RINGAN GILHAIZE; 
 
 OR 
 
 THE COVENANTERS.
 
 v • 
 
 EDINBURGH 
 
 I'RIXTED BY OLIVER & BOYE. 
 HIGH STREET.
 
 s?c. 
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZ 
 
 OR 
 
 THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF 
 
 ANNALS OF THE PARISH, " SIR ANDREW 
 
 WYLIE 
 
 •>■> a ,, 
 
 IHE ENTAIL, &c. 
 
 Their constancy in torture and in death, — 
 These on Tradition's tongue still live, these shall 
 On History's honest page be pictured bright 
 To latest times. 
 
 URAHAME'K SAHIIATH. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 
 C 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 EDINBURGH : 
 
 PRINTED FOR OLIVER & BOYD, HIGH STREET 
 AVI) G. & W. B. WHIT TAKER, I.OVDOK. 
 
 1823.
 
 i 
 
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 ^\q CHAP. I. 
 
 ro 
 
 ^ It is a thing past all contesting, that, in the 
 Reformation, there was a spirit of far great- 
 ^ er carnality among the champions of the 
 ^ cause, than among those who in later times 
 ^ so courageously, under the Lord, upheld the 
 unspotted banners of the Covenant. This I 
 5 speak of from the remembrance of many aged 
 •^ persons, who either themselves bore a part in 
 that war with the worshippers of the Beast 
 and his Image, or who had heard their 
 fathers tell of the heart and mind where- 
 with it was carried on, and could thence, 
 with the helps of their own knowledge, dis- 
 cern the spiritual and hallowed difference. 
 vol. i. A
 
 2 
 
 RING AN GILHAIZE. 
 
 But, as I intend mainly to bear witness to 
 those passages of the late bloody persecution 
 in which I was myself both a soldier and a 
 sufferer, it will not become me to bras: of 
 our motives and intents, as higher and holier 
 than those of the great elder Worthies of 
 " the Congregation."" At the same time it is 
 needful that I should rehearse as much of 
 what happened in the troubles of the Re- 
 formation, as, in its effects and influences, 
 worked upon the issues of my own life. For 
 my father's father was out in the raids of 
 that tempestuous season, and it was by him, 
 and from the stories he was wont to tell 
 of what the government did, when drunken 
 with the sorceries of the gorgeous Roman 
 harlot, and rampaging with the wrath of 
 Moloch and of Belial, it trampled on the 
 hearts and thought to devour the souls of 
 the subjects, that I first was taught to feel, 
 know, and understand, the divine right of 
 resistance.
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 3 
 
 He was come of a stock of bein burghers 
 in Lithgow ; but his father having a pro- 
 fitable traffic in saddle-irons and bridle-rings 
 among the gallants of the court, and being 
 moreover a man who took little heed of the 
 truths of religion, he continued with his wife 
 in the delusions of the papistical idolatry till 
 the last, by which my grandfather's young- 
 soul was put in great jeopardy. For the 
 monks of that time were eager to get into 
 their clutches such men-children as appeared 
 to be gifted with any peculiar gift, in order 
 to rear them for stoops and posts to sustain 
 their Babylon, in the tower and structure 
 whereof many rents and cracks were daily 
 kithing. 
 
 The Dominican friars, who had a rich 
 howf in the town, seeing that my grand- 
 father was a shrewd and sharp child, of a 
 comely complexion, and possessing a stu- 
 dious observance, were fain to wile him into 
 
 their power ; but he was happily preserved 
 
 6
 
 4 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 from all their snares and devices, in a man- 
 ner that shows how wonderfully the Lord 
 worketh out the purposes of His will, by 
 ways and means of which no man can fathom 
 the depth of the mysteries. 
 
 Besides his traffic in the polished garniture 
 of horse-gear, my grandfather's father was 
 also a ferrier, and enjoyed a far-spread re- 
 pute for his skill in the maladies of horses ; 
 by which, and as he dwelt near the palace- 
 yett, on the south side of the street, foment 
 the grand fountain-well, his smiddy was the 
 common haunt of the serving-men belonging 
 to the nobles frequenting the court, and as 
 often as any new comers to the palace were 
 observed in the town, some of the monks and 
 friars belonging to the different convents were 
 sure to come to the smiddy to converse with 
 their grooms and to hear the news, which 
 were all of the controversies raging between 
 the priesthood and the people. 
 
 My grandfather was then a little boy, but he
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 5 
 
 thirsted to hear their conversations ; and many 
 a time, as he was wont to tell, has his very heart 
 been raspet to the quick by the cruel com- 
 ments in which those cormorants of idolatry 
 indulged themselves, with respect to the brave 
 spirit of the reformers ; and he rejoiced when 
 any retainers of the protestant lords quarrelled 
 with them, and dealt back to them as hard 
 names as the odious epithets with which the 
 hot-fed friars reviled the pious challengers of 
 the papal iniquities. Thus it was, in the 
 green years of his childhood, that the same 
 sanctified spirit was poured out upon him, 
 which roused so many of the true and faith- 
 ful to resist and repel the attempt to quench 
 the re-lighted lamps of the gospel, preparing 
 his young courage to engage in those great 
 first trials and strong tasks of the Lord. 
 
 The tidings and the bickerings to which 
 he was a hearkencr in the smiddy, he was in 
 the practice of relating to his companions, 
 by which it came to pass that, it might in a
 
 6 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 manner be said, all the boys in the town were 
 leagued in spirit with the reformers, and the 
 consequences were not long of ripening. 
 
 In those days there was a popish saint, one 
 St Michael, that was held in wonderful love 
 and adoration by all the ranks and hier- 
 archies of the ecclesiastical locust then in 
 Lithgow ; indeed, for that matter, they 
 ascribed to him power and dominion over 
 the whole town, lauding and worshipping 
 him as their special god and protector. And 
 upon a certain day of the year they were 
 Avont to make a great pageant and revel in 
 honour of this supposed saint, and to come 
 forth from their cloisters with banners, and 
 with censers burning incense, shouting and 
 singing paternosters in praise of this their 
 Dagon, walking in procession from kirk to 
 kirk, as if they were celebrating the triumph 
 of some mighty conqueror. 
 
 This annual abomination happening to take 
 place shortly after the martyrdom of that true
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 7 
 
 saint and gospel preacher Mr George Wish- 
 art, and while kirk and quire were resound- 
 ing, to the great indignation of all Christians, 
 with lamentations for the well-earned death 
 of the cruel Cardinal Beaton, his ravenous 
 persecutor, the monks and friars received but 
 little homage as they passed along triumph- 
 ing, though the streets were, as usual, filled 
 with the multitude to see their fine show. 
 They suffered, however, no molestation nor 
 contempt, till they were passing the Earl of 
 Angus 1 house, on the outside stair of which 
 my grandfather, with some two or three score 
 of other innocent children, was standing ; 
 and even there they might, perhaps, have 
 been suffered to go by scaithless, but for an 
 accident that befell the bearer of a banner, 
 on which was depicted a blasphemous type of 
 the Holy Ghost in the shape and lineaments 
 of a cushy-doo. 
 
 It chanced that the bearer of this blazon of 
 iniquity was a particular fat monk, of an ar-
 
 8 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 rogant nature, with the crimson complexion 
 of surfeit and constipation, who, for many 
 causes and reasons, was held in greater aver- 
 sion than all the rest, especially by the boys, 
 that never lost an opportunity of making him 
 a scoff and a scorn ; and it s«^fell out, as he 
 was coming proudly along, turning his Ba- 
 bylonish banner to pleasure the women at 
 the windows, to whom he kept nodding 
 and winking as he passed, that his foot 
 slipped, and down he fell as it were with a 
 gludder, at which all the thoughtless inno- 
 cents on the Earl of Angus' stair set up a 
 loud shout of triumphant laughter, and from 
 less to more began to hoot and yell at the 
 whole pageant, and to pelt some of the per- 
 formers with unsavoury missiles. 
 
 This, by those inordinate ministers of op- 
 pression, was deemed a horrible sacrilege, and 
 the parents of all the poor children were 
 obligated to give them up to punishment, of 
 Avhich none suffered more than did my grand-
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 9 
 
 father; who was not only persecuted with 
 stripes till his loins were black and blue, but 
 cast into a dungeon in the Blackfriars' den, 
 where for three days and three nights he was 
 allowed no sustenance but gnawed crusts and 
 foul water. The stripes and terrors of the 
 oppressor are, however, the seeds which Pro- 
 vidence sows in its mercy, to grow into the 
 means that shall work his own overthrow. 
 
 The persecutions which from that day the 
 monks waged, in their conclaves of sloth and 
 sosherie, against the children of the town, de- 
 nouncing them to their parents as worms of 
 the great serpent and heirs of perdition, only 
 served to make their young spirits burn 
 fiercer. As their joints hardened and their 
 sinews were knit, their hearts grew manful, 
 and yearned, as my grandfather said, with 
 the zealous longings of a righteous revenge, 
 to sweep them away from the land as with a 
 whirlwind. 
 
 After enduring for several years great af- 
 
 a2
 
 10 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 fliction in his father's house, from his mother, 
 a termagant woman, who was entirely under 
 the dominion of her confessor, my grandfather 
 entered into a paction with two other young 
 lads to quit their homes for ever, and to enter 
 the service of some of those pious noblemen 
 who were then active in procuring adherents 
 to the protestant cause, as set forth in the 
 first covenant. Accordingly, one morning in 
 the spring of 1558, they bade adieu to their 
 fathers'* doors, and set forward on foot towards 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 " We had light hearts," said my grand- 
 father, " for our trust was in Heaven ; we had 
 girded ourselves for a holy enterprise, and 
 the confidence of our souls broke forth into 
 songs of battle, the melodious breathings of 
 that unison of spirit which is alone known to 
 the soldiers of the great Captain of Salva- 
 tion." 
 
 About noon they arrived at the Cross of 
 Edinburgh, Avhere they found a crowd as-
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 11 
 
 sembled round the Luckenbooths, waiting for 
 the breaking up of the States, which were 
 then deliberating anent the proposal from the 
 French king, that the Prince Dolphin, his 
 son, should marry our young queen, the fair 
 and faulty Mary, whose doleful captivity and 
 woful end scarcely expiated the sins and sor- 
 rows that she caused to her ill-used and poor 
 misgoverned native realm of Scotland. 
 
 While they were standing in this crowd, 
 my grandfather happened to see one Icener 
 Cunningham, a servant in the household of 
 the Earl of Glencairn, and having some ac- 
 quaintance of the man before at Lithgow, 
 he went towards him, and after some common 
 talk, told on what errand he and his two com- 
 panions had come to Edinburgh. It was in 
 consequence agreed between them, that this 
 Icener should speak to his master concerning 
 them ; the which he did as soon as my Lord 
 came out from the Parliament ; and the Earl 
 was so well pleased with the looks of the three
 
 12 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 young men, that lie retained them for his ser- 
 vice on the spot, and they were conducted by 
 Icener Cunningham home to his Lordship's 
 lodgings in St Mary's Wynd. 
 
 Thus was my grandfather inlisted into the 
 cause of the Lords of the Congregation ; and 
 in the service of that great champion of the 
 Reformation, the renowned, valiant, and pious 
 Earl of Glencairn, he saw many of those 
 things, the recital of which kindled my young 
 mind to flame up with no less ardour than his, 
 against the cruel attempt that was made, in 
 our own day and generation, to load the neck 
 of Scotland with the grievous chains of pre- 
 latic tyranny.
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 13 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 The Earl of Glencairn, having much to do 
 with the other Lords of the Congregation, 
 did not come to his lodging till late in the 
 afternoon ; when, as soon as he had passed 
 into his privy chamber, he sent for his three 
 new men, and entered into some conversation 
 with them concerning what the people at 
 Lithgow said and thought of the Queen-dow- 
 ager's government, and the proceedings at 
 that time afoot on behalf of the reformed re- 
 ligion. But my grandfather jealoused that 
 in this he was less swayed by the expectation 
 of gathering knowledge from them, than by 
 a wish to inspect their discretion and capaci- 
 ties ; for, after conversing with them for the 
 space of half an hour, or thereby, he dismiss- 
 ed them courteously from his presence, with-
 
 14 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 out intimating that he had any special service 
 for them to perform. 
 
 One evening as the Earl sat alone at sup- 
 per, he ordered my grandfather to be brought 
 again before him, and desired him to be cup- 
 bearer for that night. In this situation, as 
 my grandfather stood holding the chalice 
 and flagon at his left elbow, the Earl, as 
 was his wonted custom with such of the 
 household as he, from time to time, so ho- 
 noured, entered into familiar conversation 
 with him; and when the servitude and ho- 
 mages of the supper were over, and the 
 servants were removing the plate and trench- 
 ers, he signified, by a look and a whisper, that 
 he wished him to linger in the room till after 
 they were gone. 
 
 " Gilhaize," said he, when the serving-men 
 had retired, and they were by themselves, " I 
 am well content with your prudence, and 
 therefore, before you are known to belong to 
 my train, I would send you on a confidential
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 15 
 
 errand, for which you must be ready to set 
 forth this very night." 
 
 My grandfather made no reply in words to 
 this mark of trust, but bowed his head, in 
 token of his obedience to the commands of 
 the Earl. 
 
 " I need not tell you," resumed his master, 
 " that, among the friends of the reformed 
 cause, there are some for policy, and many 
 for gain ; and that our adversaries, knowing 
 this, leave no device or stratagem untried to 
 sow sedition among the Lords and Leaders of 
 the Congregation. This very day the Earl 
 of Argyle has received a mealy-mouthed letter 
 from that dissolute papist, the Archbishop of 
 St Andrews, entreating him, with many sweet 
 words, concerning the ancient friendship sub- 
 sisting between their families, to banish from 
 his protection that good and pious proselyte, 
 Douglas, his chaplain ; evidently presuming, 
 from the easy temper of the aged Earl, that 
 he may be wrought into compliance. But
 
 16 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 Argyle is an honest man, and is this night 
 to return, by the Archbishop's messenger 
 and kinsman, Sir David Hamilton, a fitting 
 and proper reply. It is not however to be 
 thought, that this attempt to tamper with 
 Argyle is the sole trial which the treacherous 
 priest is at this time making to breed distrust 
 and dissension among us, though as yet we 
 have heard of none other. Now, Gilhaize, 
 what I wish you to do, and I think you can 
 do it well, is to throw yourself in Sir Davids 
 way, and, by hook or crook, get with him to 
 St Andrews, and there try by all expedient 
 means to gain a knowledge of what the Arch- 
 bishop is at this time plotting — for plotting 
 we are assured from this symptom he is — and 
 it is needful to the cause of Christ that his 
 wiles should be circumvented."" 
 
 In saying these words the Earl rose, and, 
 taking a key from his belt, opened a coffer 
 that stood in the corner of the room, and 
 took out two pieces of gold, which he deliv-
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 17 
 
 ered to my grandfather, to bear the expenses 
 of his journey. 
 
 " I give you, Gilhaize," said he, " no far- 
 ther instructions ; for, unless I am mistaken 
 in my man, you lack no better guide than 
 your own discernment. So God be with you, 
 and His blessing prosper the undertaking." 
 
 My grandfather was much moved at being 
 so trusted, and doubted in his own breast if 
 he was qualified for the duty which his mas- 
 ter had thus put upon him. Nevertheless he 
 took heart from the Earl's confidence, and, 
 without saying any thing either to his two 
 companions or to Icener Cunningham, he im- 
 mediately, on parting from his master, left 
 the house, leaving his absence to be account- 
 ed for to the servants according to his lord's 
 pleasure. 
 
 Having; been several times on errands of his 
 father in Edinburgh before, he was not ill- 
 acquainted witli the town, and the moon being 
 up, he had no difficulty in finding his way to
 
 18 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 Habby Bridle's, a noted stabler^ at the foot 
 of Leith Wynd, nigh the mouth of the North 
 Loch, where gallants and other travellers of 
 gentle condition commonly put up tjieir horses. 
 There he thought it was likely Sir David 
 Hamilton had stabled his steed, and he di- 
 vined that, by going thither, he would learn 
 whether that knight had set forward to Fyfe, 
 or when he was expected so to do ; the which 
 movement, he always said, was nothing short 
 of an instinct from Heaven ; for just on enter- 
 ing the stabler's yard, a groom came shouting 
 to the hostler to get Sir David Hamilton's 
 horses saddled outright, as his master was 
 coming. 
 
 Thus, without the exposure of any inquiry, 
 he gained the tidings that he wanted, and 
 with what speed he could put into his heels, 
 he went forward to the pier of Leith, where 
 he found a bark, with many passengers on 
 board, ready to set sail for Kirkcaldy, waiting 
 only for the arrival of Sir David, to whom, as
 
 RINGAN GILIIAIZE. 19 
 
 the Archbishop"^ kinsman, the boatmen were 
 fain to pretend a great outward respect ; but 
 many a bitter ban, my grandfather said, they 
 gave him for taigling them so long, while 
 wind and tide both served, — all which was 
 proof and evidence how much the hearts of 
 the common people were then alienated from 
 the papistical churchmen. 
 
 Sir David having arrived, and his horses 
 being taken aboard, the bark set sail, and 
 about day-break next morning she came to 
 anchor at Kirkcaldy. During the voyage, 
 my grandfather, who was of a mild and 
 comely aspect, observed that the knight was 
 more affable towards him than to the lave of 
 the passengers, the most part of whom were 
 coopers going to Dundee to prepare for the 
 summer fishing. Among them was one Pa- 
 trick Gird wood, the deacon of the craft, a 
 most comical character, so vogie of his ho- 
 nours and dignities in the town-council, that 
 he could not get the knight told often enough
 
 20 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 what a load aboon the burden he had in keep- 
 ing a' things douce and in right regulation 
 amang the bailies. But Sir David, fashed at 
 his clatter, and to be quit of him, came across 
 the vessel, and began to talk to my grand- 
 father, although, by his apparel, he was no 
 meet companion for one of a knight's degree. 
 It happened that Sir David was pleased 
 with his conversation, which was not to be 
 wondered at ; for in his old age, when I knew 
 him, he was a man of a most enticing mild- 
 ness of manner, and withal so discreet in his 
 sentences, that he could not be heard without 
 begetting respect for his observance and judg- 
 ment. So out of the vanity of that vogie tod 
 of the town-council, was a mean thus made 
 by Providence to further the ends and objects 
 of the Reformation, in so far as my grand- 
 father was concerned ; for the knight took a 
 liking to him, and being told, as it was ex- 
 pedient to give a reason for his journey to St 
 Andrews, that he was going thither to work
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 21 
 
 as a ferrier, Sir David promised him not only 
 his own countenance, but to commend him to 
 the Archbishop. 
 
 There was at that time in Kirkcaldy one 
 Tobit Balmuto, a horse-setter, of whom my 
 grandfather had some knowledge by report. 
 This Tobit being much resorted to by the 
 courtiers going to and coming from Falkland, 
 and well known to their serving-men, who 
 were wont to speak of him in the smiddy at 
 Lithgow as a zealous reformer, — chiefly, as the 
 prodigals among them used to jeer and say, 
 because the priests and friars, in their jour- 
 neyings atween St Andrews and Edinburgh, 
 took the use of his beasts without paying for 
 them, giving him only their feckless benisons 
 instead of white money. 
 
