Ringan Gilhaize, or, The Covenanters
Page 43
CHAPTER XLII
One night, about a month after the ploy whereof I have spoken in theforegoing chapter, just as my father had finished the worship, and thefamily were composing themselves round the fireside for supper, we werestartled by the sound of a galloping horse coming to the door; andbefore any one had time to open it, there was a dreadful knocking withthe heft of the rider's whip. It was Nahum Chapelrig, who being that dayat Kilmarnock, had heard, as he was leaving the town, the cry get upthere that the Aggressor was coming from York with all the Englishpower, and he had flown far and wide on his way home publishing thedismal tidings.
My father, in a sober manner, bade him alight and partake of our supper,questioning him sedately anent what he had heard; but Nahum was raised,and could give no satisfaction in his answers; he, however, leapt fromhis horse, and drawing the bridle through the ring at the door-cheek,came ben to the fire where we had all so shortly before beenharmoniously sitting. His eyes were wide and wild; his hair, with theheat he was in, was as if it had been pomated; his cheeks were white,his lips red, and he panted with haste and panic.
"They're coming," he cried, "in thousands o' thousands; never sic aforce has crossed the Border since the day o' Flodden Field. We'll a'either be put to the sword, man, woman, and child, or sent in slavery tothe plantations."
"No," replied my father, "things are no just come to that pass; we haveour swords yet, and hearts and hands to use them."
The consternation, however, of Nahum Chapelrig that night was far ayontall counsel; so, after trying to soothe and reason him into a moretemperate frame, my father was obligated to tell him, that since thebattle was coming so near our gates, it behoved the Covenanters to bein readiness for the field, advising Nahum to go home, and be over withhim betimes in the morning.
While they were thus speaking, James Newbigging also came to the doorwith a rumour of the same substance, which his wife had brought fromEglinton Castle, where she had been with certain cocks and hens, aservitude of the Eglintons on their mailing; so that there was no longerany dubiety about the news, though matters were not in such a desperatecondition as Nahum Chapelrig had terrified himself with the thought of.Nevertheless, the tidings were very dreadful; and it was a judgment-likething to hear that an anointed king was so far left to himself as to becoming with wrath, and banners, and trampling war-horses, to destroy hissubjects for the sincerity of their religious allegiance to thatAlmighty Monarch, who has but permitted the princes of the earth to beset up as idols by the hands of men.
James Newbigging, as well as Nahum, having come ben to the fireside, myfather called for the Books again, and gave out the eight first versesof the forty-fourth psalm, which we all sung with hearts in holy unisonand zealous voices.
When James Newbigging and Nahum Chapelrig were gone away home, my fathersat for some time exhorting us, who were his youngest children, to bekind to one another, to cherish our mother, and no to let auld doitedaunty want, if it was the Lord's will that he should never come backfrom the battle. The which to hear caused much sorrow and lamentation,especially from my mother, who, however, said nothing, but took hold ofhis hand and watered it with her tears. After this he walked out intothe fields, where he remained some time alone; and during his absence,me and the three who were next to me, were sent to our beds; but, youngas we then were, we were old enough to know the danger that hung overus, and we lay long awake, wondering and woful with fear.
About two hours after midnight the house was again startled by anotherknocking, and on my father inquiring who was at the door, he wasanswered by my brother Jacob, who had come with Michael and Robin fromGlasgow to Kilmarnock, on hearing the news, and had thence broughtWilliam and Alexander with them to go with their father to the war. Forthey had returned to their respective trades after the day of thecovenanting, and had only been out at Hepburn's raid, as the ploy withthe Irvine men was called in jocularity, in order that the neighbours,who venerated their grandfather, might see them together as Covenanters.
The arrival of her sons, and the purpose they had come upon, awakenedafresh the grief of our mother; but my father entreated us all to bequiet, and to compose ourselves to rest, that we might be the abler onthe morn to prepare for what might then ensue. Yet, though there was nosound in the house, save only our mother's moaning, few closed theireyes, and long before the sun every one was up and stirring, and myfather and my five brothers were armed and belted for the march.
Scarcely were they ready, when different neighbours in the like trimcame to go with them; presently also Nahum Chapelrig, with his banner,and fife, and drum, at the head of some ten or twelve lads of hisclachan, came over; and on this occasion no obstacle was made to thatbravery which was thought so uncomely on the day of the covenanting.
While the armed men were thus gathering before our door, with the intentof setting forward to Glasgow, as the men of the West had been some timebefore trysted to do, by orders from General Lesley, on the first alarm,that godly man and minister of righteousness, the Reverend Mr Swinton,made his appearance with his staff in his hand, and a satchel on hisback, in which he carried the Bible.
"I am come, my friens," said he, "to go with you. Where the ensigns ofChrist's Covenant are displayed, it is meet that the very lowest of hisvassals should be there;" and having exhorted the weeping women aroundto be of good cheer, he prayed for them and for their little children,whom the Aggressor was, perhaps, soon to make fatherless. NahumChapelrig then exalted his banner, and the drum and fife beginning toplay, the venerable man stepped forward, and heading the array with hisstaff in his hand, they departed amidst the shouts of the boys, and theloud sorrow of many a wife and mother.
I followed them, with my companions, till they reached the high road,where, at the turn that led them to Glasgow, a great concourse of otherwomen and children belonging to the neighbouring parishes wereassembled, having there parted from their friends. They were allmourning and weeping, and mingling their lamentations with bitterpredictions against the King and his evil counsellors; but seeing MrSwinton, they became more composed, and he having made a sign to thedrum and fife to cease, he stopped, and earnestly entreated them toreturn home and employ themselves in the concerns of their families,which, the heads being for a season removed, stood the more in need ofall their kindness and care.
This halt in the march of their friends brought the onlookers, who wereassembled round our house, running to see what was the cause; and, amongothers, it gave time to the aged Ebenezer Muir to come up, whom MrSwinton no sooner saw than he called on him by name, and bade himcomfort the women, and invite them away from the high road, where theirpresence could only increase the natural grief that every covenantedChristian, in passing to join the army, could not but suffer, on seeingso many left defenceless by the unprovoked anger of the Aggressor. Hethen bade the drum again beat, and, the march being resumed, the band ofour parish soon went out of sight.
While our men continued in view Ebenezer Muir said nothing; but as soonas they had disappeared behind the brow of the Gowan-brae, he spoke tothe multitude in a gentle and paternal manner, and bade them come withhim into the neighbouring field, and join him in prayer; after which hehoped they would see the wisdom of returning to their homes. Theyaccordingly followed him, and he having given out the twenty-thirdpsalm, all present joined him, till the lonely fields and silent woodsechoed to the melody of their pious song.
As we were thus standing around the old man in worship and unison ofspirit, the Irvine men came along the road; and seeing us, they hushedtheir drums as they passed by, and bowed down their banners in reverenceand solemnity. Such was the outset of the worthies of the renewedCovenant, in their war with the first Charles.