Ringan Gilhaize, or, The Covenanters

by John Galt

  CHAPTER LI

  But although in the exploit of Mysie Gilmour, and Robin Finnie with hisconfederates, we had a tasting of mirth and merriment, to the effect oflessening the dread and fear in which our simple country folk held hisMajesty's ungracious fine-levers, the cavalier captains and soldiers,still there was a gradual ingrowth of the weight of the oppression,wherewith we were laden more as bondsmen and slaves than as subjects;and, in the meantime, the spirit of that patriarch, my apostolicgrandfather, was gathering to heart and energy within the silentrecesses of my afflicted bosom.

  I heard the murmuring, deep and sad, of my neighbours, at the insult andthe contumely which they were obligated to endure from the irresponsiblelicentiousness of military domination,--but I said nothing; I wasdriven, with my pious wife and our simple babies, from my own hearth bythe lewd conversation of the commissioned freebooters, and obligated tomake our home in an outhouse, that we might not be molested in ourprayers by their wicked ribaldry,--but I said nothing; I saw my honestneighbours plundered--their sons insulted--and their daughters put toshame,--but I said nothing; I was a witness when our godly minister,after having been driven with his wife and family out to the mercy ofthe winter's wind, was seized in the very time while he was worshippingthe Maker of us all, and taken like a malefactor to prison,--but I saidnothing; and I was told the story of the machinations against hisinnocent virgin daughter, when she was left defenceless among us,--andstill I said nothing. Like the icy winter, tyranny had so encrusted mysoul that my taciturnity seemed as hard, impenetrable, cold and cruel asthe frozen river's surface, but the stream of my feelings ran strongerand fiercer beneath; and the time soon came when, in proportion to thestill apathy that made my brother and my friends to wonder how I soquietly bore the events of so much, my inward struggles burst throughall outward passive forms, and, like the hurling and the drifting ice,found no effectual obstacle to its irresistible and natural destination.

  Mrs Swinton, the worthy lady of that saint, our pastor, on hearing whathad been plotted against the chaste innocence of her fair and bloomingchild, came to me, and with tears, in a sense the tears of a widow, veryearnestly entreated of me that I would take the gentle Martha to hercousin, the Laird of Garlins, in Dumfries-shire, she having heard thatsome intromissions, arising out of pacts and covenants between my wife'scousin and the Laird of Barscob, obligated me to go thither. This was onthe Monday after the battering that the cavalier got from ZachariahSmylie's black ram; and I, reasonably thinking that there was judgmentin the request, and that I might serve, by my compliance, the helplessresidue, and the objects of a persecuted Christian's affections, Iconsented to take the damsel with me as far as Garlins, in Galloway; thewhich I did.

  When I had left Martha Swinton with her friends, who, being persons ofpedigree and opulence, were better able to guard her, I went to the endof my own journey; and here, from what ensued, it is needful I shouldrelate that, in this undertaking, I left my own house under the care ofmy brother, and that I was armed with my grandfather's sword.

  It happened that, on Tuesday the 13th November 1666, as I was returninghomeward from Barscob, I fell in with three godly countrymen, about amile south of the village of Dalry, in Galloway, and we entered into aholy and most salutary conversation anent the sufferings and thefortitude of God's people in that time of trouble. Discoursing withgreat sobriety on that melancholious theme, we met a gang of Turner'sblackcuffs, driving before them, like beasts to the slaughter, severalmiserable persons to thrash out the corn, that it might be sold, of oneof my companions, who, being himself a persecuted man, and unable to paythe fine forfeited by his piety, had some days before been forced toflee his house.

  On seeing the soldiers and their prey coming towards us, the poor manwould have run away; but we exhorted him not to be afraid, for he mightpass unnoticed, and so he did; for, although those whom the militaryrabiators were driving to thrash his corn knew him well, they wereenabled to bear up, and were so endowed with the strength of martyrdom,that each of them, only by a look, signified that they were in thespirit of fellowship with him.

  After they had gone by, his heart, however, was so afflicted that somany worthy persons should be so harmed for his sake, that he turnedback, and, in despite of all our entreaties, went to them, while we wentforward to Dalry, where we entered a small public, and, having orderedsome refreshment, for we were all weary, we sat meditating on what couldbe the upshot of such tyranny.

  While we were so sitting, a cry got up that our companion was seized bythe soldiers, and that they were tormenting him on a red-hot gridironfor not having paid his fine.

  My blood boiled at the news. I rose, and those who were with mefollowed, and we ran to the house--his own house--where the poor manwas. I beseeched two of the soldiers who were at the door to desist fromtheir cruelty; but while I was speaking, other two that were within cameraging out, like curs from a kennel, and flew at me; and one of themdared to strike me with his nieve in the mouth. My grandfather's swordflew out at the blow, and the insulter lay wounded and bleeding at myfeet. My companions in the same moment rushed on the other soldiers,dashed their teeth down their throats, and, twisting their firelocksfrom their hands, set the prisoner free.

  In this there was rashness, but there was also redemption and glory. Wecould not stop at what we had done;--we called on those who had beenbrought to thrash the corn to join with us, and they joined;--wehastened to the next farm;--the spirit of indignation was there beforeus, and master and man, and father and son, there likewise found thatthe hilts of their fathers' covenanted swords fitted their avenginggrasps. We had now fired the dry stubble of the land--the flamespread--we advanced, and grew stronger and stronger. The hills, as itwere, clapped their hands, and the valleys shouted of freedom. From allsides men and horse came exulting towards us; the gentleman and the hindknew no distinction. The cry was, "Down with tyranny--we are and we willmake free!" The fields rejoiced with the multitude of our feet as weadvanced towards Dumfries, where Turner lay. His blackcuffs flung downtheir arms and implored our mercy. We entered Dumfries, and theOppressor was our prisoner.