 To this man my grandfather resolved to 
 apply for a horse, and such a one, if possible, 
 as would be able to carry him as fast as Sir 
 David Hamilton's. Accordingly, on getting 
 to the land, he inquired for Tobit Balmuto,
 
 22 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 and several of his striplings and hostlers being 
 on the shore, having, on seeing the bark ar- 
 rive, come down to look out for travellers 
 that might want horses, he was conducted by 
 one of them to their employer, whom he 
 found an elderly man, of the corpulent order, 
 sitting in an elbow-chair by the fireside, toast- 
 ing an oaten bannock on a pair of tormentors, 
 with a blue puddock-stool bonnet on his head, 
 and his grey hose undrawn up, whereby his 
 hairy legs were bare, showing a power and 
 girth such as my grandfather had seen few 
 like before, testifying to what had been the 
 deadly strength of their possessor in his 
 younger years. He was thought to have 
 been an off-gett of the Boswells of Balmuto. 
 When he had made known his want to To- 
 bit, and that he was in a manner obligated to 
 be at St Andrews as soon as Sir David Ha- 
 milton, the horse-setter withdrew the bannock 
 from before the ribs, and seeing it somewhat 
 scowthert and blackent on the one cheek, he
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 23 
 
 took it off the tormentors, and scraped it 
 with them, and blew away the brown burning, 
 before he made any response ; then he turned 
 round to my grandfather, and looking at him 
 with the tail of his eye, from aneath his broad 
 bonnet, said, — 
 
 " Then ye're no in the service of his Grace, 
 my Lord the Archbishop ? and yet, feien'j I 
 think na yeVe just a peer to Sir Davie, that 
 ye need to ettle at coping with his braw mare, 
 Skelp-the-dub, whilk I selt to him mysel ; 
 but the dell a bawbee hae I yet hanlet o" the 
 price ; howsever that's neither here nor there, 
 a day of reckoning will come at last.''' 
 
 My grandfather assured Tobit Balmuto, 
 it was indeed very true he was not in the 
 service of the Archbishop, and that he would 
 not have been so instant about getting to St 
 Andrews with the knight, had he not a 
 dread and fear that Sir David was the bearer 
 of something that might be sore news to the 
 flock o' Christ, and he was fain to be there as
 
 24 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 soon as him, to speak in time of what he 
 jealoused, that any of those in the town, who 
 stood within the reverence of the Archbishop's 
 aversion, on account of their religion, might 
 get an inkling, and provide for themselves. 
 
 " If that's your errand,"" said the horse- 
 setter, " ye s'all hae the swiftest foot in my 
 aught to help you on, and I redde you no to 
 spare the spur, for I'm troubled to think ye 
 may be owre late — Satan, or they lie upon him, 
 has been heating his cauldrons yonder for a 
 brewing, and the Archbishop's thrang provid- 
 ing the malt. Nae farther gane than yester- 
 day, auld worthy Mr Mill of Lunan, being 
 discovered hidden in a kiln at Dysart, was 
 ta'en, they say, in a cart, like a malefactor, 
 by twa uncircumcised loons, servitors to his 
 Grace, and it's thought it will go hard wi' 
 him, on account of his great godliness ; so 
 mak what haste ye dow, and the Lord put 
 mettle in the beast that bears you." 
 
 With that Tobit Balmuto ordered the lad
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 25 
 
 who brought my grandfather to the house, 
 to saddle a horse that he called Spunkie ; and 
 in a trice he was mounted and on the road 
 after Sir David, whom he overtook, notwith- 
 standing the spirit of his mare, Skelp-the-dub, 
 before he had cleared the town of Pathhead, 
 and they travelled onward at a brisk trot to- 
 gether, the Knight waxing more and more 
 pleased with his companion, in so much, that 
 by the time they had reached Cupar, where 
 they stopped to corn, he lamented that a 
 young man of his parts should think of fol- 
 lowing the slavery of a ferrier's life, when he 
 might rise to trusts and fortune in the house 
 of some of the great men of the time, kindly 
 offering to procure for him, on their arrival 
 at St Andrews, the favour and patronao-e of 
 his kinsman, the Archbishop. 
 
 vol i. B
 
 26 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 It was the afternoon when my grandfather and 
 Sir David Hamilton came in sight of St An- 
 drews, and the day being loun and bright, 
 the sky clear, and the sea calm, he told me, 
 that, when he saw the many lofty spires and 
 towers and glittering pinnacles of the town 
 rising before him, he verily thought he was ap- 
 proaching the city of Jerusalem, so grand and 
 glorious was the apparition which they made in 
 the sunshine, and he approached the barrica- 
 doed gate with a strange movement of awe and 
 wonder rushing through the depths of his spirit. 
 They, however, entered not into the city at 
 that time, but, passing along the wall leftward, 
 came to a road which led to the gate of the 
 castle where the Archbishop then dwelt ; and 
 as they were approaching towards it, Sir David
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 27 
 
 pointed out the window where Cardinal Bea- 
 ton sat in the pomp of his scarlet and fine 
 linen to witness the heretic Wishart, as the 
 knight called that holy man, burnt for his 
 sins and abominations. 
 
 My grandfather, on hearing this, drew his 
 bridle in, and falling behind Sir David, rais- 
 ed his cap in reverence and in sorrow at 
 the thought of passing over the ground 
 that had been so hallowed by martyrdom. 
 But he said nothing, for he knew that his 
 thoughts were full of offence to those who 
 were wrapt in the errors and delusions of po- 
 pery like Sir David Hamilton; and, moreover, 
 he had thanked the Lord thrice in the course 
 of their journey for the favour which it had 
 pleased Him he should find in the sight of the 
 kinsman of so great an adversary to the truth 
 as was the Archbishop of St Andrews, whose 
 treasons and treacheries against the church of 
 Christ he was then travelling to discover and 
 waylay.
 
 28 MNGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 On reaching the castle yett-they alighted : 
 my grandfather springing lightly from the 
 saddle, took hold of Sir David's mare by the 
 bridle-rings, while the knight went forward, 
 and whispered something concerning his 
 Grace to a stalwart hard-favoured grey-hair- 
 ed man-at-arms, that stood warder of the port 
 leaning on his sword, the blade of whilk 
 could not be shorter than an ell. What 
 answer he got was brief, the ancient warrior 
 pointing at the same time with his right hand 
 towards a certain part of the city, and giving 
 a Belial smile of significance ; whereupon Sir 
 David turned round without going into the 
 court of the castle, and bidding my grand- 
 father give the man the beasts and follow, 
 which he did, they walked together under 
 the town wall towards the east, till they came 
 to a narrow sallyport in the rampart, where- 
 with the priory and cathedral had of old 
 been fenced about with turrets and basti- 
 ons of great strength against the lawless kerns
 
 RLXGAN GILHAIZE. 29 
 
 of the Highlands, and especially the ships of 
 the English, who have in all ages been of a 
 nature gleg and glad to mulct and molest 
 the sea-harbour towns of Scotland. 
 
 On coming to the sallyport, Sir David 
 chapped with his whip twice, and from with- 
 in a wicket was opened in the doors, ribbed 
 with iron stainchers on the outside, and a 
 man with the sound of corpulency in his voice, 
 looked through and inquired what they want- 
 ed. Seeing, however, who it was that had 
 knocked, he forthwith drew the bar and al- 
 lowed them to enter, which was into a pleasant 
 policy adorned with jonquils and jelly-flow- 
 ers, and all manner of blooming and odorif- 
 erous plants, most voluptuous to the smell 
 and ravishing to behold, the scents and fra- 
 grancies whereof smote my grandfather for a 
 time, as he said, with the very anguish of de- 
 light. But, on looking behind to see who had 
 given them admittance, he was astounded 
 when, instead of an armed and mailed soldier,
 
 30 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 as he had thought the drumly-voiced sentinel 
 there placed was, he saw a large elderly monk, 
 sitting on a bench with a broken pasty smoking 
 on a platter beside him, and a Rotterdam 
 greybeard jug standing by, no doubt plenish- 
 ed with cordial drink. 
 
 Sir David held no parlance with the feeding 
 friar, but going straight up the walk to the 
 door of a lodging, to the which this was the 
 parterre and garden, he laid his hand on the 
 sneck, and opening it, bade my grandfather 
 come in. 
 
 They then went along the trance towards 
 an open room, and on entering it they met a 
 fair damsel in the garb of a handmaid, to 
 whom the knight spoke in familiarity, and 
 kittling her under the chin, made her giggle 
 in a wanton manner. By her he was informed 
 that the Archbishop was in the inner chamber 
 at dinner with her mistress, upon which he 
 desired my grandfather to sit down, while he 
 went ben to his Grace.
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 31 
 
 The room where my grandfather took his 
 seat was parted from the inner chamber, in 
 which the Archbishop and his lemane were at 
 their festivities, by an arras partition, so that 
 he could hear all that passed within, and the 
 first words his Grace said on his kinsman go- 
 ing ben was — 
 
 " Aweel, Davie, and what says that auld 
 doddard Argyle, will he send me the apos- 
 tate to mak a benfire ?" 
 
 " He has sent your Grace a letter,'" replied 
 Sir David, " wherein he told me he had ex- 
 pounded the reasons and causes of his pro- 
 tecting Douglas, hoping your Grace will ap- 
 prove the same." 
 
 " Approve heresy and reprobacy !" ex- 
 claimed the Archbishop ; " but gi'e me the 
 letter, and sit ye down, Davie. — Mistress Kil- 
 spinnie, my dauty, fill him a cup of wine, the 
 malvesie, to put smeddam in his marrow : 
 hell no be the waur o't, after his gallanting at 
 Enbro. — Stay ! what's this ? the auld man's
 
 32 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 been at school since him and me hae swappit 
 paper. My word, Argyle, thou's got a tongue 
 in thy pen neb ! but this was ne'er indited by 
 him ; the cloven foot of the heretical Carme- 
 lite is manifest in every line. Honour and 
 conscience truly ! — braw words for a hieland 
 schore, that bigs his bield wi' other folks gear !"" 
 
 " Be composed, your sweet Grace, and 
 dinna be so fashed,"" cried a silver-tongued 
 madam, the which my grandfather after- 
 wards found, as I shall have to rehearse, was 
 his concubine, the Mrs Kilspinnie — " what 
 does he say ?" 
 
 " Say ! why that Douglas preaches against 
 idolatry, and he remits to my conscience for- 
 sooth, gif that be heresy — and he preaches 
 against adulteries and fornications too — was 
 ever sic varlet terms written in ony nobleman's 
 letter afore this apostate's time — and he refers 
 that to my conscience likewise I' 1 
 
 " A fag-got to his tail would be ower gude 
 for him,' 1 cried Mrs Kilspinnie.
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 33 
 
 a 
 
 He preaches against hypocrisy,'' 1 said his 
 Grace, " the which he also refers to my con- 
 science — conscience again ! Hae, Davie, tak 
 thir clishmaclavers to Andrew Oliphant. It'll 
 be spunk to his zeal. We maun strike our 
 adversaries wi 1 terror, and if we canna wile 
 them back to the fold, we'll e'en set the dogs 
 on them. — Kind Mistress Kilspinnie, help me 
 frae the stoup o' sherries, for I canna but say 
 that this scalded heart I hae gotten frae that 
 auld shavling-gabbit hielander has raised my 
 corruption, and I stand in need, my lambie, 
 o 1 a 1 your winsome comforting. 11 
 
 At which words Sir David came forth the 
 chamber with the letter in his hand ; but 
 seeing my grandfather, whom it would seem 
 he had forgotten, he went suddenly back and 
 said to his Grace: — 
 
 " Please you, my Lord, I hae brought 
 with me a young man of a good capacity 
 and a ripe understanding, that I would com- 
 mend to your Grace's service. He is here
 
 34 RINGAN GILHAIZE. ' 
 
 in the outer room waiting your Grace's plea- 
 
 sure." 
 
 " Davie Hamilton," replied the Arch- 
 bishop, " ye sometimes lack discretion — 
 what for did ye bring a stranger into this 
 house — knowing as ye ought to do, that I 
 ne'er come hither but when I'm o' a sickly 
 frame, in need o' solace and repose ? Hows- 
 ever, since the lad's there, bid him come ben." 
 
 Upon this, Sir David came out and beck- 
 oned my grandfather to go in ; and when 
 he went forward, he saw none in that inner 
 chamber but his Grace and the Mrs Kilspinnie, 
 with whom he was sitting on a bedside, be- 
 fore a well-garnished table, whereon was di- 
 vers silver flagons, canisters of comfits, and 
 goblets of the crystal of Venetia. 
 
 He looked sharp at my grandfather, per- 
 using him from head to foot, who put on 
 for the occasion a face of modesty and rever- 
 ence, but he was none daunted for all his eyes 
 were awake, and he took such a cognition of
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 35 
 
 his Grace as he never afterwards forgot. 
 Indeed, I have often heard him say, that he 
 saw more of the man in the brief space of that 
 interview, than of others in many intromis- 
 sions, and he used to depict him to me as a 
 hale black-aviced carl, of an o'ersea look, 
 with a long dark beard inclining to grey ; 
 his abundant hair, flowing down from his 
 cowl, was also clouded and streaked with the 
 kithings of the cranreuch of age — there was, 
 however, a youthy and luscious twinkling in 
 his eyes, that showed how little the passage 
 of three and fifty winters had cooled the 
 rampant sensuality of his nature. His right 
 leg, which was naked, though on the foot was 
 a slipper of Spanish leather, he laid o'er Mis- 
 tress KilspimnVs knees, as he threw himself 
 back against the pillar of the bed, the better 
 to observe and converse with my grandfather; 
 and she, like another Delilah, began to pat- 
 tie it with her fingers, casting at the same 
 time glances, unseen by her papistical para-
 
 36 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 mour, towards my grandfather, who, as I 
 have said, was a comely and well-favoured 
 young man. 
 
 After some few questions as to his name and 
 parentage, the prelate said he would give him 
 his livery, being then anxious, on account of 
 the signs of the times, to fortify his house- 
 hold with stout and valiant youngsters ; and 
 bidding him draw near and to kneel down, 
 he laid his hand on his head, and mumbled 
 a benedicite ; the which my grandfather said, 
 was as the smell of rottenness to his spirit, the 
 lascivious hirkos, then wantoning so openly 
 with his adulterous concubine, for no better 
 was Mistress Kilspinnie, her husband, a credit- 
 able man, being then living, and one of the 
 bailies of Crail. Nor is it to be debated, that 
 the scene was such as ought not to have been 
 seen in a Christian land ; but in those days 
 the blasphemous progeny of the Roman 
 harlot were bold with the audacious sinful- 
 ness of their parent, and set little store by
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 37 
 
 the fear of God, or the contempt of man. 
 It was a sore trial and a struggle in the bo- 
 som of my grandfather that day, to think 
 of making a show of homage and service 
 towards the mitred Belial and high priest 
 of the abominations wherewith the realm was 
 polluted, and when he rose from under his 
 paw, he shuddered, and felt as if he had re- 
 ceived the foul erls of perdition from the Evil 
 One. Many a bitter tear he long after shed 
 in secret for the hypocrisy of that hour, the 
 guilt of which was never sweetened to his 
 conscience, even by the thought that he 
 may be thereby helped to further the great 
 redemption of his native land, in the blessed 
 cleansing of the Reformation. 

 
 38 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 Sir David Hamilton conducted my grandfa- 
 ther back through the garden -and the sally- 
 port to the castle, where he made him ac- 
 quainted with his Grace's seneschal, by whom 
 lie was hospitably entertained when the 
 knight had left them together, receiving from 
 him a cup of hippocras, and a plentiful repast, 
 the like of which, for the savouriness of the 
 viands, was seldom seen out of the howfs of 
 the monks. 
 
 The seneschal was called by name Leon- 
 ard Meldrum, and was a most douce and 
 composed character, well stricken in years, 
 and though engrained with the errors of pa- 
 pistry, as was natural for one bred and cherish- 
 ed in the house of the speaking horn of the
 
 RINGAN GILIIAIZE. 39 
 
 Beast, for such the high priest of St Andrews 
 was well likened to, he was nevertheless a 
 man of a humane heart and great tenderness 
 of conscience. 
 
 The while my grandfather was sitting with 
 him at the board, he lamented that the Church, 
 so he denominated the papal abomination, 
 was so far gone with the spirit of punishment 
 and of cruelty, as rather to shock men's 
 minds into schism and rebellion, than to al- 
 lure them back into worship and reverence, 
 and to a repentance of their heresies. A 
 strain of discourse which my grandfather so 
 little expected to hear within the gates and 
 precincts of the guilty castle of St Andrews, 
 that it made him for a time distrust the sin- 
 cerity of the old man, and he was very guarded 
 in what he himself answered thereto. Leon- 
 ard Meldrum was, however, honest in his way, 
 and rehearsed many things which had been 
 done within his own knowledge against the 
 reformers, that, as he said, human nature
 
 40 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 could not abide, nor the just and merciful 
 Heavens well pardon. 
 
 Thus, from less to more, my grandfather 
 and he fell into frank communion, and he 
 gave him such an account of the bloody Car- 
 dinal Beaton, as was most awful to hear, say- 
 ing, that his then present master, with all his 
 faults and prodigalities, was a saint of purity 
 compared to that rampagious cardinal, the 
 which to hear, my grandfather thinking of 
 what he had seen in the lodging of Madam 
 Kilspinnie, was seized with such a horror there- 
 at, that he could partake no more of the repast 
 before him ; and he was likewise moved into 
 a great awe and wonder of spirit, that the 
 Lord should thus, in the very chief sanctuary 
 of papistry in all Scotland, be alienating the 
 affections of the servants from their master, 
 preparing the way, as it were, for an utter de- 
 sertion and desolation to ensue. 
 
 They afterwards talked of the latter end of 
 that great martyr, Mr George Wishart, and
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 41 
 
 the seneschal informed him of several things 
 
 o 
 
 concerning the same, that were most edifying, 
 though sorrowful to hear. 
 
 " He was, 1 ' said he, " placed under my 
 care, and methinks I shall ever see him be- 
 fore me, so meek, so holy, and so goodlv 
 was his aspect. He was of tall stature, black 
 hair'd, long bearded, of a graceful carriage, 
 elegant, courteous, and ready to teach. In 
 his apparel he was most comely, and in his 
 diet of an abstemious temperance. On the 
 morning of his execution, when I gave him 
 notice that he was not to be allowed to have 
 the sacrament, he smiled with a holiness of 
 resignation that almost melted me to weep. I 
 then invited him to partake of my breakfast, 
 which he accepted with cheerfulness, saying — 
 
 " ' I will do it very willingly, and so much 
 the rather, because I perceive you to be 
 a good Christian, and a man fearing God.' 
 
 " I then ordered in the breakfast, and he 
 said —
 
 42 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 " ' I beseech you, for the love you bear to 
 our Saviour, to be silent a little while, till I 
 have made a short exhortation, and blessed 
 this bread we are to eat. 1 
 
 " He then spoke about the space of half an 
 hour of our Saviour's death and passion, ex- 
 horting me, and those who were present 
 with me, to mutual love and holiness of life ; 
 and giving thanks, brake the bread, distri- 
 buting a part to those about him ; then 
 taking a cup, he bade us remember that 
 Christ's blood was shed to wash away our 
 sins, and, tasting it himself, he handed it to 
 me, and I likewise partook of it : then he con- 
 cluded with another prayer, at the end of 
 which he said, * I will neither drink nor eat 
 any more in this world,' and he forthwith 
 entered into an inner chamber where his bed 
 was, leaving us filled with admiration and 
 sorrow, and our eyes flowing with tears." 
 
 To this the seneschal added, " I fear, I fear, 
 we are soon to have another scene of the same
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 43 
 
 sort, for to-morrow the Bishops of Murray, 
 and Brechin, and Caithness, with other dig- 
 nitaries, are summoned to the cathedral, to 
 sit on judgment on the aged priest of Lunan, 
 that was brought hither from Dysart yester- 
 een, and from the head the newfangled here- 
 sies are making, there's little doubt that the 
 poor auld man will be made an example. 
 Woes me ! far better would it be an they 
 would make an example of the like of the 
 Earls of Argyle and Glencairn, by whom 
 the reprobates are so encouraged.'" 
 
 " And is this Mill," 1 inquired my grandfa- 
 ther with diffidence, for his heart was so 
 stung with what he heard, that he could 
 scarcely feign the necessary hypocrisy which 
 the peril he stood in required — " Is this Mill 
 in the castle?" 
 
