by John Galt
CHAPTER LVIII
Towards the afternoon I found myself among the solitudes of theRenfrewshire moors. Save at times the melancholious note of thepeese-weep, neither the sound nor the voice of any living thing washeard there. Being then wearied in all my limbs, and willingly disposedto sleep, I laid myself down on a green hollow on the banks of theGryffe, where the sun shone with a pleasing warmth for so late a periodof the year. I was not, however, many minutes stretched on the grasswhen I heard a shrill whistle of some one nigh at hand, and presentlyalso the barking of a dog. From the kindly experience I had received ofSir George Maxwell's care this occasioned at first no alarm; but onlooking up I beheld at some distance three soldiers with a dog, on theother side of the river.
Near the spot where I lay there was a cloven rock overspread withbrambles and slae-bushes. It seemed to me as if the cleft had beenprepared on purpose by Providence for a hiding-place. I crept into it,and forgetting Him by whom I was protected, I trembled with a base fear.But in that very moment He at once rebuked my infirmity, and gave me asingular assurance of His holy wardenship, by causing an adder to cometowards me from the roots of the bushes, as if to force me to flee intothe view of the pursuers. Just, however, as in my horror I was on thepoint of doing so, the reptile looked at me with its glittering eyes,and then suddenly leapt away into the brake;--at the same moment a harewas raised by the dog, and the soldiers following it with shouts andhalloes, were soon carried, by the impetuosity of the natural incitementwhich man has for the chase, far from the spot, and out of sight.
This adventure had for a time the effect of rousing me from out theweariness with which I had been oppressed, and I rose and continued mycourse westward, over the hills, till I came in sight of theShaw's-water,--the stream of which I followed for more than a mile witha beating heart; for the valley through which it flows is bare and open,and had any of the persecutors been then on the neighbouring hills, Imust have soon been seen; but gradually my thoughts became morecomposed, and the terrors of the poor hunted creature again becamechanged into confidence and hope.
In this renewed spirit I slackened my pace, and seeing, at a shortdistance down the stream, before me a tree laid across a bridge, I wascomforted with the persuasion that some farm-town could not be far off,so I resolved to linger about till the gloaming, and then to follow thepath which led over the bridge. For, not knowing how the inhabitants inthose parts stood inclined in their consciences, I was doubtful to trustmyself in their power until I had made some espionage. Accordingly, asthe sun was still above the hills, I kept the hollowest track by theriver's brink, and went down its course for some little time, till Iarrived where the hills come forward into the valley; then I climbed upa steep hazel bank, and sat down to rest myself on an open green plot onthe brow, where a gentle west wind shook the boughs around me, as if thesilent spirits of the solitude were slowly passing by.
In this place I had not been long when I heard, as if it were not faroff, a sullen roar of falling waters rising hoarsely with the breeze,and listening again another sound came solemnly mingled with it, which Ihad soon the delight to discover was the holy harmony of worship, and tomy ears it was as the first sound of the rushing water which Mosesbrought from the rock to those of the thirsty Israelites, and I was forsome time so ravished with joy that I could not move from the spot whereI was sitting.
At last the sweet melody of the psalm died away, and I arose and wenttowards the airt from which it had come; but as I advanced, the noise ofthe roaring waters grew louder and deeper, till they were as thebreaking of the summer waves along the Ardrossan shore, and presently Ifound myself on the brink of a cliff, over which the river tumbled intoa rugged chasm, where the rocks were skirted with leafless brambles andhazel, and garmented with ivy.
On a green sloping bank, at a short distance below the waterfall,screened by the rocks and trees on the one side, and by the risingground on the other, about thirty of the Lord's flock, old and young,were seated around the feet of an aged grey-haired man, who waspreaching to them,--his left hand resting on his staff,--his right wasraised in exhortation,--and a Bible lay on the ground beside him.
I stood for the space of a minute looking at the mournful yet edifyingsight,--mournful it was, to think how God's people were so afflicted,that they durst not do their Heavenly King homage but in secrecy,--andedifying, that their constancy was of such an enduring nature thatpersecution served but to test it, as fire does the purity of gold.
As I was so standing on the rock above the linn, the preacher happenedto lift his eyes towards me, and the hearers who were looking at him,turned round, and hastily rising, began to scatter and flee away. Iattempted to cry to them not to be afraid, but the sound of the cataractdrowned my voice. I then ran as swiftly as I could towards the spot ofworship, and reached the top of the sloping bank just as a young man wasassisting Mr Swinton to mount a horse which stood ready saddled, tied toa tree; for the preacher was no other than that godly man; but thecourteous reader must from his own kind heart supply what passed at ourmeeting.
Fain he was at that time to have gone no farther on with the exercise,and to have asked many questions of me concerning the expedition to thePentlands; but I importuned him to continue his blessed work, for Ilonged to taste the sweet waters of life once more from so hallowed afountain; and, moreover, there was a woman with a baby at her bosom,which she had brought to be baptized from a neighbouring farm, calledthe Killochenn,--and a young couple of a composed and sober aspect, fromthe Back-o'-the-world, waiting to be joined together, with his blessing,in marriage.
When he had closed his sermon and done these things, I went with him,walking at the side of his horse, discoursing of our many grievousanxieties; and he told me that, after being taken to Glasgow andconfined in prison there like a malefactor for thirteen days, he hadbeen examined by the Bishop's court, and through the mediation of one ofthe magistrates, a friend of his own, who had a soft word to say withthe Bishop, he was set free with only a menace, and an admonishment notto go within twenty miles of his own parish, under pain of being dealtwith according to the edict.
Conversing in this manner, and followed by divers of those who had beensolaced with his preaching, for the most part pious folk belonging tothe town of Inverkip, we came to a bridge over the river.
"Here, Ringan," said he, "we must part for the present, for it is notmeet to create suspicion. There are many of the faithful, no doubt, inthir parts, but it's no to be denied that there are likewise goatsamong the sheep. The Lady of Dunrod, where I am now going, is, withoutquestion, a precious vessel free of crack or flaw, but the Laird is of acourtly compliancy, and their neighbour, Carswell, she tells me, is aman of the dourest idolatry, his mother having been a papistical woman,and his father, through all the time of the First King Charles, aneydent ettler for preferment."
So we then parted, he going his way to Dunrod Castle, and one of thehearers, a farmer hard by, offering me shelter for the night, I wentwith him.