's pay-way supper. Buthow that may have been is little of my business at present toinvestigate; for I have only spoken of Hepburn, to notify what happenedin consequence of a brag he had with Bannerman, anent the skill of theirrespective disciples, the which grew to such a controversy between them,that nothing less would satisfy Hepburn than to try the skill of theIrvine men against ours, and the two neighbouring parishes of Garnockand Stoneyholm. Accordingly a day was fixt for that purpose, and theCraiglands-croft was the place appointed for this probation ofsoldiership.
On the morning of the appointed day the country folk assembled far andnear, and Nahum Chapelrig, at the head of the lads of his clachan, wasthe first on the field. The sight to my young eyes was as the greatestshow of pageantry that could be imagined; for Nahum had, from the timeof the covenanting, been gathering arms and armour from all quarters,and had thereby not only obtained a glittering breastplate for himself,but three other coats of mail for the like number of his fellows; andwhen they were coming over the croft, with their fife and drum, and thebanner of the Covenant waving aloft in the air, every one ran to beholdsuch splendour and pomp of war; many of the women, that were witnessesamong the multitude, wept at such an apparition of battles dazzling ourpeaceful fields.
My father, with my five brothers, headed the Covenanters of our parish.There was no garnish among that band. They came along with austere looksand douce steps, and their belts were of tanned leather. The hilts ofmany of their swords were rusty, for they had been the weapons of theirforefathers in the raids of the Reformation. As my father led them totheir station on the right flank of Nahum Chapelrig's array, the crowdof onlookers fell back, and stood in silence as they passed by.
Scarcely had they halted, when there was a rushing among the onlookers,and presently the townsmen, with Hepburn on horseback, were seen comingover the brow of the Gowan-brae. They were scant the strength of thecountry folk by more than a score; but there was a band of sailor boyswith them that made the number greater; so that, when they were alldrawn up together forenent the countrymen, they were more than man forman.
It is not to be suppressed nor denied, that, in the first show of theday, Hepburn got far more credit and honour than old sedate Bannerman;for his lads were lighter in the heel, glegger in the eye, and briskerin the manoeuvres of war: moreover, they were all far more similar intheir garb and appearance, which gave them a seeming compactness thatthe countrymen had nothing like. But when the sham contest began, it wasnot long till Bannerman's disciples showed the proofs of their master'sbetter skill to such a mark, that Hepburn grew hot, and so kindled hismen by reproaches, that there was like to have been fighting in trueearnest; for the blood of the country folk was also rising. Their eyesgrew fierce, and they muttered through their teeth.
Old Ebenezer
Muir, who was among the multitude, observing that theirblood was heating, stepped forward, and lifting up his hand, cried,"Sirs, stop;" and both sides instanter made a pause. "This maunna be,"said he. "It may be sport to those who are by trade soldiers to try themettle o' their men, but ye're a covenanted people, obligated by agrievous tyranny to quit your spades and your looms only for a season;therefore be counselled, and rush not to battle till need be, which maythe Lord yet prevent."
Hepburn uttered an angry ban, and would have turned the old man away bythe shoulder; but the combatants saw they were in the peril of aquarrel, and many of them cried aloud, "He's in the right, and we'replaying the fool for the diversion o' our adversaries." So the townsmenand the country folk shook hands; but instead of renewing the contest,Captain Bannerman proposed that they should all go through theirdiscipline together, it being manifest that there were little odds intheir skill, and none in their courage. The which prudent admonitionpacified all parties, and the remainder of the day was spent incordiality and brotherly love. Towards the conclusion of the exercises,worthy Mr Swinton came on the field; and when the business of the daywas over, he stepped forward, and the trained men being formed aroundhim, the onlookers standing on the outside, he exhorted them in prayer,and implored a blessing on their covenanted union, which had the effectof restoring all their hearts to a religious frame and a solemnitybefitting the spirituality of their cause.