 " Sorry am I to say it," replied the sene- 
 schal, " and under my keeping ; but I darena 
 show him the pity that I would fain do to his 
 grey hairs and aged limbs. Some of the
 
 44 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 monks of the priory are with him just now, 
 trying to get him to recant his errors, with 
 the promise of a bein provision for the re- 
 mainder of his days in the abbey of Dunferm- 
 line, the whilk I hope our blessed Lady will 
 put it into his heart to accept." 
 
 *' I trust," said my grandfather in the core 
 of his bosom, " that the Lord will fortify him 
 to resist the temptation. 1 ' 
 
 This, however, the seneschal heard not, for 
 it was ejaculated inwardly, and he subjoined — 
 
 " When the monks go away, I will take 
 you in to see him, for truly he is a sight far 
 more moving to compassion than displeasure, 
 whatsoever his sins and heresies may be." 
 
 In this manner, for the space of more than 
 an hour, did my grandfather hold converse and 
 communion with Leonard Meldrum, in whom 
 he was often heard to say, there was more of 
 the leaven of a sanctified nature, than in 
 the disposition of many zealous and profess- 
 ing Christians.
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 45 
 
 When the two shavlings that had been af- 
 flicting Master Mill with the offer of the 
 wages of Satan were departed from the castle, 
 the seneschal rose, and bidding my grandfa- 
 ther to come after him, they went out of the 
 room, and traversing a narrow dark passage 
 with many windings, came to the foot of a 
 turnpike stair which led up into the sea-tower, 
 so called because it stood farthermost of all 
 the castle in the sea, and in the chamber there- 
 of they found Master Mill alone, sitting at 
 the window, with his ancient and shrivelled 
 lean hand resting on the sole and supporting 
 his chin, as he looked through the iron stain- 
 chers abroad on the ocean that was sleeping 
 in a blessed tranquillity around, all glow- 
 ing and golden with the schimmer of the set- 
 
 ting sun. 
 
 " How fares it with you ?" said the sene- 
 schal with a kindly accent; whereupon the 
 old man, who had not heard them enter, being 
 tranced in his own holy meditations, turned
 
 46 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 round, and my grandfather said he felt him- 
 self, when he beheld his countenance, so smit- 
 ten with awe and admiration, that he could 
 not for some time advance a step. 
 
 " Come in, Master Meldrum, and sit ye 
 down by me ! " said the godly man. " Draw 
 near unto me, for I am a thought hard of hear- 
 ing. The Lord has of late, by steeking the 
 doors and windows of my earthly tabernacle, 
 been admonishing me that the gloaming is 
 come, and the hour of rest cannot be far off. ,, 
 
 His voice, said my grandfather, was as the 
 sound of a mournful melody, but his coun- 
 tenance was brightened with a solemn joy ful- 
 ness. He was of a pale and spiritual complex- 
 ion ; his eyes beamed as it were with a living 
 light, and often glanced thoughts of heavenly 
 imaffininffs, even as he sat in silence. He was 
 then fourscore and two years old ; but his 
 appearance was more aged, for his life had 
 been full of suffering and poverty ; and his 
 venerable hands and skinny arms were heart-
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 47 
 
 melting evidences of his ineffectual power to 
 
 struggle much longer in the warfare of this 
 
 world. In sooth, he was a chosen wheat-ear, 
 
 ripened and ready for the garnels of salvation. 
 
 " I have brought, Master Mill," said the 
 
 seneschal, " a discreet youth to see you, not 
 
 out of a vain curiosity, for he sorrows with an 
 
 exceeding grief that such an aged person should 
 
 he brought into a state of so great jeopardy ; 
 
 but I hope, Master Mill, it will go well with 
 
 you yet, and that yell repent and accept the 
 
 boon that I hae heard was to be proffered." 
 
 To these words the aged saint made no re- 
 ply for the space of about a minute ; at the 
 end of which he raised his hands, and casting 
 his eyes heavenward, exclaimed — 
 
 v ' I thank thee, O Lord, for the days of 
 sore trial, and want, and hunger, and thirst, 
 and destitution, which thou hast been pleased 
 to bestow upon me, for by them have I, even 
 now as I stand on the threshold of life, been 
 enabled, through thy merciful heartenings, to
 
 48 KINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 set at nought the temptations wherewith I 
 have been tempted." 
 
 And, turning to the seneschal, he added 
 mildly, " But I am bound to you, Master 
 Meldrum, in great obligations, for I know 
 that, in the hope you have now expressed, 
 there is the spirit of much charitableness, al- 
 beit you discern not the deadly malady that 
 the sin of compliance would bring to my poor 
 soul. No, sir, it would na be worth my while 
 now, for world's gain, to read a recantation. 
 And blessed be God, it's no in my power to 
 yield, so deeply are the truths of his laws en- 
 graven upon the tablet of my heart." 
 
 They then fell into more general discourse, 
 and while they were speaking, a halberdier 
 came into the room with a paper, whereby the 
 prisoner was summoned to appear in the ca- ■ 
 thedral next day by ten o'clock, to answer di- 
 vers matters of heresy and schism laid to his 
 charge ; and the man having delivered the 
 
 summons, said to the seneschal, that he was 
 
 5
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 49 
 
 ordered by Sir Andrew Oliphant, to bid him 
 refrain from visiting the prisoner, and to retire 
 to his own lodging. 
 
 The seneschal to this command said nothing, 
 but rose, and my grandfather likewise rose. 
 Fain would he have knelt down to beg the 
 blessing of the martyr, but the worthy Mas- 
 ter Meldrum signified to him with a look to 
 come at once away ; and when they were re- 
 turned back into his chamber where the re- 
 past had been served, he told him, that there 
 was a danger of falling under the evil thoughts 
 of Oliphant, were he to be seen evidencing 
 any thing like respect towards prisoners ac- 
 cused of the sin of heresy. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 50 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 CHAP. V 
 
 The next day was like a cried fair m St An- 
 drews. All the country from ayont Cupar, 
 and many reformed and godly persons, even 
 from Dundee and Perth, were gathered into 
 the city to hear the trial of Master Walter 
 Mill. The streets were filled with horses 
 and men with whips in their hands and spurs 
 at their heels, and there was a great going to 
 and fro among the multitude ; but, saving in its 
 numbers, the congregation of the people was 
 in no other complexion either like a fair or a 
 tryst. Every visage was darkened with doure 
 thoughts ; none spoke cheerfully aloud ; but 
 there was whispering and muttering, and ever 
 and anon the auld men were seen wagging 
 their heads in sorrow, while the young cried 
 often " Shame ! shame !" and with vehement
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 51 
 
 gestures clave the air with their right hands, 
 grasping their whips and staffs with the vi- 
 gour of indignation. 
 
 At last the big bell of the cathedral began 
 to jow, at the doleful sound of which there 
 was, for the space of two or three minutes, a 
 silence and pause in the multitude, as if they 
 had been struck with panic and consterna- 
 tion ; for till then there was a hope among 
 them that the persecutors would relent ; but 
 the din of the bell was as the signal of death 
 and despair, and the people were soon awak- 
 ened from their astonishment by the cry that 
 " the bishops are coming ;" whereat there was 
 a great rush towards the gates of the church, 
 which was presently filled, leaving only a pas- 
 sage up the middle aisle. 
 
 In the quire a table was spread with a 
 purple velvet cloth, and at the upper end, 
 before the high place of the mass, was a stool 
 of state for the Archbishop; on each side 
 stood chairs for the Bishops of Murray,
 
 52 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 Brechin, and Caithness and his other suff- 
 ragans, summoned to sit in judgment with 
 him. 
 
 My grandfather, armed and wearing the 
 Archbishop' livery, was with those that 
 guarded the way for the cruel prelates, and 
 by the pressure of the throng in convoying 
 them into their place, he was driven within 
 the skreen of the quire, and saw and heard 
 all that passed. 
 
 When they had taken their seats, Master 
 Mill was brought before them from the prior's 
 chamber, whither he had been secretly con- 
 ducted early in the morning, to the end that 
 his great age might not be seen of the people 
 to work on their compassion. But, notwith- 
 standing the forethought of this device, when 
 he came in, his white hair, and his saintly 
 look, and his feeble tottering steps, softened 
 every heart ; even the very legate of anti- 
 christ, the Archbishop himself, my grandfather 
 said, was evidently moved, and for a season
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 53 
 
 looked at the poor infirm old man as he would 
 have spared him, and a murmur of universal 
 commiseration ran through the church. 
 
 On being taken to the bottom of the table, 
 and placed foment the Archbishop, Master 
 Mill knelt down and prayed for support, in a 
 voice so firm, and clear, and eloquent, that 
 all present were surprised ; for it rung to the 
 farthest corner of that great edifice, and smote 
 the hearts of his oppressors as with the dread 
 of a menacing oracle. 
 
 Sir Andrew Oliphant, who acted as clerk 
 and chancellor on the occasion, began to fret 
 as he heard him thus strengthened of the 
 Lord, and cried, peevishly — 
 
 " Sir Walter Mill, get up and answer, for 
 you keep my lords here too long." 
 
 He, however, heeded not this command, 
 but continued undisturbed till he had finished 
 his devotion, when he rose and said — 
 
 "lam bound to obey God more than man, 
 and I serve a mightier Lord than yours. You
 
 54 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 call me Sir Walter, but I am only Walter. 
 Too long was I one of the Pope's knights : 
 but now say what you have to say." 
 
 Oliphant was somewhat cowed by this bold 
 reply, and he bowed down, and turning over 
 his papers, read a portion of one of them to 
 himself, and then raising his head, said — 
 
 " What thinkest thou of priests' marriage ?" 
 
 The old man looked bravely towards the 
 bishops, and answered with an intrepid voice — 
 
 " I esteem marriage a blessed bond, or- 
 dained by God, approved by Christ, and 
 made free to all sorts of men ; but you ab- 
 hor it, and in the meantime take other men's 
 wives and daughters ; you vow chastity, and 
 keep it not." 
 
 My grandfather at these words looked un- 
 awares towards the Archbishop, thinking of 
 what he had seen in the lodging of Mistress 
 Kilspinnie ; and their eyes chancing to meet, 
 his Grace turned his head suddenly away as 
 if he had been rebuked.
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 55 
 
 Divers other questions were then put by 
 Oliphant, touching the sacraments, the idola- 
 try of the mass, and transubstantiation, with 
 other points concerning bishops, and pilgrim- 
 ages, and the worshipping of God in uncon- 
 secrated places ; to all which Master Mill an- 
 swered in so brave a manner, contrary to the 
 papists, that even Oliphant himself often 
 looked reproved and confounded. At last the 
 choler of that sharp weapon of persecution 
 began to rise, and he said to him sternly — 
 
 " If you will not recant, I will pronounce 
 sentence against you." 
 
 " I know," replied Master Mill, with an 
 apostolic constancy and fortitude, " I know 
 that I must die once ; and therefore, as Christ 
 said to Judas, What thou doest do quickly. 
 You shall know that I will not recant the 
 truth ; for I am corn and not chaff. I will 
 neither be blown away by the wind, nor burst 
 with the flail, but will abide both." 
 
 At these brave words a sough of admira-
 
 56 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 tion sounded through the church, but, instead 
 of deterring the prelates from proceeding with 
 their wicked purpose, it only served to hard- 
 en their hearts and to rouse their anger ; for 
 when they had conferred a few minutes apart, 
 Oliphant was ordered to condemn him to the 
 fire, and to deliver him over to the temporal 
 magistrates to see execution done. 
 
 No sooner was the sentence known, than a 
 cry like a howl of wrath rose from all the 
 people, and the provost of the town, who was 
 present with the bailies, hastily quitted the 
 church and fled, abhorring the task, and fear- 
 ful it would be put upon him to see it done, he 
 being also bailie of the archbishop's regalities. 
 
 When the sentence was pronounced, the 
 session of the court was adjourned, and the 
 bishops, as they were guarded back to the 
 castle, heard many a malison from the multi- 
 tude, who were ravenous against them. 
 
 The aged martyr being led back to the 
 prior's chamber, was, under cloud of night,
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 57 
 
 taken to the castle ; but my grandfather saw 
 no more of him, nor of Master Meldrum 
 the seneschal ; for there was a great fear 
 among the bishop's men that the multitude 
 would rise and attempt a rescue ; and my 
 grandfather, not being inclined to go so far 
 with his disguise as to fight against that 
 cause, took occasion, in the dusk of the even- 
 ing, to slip out of the castle, and to hide him- 
 self in the town, being resolved, after what 
 he had witnessed, no longer to abide, even as 
 a spy, in a service which his soul loathed. 
 
 All the night long there was a great com- 
 motion in the streets, and lights in many 
 houses, and a sound of lamentation mingled 
 with rage. The noise was as if some dreadful 
 work was going on. There was no shouting, 
 nor any sound of men united together, but a 
 deep and hoarse murmur rose at times from 
 the people, like the sound of the bandless 
 waves of the sea when they are driven by 
 the strong impulses of the tempest. The 
 
 c2
 
 58 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 spirit of the times was indeed upon them, 
 and it was manifest to my grandfather, that 
 there wanted that night but the voice of a 
 captain to bid them hurl their wrath and ven- 
 geance against the towers and strongholds of 
 the oppressors. 
 
 At the dawn of day the garrison of the 
 castle came forth, and on the spot where the 
 martyrdom of Mr George Wishart had been 
 accomplished, a stake was driven into the 
 ground, and faggots and barrels of tar were 
 placed around it, piled up almost as high as 
 a man ; in the middle, next to the stake, a 
 place was left for the sufferer. 
 
 But when all things were prepared, no 
 rope could be had — no one in all the town 
 would give or sell a cord to help that sacrifice 
 of iniquity, nor would any of the magistrates 
 come forth to see the execution done, so it 
 was thought for a time that the hungry cruel- 
 ty of the persecutors would be disappointed 
 of its banquet. One Somerville, however,
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 59 
 
 who was officer of the Archbishop's guard, 
 bethought himself, in this extremity, of the 
 ropes wherewith his master's pavilion was 
 fastened, and he went and took the same ; 
 and then his men brought forth the aged 
 martyr, at the sight of whom the multi- 
 tude set up a dreadful imprecation, the roar 
 and growling groan of which was as if a 
 thousand furious tigresses had been robbed 
 of their young. Many of Somerville's halber- 
 diers looked cowed, and their faces were 
 aghast with terror ; and some cried, compas- 
 sionately, as they saw the blessed old man 
 brought, with his hands tied behind him, to 
 the stake, " Recant, recant I" 
 
 The monks and friars of the different mo- 
 nasteries, who were all there assembled around, 
 took up the word, and bitterly taunting him, 
 cried likewise, " Recant, recant and save thy- 
 self !" He, however, replied to them with an 
 awful austerity — 
 
 " I marvel at your rage, ye hypocrites,
 
 60 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 who do so cruelly pursue the servants of 
 God. As for me, I am now fourscore and 
 two years old, and by course of nature can- 
 not live long ; but hundreds shall rise out of 
 my ashes who shall scatter you, ye persecu- 
 tors of God's people." 
 
 Sir Andrew Oliphant, who was that day 
 the busiest high priest of the horrible sacri- 
 fice, at these words pushed him forward into 
 the midst of the faggots and fuel around the 
 stake. But, nothing moved by this remorse- 
 less indignity, the martyr looked for a mo- 
 ment at the pile with a countenance full of 
 cheerful resignation, and then requested per- 
 mission to say a few words to the people. 
 
 " You have spoken too much," cried Oli- 
 phant, " and the bishops are exceedingly dis- 
 pleased with what you have said." 
 
 But the multitude exclaimed, " Let him 
 be heard ! let him speak what he pleases ! — 
 speak, and heed not Oliphant." At which he 
 looked towards them and said —
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 61 
 
 " Dear friends, the cause why I suffer 
 this day is not for any crime laid to my 
 charge, though I acknowledge myself a mi- 
 serable sinner, but only for the defence of the 
 truths of Jesus Christ, as set forth in the Old 
 and New Testaments.'" 
 
 He then began to pray, and while his eyes 
 were shut, two of Somerville's men threw a 
 cord with a running-loop round his body, 
 and bound him to the stake. The fire was 
 then kindled, and at the sight of the smoke 
 the multitude uttered a shriek of anguish, 
 and many ran away, unable to bear any long- 
 er the sight of that woful tragedy. Among 
 others, my grandfather also ran, nor halted 
 till he was come to a place under the rocks 
 on the south side of the town, where he could 
 see nothing before him but the lonely desert 
 of the calm arid soundless ocean.
 
 62 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 Many a time did my grandfather, in his 
 old age, when all things he spoke were but 
 remembrances, try to tell what passed in 
 his bosom while he was sitting alone, un- 
 der those cliffy rocks, gazing on the silent 
 and innocent sea, thinking of that dreadful 
 work, more hideous than the horrors of winds 
 and waves, with which blinded men, in the 
 lusts of their idolatry, were then blackening 
 the ethereal face of heaven ; but he was ever un- 
 able to proceed for the struggles of his spirit 
 and the gushing of his tears. Verily it was 
 an awful thing to see that patriarchal man 
 overcome by the recollections of his youth ; 
 and the manner in which he spoke of the 
 papistical cruelties was as the pouring of the 
 energy of a new life into the very soul, in-
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 63 
 
 stigating thoughts and resolutions of an im- 
 placable enmity against those ruthless ad- 
 versaries to the hopes and redemption of the 
 world, insomuch that, while yet a child, I 
 was often worked upon by what he said, 
 and felt my young heart so kindled with 
 the live coals of his godly enthusiasm, that 
 he himself has stopped in the eloquence of 
 his discourse, wondering at my fervour. Then 
 he would lay his hand upon my head, and 
 say, the Lord had not gifted me with such 
 zeal without having a task in store for my 
 riper years. His words of prophecy, as shall 
 hereafter appear, have greatly and wonder- 
 fully come to pass. But it is meet that for a 
 season I should rehearse what ensued to him, 
 for his story is full of solemnities and strange 
 accidents. 
 
 Having rested some time on the sea-shore, 
 he rose and walked along the toilsome shingle, 
 scarcely noting which way he went, — his 
 thoughts being busy with the martyrdom he
 
 64 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 had witnessed, flushing one moment with a 
 glorious indignation, and fainting the next 
 with despondent reflections on his own friend- 
 less state. For he looked upon himself as 
 adrift on the tides of the world, believing 
 that his patron, the Earl of Glencairn, would 
 to a surety condemn his lack of fortitude 
 in not enduring the servitude of the Arch- 
 bishop, after having been in so miraculous a 
 manner accepted into it, even as if Provi- 
 dence had made him a special instrument to 
 achieve the discoveries which the Lords of 
 the Congregation had then so much at heart. 
 And while he was walking along in this fluc- 
 tuating mood, he came suddenly upon a 
 man who was sitting, as he had so shortly 
 before been himself, sad and solitary, gazing 
 on the sea. The stranger, on hearing him 
 approach, rose hastily, and was moving quick- 
 ly away ; but my grandfather called to him 
 to stop and not to be afraid, for he would 
 harm no one.
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 65 
 
 " I thought," said the melancholy man, 
 " that all his Grace's retainers were at the 
 execution of the heretic." 
 
 There was something in the way in which 
 he uttered the latter clause of the sentence, 
 that seemed to my grandfather as if he would 
 have made use of better and fitter words, and 
 therefore, to encourage him into confidence, 
 he replied— 
 
 " I belong; not to his Grace.' 1 
 
 " How is it then that you wear his livery, 
 and that I saw you, with Sir David Hamilton, 
 enter the garden of that misguided woman ? w 
 
 He could proceed no farther, for his heart 
 swelled, and his utterance was for a while 
 stifled, he being no other than the misfortunate 
 Bailie of Crail, whose light wife had sunk in- 
 to the depravity of the Archbishop's lemane. 
 She had been beguiled away from him and 
 her five babies, their children, by the temp- 
 tations of a Dominican, who, by habit and re- 
 pute, was pandarus to his Grace, and the poor
 
 66 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 man had come to try if it was possible to 
 wile her back. 
 
