by John Galt
CHAPTER LXIV
"Weel, Ringan," said my brother, "we have met again in this world; it'sa blessing I never looked for;" and he held out his two hands to takehold of mine, but the broken links of the shackle still round my wristmade him cry out,--
"What's this?--Whare hae ye come fra? But I need na inquire."
"I have broken out of the tolbooth o' Irvine," said I, "and I am fleeinghere with Mr Witherspoon."
"I, too," replied my brother, mournfully, "hae escaped from the hands ofthe persecutors."
We then entered into some conversation concerning what had happened tous respectively, from the fatal twenty-eighth of November, when ourpower and host were scattered on Rullion-green, wherein Mr Witherspoon,with me, rehearsed to him the accidents herein set forth, with thecircumstantials of some things that befel the godly man after I left himwith the corpse of the baby in his arms; but which being in some pointsless of an adventurous nature than had happened to myself, I shall bepardoned by the courteous reader for not enlarging upon it at greaterlength. I should, however, here note, that Mr Witherspoon was not soseverely dealt with as I was; for though an outcast and a fugitive, yethe was not a prisoner; on the contrary, under the kindly cover of theLady Auchterfardel, whose excellent and truly covenanted husband was asore sufferer by the fines of the year 1662, he received greathospitality for the space of sixteen days, and was saved between twofeather beds, on the top of which the laird's aged mother, a bed-ridwoman, was laid, when some of Drummond's men searched the house on aninformation against him.
But disconsolatory as it was to hear of such treatment of aGospel-minister, though lightened by the reflection of the saintlyconstancy that was yet to be found in the land, and among persons too ofthe Lady of Auchterfardel's degree, and severe as the trials were, bothof body and mind, which I had myself undergone, yet were they all asnothing compared to the hardships of my brother, a man of a temperatesobriety of manner, bearing all changes with a serene countenance and aplacable mind, while feeling them in the uttermost depths of hiscapacious affections.
"On the night of the battle," said he, "it would not be easy of me totell which way I went, or what ensued, till I found myself with threedestitute companions on the skirts of the town of Falkirk. By that timethe morning was beginning to dawn, and we perceived not that we hadapproached so nigh unto any bigget land; as the day, however, broke, thesteeple caught our eye, and we halted to consider what we ought to do.And as we were then standing in a field diffident to enter the town, ayoung woman came from a house that stands a little way off the road,close to Graham's dyke, driving a cow to grass with a long staff, whichI the more remarked as such, because it was of the Indian cane, andvirled with silver, and headed with ivory.
"'Sirs,' said Menie Adams, for that was the damsel's name, 'I see whatye are; but I'll no speir; howsever, be ruled by me, and gang na nearthe town of Falkirk this morning, for atwish the hours of dark and dawnthere has been a congregationing o' horses and men, and other sedimentso' war, that I hae a notion there's owre meikle o' the King's power inthe place for any Covenanter to enter in, save under the peril o'penalties. But come wi' me, and I'll go back wi' you, and in ourhay-loft you may scog yoursels till the gloaming.'
"Who could have thought," said my brother, "that in such discourse froma young woman, not passing four-and-twenty years of age, and of apleasant aspect, any guilty stratagem of blood was hidden!"
He and his friends never questioned her truth, but went with her, andshe conducted them to her father's house, and lodged them in thehay-loft.
It seems that Menie Adams was, however, at the time betrothed to theprelatic curate that had been laid upon the parish, and that, inconsequence, aneath her courtesy, she had concealed a very treacherousand wicked intent. For no sooner had she got my brother and his threecompanions into the hay-loft, than she hies herself away to the town,and, in the hope of pleasing her prelatic lover, informs the captain ofthe troop there of the birds she had ensnared.
As soon as the false woman had thus committed the sin of perfidy, shewent to the curate to brag how she had done a service to his cause; buthe, though of the prelatic germination, being yet a person who had somereverence for truth and the gentle mercies of humanity, was so disturbedby her unwomanly disposition, that he bade her depart from his presencefor ever, and ran with all possible speed to waken the poor men whom shehad so betrayed.
On his way to the house he saw a party of the soldiers, whom theirofficer, as in duty bound, was sending to seize the unsuspectingsleepers, and running on before them, he just got forward in time togive the alarm. My brother and one of them, Esau Wardrop, the wife'sbrother of James Gottera, who had been so instrumental in my evasion,were providentially enabled to get out and flee; but the other two weretaken by the soldiers and carried to prison.
The base conduct of that Menie Adams, as we some years after heard, didnot go long unvisited by the displeasure of Heaven, for, some scent ofher guilt taking wind, the whole town, in a sense, grew wud against her,and she was mobbet, and the wells pumped upon her by the enragedmultitude; and she never recovered from the handling that she thereinsuffered.
My brother and Esau Wardrop, on getting into the open fields, made allthe speed they could, like the panting hart when pursued by the hunter,and distrusting the people of that part of the country, they travelledall day, not venturing to approach any reeking house. Towards gloaming,however, being hungry and faint, the craving of nature overcame theirfears, and they went up to a house where they saw a light burning.
As they approached the door they faltered a little in their resolution,for they heard the dissonance of riot and revelry within. Their need,however, was great, and the importunities of hunger would not bepacified, so they knocked, and the door was soon opened by a soldier,the party within being a horde of Dalziel's men, living at free quartersin the house of that excellent Christian and much-persecuted man, theLaird of Ringlewood.