by John Galt
CHAPTER LVI
We were graciously protected for the space of four hours, which we layasleep under the rock. Mr Witherspoon was the first who awoke, and hesat watching beside me for some time, in great anxiety of spirit, as heafterwards told me; for the day was far spent, and the weather, as isoften the custom in our climate, in the wane of the year, when themorning rises bright, had become coarse and drumly, threatening a roughnight.
At last I awoke, and according to what we had previously counselledtogether, we went up the course of the burn, and so got out of thatafflicting wood, and came to an open and wide moorland, over which weheld our journeying westward, guided by the sun, that with a sickly eyewas then cowering through the mist to his chamber ayont the hill.
But though all around us was a pathless scene of brown heather, here andthere patched with the deceitful green of some perilous well-e'e; thoughthe skies were sullen, and the bleak wind gusty, and every now and thena straggling flake of snow, strewed in our way from the invisible handof the cloud, was a token of a coming drift, still a joyousencouragement was shed into our bosoms, and we saw in the wildness ofthe waste, and the omens of the storm, the blessed means with whichProvidence, in that forlorn epoch, was manifestly deterring the pursuerand the persecutor from tracking our defenceless flight. So we journeyedonward, discoursing of many dear and tender cares, often looking round,and listening when startled by the wind whispering to the heath and thewaving fern, till the shadows of evening began to fall, and the dangersof the night season to darken around us.
When the snow hung on the heather like its own bells, we wished, but wefeared to seek a place of shelter. Fain would we have gone back to thehome for the fugitive, which we had found under the rock, but we knewnot how to turn ourselves; for the lights of the moon and stars weredeeply concealed in the dark folds of the wintry mantle with which theheavens were wrapt up. Our hearts then grew weary, and more than once Ifelt as if I was very willing to die.
Still we struggled on; and when it had been dark about an hour, we cameto the skirts of a field, where the strips of the stubble through thesnow showed us that some house or clachan could not be far off. We thenconsulted together, and resolved rather to make our place of rest in thelea of a stack, or an outhouse, than to apply to the dwelling; for thethought of the untimely end of harmless Nahum Chapelrig lay like clay onour hearts, and we could not but sorrow that, among the other woes ofthe vial of the prelatic dispensation, the hearts of the people ofScotland should be so turned against one another.
Accordingly going down the rigs, with as little interchange of discourseas could well be, we descried, by the schimmer of the snow, and aghastly streak of moonlight that passed over the fields, a farmsteading, with several trees and stacks around it, and thither we softlydirected our steps. Greatly, however, were we surprised and touched withdistress, when, as we drew near, we saw that there was no light in thehouse, nor the sign of fire within, nor inhabitant about the place.
On reaching the door we found it open, and on entering in, everythingseemed as if it had been suddenly abandoned; but by the help of apistol, which I had taken in the raid from one of Turner's disarmedtroopers, and putting our trust in the protection we had so far enjoyed,I struck a light and kindled the fire, over which there was stillhanging, on the swee, a kail-pot, wherein the family at the time oftheir flight had been preparing their dinner; and we judged by thistoken, and by the visible desertion, that we were in the house of someof God's people who had been suddenly scattered. Accordingly we scruplednot to help ourselves from the aumrie, knowing how readily they wouldpardon the freedom of need in a Gospel minister, and a covenantedbrother dejected with want and much suffering.
Having finished our supper, instead of sitting by the fire, as we atfirst proposed to do, we thought it would be safer to take the blanketsfrom the beds and make our lair in the barn; so we accordingly retiredthither, and lay down among some unthreshed corn that was lying ready onthe floor for the flail.
But we were not well down when we heard the breathings of two personsnear us. As there was no light, and Mr Witherspoon guessing by what wehad seen, and by this concealment, that they must be some of the family,he began to pray aloud, thereby, without letting wot they werediscovered, making them to understand what sort of guests we were. Atthe conclusion an old woman spoke to us, telling us dreadful thingswhich a gang of soldiers had committed that afternoon, and her sad storywas often interrupted by the moans of her daughter, the farmer's wife,who had suffered from the soldiers an unspeakable wrong.
"But what has become of our men, or where the bairns hae fled, we knownot,--we were baith demented by the outrage, and hid oursel's here afterit was owre late," said that aged person, in a voice of settled griefthat was more sorrowful to hear than any lamentation could have been,and all the sacred exhortations that Mr Witherspoon could employsoftened not the obduracy of her inward sorrowing over her daughter, thedishonoured wife. He, however, persuaded them to return with us to thehouse; for the enemy having been there, we thought it not likely hewould that night come again. As for me, during the dismal recital, Icould not speak. The eye of my spirit was fixed on the treasure I hadleft at home. Every word I heard was like the sting of an adder. Myhorrors and fears rose to such a pitch, that I could no longer masterthem. I started up and rushed to the door, as if it had been possible toarrest the imagined guilt of the persecutors in my own unprotecteddwelling.
Mr Witherspoon followed me, thinking I had gone by myself, and caught meby the arm and entreated me to be composed, and to return with him intothe house. But while he was thus kindly remonstrating with me,something took his foot, and he stumbled and fell to the ground. Theaccident served to check the frenzy of my thoughts for a moment, and Istooped down to help him up; but in the same instant he uttered a wildhowl that made me start from him; and he then added, awfully,--
"In the name of Heaven, what is this?
"What is it?" said I, filled with unutterable dread.
"Hush, hush," he replied as he rose, "lest the poor women hear us," andhe lifted in his arms the body of a child of some four or five yearsold. I could endure no more; I thought the voices of my own innocentscried to me for help, and in the frenzy of the moment I left the godlyman, and fled like a demoniac, not knowing which way I went.