 My grandfather was melted with sorrow to 
 see his great affection for the unworthy con- 
 cubine, calling to mind the scene of her har- 
 lotry and wanton glances — and he reasoned 
 with him on the great folly of vexing his 
 spirit for a woman so far lost to all shame 
 and given over to iniquity. But still the 
 good man of Crail would not be persuaded, 
 but used many earnest entreaties that my 
 grandfather would assist him to see his wife, 
 in order that he might remonstrate with her 
 on the eternal perils in which she had placed 
 her precious soul. 
 
 My grandfather, though much moved by 
 the importunity of that weak honest man, 
 nevertheless withstood his entreaties, telling 
 him that he was minded to depart forthwith 
 from St Andrews and make the best of his 
 way back to Edinburgh, and so could embark 
 in no undertaking whatever.
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 67 
 
 Discoursing on that subject in this manner, 
 they strayed into the fields, and being wrapt 
 up in their conversation, they heeded not 
 which way they went, till turning suddenly 
 round the corner of an orchard, they saw the 
 castle full before them, about half a mile off, 
 and a dim white vapour mounting at times 
 from the spot, still surrounded by many spec- 
 tators, where the fires of martyrdom had burnt 
 so fiercely. Shuddering and filled with dread, 
 my grandfather turned away, and seeing se- 
 veral countrymen passing, he inquired if all 
 was over. 
 
 " Yes," said they, " and the soldiers are 
 slockening the ashes ; but a' the waters of the 
 ocean-sea will never quench in Scotland the 
 flame that was kindled yonder this day. 1 * 
 
 The which words they said with a proud 
 look, thinking my grandfather, by his arms 
 and gabardine, belonged to the Archbishop's 
 household, — but the words were as manna to 
 his religious soul, and he gave inward praise
 
 68 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 and thanks that the self-same tragical mean 
 which had been devised to terrify the Re- 
 formers, was thus, through the mysterious 
 wisdom of Providence, made more embolden- 
 ing than courageous wine to fortify their 
 hearts for the great work that was before them. 
 Nothing, however, farther passed ; but, 
 changing the course of their walk, my grand- 
 father and the sorrowful Master Kilspinnie, for 
 so the poor man of Crail was called, went 
 back, and entering the bow at the Shoegate, 
 passed on towards a vintner's that dwelt op- 
 posite to the convent of the Blackfriars ; for 
 the day was by this time far advanced, and 
 they both felt themselves in need of some re- 
 freshment. 
 
 While they were sitting together in the 
 vintner's apartment, a stripling came several 
 times into the room, and looked hard at my 
 grandfather, and then went away without 
 speaking. This was divers times repeated, 
 and at last it was so remarkable that even
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 69 
 
 Master Kilspinnie took notice of him, observ- 
 ing, that he seemed as if he had something very 
 particular to communicate if an opportunity 
 served, offering at the same time to withdraw, 
 to leave the room clear for the youth to tell 
 his errand. 
 
 My grandfather's curiosity was, by this 
 strange and new adventure to him, so awaken- 
 ed, that he thought what his companion pro- 
 posed a discreet thing ; so the honest bailie 
 of Crail withdrew himself, and going into the 
 street, left my grandfather alone. 
 
 No sooner was he gone out of the house 
 than the stripling, who had been sorning 
 about the door, again came in, and coming 
 close up to my grandfather's ear, said with a 
 significance not to be misconstrued, that if he 
 would follow him he would take him to free 
 quarters, where he would be more kindly en- 
 tertained. 
 
 My grandfather, though naturally of a 
 quiet temperament, was nevertheless a bold
 
 70 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 and brave youth, and there was something in 
 the mystery of this message, for such he 
 rightly deemed it, that made him fain to see 
 the end thereof. So he called in the vintner's 
 wife and paid her the lawm', telling her to 
 say to the friend who had been with him, 
 when he came back, that he would soon re- 
 turn. 
 
 The vintner's wife was a buxom and jolly 
 dame, and before taking up the money, she 
 gave a pawkie look at the stripling, and as my 
 grandfather and he were going out at the 
 door, she hit the gilly a bilf on the back, 
 saying it was a ne'er-do-weel trade he had 
 ta'en up, and that he was na blate to wile 
 awa' her customers, — crying after him, " I 
 redde ye warn your madam, that gin she sends 
 you here again, I'll may be let his Grace ken 
 that her cauldron needs clouting." However, 
 the graceless gilly but laughed at the vintner's 
 wife, winking as he patted the side of his 
 nose with his fore-finger, which testified that
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 71 
 
 he held her vows of vengeance in very little 
 reverence ; and then he went on, my grand- 
 father following. 
 
 They walked up the street till they came to 
 the priory yett, when, turning down a wynd 
 i-o the left, he led my grandfather along be- 
 tween two dykes, till they were come to a 
 house that stood by itself within a fair garden. 
 But instead of fjoino; to the door in an honest 
 manner, he bade him stop, and going forward 
 he whistled shrilly, and then flung three stones 
 against a butt, that was standing at the corner 
 of the house on a gauntrees to kep rain water 
 from the spouting image of a stone puddock 
 that vomited what was gathered from the 
 roof in the rones, — and soon after an upper 
 casement was opened, and a damsel looked 
 forth ; she however said nothing to the strip- 
 ling, but she made certain signs which he un- 
 derstood, and then she drew in her head, shut- 
 ting the casement softly, and he came back to 
 my grandfather, to whom he said it was not
 
 72 RINGAN GILHATZE. 
 
 commodious at that time for him to be receiv- 
 ed into the house, but if he would come back 
 in the dark, at eight o'clock, all things would 
 be ready for his reception. 
 
 To this suggestion my grandfather made 
 no scruple to assent, but promised to be there ; 
 and he bargained with the lad to come for 
 him, giving him at the same time three placks 
 for a largess. He then returned to the vintner's, 
 where he found the Crail man sitting waiting 
 for him ; — and the vintner's wife, when she 
 saw him so soon back, jeered him, and would 
 fain have been jocose, which he often after 
 thought a woful immorality, considering the 
 dreadful martyrdom of a godly man that had 
 been done that day in the town ; but at the 
 time he was not so over strait-laced as to 
 take offence at what she said ; indeed, as he 
 used to say, sins were not so heinous in those 
 papistical days as they afterwards became, 
 when men lost faith in penance, and found 
 out the perils of purchased pardons.
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 73 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 My grandfather having, as I have told, a 
 compassion for the silly affection wherewith 
 the honest man of Crail still regarded his 
 wanton wife, told him the circumstantials of 
 his adventure with the stripling ; without, 
 however, letting wot he had discovered that 
 the invitation was from her ; the which was the 
 case, for the damsel who looked out at the 
 window was no other than the giglet he had 
 seen in her* lodging when he went thither 
 with Sir David Hamilton, — and he proposed 
 to the disconsolate husband that he should be 
 his friend in the adventure ; meaning thereby 
 to convince the unhappy man, by the evi- 
 dence of his own eyes and ears, that her con- 
 cubinage with the Antichrist was a blessed 
 riddance to him and his family. 
 
 i)
 
 74 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 At first Master Kilspinnie had no zest for 
 any such frolic, for so it seemed to him, and 
 he began to think my grandfather's horror at 
 the martyrdom of the aged saint but a long- 
 fac't hypocrisy ; nevertheless he was wrought 
 upon to consent ; and they sat plotting and 
 contriving in what manner they should act 
 their several parts, my grandfather pretend- 
 ing great fear and apprehension at the 
 thoughts of himself, a stranger, going alone 
 into the traps of a house where there were 
 sic forerunners of shame and signs of danger. 
 At last he proposed that they should go to- 
 gether and spy about the precincts of the 
 place, and try to discover if there was no other 
 entrance or outgate to the house than the way 
 by which the stripling conducted him, though 
 well he remembered the sallyport, where the 
 fat friar kept watch, eating the pasty. 
 
 Accordingly they went forth from the 
 vintner's, and my grandfather, as if he knew 
 not the Avay, led his companion round be-
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 75 
 
 tween the priory and the sea, till they came 
 near the aforesaid sallyport, when, mounting 
 upon a stone, he affected to discover that the 
 house of the madam stood in the garden with- 
 in, and that the sallyport could be no less 
 than a back yett thereto. 
 
 While they were speaking concerning the 
 same, my grandfather observed the wicket 
 open in the gate, and guessing therefrom that 
 it was one spying to forewarn somebody with- 
 in who wanted to come out unremarked, he 
 made a sign to his companion, and they both 
 threw themselves flat on the ground, and 
 hirsled down the rocks to conceal themselves. 
 Presently the gate was opened, and then out 
 came the fat friar, and looked east and west, 
 holding the door in his hand ; and anon out 
 came his Grace the Antichrist, hirpling with 
 a staff in his hand, for he was lame with that 
 monkish malady called the gout. The friar 
 then drew the yett too, and walked on towards 
 the castle, with his Grace leaning on his arm.
 
 76 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 In the meantime the poor man of Crail was 
 grinding the teeth of his rage at the sight of 
 the cause of his sorrow, and my grandfather 
 had a sore struggle to keep him down, and 
 prevent him from running wild and furious 
 at the two sacerdotal reprobates, for no light- 
 lier could they be called. 
 
 Thus, without any disclosure on my grand- 
 father's part, did Master Kilspinnie come to 
 jealouse that the lemane who had trysted him 
 was no other than his own faithless wife, and 
 he smote his forehead and wept bitterly, to 
 think how she was become sodreadless in sin. 
 But he vowed to put her to shame ; so it was 
 covenanted between them, that in the dusk of 
 the evening the afflicted husband should post 
 himself near to where they then stood, and 
 that when my grandfather was admitted by 
 the other entrance to the house, he should de- 
 vise some reason for walking forth into the 
 garden, and while there admit Master Kilspin- 
 nie.
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 77 
 
 Accordingly, betimes my grandfather was 
 ready, and the stripling, as had been bargain- 
 
 r 
 
 ed, came for him to the vintner's, and con- 
 ducted him to the house, where, after giving 
 the signals before enumerated, the damsel 
 came to the door and gave him admittance, 
 leading him straight to the inner chamber be- 
 fore described, where her mistress was sitting 
 in a languishing posture, with the table spread 
 for a banquet. 
 
 She embraced my grandfather with many 
 fond protestations, and filled him a cup of 
 hot malvesie, while her handmaid brought in 
 divers savoury dishes; but he, though a 
 valiant young man, was not at his ease, and 
 he thought of the poor husband and the five 
 babies that the adultress had left for the foul 
 love of the papist high-priest, and it was a 
 chaste spell and a restraining grace. Still he 
 partook a little of the rich repast which had 
 been prepared, and feigned so long a false plea- 
 sance, that he almost became pleased in reality.
 
 78 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 The dame, however, was herself at times fear- 
 ful, and seemed to listen if there was any 
 knocking at the door, telling my grandfather 
 that his Grace was to be back after he had 
 supped at the castle. " I thought,"" said she, " to 
 have had you here when he was at the burn- 
 ing of the heretic, but my gilly could not find 
 you among the troopers till it was owre late ; 
 for when he brought you my Lord had come to 
 solace himself after the execution. But I was 
 so nettled to be so balked, that I acted my- 
 self into an anger till I got him away, not, 
 however, without a threat of being troubled 
 with him again at night." 
 
 Scarcely had Madam said this, when my 
 grandfather started up and feigned to be in 
 great terror, begging her to let him hide him- 
 self in the garden till his Grace was come 
 and gone. To this, with all her blandish- 
 ments, the guilty woman made many obsta- 
 cles ; but he was fortified of the Lord with the 
 thoughts of her injured children, and would
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 79 
 
 not be entreated, but insisted on scogging 
 himself in the garden till the Archbishop was 
 sent away, the hour of his coming being then 
 near at hand. Seeing him thus peremptory, 
 Madam Kilspinnie was obligated to conform ; 
 so he was permitted to go into the garden, and 
 no sooner was he there than he went to the 
 sallyport and admitted her husband ; — and 
 well it was that he had been so steadfast in 
 his purpose; for scarcely were they moved 
 from the yett into a honeysuckle bower hard 
 by, when they heard it again open, and in 
 came his Grace with his corpulent pandarus, 
 who took his seat on the bench before spoken 
 of, to watch, while his master went into the 
 house. 
 
 The good Bailie of Crail breathed thickly, 
 and he took my grandfather by the hand, his 
 whole frame trembling with a passion of grief 
 and rage. In the lapse of some four or five 
 minutes, the giglet damsel came out of the
 
 80 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 house, and by the glimpse of a light from a 
 window as she passed, they saw she had a 
 tankard of smoking drink in her hand, with 
 which she went to the friar ; and my grand- 
 father and his companion taking advantage 
 of this, slipped out of their hiding-place 
 and stole softly into the house, and reached 
 the outer chamber, that was parted from 
 Madam's banquet bower by the arras parti- 
 tion. There they stopped to listen, and heard 
 her complaining in a most dolorous manner 
 of great heart-sickness, ever and anon begging 
 the deluded prelate Hamilton to taste the 
 feast she had prepared for him, in the hope of 
 being able to share it with him and the caress- 
 es of his sweet love. To which his Grace as 
 often replied, with great condolence and sym- 
 pathy, how very grieved he was to find her in 
 that sad and sore estate, with many other fond 
 cajoleries, most odious to my grandfather to 
 hear from a man so far advanced in years, and
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 81 
 
 who, by reason of the reverence of his office, 
 ought to have had Ins tongue schooled to 
 terms of piety and temperance. 
 
 The poor husband meanwhile said nothing, 
 but my grandfather heard his heart panting 
 audibly, and three or four times he was obli- 
 gated to brush away his hand, for, having no 
 arms himself, the bailie clutched at the hilt 
 of his sword, and would have drawn it from 
 the scabbard. 
 
 The Antichrist seeing his lemane in such 
 great malady as she so well feigned, he at last, 
 to her very earnest supplications, consented to 
 leave her that night, and kissed her as he came 
 away ; but her husband broke in upon them 
 with the rage of a hungry lion, and seizing 
 his Grace by the cuff of the neck, swung him 
 away from her with such vehemence, that he 
 fell into the corner of the room like a sack of 
 duds. As for Madam, she uttered a wild cry, 
 and threw herself back on the couch where 
 
 d 2
 
 82 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 she was sitting, and seemed as if she had 
 swooned, having no other device so ready to 
 avoid the upbraidings and just reproaches of 
 her spouse. But she was soon roused from 
 that fraudulent dwam by my grandfather, 
 who, seizing a flagon of wine, dashed it upon 
 her face.
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 83 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 Mrs Kilspinnie uttered a frightful screech, 
 and, starting up, attempted to run out of the 
 room, but her husband caught her by the arm, 
 and my grandfather was empowered, by a sig- 
 nal grant of great presence of mind, to think 
 that the noise might cause alarm, whereupon 
 he sprung instanter to the door that led into 
 the garden, just as the damsel was coming up, 
 and the fat friar hobbling as fast as he could 
 behind her, — and he had but time to say to 
 her, as it was with an inspiration, to keep all 
 quiet in the garden, and he would make his 
 escape by the other door. She, on hearing 
 this, ran back to stop the pandarus, and my 
 grandfather closed and bolted fast that back- 
 door, going forthwith to the one by which he 
 had been himself admitted, and which, having
 
 84 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 opened wide to the wall, he returned to the 
 scene of commotion. 
 
 In the meantime, the prelatic dragon, that 
 was so ravished from the woman, had hastily 
 risen upon his legs, and, red with a dreadful 
 wrath, raged as if he would have devoured 
 her husband. In sooth, to do his Grace jus- 
 tice, he lacked not the spirit of a courageous 
 gentleman, and he could not, my grandfather 
 often said, have borne himself more proudly 
 and valiantly had he been a belted knight, 
 bred in camps and fields of war, so that a dis- 
 creet retreat and evasion of the house was the 
 best course they could take. But Master Kil- 
 spinnie fain would have continued his biting 
 taunts to the mistress, who was enacting a most 
 tragical extravagance of affliction and terror ; 
 my grandfather, however, suddenly cut him 
 short, crying, " Come, come, no more of this; 
 an alarm is given, and we must save our- 
 selves." With that he seized him firmly by 
 the arm, and in a manner harled him out of
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 85 
 
 the house, and into the lane between the 
 dykes, along which they ran with nimble 
 heels. On reaching the Showgate they slack- 
 ened their speed, still, however, walking as 
 fast as they could till they came near the 
 port, when they again drew in the bridle of 
 their haste, going through among the guards 
 that were loitering around the door of the 
 wardroom, and passed out into the fields as 
 if they had been indifferent persons. 
 
 On escaping the gate, they fell in with divers 
 persons going along the road, who, by their 
 discourse, were returning home to Cupar, and 
 they walked leisurely with them till they came 
 to a cross-road, where my grandfather, giving 
 Master Kilspinnie a nodge, turned down the 
 one that went to the left, followed by him, and 
 it happened to be the road to Dysart and Crail. 
 
 " This will ne'er do," said Master Kilspin- 
 nie, " they will pursue us this gait." 
 
 Upon hearing this reasonable apprehension, 
 my grandfather stopped and conferred with
 
 86 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 himself, and received on that spot a blessed 
 experience and foretaste of the protection 
 wherewith, to a great age, he was all his days 
 protected. For it was in a manner revealed 
 to him, that he should throw away the gar- 
 bardine and sword which he had received in 
 the castle, and thereby appear in his simple 
 craftsman's garb, and that they should turn 
 back and cross the Cupar road, and go along 
 the other, which led to the Dundee water- 
 side ferry. This he told to his fearful com- 
 panion, and likewise, that as often as they fell 
 in with or heard any body coming up, the 
 bailie should hasten on before, or den him- 
 self among the brechans by the road-side, to 
 the end that it might appear they were not 
 two persons in company together. 
 
 But they had not long crossed the Cupar 
 road, and travelled the one leading to the fer- 
 ry, when they heard the whirlwind sound of 
 horsemen coming after them, at which the 
 honest man of Crail darted aside, and lay flat
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 87 
 
 on his grouff ayont a bramble bush, while 
 my grandfather began to lilt as blithely as he 
 could, " The Bonny Lass of Livingston, 1 ' 
 and the spring was ever after to him as a 
 hymn of thanksgiving ; but the words he then 
 sang was an auld ranting godless and grace- 
 less ditty of the grooms and serving-men that 
 sorned about his father's smiddy, — and the 
 closer that the horsemen came he was strength- 
 ened to sing the louder and the clearer. 
 
 " Saw ye twa fellows ganging this gait F" 
 cried the foremost of the pursuers, pulling up. 
 
 " What like were they ?" said my grand- 
 father in a simple manner. 
 
 " Ane of them was o" 1 his Grace's guard," 
 replied the man, " but the other, curse tak 
 me gin I ken what he was like, but he's the 
 bailie or provost of a burroughs town, and 
 should by rights hae a big belly." 
 
 To this my grandfather answered briskly, 
 " Nae sic twa hae past me ; but as I was 
 coming along whistling, thinking o' naething,
 
 88 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 twa sturdy loons, ane o' them no unlike the 
 hempies of the castle, ran skirring along, and 
 I hae a thought that they took the road to 
 Crail or Dysart." 
 
 " That was ray thought too," cried the 
 horseman, as he turned his beast, and the rest 
 that were with him doing the same, bidding 
 my grandfather good-night, away they scam- 
 pered back ; by which a blessed deliverance 
 was there wrought to him and his companion, 
 on that spot, in that night. 
 
 As soon as the horsemen had gone by, 
 Bailie Kilspinnie came from his hiding-place, 
 and both he and my grandfather proved that 
 no bird-lime was on their feet till they got 
 to the ferry-house at the water-side, where 
 they found two boats taking passengers on 
 board, one for Dundee and the other for 
 Perth. Here my grandfathers great gift of 
 foreknowledge was again proven, for he pro- 
 posed that they should bargain with the skip- 
 per of the Dundee boat to take them to that
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 89 
 
 town, and pay him like the other passengers 
 at once, in an open manner ; but that, as the 
 night was cloudy and dark, they should go 
 cannily aboard the boat for Perth, as it were 
 in mistake, and feign not to discover their 
 error till they were far up the river, when 
 they should proceed to the town, letting wot, 
 that by the return of the tide they would go 
 in the morning by the Perth boat to Dundee, 
 with which Master Kilspinnie was well acquaint- 
 ed, he having had many times, in the way of 
 his traffic as a plaiding merchant, cause to use 
 the same, and thereby knew it went twice 
 a-week, and that the morrow was one of the 
 days : — all this they were enabled to do with 
 such fortitude and decorum, that no one a- 
 board the Perth boat could have divined that 
 they were not honest men, in great trouble of 
 mind at discovering they had come into the 
 wrong boat. 
 
 But nothing showed more that Providence 
 had a hand in all this than what ensued, for
 
 90 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 all the passengers in the boat had been at St 
 Andrews to hear the trial and see the martyr- 
 dom, and they were sharp and vehement not 
 only in their condemnation of the mitred Anti- 
 christ, but grieved with a sincere sorrow, that 
 none of the nobles of Scotland would stand 
 forth in their ancient bravery, to resist and 
 overthrow a race of oppressors more grievous 
 than the Southrons that trode on the neck of 
 their fathers in the hero-stirring times of the 
 Wallace wight and King Robert the Bruce. — 
 Truly there was a spirit of unison and in- 
 dignation in the company on board that boat, 
 every one thirsting with a holy ardour to 
 avenge the cruelties of which the papistical 
 priesthood were daily growing more and more 
 crouse in the perpetration ; — and they made 
 the shores ring with the olden song of 
 
 " O for my ain king, quo' gude Wallace, 
 The rightfu' king of fair Scotlan' ;— 
 
 Between me and my sovereign dear 
 I think I see some ill seed sawn."
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 91 
 
 It was the grey of the morning before they 
 reached Perth ; and as soon as they were put 
 on the land, the bailie took my grand- 
 father with him to the house of one Sawners 
 Ruthven, a blanket- weaver, with whom he 
 had dealings, a staid and discreet man, who, 
 when he had supplied them with breakfast, 
 exhorted them not to tarry in the town, then 
 a place that had fallen under the suspicion of 
 the clergy, the lordly monks of Scoone tak- 
 ing great power and authority, in despite of 
 the magistrates, against all that fell under 
 their evil thoughts anent heresy. And he 
 counselled them not to proceed, as my grand- 
 father had proposed, straight on to Edinburgh 
 by the Queensferry, but to hasten up the 
 country to Crief, and thence take the road to 
 Stirling. In this there was much prudence ; 
 but Bailie Kilspinnie was in sore tribulation on 
 account of his children, whom he had left at 
 his home in Crail, fearing that the talons of 
 Antichrist would lay hold of them, and keep
 
 92 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 them as hostages till he was given up to suf- 
 fer for what he had done, none doubting that 
 Baal, for so he nicknamed the prelatic Ha- 
 milton, would impute to him the unpardon- 
 able sin of heresy and schism, and leave no 
 stone unturned to bring him to the stake. 
 
 But Sawners Ruthven comforted him with 
 the assurance that his Grace would not ven- 
 ture to act in that manner, for it was known 
 how Mistress Kilspinnie then lived at St An- 
 drews as his concubine. Nevertheless, the poor 
 man was in sore affliction ; and, as he and my 
 grandfather travelled towards Crieff, many a 
 bitter prayer did his vexed spirit pour forth 
 in its grief, that the right arm of the Lord 
 might soon be manifested against the Roman 
 locust, that consumed the land, and made its 
 corruption naught in the nostrils of Heaven. 
 
 Thus was it manifest, that there was much 
 of the ire of a selfish revenge mixt up with 
 the rage which was at that time kindled in so 
 unquenchable a manner against the Beast and
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 93 
 
 its worshippers; for in the history of the honest 
 man of Crail there was a great similitude to 
 other foul and worse things which the Roman 
 idolaters seemed to regard among their pesti- 
 ferous immunities, and counted themselves 
 free to do without dread of any earthly retri- 
 bution.
 
 94 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 My grandfather and his companion hastened 
 on in their journey ; but instead of going to 
 Stirling they crossed the river at Alloa, and 
 so passed by the water-side way to Edin- 
 burgh, where, on entering the West-port, 
 they separated. The bailie, who was a 
 fearful man, and in constant dread and ter- 
 ror of being burned as a heretic for having 
 broke in upon the dalliance of his incontinent 
 wife and the carnal-minded primate of St An- 
 drews, went to a cousin of his own, a dealer in 
 serge and temming in the Lawn-market, with 
 whom he concealed himself for some weeks ; 
 but my grandfather proceeded straight to- 
 wards the lodging of the Earl of Glencairn, 
 to recount to his lordship the whole passages 
 of what he had been concerned in, from the 
 night that he departed from his presence.
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 95 
 
 It was by this time the mirkest of the 
 gloaming, for they had purposely tarried on 
 their journey that they might enter Edin- 
 burgh at dusk. The shops of the traders 
 were shut, for in those days there was such a 
 resort of sorners and lawless men anion o- the 
 trains of the nobles and gentry, that it was 
 not safe for honest merchants to keep their 
 shops open after nightfall. Nevertheless the 
 streets were not darkened, for there were 
 then many begging-boxes, with images of 
 the saints, and cruisies burning afore them, 
 in divers parts of the Hi^h-street and corners 
 of the wynds, insomuch that it was easy, as 
 I have heard my grandfather tell, to see 
 and know any one passing in the light 
 thereof. And indeed what befell himself was 
 proof of it ; for as he was coming through 
 St Giles' kirk-yard, which is now the Par- 
 liament-close, and through which at that time 
 there was a style and path for passengers, 
 a young man, whom lie had observed fol-
 
 96 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 lowing him, came close up just as he reached 
 a begging image of the Virgin Mary with 
 its lamp, that stood on a pillar at the south- 
 east corner of the cathedral, and touching 
 him on the left shoulder at that spot, made 
 him look round in such a manner that the 
 light of the Virgin's lamp fell full on his face. 
 
 " Dinna be frighted, 1 ' said the stranger, 
 " I ken you, and I'm in Lord Glencairn's ser- 
 vice ; but follow me and say nothing." 
 
 My grandfather was not a little startled by 
 this salutation ; he however made no observe, 
 but replied, " Go on then." 
 
 So the stranger went forward, and after 
 various turnings and windings, led him down 
 into the Cowgate, and up a close on the south 
 side thereof, and then to a dark timber stair, 
 that was so frail and creaking, and narrow, that 
 his guide bade him haul himself up with the 
 help of a rope that hung down dangling for 
 that purpose. 
 
 When they had raised themselves to the
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 97 
 
 stair-head, the stranger opened a door, and 
 they went together into a small and lonesome 
 chamber, in the chimla-nook of which an old 
 iron cruisie was burning with a winkino- and 
 wizard light. 
 
 " I hae brought you here," said his con- 
 ductor, " for secrecy; for my Lord disna 
 want that ye should be seen about his lodg- 
 ing. Pm ane of three that hae been lang 
 seeking you ; and, as a token that yeVe no 
 deceived, I was bade to tell you, that before 
 parting from my Lord he gi^d you two pieces 
 of gold out of his coffer in the chamber where 
 he supped. 11 
 
 My grandfather thought this very like a 
 proof that he had been so informed by the 
 Earl himself; but, happening to remark that 
 he sat with his back to the light, and kept his 
 face hidden in the shadow of the darkness, 
 Providence put it into his head to jealouse 
 that he might nevertheless be a spy, one 
 perhaps that had been trusted in like man- 
 
 vol. i. E
 
 98 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 ner as he had himself been trusted, and who 
 had afterwards sold himself to the perdition 
 of the adversaries"' cause ; he was according- 
 ly on his guard ; but replied with seeming 
 frankness, that it was very true he had re- 
 ceived two pieces of gold from the Earl at his 
 departure. 
 
 " Then," said the } 7 oung man, " by that 
 token ye may know that I am in the private 
 service of the Earl, who, for reasons best 
 known to himsel', hath willed that you should 
 tell me, that I may report the same secretly 
 to him, what espionage you have made." 
 
 My grandfather was perplexed by this 
 speech, but distrust having crept into his 
 thoughts, instead of replying Avith a full re- 
 cital of all his adventures, he briefly said, that 
 he had indeed effected nothing, for his soul 
 was sickened by the woeful martyrdom of the 
 godly Master Mill to so great a disease that 
 he could not endure to abide in St Andrews, 
 and therefore he had come back.
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 99 
 
 .. 
 
 But you have been long on the way- 
 how is that ? — it is now many days since the 
 burning, 11 replied the stranger. 
 
 " You say truly, 11 was my grandfather's 
 answer, " for I came round by Perth ; but I 
 tarried at no place longer than was needful to 
 repair and refresh nature. 11 
 
 " Perth was a wide bout-gait to take frae 
 St Andrews to come to Edinburgh ; I marvel 
 how ye went so far astray," said the young 
 man curiously. 
 
 " In sooth it was ; but being sorely de- 
 mented with the tragical end of the godly old 
 man, 11 replied my grandfather, " and seeing 
 that I could do the Earl no manner of service, 
 I wist not Avell what course to take ; so, after 
 meickle tribulation of thought, and great un- 
 certainty of purpose, I e^n resolved to come 
 hither. 11 
 
 Little more passed : the young man rose 
 and said to my grandfather, he feared the 
 Earl would be so little content with him, that
 
 100 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 he had better not go near him, but seek some 
 other master. And when they had descend- 
 ed the stair, and were come into the street, 
 he advised him to go to the house of a certain 
 Widow Rippet, that let diy lodgings in the 
 Grass-market, and roost there for that night. 
 The which my grandfather in a manner sig- 
 nified he would do, and so they parted. 
 
 The stranger at first walked soberly away ; 
 but he had not gone many paces when he sud- 
 denly turned into a closs leading up to the 
 High-street, and my grandfather heard the 
 pattering of his feet running as swiftly as 
 possible, which confirmed to him what he 
 suspected ; and so, instead of going towards 
 the Widow Rippefs house, he turned back 
 and went straight on to St Mary"^ Wynd, 
 where the Earl's lodging was, and knocking at 
 the yett, was speedily admitted, and conduct- 
 ed instanter to my Lord's presence, whom he 
 found alone, reading many papers which lay 
 on a table before him.
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 101 
 
 " Gilhaize, v ' said the Earl, " how is this ? 
 why have you come back ? and wherefore is it 
 that I have heard no tidings from you ?" 
 
 Whereupon my grandfather recounted to 
 him all the circumstantials which I have re- 
 hearsed, from the hour of his departure from 
 Edinburgh up till the very time when he then 
 stood in his master's presence. The Earl 
 made no inroad on his narrative while he was 
 telling it, but his countenance often changed, 
 and he was much moved at different passages 
 — sometimes with sorrow and sometimes with 
 anger; and he laughed vehemently at the 
 mishap which had befallen the grand adver- 
 sary of the Congregation and his concubine. 
 The adventure, however, with the unknown 
 varlet in the street appeared to make his Lord- 
 ship very thoughtful, and no less than thrice 
 did he question my grandfather, if he had in- 
 deed given but those barren answers which I 
 have already recited ; to all which he received 
 the most solemn asseverations, that no more
 
 102 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 was said. His Lordship then sat some time 
 cogitating, with his hands resting on his 
 thighs, his brows bent, and his lips pursed as 
 with sharp thought. At last he said— 
 
 " Gilhaize, you have done better in this 
 than I ought to have expected of one so 
 young and unpractised. The favour 3^011 
 won with Sir David Hamilton was no more 
 than I thought )^our looks and manners 
 would beget. But you are not only well- 
 favoured but well-fortuned ; and had you 
 not found yourself worthily bound to your 
 duty, I doubt not you might have pros- 
 pered in the Archbishop's household. The 
 affair with Madam Kilspinnie was a thing I 
 reckoned not of; yet therein you have proved 
 yourself not only a very Joseph, but so ripe 
 in wit beyond your j^ears, that your merits 
 deserve more commendation than I can afford 
 to give, for I have not sufficient to bestow on 
 the singular prudence and discernment where- 
 with you have parried the treacherous thrusts
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 103 
 
 of that Judas Iscariot, Winterton, for so I 
 doubt not is the traitor who waylaid you. 
 He was once in ray service, and is now in the 
 Queen Regent's. In sending off my men on 
 errands similar to 3>mirs, I was wont to give 
 them two pieces of gold, and this the false- 
 loon has gathered to be a custom, from others 
 as well as by Jus own knowledge, and he has 
 made it the key to open the breasts of my ser- 
 vants. To know this, however, is a great 
 discovery. But, Gilhaize, not to waste words, 
 you have your master's confidence. Go there- 
 fore, I pray you, with all speed to the Widow 
 Rippet's, and do as Winterton bade you, and 
 as chance may require. In the morning come 
 again hither ; for I have this night many 
 weighty affairs, and you have shown your- 
 self possessed of a discerning spirit, that may, 
 in these times of peril and perjury, help the 
 great cause of all good Scotchmen.'" 
 
 In saying these most acceptable words, he 
 clapped my grandfather on the shoulder, and
 
 104 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 encouraged him to be as true-hearted as he 
 was sharp-witted, and he could not fail to 
 earn both treasure and trusts. So my grand- 
 father left him, and went to the Widow Rip- 
 pet's in the Grass-market; and around her 
 kitchen fire he found some four or five dis- 
 carded knaves that were bargaining with her 
 for beds, or for leave to sleep by the hearth. 
 And he had not been long seated among them 
 when his heart was grieved with pain to see 
 Winterton come in, and behind him the two 
 simple lads of Lithgow that had left their 
 homes with him, whom, it appeared, the var- 
 let had seduced from the Earl of GlencairiVs 
 service, and inveigled into the Earl of Seaton's, 
 a rampant papist, by the same wiles where- 
 with he thought he had likewise made a con- 
 quest of my grandfather, whom they had all 
 come together to see ; for the two Lithgow 
 lads, like reynard the fox when he had lost 
 his tail, were eager that he too should make 
 himself like them. He feigned, however, great
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 105 
 
 weariness, and indeed his heart was heavy to 
 see such skill of wickedness in so young a 
 man as he saw in Wintcrton. So, after par- 
 taking with them of some spiced ale, which 
 Winterton brought from the Salutation ta- 
 vern opposite the gallows-stone, he declared 
 himself overcome with sleep, and per force 
 thereof obligated to go to bed. But when they 
 were gone, and he had retired to his sorry 
 couch, no sleep came to his eyelids, but only 
 hot and salt tears ; for he thought that he had 
 been in a measure concerned in bringing away 
 the two thoughtless lads from their homes, and 
 he saw that they were not tempered to resist 
 the temptations of the world, but would soon 
 fall away from their religious integrity, and 
 become lewd and godless roisters, like the 
 wuddy worthies that paid half price for leave 
 to sleep on the widow's hearth. 
 
 e2
 
 106 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 At the first blink of the grey eye of the 
 morning my grandfather rose, and, quitting 
 the house of the Widow Rippet, went straight 
 to the Earl's lodgings and was admitted. The 
 porter at the door told him, that their master 
 having been up all night had but just retired 
 to bed; but, while they were speaking, the 
 Earl's page, who slept in the antichamber, 
 called from the stair-head to inquire who it 
 was that had come so early ; and being in- 
 formed thereof, he went into his master, and 
 afterwards came again and desired my grand- 
 father to walk up, and conducted him to his 
 Lordship, whom he found on his couch, but 
 not undressed, and who said to him, on his 
 entering, when the page had retired — 
 
 " I am glad, Gilhaize, that you have come
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 107 
 
 thus early, for I want a trusty man to go 
 forthwith into the west country. What I 
 wish you to do cannot be written, but you will 
 take this ring •" and he took one from the lit- 
 tle finger of his right hand, on the gem of 
 which his cipher was graven, and gave it to 
 my grandfather. " On showing it to Lord 
 Boyd, whom you will find at the Dean Castle, 
 near Kilmarnock, he will thereby know that 
 you are specially trusted of me. The mes- 
 sage whereof you are the bearer is to this 
 effect, — That the Lords of the Congregation 
 have, by their friends in many places, received 
 strong exhortations to step forward and oppose 
 the headlong fury of the churchmen; and 
 that they have in consequence deemed it ne- 
 cessary to lose no time in ascertaining what 
 the strength of the Reformed may be, and to 
 procure declarations for mutual defence from 
 all who are joined in professing the true re- 
 ligion of Christ. Should he see meet to em- 
 ploy you in this matter, you will obey his
 
 108 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 orders and instiuctions whatsoever they may 
 be." 
 
 The Earl then put his hand aneath his pil- 
 low, and drew out a small leathern purse, 
 which he gave to my grandfather, who, in the 
 doing of this, observed that he had several 
 other similar purses ready under his head. In 
 taking it my grandfather was proceeding to 
 tell him what he had observed at the Widow 
 Rippet's, but his Lordship interrupted him, 
 saying— 
 
 " Such things are of no issue now, and 
 your present duty is in a higher road ; there- 
 fore make haste, and God be with you." 
 
 With these words his Lordship turned him- 
 self on his couch, and composed himself to 
 sleep ; which my grandfather, after looking on 
 for about a minute or so, observing, came 
 away ; and having borrowed a frock and a trot- 
 cozey for the journey from one of the grooms 
 of the hall, he went straight to Kenneth Shel- 
 ty's, a noted horse-setter in those days, who
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 109 
 
 lived at the West-port, and bargained with him 
 for the hire of a beast to Glasgow, though 
 Glasgow was not then the nearest road to Kil- 
 marnock ; but he thought it prudent to go that 
 way, in case any of the papistical emissaries 
 should track his course. 
 
 There Mas, however, a little oversight in 
 this, which did not come to mind till he 
 was some miles on the road, and that was, 
 the obligation it put him under of passing 
 through Lithgow, where he was so well known, 
 and where all his kith and kin lived ; there 
 being then no immediate route from Edin- 
 burgh to Glasgow but by Lithgow. And he 
 debated with himself for a space of time, 
 whether he ought to proceed, or turn back 
 and go the other way, and his mind was sorely 
 troubled with doubts and difficulties. At last 
 he considered, that it was never deemed wise 
 or fortunate to turn back in any undertak- 
 ing, and besides, having for the service of 
 the Saviour left his father's house and re-
 
 110 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 nounced his parents, like a bird that taketh 
 wing and knoweth the nest where it was bred 
 no more — he knit up his ravelled thoughts 
 into resolution, and, clapping spurs to his 
 horse, rode bravely on. 
 
 But when he beheld the towers of the pa- 
 lace, and the steeples of his native town, ris- 
 ing before him, many remembrances came 
 rushing to his heart, and all the vexations he 
 had suffered there were lost in the sunny re- 
 collections of the morning of life, when every 
 one was kind, and the eyes of his parents 
 looked on him with the brightness of delight, 
 in so much, that his soul yearned within him, 
 and his cheeks were wetted with fast-flowing 
 tears. Nevertheless, he overcame this thaw 
 of his fortitude, and went forward in the 
 strength of the Lord, determined to swerve 
 not in his duty to the Earl of Glencairn, nor 
 in his holier fealty to a far greater master. 
 But the softness that he felt in his nature, 
 made him gird himself with a firm purpose
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. Ill 
 
 to ride through the town without stopping. 
 Scarcely, however, had he entered the port, 
 when his horse stumbled and lost a shoe, by 
 which he was not only constrained to stop, 
 but to take him to his father's smiddy, which 
 was in sight when the mischance happened. 
 
 On going to the door, he found, as was 
 commonly the case, a number of grooms and 
 flunkies of the courtiers, with certain friars, 
 holding vehement discourse concerning the 
 tidings of the time, the burden of which 
 was, the burning of the aged Master Mill, a 
 thing that even the monks durst not, for hu- 
 manity, venture very strenuously to defend. 
 His father was not then within ; but one of 
 the prentice lads, seeing who it was that had 
 come with a horse to be shod, ran to tell him ; 
 and at the sight of my grandfather, the friars 
 suspended their controversies with the serving- 
 men, and gathered round him with many 
 questions. He replied, however, to them all 
 with few words, bidding the foreman to make
 
 112 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 haste and shoe his horse, hoping that he might 
 thereby be off and away before his father came. 
 But, while the man was throng with the 
 horse's foot, both father and mother came 
 rushing in, and his mother was weeping bit- 
 terly, and wringing her hands, chiding him, 
 as if he had sold himself to the Evil One, and 
 beseeching him to stop and repent. His 
 father, however, said little, but inquired 
 how he had been, what he was doing, and 
 where he was going ; and sent the prentice 
 lad to bring a stoup of spiced ale from a 
 public hard by, in which he pledged him, 
 kindly hoping he would do well for himself 
 and he would do well for his parents. The 
 which fatherliness touched my grandfather 
 more to the quick than all the loud lament 
 and reproaches of his mother ; and he replied, 
 that he had entered into the service of a 
 nobleman, and was then riding on his mas- 
 ter's business to Glasgow ; but he mentioned 
 no name, nor did his father inquire. His mo-
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 113 
 
 ther, however, burst out into clamorous re- 
 vilings, declaring her dread, that it was some 
 of the apostate heretics ; and, giving vent to 
 her passion, was as one in a frenzy, or possess- 
 ed of a devil. The very friars were confound- 
 ed at her distraction, and tried to sooth her and 
 remove her forth the smiddy, which only made 
 her more wild, so that all present compassion- 
 ated my grandfather, who sat silent and made 
 no answer, wearying till his horse was ready. 
 But greatly afflicted as he was by this trial, 
 it was nothing to what ensued, when, after 
 having mounted and shaken his father by the 
 hand, he galloped away to the West-port. 
 There, on the outside, he was met by two wo- 
 men and an old man, parents of the lads whom 
 he had taken with him to Edinburgh. Hav- 
 ing heard he was at his father's smiddy, in- 
 stead of going thither, they had come to that 
 place, in order that they might speak with him 
 more apart, and free from molestation, con- 
 cerning their sons.
 
 114 RING AN GILHAIZE. 
 
 One of the women was a poor widow, and 
 she had no other child, nor the hope of any 
 other bread-winner for her old age. She, how- 
 ever, said nothing, but stood with the corner of 
 her apron at her eyes, sobbing very afflictedly, 
 while her friends, on seeing my grandfather 
 coming out of the port, stepped forward, and 
 the old man claught the horse by the bridle, 
 and said gravely — 
 
 "Ye maun stop and satisfy three sorrow- 
 ful parents ! What hae ye done with your 
 twa thoughtless companions ?" 
 
 My grandfather's heart was as if it would 
 have perished in his bosom ; for the company 
 he had seen the lads with, and the talk they 
 had held, and above all their recklessness of 
 principle, came upon him like a withering 
 flash of fire. He, however, replied soberly, 
 that he had seen them both the night before, 
 and that they were well in health, and jocund 
 in spirit. 
 
 The mother that was standing near her
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 115 
 
 husband was blithe to hear this, and reminded 
 her gudeman, how she had often said, that 
 when they did hear tidings of their son her 
 words would be found true, for he had ever 
 been all his days a brisk and a valiant bairn. 
 
 But the helpless widow was not content, 
 and she came forward, drying her tears, say- 
 ing, " And what is my poor fatherless do-na- 
 gude about ? I'm fearfu, fearfu, to be par- 
 ticular ; for, though he was aye kind-hearted 
 to me, he was easily wised, and I doubt, I 
 doubt, he'll prove a blasting or a blessing, 
 according to the hands he fa's among." 
 
 " I hope and pray,'' 1 said nry grandfather, 
 " that he'll be protected from scaith, and live 
 to be a comfort to all his friends/' And, so 
 saying, he disengaged his bridle M'ith a gentle 
 violence from the old man's hold, telling them, 
 he could not afford to stop, being timed to 
 reach Glasgow that night. So lie pricked the 
 horse with his rowals, and shot away ; but his 
 heart, all the remainder of his day's journey,
 
 116 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 was as if it had been pierced with many 
 barbed arrows, and the sad voice of the poor 
 anxious widow rung in his ears like the 
 sound of some doleful knell. 
 
 Saving this affair at Lithgow, nothing be- 
 fell him till he came to the gates of Glasgow ; 
 by which time it was dark, and the ward and 
 watch set, and they questioned him very sharp- 
 ly before giving him admission. For the Queen 
 Regent was then sojourning in the castle, and 
 her fears and cares were greatly quickened at 
 that time, by rumours from all parts of the 
 kingdom, concerning the murder, as it was 
 called, of Master Mill. On this account 
 the French guards, which she had with her, 
 were instructed to be jealous of all untime- 
 ous travellers, and they being joined with a 
 ward of burgers, but using only their own 
 tongue, caused no small molestation to every 
 Scotsman that sought admission after the sun 
 was set ; for the burgers not being well versed 
 in military practices, were of themselves very
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 117 
 
 propugnacious in their authority, making more 
 ado than even the Frenchmen. It happened, 
 however, that there was among those valiant 
 traders and craftsmen of Glasgow one Tho- 
 mas Sword, the deacon of the hammermen, 
 and he having the command of those station- 
 ed at the gate, overheard Avhat was passing 
 with my grandfather, and coming out of the 
 wardroom, inquired his name, which when 
 he heard, and that he was son to Michael 
 Gilhaize, the Lithgow ferrier, he advised to 
 let him in, saying, he knew his father well, 
 and that they had worked together, when 
 young men, in the King's armory at Stirling ; 
 and he told him where he lived, and invited 
 him, when his horse was stabled, to come to 
 supper, for he was glad to see him for his fa- 
 ther's sake.
 
 118 RINGAN GILHA1ZE. 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 At this time an ancient controversy between 
 the Archbishops of St Andrews and of Glas- 
 gow, touching their respective jurisdictions, 
 had been resuscitated with great acrimony, 
 and in the debates concerning the same the 
 Glasgow people took a deep interest ; for they 
 are stout-hearted and of an adventurous spirit, 
 and cannot abide to think that they or their 
 town should, in any thing of public honour, 
 be deemed either slack or second to the fore- 
 most in the realm ; and none of all the worthy 
 burgesses thereof thought more proudly of 
 the superiority and renown of their cit}^ than 
 did Deacon Sword. So it came to pass, as 
 he was sitting at supper with my grandfather, 
 that he enlarged and expatiated on the inor- 
 dinate pretensions of the Archbishop of St
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 119 
 
 Andrews, and took occasion to diverge from 
 the prelate's political ambition to speak of the 
 enormities of his ecclesiastical government, and 
 particularly of that heinous and never-to-be- 
 forgotten act, the burning of an aged man of 
 fourscore and two years, whose very heresies, 
 as the deacon mercifully said, ought rather 
 to have been imputed to dotage than charged 
 as offences. 
 
 My grandfather was well pleased to ob- 
 serve such vigour of principle and bravery 
 of character, in one having such sway and 
 weight in so great a community as to be 
 the chief captain of the crafts who were 
 banded with the hammermen, namely, the 
 cartwrights, the saddlers, the masons, the 
 coopers, the mariners, and all whose work 
 required the use of edge-tools, the hardiest 
 and buirdliest of the trades— and he allowed 
 himself to run in with the deacon's humour, 
 but without letting wot either in whose ser- 
 vice he was, or on what exploit he was bound ;
 
 120 RING AN GILHAIZE. 
 
 sowing, however, from time to time, hints as 
 to the need that seemed to be growing of 
 patting a curb on the bold front wherewith 
 the Archbishop of St Andrews, under the 
 pretext of suppressing heresies, butted with 
 the horns of oppression against all who stood 
 within the reverence of his displeasure. 
 
 Deacon Sword had himself a leaning to the 
 reformed doctrines, which, with his public 
 enmity to the challenger of his own Arch- 
 bishop, made him take to those hints with 
 so great an affinity, that he vowed to God, 
 shaking my grandfather by the hand over 
 the table, that if some steps -were not soon 
 taken to stop such inordinate misrule, there 
 were not wanting five hundred men in Glas- 
 gow, who would start forward with weapons 
 in their grip, at the first tout of a trump, to 
 vindicate the liberties of the subject, and the 
 wholesome administration, by the temporal 
 judges of the law against all offenders as of old. 
 And giving scope to his ardour, he said there
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 121 
 
 was then such a spirit awakened in Glasgow, 
 that men, women, and children, thirsted to 
 see justice executed on the churchmen, who 
 were daily waxing more and more wroth and 
 insatiable against every one who called their 
 doctrines or polity in question. 
 
 Thus out of the very devices, which had 
 been devised by those about the Queen Re- 
 gent to intercept the free communion of the 
 people with one another, was the means 
 brought about whereby a chosen emissary of 
 the Congregation came to get at the embold- 
 ening knowledge of the sense of the citizens 
 of Glasgow, with regard to the great cause 
 which at that period troubled the minds and 
 fears of all men. 
 
 My grandfather was joyfully heartened by 
 what he heard ; and before coming away from 
 the deacon, who, with the hospitality com- 
 mon to his townsmen, would fain have had 
 him to prolong their sederunt over the garde- 
 vine, he said, that if Glasgow were as true 
 vol. i. F
 
 122 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 and valiant as it was thought, there could be 
 no doubt that her declaration for the Lords 
 of the Congregation would work out a .great 
 redress of public wrongs. For, from all he 
 could learn and understand, those high and 
 pious noblemen had nothing more at heart 
 than to procure for the people the free exer- 
 cise of their right to worship God according 
 to their conscience, and the doctrines of the 
 Old and New Testaments. 
 
 But though, over the liquor-cup, the dea- 
 con had spoken so dreadless, and like a manly 
 citizen, my grandfather resolved with himself 
 to depart betimes for Kilmarnock, in case of 
 any change in his temper. Accordingly, he 
 requested the hostler of the hostel where he 
 had taken his bed, to which his day's hard 
 journey early inclined him, to have his horse 
 in readiness before break of day. But this 
 hostel, which was called the Cross of Rhodes, 
 happened to be situated at the Waterport, 
 and besides being a tavern and inn, was like-
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 123 
 
 wise the great ferryhouse of the Clyde when 
 the tide was up, or the ford rendered unsafe 
 by the torrents of speats and inland rains — 
 the which caused it to be much frequented 
 by the skippers and mariners of the barks 
 that traded to France and Genoa with the 
 Renfrew salmon, and by all sorts of travel- 
 lers, at all times, even to the small hours of 
 the morning. In short it was a boisterous 
 house, the company resorting thereto of a sort 
 little in unison with the religious frame of my 
 grandfather. As soon, therefore, as he came 
 from the deacon's, he went to bed without 
 taking off his clothes, in order that he might 
 be fit for the road as he intended ; and his 
 bed being in the public room, with sliding- 
 doors, he drew them upon him, hoping to 
 shut out some of the din, and to win a little 
 repose. But scarcely had he laid his head on 
 the pillow, when he heard the voice of one en- 
 tering the room, and listening eagerly, he dis- 
 covered that it was no other than the traitor
 
 124 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 Winterton's, the which so amazed him with 
 apprehension, that he shook as he lay, like the 
 aspen leaf on the tree. 
 
 Winterton called like a braggart for supper 
 and hot wine, boasting he had ridden that 
 day from Edinburgh, and that he must be 
 up and across his horse by daylight in the 
 morning, as he had need to be in Kilmarnock 
 by noon. In this, which vanity made him 
 tell in bravado, my grandfather could not but 
 discern a kind Providence admonishing him- 
 self, for he had no doubt that Winterton 
 was in pursuit of him ; and thankful he was 
 that he had given no inkling to any one in 
 the house as to whence he had come, and 
 where he was going. But had this thought 
 not at once entered his head, he would soon 
 have had cause to think it ; for while Win- 
 terton was eating his supper he began to con- 
 verse with their host, and to inquire what tra- 
 vellers had crossed the river. Twice or thrice? 
 in as it were an off-hand manner, he spoke of
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 125 
 
 one whom he called a cousin ; but, in describing 
 his garb, he left no doubt in my grandfather's 
 bosom that it was regarding him he seemed 
 at once both so negligent and so anxious. 
 Most providential therefore it was, that my 
 grandfather had altered his dress before leav- 
 ing Edinburgh, for the marks which Winter- 
 ton gave of him were chiefly drawn from his 
 ordinary garb, and by them, their host in con- 
 sequence said he had seen no such person. 
 
 When Winterton had finished his repast, 
 and was getting his second stoup of wine 
 heated, he asked where he was to sleep. To 
 the which question the host replied, that he 
 feared he would, like others, be obligated to 
 make a bench by the fireside his couch, all 
 the beds in the house being already bespoke 
 or occupied. " Every one of them is double," 
 said the man, " save only one, the which is 
 paid for by a young man that goes off at 
 break of day, and who is already asleep." 
 At this Winterton swore a dreadful oath,
 
 126 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 that he would not sleep by the fire after rid- 
 ing fifty miles, while there was half a bed in 
 the house, and commanded the host to go 
 and tell the young man that he must half 
 blankets with him. 
 
 My grandfather knew that this could only 
 refer to him ; so, when their host came and 
 opened the sliding doors of the bed, he feign- 
 ed himself to be very fast asleep at the back 
 of the bed, and only groaned in drowsiness 
 when he was touched. 
 
 " O, let him alane, 11 cried Winterton, " I 
 ken what it is to be tired ; so, as there's room 
 enough at the stock, when I have drank my 
 posset I'll e'en creep in beside Stok" 
 
 My grandfather, weary as he was, lay pant- 
 ing with apprehension, not doubting that he 
 should be speedily discovered ; but when 
 Winterton had finished his drink, and came 
 swaggering and jocose to be his bedfellow, 
 he kept himself with his face to the wall, and 
 snored like one who was in haste to sleep
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 127 
 
 more than enough, insomuch that Winterton, 
 when he lay down, gave him a deg with his 
 elbow, and swore at him to be quiet. His 
 own fatigue, however, soon mastered the dis- 
 turbance which my grandfather made, and he 
 began himself to echo the noise in defenceless 
 sincerity. 
 
 On hearing him thus fettered by sleep, my 
 grandfather began to consider with himself 
 what he ought to do, being both afraid and 
 perplexed he knew not wherefore ; and he 
 was prompted by a Power that he durst not 
 and could not reason with, to rise and escape 
 from the jeopardy wherein he then was. But 
 how could this be done ? for the house was 
 still open, and travellers and customers were 
 continually going and coming. Truly his si- 
 tuation was one of great tribulation, and 
 escape therefrom a thing seemingly past hope 
 and the unaided wisdom of man.
 
 128 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 
 After lying about the period of an hour in 
 great perturbation, he began to grow more col- 
 lected, and the din and resort of strangers in 
 the house also subsided, by which he was ena- 
 bled, with help from on High, to gather his 
 scattered thoughts, and to bind them up into 
 the sheaves of purpose and resolution. Accord- 
 ingly, when all was still, and several young 
 men, that were sitting by the fire on account 
 of every bed being occupied, gave note, by 
 their deep breathing, that sleep had descend- 
 ed upon them, and darkened their senses with 
 her gracious and downy wings, he rose softly 
 from the side of Winterton, and stepping 
 over him, slipped to the door, which he un- 
 barred, and the moon shining bright he went 
 to the stable to take out his horse. It Avas
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 129 
 
 not his intent to have done this, but to have 
 gone up into the streets of the city, and walk- 
 ed the walls thereof till he thought his adver- 
 sary was gone ; but seeing the moon so fair 
 and clear, he determined to take his horse 
 and forthwith proceed on his journey; for the 
 river was low and fordable, and trintled its 
 waters with a silvery sheen in the stillness of 
 the beautiful light. 
 
 Scarcely, however, had he pulled the latch 
 of the stable door, — even as he was just en- 
 tering in, when he heard Winterton coming 
 from the house rousing the hostler, whom he 
 profanely rated for allowing him to over-sleep 
 himself. For, wakening just as his bedfellow 
 rose, he thought the morning was come, and 
 that his orders had been neglected. 
 
 In this extremity my grandfather saw no 
 chance of evasion. If he went out into the 
 moonshine he would to a surety be discov- 
 ered, and in the stable he would to a cer- 
 tainty be caught. But what could he do, 
 
 f2
 
 ISO KINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 and the danger so pressing ? He had hard- 
 ly a choice ; however, he went into the stable, 
 shut the door, and running up to the horses 
 that were farthest ben, mounted into the hack, 
 and hid himself among the hay. 
 
 In that concealment he was scarcely well 
 down, when Winterton, with an hostler that 
 was half asleep, came with a lantern to the 
 door, banning the poor knave as if he had 
 been cursing him with bell, book, and candle ; 
 the other rubbing his eyes and declaring it 
 was still far from morning, and saying he 
 was sure the other traveller was not gone. To 
 the which there was speedy evidence ; for on 
 going towards Winterton's horse the hostler 
 saw my grandfathers in its stall, and told 
 him so. 
 
 At that moment a glimpse of the lantern 
 fell on the horse's legs, and its feet being 
 white, — " Oho r cried Winterton, " let us 
 look here. — Kenneth Shelty's Lightfoot ; — the 
 very beast ; — and hae I been in the same hole
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 131 
 
 wi' the tod and no kent it. The de'il's black 
 collie worry my soul, but this is a soople trick. 
 I did nae think the sleekit sinner had art 
 enough to play't; — nae doubt, he's gane to 
 hide himsel in the town till I'm awa, for he has 
 heard what I said yestreen. But I'll be up 
 sides wi' him. The dell a foot will I gang 
 this morning till he comes back for his horse." 
 And with these words he turned out of the 
 stable with the hostler, and went back to the 
 house. 
 
 No sooner were they well gone than my 
 grandfather came from his hiding-place, and 
 twisting a wisp of straw round his horse's feet, 
 that they might not dirl or make a din on the 
 stones, he led it cannily out, and down to the 
 river's brink, and there mounting took the 
 ford, and was soon free on the Gorbal's side. 
 Riding up the gait at a brisk trot, he passed 
 on for a short time along the road that he had 
 been told led to Kilmarnock ; but fearing he 
 would be followed, he turned off at the first
 
 132 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 wynd he came to on the left ; and a blessed 
 thing it was that he did so, for it led to the 
 Reformation-leavened town of Paisley, where 
 he arrived an hour before daylight. Win- 
 terton, little jealousing what had happen- 
 ed, went again to bed, as my grandfather af- 
 terwards learnt, and had fallen asleep. In 
 the morning when he awoke, and was told 
 that both man and horse were flown, he flay- 
 ed the hostler's back and legs in more than a 
 score of places, believing he had connived at 
 my grandfather's secret flight. 
 
 My grandfather had never before been in 
 the town of Paisley, but he had often heard 
 from Abercorns serving-men that were wont 
 to sorn about his father's smiddy, of a house 
 of jovial entertainment by the water-side, 
 about a stone-cast from the abbey-yett, the 
 hostess whereof was a certain canty dame 
 called Maggy Napier, then in great repute 
 with the shavelings of the abbey. Thither 
 he directed his course, the abbey towers serv-
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 133 
 
 ing him for her sign, and the moonlight and 
 running river were guides to her door, at 
 the which he was not blate in chapping. She 
 was, however, long of giving entrance ; for it 
 happened that some nights before, the magis- 
 trates of the town had been at a carousal with 
 the abbot and chapter, the papistical deno- 
 mination for the seven heads and ten horns of a 
 monastery, and when they had come away and 
 were going home, one of them, Bailie Pollock, 
 a gaucy widower, was instigated by the devil 
 and the wine he had drank, to stravaig towards 
 Maggy Napier's, — a most unseemly thing for 
 a bailie to do, especially a bailie of Paisley, 
 but it was then the days of popish sinfulness. 
 x\.nd when Bailie Pollock went thither, the 
 house was full of riotous swankies, who being 
 the waur of drink themselves, had but little 
 reverence for a magistrate in the same state ; 
 so they handled him to such a degree that he 
 was obliged to keep his bed and put collops 
 to his eyes for three days. The consequence
 
 134 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 of which was, that the house fell under the 
 displeasure of the town-council, and Maggy 
 was admonished to keep it more orderly and 
 doucely, — though the fault came neither from 
 her nor her customers, as she told my grand- 
 father, for detaining him so long, it being re- 
 quisite that she should see he was in a condi- 
 tion of sobriety before letting him in. But, 
 when admitted, he was in no spirit to enjoy 
 her jocosity concerning Bailie Pollock's spree, 
 so he told her that he had come far, and had far 
 to go, and that having heard sore tidings of a 
 friend, he was fain to go to bed and try if he 
 could compose himself with an hour or two 
 of sleep. 
 
 Maggy accordingly refrained from her jo- 
 cularity, and began to sooth and comfort him, 
 for she was naturally of a winsome way, and 
 prepared a bed for him with her best sheets, 
 the which, she said, were gi'en her in gratus 
 gift frae the Lord Abbot, so that he undress- 
 ed himself, and enjoyed a pleasant interreg-
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 135 
 
 num of anxiety for more than five hours ; and 
 when he awoke and was up, he found a break- 
 fast worthy of the abbot himself ready, and 
 his hostess was most courtly and kind, prais- 
 ing the dainties, and pressing him to eat. 
 Nor, when he proposed to reckon with her 
 for the lawin, would she touch the money, 
 but made him promise, when he came back, 
 he would bide another night Avith her, hoping 
 he would then be in better spirits, — for she 
 was wae to see so braw a gallant sae casten 
 down, doless, and dowie. 
 
 When they had settled their contest, and my 
 grandfather had come out to mount his beast, 
 which a stripling was holding ready for him 
 at a louping-on-stane near the abbey-yett, as 
 he was going thither, a young friar, who was 
 taking a morning stroll along the pleasant 
 banks of the Cart, approached towards him, and 
 after looking hard at him for some time, called 
 him by name, and took him by both the hands, 
 which he pressed with a brotherly affection.
 
 136 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 This friar was of Lithgow parentage, and 
 called Dominick Callender, and when he and 
 my grandfather were playing-bairns, they had 
 spent many a merry day of their suspicionless 
 young years together. As he grew up, being 
 a lad of shrewd parts, and of a very staid and 
 orderly deportment, the monks set their snares 
 for him, and before he could well think for 
 himself he was wiled into their traps, and 
 becoming a novice, in due season professed 
 himself a monk. But it was some time before 
 my grandfather knew him again, for the ruddy 
 of youth had fled his cheek, and he was pale 
 and of a studious countenance ; and when the 
 first sparklings of his pleasure at the sight of 
 his old play-marrow had gone off, his eyes 
 saddened into thoughtfulness, and he appear- 
 ed like one weighed down with care and heavy 
 inward dule.
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 137 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 
 After Dominick Callender and my grand- 
 father had conversed some time, with many 
 interchanges of the kindly remembrances of 
 past pleasures, the gentle friar began to be- 
 wail his sad estate in being a professed monk, 
 and so mournfully to deplore the rashness 
 with which inexperienced youth often takes 
 upon itself a yoke it can never lay down, 
 that the compassion of his friend was sorrow- 
 fully awakened, for he saw he was living a 
 life of bitterness and grief. He heard him, 
 however, without making any reply, or say- 
 ing any thing concerning his own lot of 
 hazard and adventure; for, considering Domi- 
 nick to be leagued with the papistical orders, 
 he did not think him safe to be trusted, not- 
 withstanding the unchanged freshness of the 
 loving-kindness which he still seemed to bear
 
 138 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 in his heart : nor even, had he not felt this 
 jealousy, would he have thought himself free 
 to speak of his errand, far less to have given 
 to any stranger aught that might have been 
 an inkling of his noble master's zealous, but 
 secret stirrings, for the weal of Scotland, and 
 the enfranchisement of the worshippers of the 
 true God. 
 
 When my grandfather had arrived at his 
 horse, and prepared to mount, Dominick Cal- 
 lender said to him, if he would ride slowly 
 for a little way he would walk by his side, 
 adding, " for maybe I'll ne'er see you again 
 — I'm a-weary of this way of life, and the 
 signs of the times bode no good to the 
 church. I hae a thought to go into some 
 foreign land, where I may taste the air of a 
 freeman, and I feel myself comforted before 
 I quit our auld hard-favoured, but warm- 
 hearted Scotland, in meeting wi' ane that re- 
 minds me how I had once sunny mornings 
 and summer days."
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 139 
 
 This was said so much in the sincerity of 
 a confiding spirit, that my grandfather could 
 not refrain from observing, in answer, that 
 he feared his friar's cloak did not sit easy 
 upon him ; which led him on to acknowledge 
 that it was so. 
 
 " I am speaking to you, Gilhaize,' 1 said he, 
 " with the frank heart of auld langsyne, and 
 I dinna scruple to confess to one that I hae 
 often thought of, and weary't to see again, 
 and wondered what had become of, that 
 my conscience has revolted against the errors 
 of the papacy, and that I am now upon 
 the eve of fleeing my native land, and join- 
 ing the Reformed at Geneva. And maybe 
 I'm no ordain't to spend a 1 my life in exile ; 
 for no man can deny that the people of Scot- 
 land are not inwardly the warm adversaries 
 of the church. That last and cruellest deed, 
 the sacrifice of the feckless old man of four- 
 score and upward, has proven that the 
 humanity of the world will no longer endure
 
 1 40 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 the laws and pretensions of the church ; and 
 there are few in Paisley whom the burning 
 of auld Mill has not kindled with the spirit 
 of resistance.'" 
 
 The latter portion of these words was as 
 joyous tidings to my grandfather, and he 
 tightened his reins and entered into a more 
 particular and inquisitive discourse with his 
 companion, by which he gathered that the 
 martyrdom of Master Mill had indeed caused 
 great astonishment and wrath among the 
 pious in and about Paisley, and not only 
 among them, but had estranged the affec- 
 tions even of the more worldly from the 
 priesthood, of whom it was openly said, that 
 the sense of pity towards the commonalty of 
 mankind was extinguished within them, and 
 that they were all in all for themselves. 
 
 But as they were proceeding through the 
 town and along the road, conversing in a 
 familiar but earnest manner on these great 
 concerns, Dominick Callender began to in-
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 141 
 
 veigh against the morals of his brethren, and 
 to lament again, in a very piteous manner, 
 that he was decreed, by his monastic profes- 
 sion, from the enjoyment of the dearest and 
 tenderest pleasures of man. And before thev 
 separated, it came out that he had been for 
 some time touched with the soft enchant- 
 ments of love for a young maiden, the daugh- 
 ter of a gentleman of good account in Paisley, 
 and that her chaste piety was as the precious 
 gum wherewith the Egyptians of old pre- 
 served their dead in everlasting beauty, keep- 
 ing from her presence all taint of impurity, 
 and of thoughts sullying to innocence, in- 
 somuch, that, even were he inclined, as he 
 said many of his brethren would have been, 
 to have acted the part of a secret canker 
 to that fair blossom, the gracious and holy 
 embalmment of her virtues would have proved 
 an incorruptible protection. 
 
 " But," he exclaimed with a sorrowful 
 voice, " that which is her glory, and my ad-
 
 142 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 miration and praise, is converted, by the bon- 
 dage of my unnatural vows, into a curse to 
 us both. The felicity that we might have 
 enjoyed together in wedded life is forbidden 
 to us as a great crime. But the laws of God 
 are above the canons of the church, the voice 
 of Nature is louder than the fulminations of 
 the Vatican, and I have resolved to obey 
 the one, and give ear to the other, despite 
 the horrors that await on apostacy. Can you, 
 Gilhaize, in aught assist my resolution ?" 
 
 There was so much vehemence and the 
 passion of grief in these ejaculations, that 
 my grandfather wist not well what to say. 
 He told him, however, not to be rash in what 
 he did, nor to disclose his intents, save only 
 to those in whom he could confide ; for the 
 times were perilous to every one that slack- 
 ened in reverence to the papacy, particu- 
 larly to such as had pastured within the 
 chosen folds of the church. 
 
 " Bide," said he, " till you see what issue
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 143 
 
 is ordained to come from this dreadful deed 
 which so shaketh all the land, makino- the 
 abbey towers topple and tremble to their 
 oldest and deepest foundations. Truth is 
 awakened, and gone forth conquering and to 
 conquer. It cannot be that ancient iniquities 
 will be much longer endured; the arm of 
 Wrath is raised against them ; the sword of 
 Revenge is drawn forth from its scabbard by 
 Justice ; and Nature has burst asunder the 
 cords of the Roman harlot, and stands in 
 her freedom, like Samson, when the spirit of 
 the Lord was mightily poured upon him, as 
 he awoke from the lap of Delilah." 
 
 The gentle friar, as my grandfather often 
 told, stood for some time astounded at this 
 speech, and then he said — 
 
 " I dream't not, Gilhaizc, that beneath a 
 countenance so calm and comely, the zealous 
 fires of a warrior's bravery could have been 
 kindled to so vehement a heat. But I will vex 
 you with no questions. Heaven is on your
 
 144 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 side, and may its redeeming promptings 
 never allow its ministers to rest, till the fet- 
 ters are broken and the slaves are set free. 11 
 
 With these words he stepped forward to 
 shake my grandfather by the hand, and to 
 bid him farewell; but just as he came to the 
 stirrup he halted and said — 
 
 " It is not for nothing that the remem- 
 brance of you has been preserved so much 
 brighter and dearer to me than that of all 
 
 Inn Pnpru Tirac n\ro cniYiptnit 1 „ 
 
 my kin. There was aye something about 
 you, in our heedless days, that often made 
 me wonder, I could not tell wherefore ; and 
 now, when I behold you in the prime of 
 manhood, it fills me with admiration and 
 awe, and makes me do homage to you as a 
 master. 11 
 
 Much more he added to the same effect, 
 which the modesty of my grandfather would 
 not allow him to repeat ; but when they had 
 parted, and my grandfather had ridden for- 
 ward some two or three miles, he recalled to 
 
 1
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 145 
 
 mind what had passed between them, and he 
 used to say that this discourse with his early 
 friend first opened to him a view of the grie- 
 vous captivity which nature suffered in the 
 monasteries and convents, notwithstanding the 
 loose lives imputed to their inmates ; and he 
 saw that the Reformation would be hailed by 
 many that languished in the bondage of their 
 vows, as a great and glorious deliverance. But 
 still he was wont to say, even with such as 
 these, it was overly mingled with temporal 
 concernments, and that they longed for it 
 less on account of its immortal issues, than 
 for its sensual emancipations. 
 
 And as he was proceeding on his way in 
 this frame of mind, and thinking on all that 
 he had seen and learnt from the day in which 
 he bade adieu to his father's house, he came 
 to a place where the road forked off in two 
 different airts, and not knowing which to 
 take, he stopped his horse and waited till a 
 man drew nigh, whom he observed coming 
 
 VOL. I. c
 
 146 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 towards him. By this man he was told, that 
 the road leading leftward led to Kilmarnock 
 and Ayr, and the other on the right to Kil- 
 winning ; so, without saying any thing, he 
 turned his horse's head into the latter ; the 
 which he was moved to do by sundry causes 
 and reasons. First, he had remarked that 
 the chances in his journey had, in a very sin- 
 gular manner, led him to gain much of that 
 sort of knowledge which the Lords of the 
 Congregation thirsted for; and, second, he 
 had no doubt that Winterton was in pursuit 
 of him to Kilmarnock, for some purpose 
 of frustration or circumvention, the which, 
 though he was not able to divine, he could 
 not but consider important, if it was, as he 
 thought, the prime motive of that varlet's 
 journey. 
 
 But he was chiefly disposed to prefer the 
 Kilwinning road, though it was several miles 
 more of bout-gait, on account of the rich 
 abbacy in that town; hoping he might glean
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 147 
 
 and gather some account how the clergy there 
 stood affected, the meeting with Dominick 
 Callender having afforded him a vista of 
 friends and auxiliaries in the enemy's camp 
 little thought of. Besides all this, he reflect- 
 ed, that as it was of consequence he should 
 reach the Lord Boyd in secrecy, he would be 
 more likely to do so by stopping at Kilwin- 
 ning, and feeing some one there to guide 
 him to the Dean Castle by moonlight. I 
 have heard him say, however, the speaka- 
 ble motives of his deviation from the straight 
 road were at the time far less effectual in 
 moving him thereto, than a something which 
 he could not tell, that with an invisible hand 
 took his horse as it were by the bridle- 
 rings, and constrained him to go into the 
 Kilwinning track. In the whole of this jour- 
 ney there was indeed a very extraordinary 
 manifestation of a special providence, not 
 only in the protection vouchsafed towards 
 himself, but in the remarkable accidents and
 
 148 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 occurrences, by which he was enabled to en- 
 rich himself with the knowledge so precious 
 at that time to those who were chosen to 
 work the great work of the Gospel in Scot- 
 land. 

 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 149 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 As my grandfather came in sight of Kil- 
 winning, and beheld the abbey with its lofty 
 horned towers and spiky pinnacles, and the 
 sands of Cunningham between it and the sea, 
 it seemed to him as if a huge leviathan had 
 come up from the depths of the ocean and 
 was devouring the green inland, having al- 
 ready consumed all the herbage of the wide 
 waste that lay so bare and yellow for many a 
 mile, desert and lonely in the silent sunshine, 
 and he ejaculated to himself, that the frugal 
 soil of poor Scotland could ne'er have been 
 designed to pasture such enormities. 
 
 As he rode on, his path descended from 
 the heights into pleasant tracks, along banks 
 feathered with the fragrant plumage of the 
 birch and hazel, and he forgot, in hearkening
 
 150 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 to the cheerful prattle of the Garnock waters, 
 as they swirled among the pebbles by the 
 road side, the pageantries of that mere bodily 
 worship which had worked on the ignorance 
 of the world to raise such costly monuments 
 of the long-suffering patience of Heaven, 
 while they showed how much the divine 
 nature of the infinite God, and the humility 
 of His eternal Son, had been forgotten in this 
 land among professing Christians. 
 
 When he came nigh the town, he inquired 
 for an hostel, and a stripling, the miller's son, 
 who was throwing stones at a flock of geese 
 belonging to the abbey, then taking their 
 pleasures uninvited in his father's mill- 
 dam, guided him to the house of Theophi- 
 lus Lugton, the chief vintner, horse-setter, 
 and stabler, in the town ; where, on alight- 
 ing, he was very kindly received ; for the 
 gudewife was of a stirring, household na- 
 ture, and Theophilus himself, albeit douce 
 and temperate for a publican, was a man
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 151 
 
 obliging and hospitable, not only as became 
 him in his trade, but from a disinterested 
 good- will. He was indeed, as my grandfather 
 came afterwards to know, really a person 
 holden in great respect and repute by the 
 visitors and pilgrims who resorted to the 
 abbey, and by none more than by the worthy 
 wives of Irvine, the most regular of his cus- 
 tomers. For they being then in the darkness 
 of papistry, were as much given to the idola- 
 try of holidays and masses, as, thanks be and 
 praise ! they are now to the hunting out of 
 sound gospel preachers and sacramental occa- 
 sions. Many a stoup of burnt wine and 
 spiced ale they were wont, at Pace and Yule, 
 and other papistical high times, to partake 
 of together in the house of Theophilus Lug- 
 ton, happy and well content when their pos- 
 sets were flavoured with the ghostly conver- 
 sation of some gawsie monk, well versed in 
 the mysteries of requiems and purgatory. 
 Having parted with his horse to be taken
 
 152 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 to the stable by Theophilus himself, my 
 grandfather walked into the house, and Dame 
 Lugton set for him an elbow-chair by the 
 chimla lug, and while she was preparing 
 something for a repast, they fell into con- 
 versation, in the course of which she inform- 
 ed him that a messenger had come to the 
 abbey that forenoon from Edinburgh, and a 
 rumour had been bruited about soon after 
 his arrival, that there Avas great cause to 
 dread a rising among the heretics ; for, being 
 ingrained with papistry, she so spoke of the 
 Reformers. 
 
 This news troubled my grandfather not a 
 little, and the more he inquired concerning 
 the tidings, the more reason he got to be 
 alarmed, and to suspect that the bearer was 
 Winterton, who being still in the town, and 
 then at the abbey — his horse was in Theophi- 
 lus Lugton's stable — he could not but think, 
 that, in coming to Kilwinning instead of 
 going right on to Kilmarnock, he had run
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 153 
 
 into the lion's mouth. But, seeing it was so, 
 and could not be helped, he put his trust in 
 the Lord, and resolved to swerve in no point 
 from the straight line which he had laid down 
 for himself. 
 
 While he was eating; of Dame Lug-ton's 
 fare, with the relishing sauce of a keen appe- 
 tite, in a manner that no one who saw him 
 could have supposed he was almost sick with 
 a surfeit of anxieties, one James Coom, a 
 smith, came in for a mutchkin-cap of ale, and 
 he, seeing a traveller, said, 
 
 " Thir's sair news ! The drouth of cauld 
 iron will be slockened in men's blood ere we 
 hear the end o't." 
 
 " 'Deed," replied my grandfather, " it's 
 very alarming; Lucky, here, has just been 
 telling me that there's like to be a straemash 
 amang the Reformers. Surely they'll ne'er 
 daur to rebel." 
 
 " If a' tales be true, that's no to do," said 
 the smith, blowing the froth from the cap in 
 
 g2
 
 154 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 which Dame Lugton handed him the ale, and 
 taking a right good- willy waught. 
 
 " But what's said ?" inquired my grand- 
 father, when the smith had fetched his breath. 
 
 " Naebody can weel tell," was his response ; 
 " a 1 that's come this length is but the sough 
 afore the storm. Within twa hours there has 
 been a great riding hither and yon, and a lad 
 straight frae Embro' has come to bid my 
 Lord Abbot repair to the court ; and three 
 chiels hae been at me frae Eglinton Castle, 
 to get their beasts shod for a journey. My 
 Lord there is hyte and fykie ; there's a gale in 
 his tail, said they, light where it may. Now, 
 atween oursels, my Lord has na the heart of 
 a true bairn to that aged and worthy grannie 
 of the papistry, our leddy the Virgin Mary 
 — here's her health, poor auld deaf and dumb 
 creature — she has na, I doubt, the pith to 
 warsle wi' the blast she ance in a day had." 
 
 " Haud that heretical tongue o' thine, 
 Jamie Coom," exclaimed Dame Lugton.
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 155 
 
 " It's enough to gar a body's hair stand 
 on end to hear o' your familiarities wi' the 
 Holy Virgin. I won'er my Lord Abbot has 
 na langsyne tethert thy tongue to the kirk 
 door wi' a red-het nail, for sic blasphemy. 
 But fools are privileged, and so's seen o' 
 thee." 
 
 " And wha made me familiar wi' her, 
 Dame Lugton — tell me that ?" replied James ; 
 " was na it my Lord himsel, at last Marymas, 
 when he sent for me to make a hoop to mend 
 her leg that sklintered afF as they were dress- 
 ing her for the show. Eh ! little did I think 
 that I was ever to hae the honour and glory 
 of ca'ing a nail intil the timber hip o' the 
 Virgin Mary ! Ah, lucky, ye would na hae 
 tholed the dirl o' the dints o' my hammer as 
 she did. But she's a saint, and ye'll ne'er 
 deny that ye're a sinner." 
 
 To this Dame Lugton was unable to reply, 
 and the smith, cunningly winking, dippet his 
 head up to the lugs in the ale-cap.
 
 156 RTNGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 " But," said my grandfather, " no to speak 
 wi' disrespeck of things considered wi' re- 
 verence, it does na seem to me that there is 
 ony cause to think the Reformers hae yet re- 
 belled." 
 
 " I'm sure," replied the smith, " if they 
 hae na, they ought, or the dell a spunk's 
 amang them. Isna a"* the monks, frae John 
 o"" Groat's to the Border, getting ready their 
 spits and rackses, fryingpans and branders, to 
 cook them like capons and doos for Horney's 
 supper ? I never hear my ain bellows snor- 
 ing at a gaud o 1 iron in the fire, but I think 
 o 1 fat Father Lickladle, the abbey's head 
 kitchener, roasting me o'er the low like a la- 
 verock in his collop-tangs ; for, as Dame 
 Lngton there weel kens, I'm ane o 1 the Re- 
 formed. Heh ! but it's a braw thing this Re- 
 formation. It used to cost me as muckle siller 
 for the sin o 1 getting fu', no aboon three or 
 four times in the year, as would hae kept ony 
 honest man blithe and ree frae New'ersday to
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 157 
 
 Hogmanae ; but our worthy hostess has found 
 to her profit, that I'm now ane of her best 
 customers. What say ye, Lucky ?" 
 
 " Truly," said Dame Lugton, laughing, 
 " thou's no an ill swatch o' the Reformers ; 
 and naebody need be surprised at the growth 
 o' heresy wha thinks o' the dreadfu' cost the 
 professors o't used to be at for pardons. But 
 maybe they'll soon find that the de'il's as hard 
 a taxer as e'er the kirk was ; for ever since 
 thou has refrain t frae paying penance, thy 
 weekly calks ahint the door hae been on the 
 increase, Jamie, and no ae plack has thou 
 mair to spare. So muckle gude thy reform- 
 ing has done thee." 
 
 " Bide awee, lucky," cried the smith, set- 
 ting down the ale-cap, which he had just 
 emptied, " bide awee, and ye'll see a change. 
 Surely it was to be expecket, considering the 
 spark in my hass, that the first use I would 
 mak o' the freedom o' the Reformation would 
 be to quench it, which I never was allowed
 
 158 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 to do afore ; and whenever that's done, ye'll 
 see me a geizen't keg o' sobriety, — tak the 
 word o 1 a drowthy smith for , t.'" 
 
 At this jink o' their controversy, who 
 should come into the house, ringing ben to 
 the hearth-stane with his iron heels and the 
 rattling rowels o' his spurs, but Winterton, 
 without observing my grandfather, who was 
 then sitting with his back to the window-light, 
 in the arm-chair at the chimla lug ; and when 
 he had ordered Dame Lugton to spice him a 
 drink of her best brewing, he began to joke 
 and jibe with the blacksmith ; the which al- 
 lowing my grandfather time to compose his 
 wits, which were in a degree startled ; he saw 
 that he could not but be discovered, so he 
 thought it was best to bring himself out. 
 Accordingly, in as quiet a manner as he was 
 able to put on, he said to Winterton — 
 
 a I hae a notion that we twa hae forga- 
 thered no lang sincesyne."" 
 
 At the sound of these words Winterton
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 159 
 
 gave a loup, as if he had tramped on some- 
 thing no canny, syne a whirring sort of 
 triumphant whistle, and then a shout, cry- 
 ing, " Ha, ha ! tod lowrie ! hae I yirded 
 you at last ?" But instanter he recollected 
 himseP, and giving my grandfather a sig- 
 nificant look, as if he wished him no to be 
 particular, he said, " I heard o 1 you, Gil- 
 haize, on the road, and I was fain to hae 
 come up wi* 1 you, that we might hae tra- 
 velled thegither. Howsever, I lost scent at 
 Glasgow." And then he continued to haver 
 with him, in his loose and profligate manner, 
 anent the Glasgow damsels, till the ale was 
 ready, when he pressed my grandfather to 
 taste, never letting wot how they had slept 
 together in the same bed ; and my grand- 
 father, on his part, was no less circumspect, 
 for he discerned that Winterton intended to 
 come over him, and he Avas resolved to be on 
 his guard.
 
 160 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 CHAP. XV. 
 
 When Winterton had finished his drink, 
 which he did hastily, he proposed to my 
 grandfather that they should take a stroll 
 through the town ; and my grandfather being 
 eager to throw stour in his eyes, was readily 
 consenting thereto. 
 
 " Weel," said the knave, when he had wa- 
 rily led him into the abbey kirk-yard, " I did 
 na think ye would hae gane back to my 
 Lord ; but it's sC very weel, since he has look- 
 ed o'er what's past, and gi'en you a new dark." 
 
 " He's very indulgent," replied my grand- 
 father, " and I would be looth to wrang so 
 kind a master ;" and he looked at Winterton ; 
 the varlet, however, never winced, but rejoin- 
 ed lightly, —
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 161 
 
 " But I wish ye had come back to Widow 
 Rippet's, for ye would hae spar't me a hard 
 ride. Scarcely had ye ta'en the road when 
 my Lord mindit that he had neglekit to gic 
 you the sign, by the which ye were to make 
 yoursel and message kent to his friends, and 
 I was sent after to tell you." 
 
 " I'm glad o 1 that, 11 replied my grandfa- 
 ther, " what is't ?" Winterton was a thought 
 molested by this thrust of a question, and for 
 the space of about a minute said nothing, till 
 he had considered with himself, when he re- 
 joined — 
 
 " Three lads were sent off about the same 
 time wi' you, and the Earl was nae quite 
 sure, he said, whilk of you a 1 he had forgot- 
 ten to gie the token whereby ye would be 
 known as his men. But the sign for the Earl 
 of Eglinton, to whom I guess ye hae been 
 sent, by coming to Kilwinning, is no the same 
 as for the Lord Boyd, to whom I thought ye 
 had been missioned ; for I hae been at the
 
 162 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 Dean Castle, and finding you not there, fol- 
 lowed you hither. 
 
 " I'll be plain wi' you," said my grandfa- 
 ther to this draughty speech, " I'm bound to 
 the Lord Boyd ; but coining through Paisley, 
 when I reached the place where the twa roads 
 branched, I took the ane that brought me here 
 instead of the gate to Kilmarnock ; so, as soon 
 as my beast has eaten his corn, I mean to 
 double back to the Dean Castle." 
 
 " How, in the name of the saints and souls ! 
 did ye think, in going frae Glasgow to Kil- 
 marnock, o' taking the road to Paisley ?" 
 
 " 'Deed, an' ye were acquaint," said my 
 grandfather, " wr how little I knew o' the 
 country, ye would nae speir that question ; 
 but since we hae fallen in thegither, and are 
 baith, ye ken, in my Lord Glencairn's ser- 
 vice, I hope ye'll no objek to ride back wi' 
 me to the Lord Boyd's. 
 
 " Then it's no you that was sent to the Earl 
 ofEglinton?" exclaimed Winterton, pretend-
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 163 
 
 ing more surprise than he felt ; " and all my 
 journey has been for naething. Howsoever, 
 I'll go back wi 1 you to Kilmarnock, and the 
 sooner we gang the better.'" 
 
 Little farther discourse then passed, for 
 they returned to the hostel, and ordering out 
 their horses, were soon on the road ; and as 
 they trotted along, Winterton was overly out- 
 spoken against the papisticals, calling them 
 all kinds of ill names, and no sparing the 
 Queen Regent. But my grandfather kept a 
 calm tongue, and made no reflections. 
 
 " Howsever, 11 said Winterton, pulling up 
 his bridle, and walking his horse, as they 
 were skirting the moor of Irvine, leaving the 
 town about a mile off on the right, " you 
 and me, Gilhaize, that are but servants, need 
 nae fash our heads wi 1 sic things, the wyte o 1 
 wars lie at the doors of kings, and the soldiers 
 are free o"" the sin o 1 them. But how will ye 
 get into the presence and confidence of the 
 Lord Boyd ?"
 
 164 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 " I thought," replied my grandfather paw- 
 kily, " that ye had gotten our master's token ; 
 and I maun trust to you. 1 ' 
 
 " O," cried Winterton, " I got but the 
 ane for the lad sent to Eglinton Castle." 
 
 " And ha'e ye been there?" said my grand- 
 father. 
 
 Winterton didna let wot that he heard this, 
 but stooping over on the off-side of his horse, 
 pretended he was righting something about 
 his stirrup-leather. My grandfather was, 
 however, resolved to probe him to the quick ; 
 so, when he was again sitting upright, he re- 
 peated the question, if he had been to Eglin- 
 ton Castle. 
 
 " O, ay," cried the false loon ; " I was 
 there, but the bird was flown." 
 
 " And how got he the ear of the Earl," 
 said my grandfather, " not having the sign ?" 
 
 In for a penny in for a pound, was Win- 
 terton's motto, and ae lie with him was fa- 
 ther to a race. " Luckily for him," replied
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 165 
 
 he, " some of the serving-men kent him as 
 being in Glencairn's service, so they took him 
 to their master." 
 
 My grandfather had no doubt that there 
 was some truth in this, though he was sure 
 Winterton knew little about it ; for it agreed 
 with what James Coom, the smith, had said 
 about the lads from Eglinton that had been at 
 his smiddy to get the horses shod, and remem- 
 bering the leathern purses under the Earl his 
 master's pillow, he was persuaded that there 
 had been a messenger sent to the head of the 
 Montgomeries, and likewise to other lords, 
 friends of the Congregation ; but he saw that 
 Winterton went by guess, and lied at random. 
 Still, though not affecting to notice it, nor 
 expressing any distrust, he could not help 
 saying to him, that he had come a long way, 
 and after all it looked like a gowk^ errand. 
 
 The remark, however, only served to give 
 Winterton inward satisfaction, and he replied 
 with a laugh, that it made little odds to
 
 166 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 him where he was sent, and that he'd as lief 
 ride in Ayrshire as sorn about the causey of 
 Enbrough. 
 
 In this sort of talk and conference they 
 rode on together, the o'ercome every now and 
 then of Winterton , s discourse being concern- 
 ing the proof my grandfather carried with 
 him, whereby the Lord Boyd would know 
 he was one of Glencairn's men. But, notwith- 
 standing all his wiles and devices to howk 
 the secret out of him, his drift being so clear- 
 ly discerned, my grandfather was enabled to 
 play with him till they were arrived at Kil- 
 marnock, where Winterton proposed to stop 
 till he had delivered his message to the Lord 
 Boyd, at the Dean Castle. 
 
 " That surely cannot be," replied my 
 grandfather ; " for ye ken, as there has been 
 some mistak about the sign whereby I am to 
 make myself known, ye'll ha'e to come wi' me 
 to expound, in case of need. In trooth, 
 now that we ha'e forgatherit, and as I ha'e
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 167 
 
 but this ae message to a 1 the shire of Ayr, I 
 would fain ha"^ your company till I see the 
 upshot." 
 
 Winterton could not very easily make a 
 refusal to this, but he hesitated and swither- 
 ed, till my grandfather urged him again ; — 
 when seeing no help for it, and his companion, 
 as he thought, entertaining no suspicion of 
 him, he put on a bold face and went forward. 
 
 When they had come to the Dean Castle, 
 which stands in a pleasant green park about 
 a mile aboon the town-head of Kilmarnock, 
 on entering the gate, my grandfather hastily 
 alighted, and giving his horse a sharp prick 
 of his spur as he lap off, the beast ran caper- 
 ing out of his hand, round the court of the 
 castle. 
 
 With the well-feigned voice of great anxie- 
 ty, my grandfather cried to the servants to 
 shut the gate and keep it in ; and Winterton 
 alighting, ran to catch it, giving his own 
 horse to a stripling to hold. At the same mo-
 
 168 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 ment, however, my grandfather sprung upon 
 him, and seizing him by the throat, cried out 
 for help to master a spy. 
 
 Winterton was so confounded that he gasp- 
 ed, and looked round like a man dimented ; 
 and my grandfather ordered him to be taken 
 by the serving-men to their master, before 
 whom, when they were all come, he recount- 
 ed the story of his adventures with the prison- 
 er, telling his Lordship what his master, the 
 Earl of Glencairn, suspected of him. To 
 which, when Winterton was asked what he 
 had to say, he replied bravely, that it was all 
 true, and he was none ashamed to be so catch- 
 ed, when it was done by so clever a fellow. 
 
 He was then ordered by the Lord Boyd to 
 be immured in the dungeon-room, the which 
 may be seen to this day ; and though his cap- 
 tivity was afterwards somewhat relaxed, he 
 was kept a prisoner in the castle till after the 
 death of the Queen Dowager, and the break- 
 ing up of her two-faced councils. This ex- 
 
 5
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 169 
 
 pioit won my grandfather great favour, and 
 he scarcely needed to show the signet-ring 
 when he told his message from the Lords of 
 the Congregation. 
 
 VOT-. i. h
 
 170 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 CHAP. XVI. 
 
 By such devices and missions, as my grand- 
 father was engaged in for the Earl Glencairn 
 with the Lord Boyd, a thorough under- 
 standing was concerted among the Reformed 
 throughout the kingdom ; and, encouraged 
 by their great strength and numbers, which 
 far exceeded what was expected, the Lords 
 of the Congregation set themselves roundly 
 to work, and the protestant preachers openly 
 published their doctrines. 
 
 Soon after my grandfather had returned 
 from the shire of Ayr, there was a weighty 
 consultation held at the Earl his patron's 
 lodging in Edinburgh, whereat, among others 
 present, was that pious youth, afterwards the 
 good Regent Murray. He was by office and 
 appointment then the head and lord of the
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 171 
 
 priory of St Andrews ; but his soul cleaving to 
 the Reformation and the Gospel, he laid down 
 the use of that title, and about this time be- 
 gan to be called the Lord James Stuart. 
 
 The Lords of the Congregation, feeling 
 themselves strong in the goodness of their 
 cause and the number of their adherents, re- 
 solved at this council, that they should pro- 
 ceed firmly but considerately to work, and 
 seek redress as became true lieges, by repre- 
 sentation and supplication. Accordingly a 
 paper was drawn up, wherein they set forth 
 how, for conscience sake, the Reformed had 
 been long afflicted with banishment, confisca- 
 tion of goods, and death in its crudest forms. 
 That continual fears darkened their lives, till, 
 being no longer able to endure such calami- 
 ties, they were compelled to beg a remedy 
 against the oppressions and tyranny of the 
 Estate Ecclesiastical, which had usurped an 
 unlimited domination over the minds of men, 
 — the faggot and the sword being the wea-
 
 172 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 pons which the prelates employed to enforce 
 their mandates, — plain truths that were thus 
 openly stated in order to show that the sup- 
 pliants were sincere; and they concluded 
 with a demand, that the original purity of the 
 Christian religion should be restored, and the 
 government so improved as to afford them 
 security in their persons, opinions, and pro- 
 perty. 
 
 Sir James Calder of Sandilands was the 
 person chosen to present this memorial to the 
 Queen Regent ; and never, said my grandfa- 
 ther, was an agent more fitly chosen to up- 
 hold the dignity of his trust, or to preserve 
 the respect which, as good subjects, the Re- 
 formed desired to maintain and manifest to- 
 wards the authority regal. He was a man far 
 advanced in life ; but there was none of the 
 infirmities of a^e under the venerable exterior 
 with which time had clothed his appear- 
 ance. Of great honour and a pure life, he 
 was reverenced by all parties, and had ac-
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 173 
 
 quired both renown and affection, through his 
 services to the realm and his manifold vir- 
 tues. 
 
 On a day appointed by the Queen Regent, 
 the Lords and leaders of the Congregation 
 attended Sandilands, each with a stately reti- 
 nue, to Holyrood-house ; my grandfather hav- 
 ing leave from the Earl, his master, to wait 
 on his person on that occasion. 
 
 It was a solemn day to the worshippers of 
 the true God, who came in great multitudes 
 to the town, many from distant parts, to be 
 present, and to hear the issue of a conference 
 that was to give liberty to the consciences of 
 all devout Scotchmen. From the house in 
 the Lawn-market, where the Lords assembled, 
 down to the very yetts of the palace, the 
 sight was as if the street had been paved with 
 faces, and windows over windows, roofs and 
 lum-heads, were clustered with women and 
 children. All temporal cares and businesses 
 were that day suspended : in the accents
 
 174 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 and voices of men there was an awful so- 
 briety, few speaking, and what was said, 
 sounded as if every one was affected with the 
 sense of some high and everlasting interest at 
 stake. 
 
 When the Lords went down into the street, 
 there was, for a brief interval, a stir and a 
 murmur in the multitude, which opened to 
 the right and left as when the waves of the 
 Red Sea were opened, and through the midst 
 thereof prepared a miraculous road for the 
 children of Israel. A deep silence succeed- 
 ed, and Sandilands, with his hoary head un- 
 covered, bearing in his hand the supplication 
 and remonstrance, walked forward, and the 
 Lords went after also all bare-headed, and 
 every one with them followed in like manner, 
 as reverentially as their masters. The people, 
 as they passed along, slowly and devoutly, 
 took off their caps and bonnets, and bowed 
 their heads as when the ark of the covenant 
 of the Lord was of old brought back from the
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 175 
 
 Philistines ; and many wept, and others pray- 
 ed aloud, and there was wonder, and awe, 
 and dread, mingled with thoughts of unspeak- 
 able confidence and glory. 
 
 When Sandilands and those with him were 
 conducted into the presence of the Queen- 
 dowager, she was standing under a canopy of 
 state, surrounded by many of the nobles and 
 prelates, and by her maidens of honour. My 
 grandfather had not seen her before, and 
 having often heard her suspected of double- 
 dealing, and of a superstitious zeal and af- 
 fection for the papal abominations and cruel- 
 ties, he had pictured to himself a lean and 
 haggard woman, with a pale and fierce 
 countenance, and was therefore greatly a- 
 mazed when he beheld a lady of a most 
 sweet and gracious aspect, with mild dark 
 eyes beaming with a chaste dignity, and a 
 high and fair forehead, bright and unwrinkled 
 with any care, and lips formed to speak soft 
 and gentle sentences. In her apparel she was
 
 176 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 less gay than her ladies, but nevertheless 
 she was more queenly. Her dress and man- 
 tle were of the richest purple Genoese un- 
 adorned with embroidery, and round her neck 
 she wore a ruff of fine ermine and a string of 
 princely pearls : a small golden cross of cu- 
 rious graven gold dangled to her waist from 
 a loup in the vale of her bosom. 
 
 Sandilands advanced several paces before 
 the Lords by whom he was attended, and 
 falling on his knees, read with a loud and 
 firm voice the memorial of the Reformed ; 
 and when he had done so and was risen, the 
 Queen received a paper that was given to her 
 by her secretary, who stood behind her right 
 shoulder, and also read an answer which had 
 been prepared, and in which she was made to 
 deliver many comfortable assurances, that at 
 the time were received as a great boon with 
 much thankfulness by all the Reformed, who 
 had too soon reason to prove the insincerity 
 of those courtly flatteries. For no steps were
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 177 
 
 afterwards taken to give those indulgences by 
 law that were promised ; but the papists stir- 
 ring themselves with great activity, and foreign 
 matters and concerns coming in aid of their 
 stratagems, long before a year passed the mind 
 of the Queen and government was fomented 
 into hostility against the protestants. She call- 
 ed into her favour and councils the Archbishop 
 of St Andrews, with whom she had been at 
 variance ; and the devout said, when they 
 heard thereof, that when our Saviour was con- 
 demned, on the same day Herod and Pilate 
 were made friends, applying the text to this 
 reconciliation ; and boding; therefrom woe 
 to the true church. Moved by the hatred 
 which his Grace bore to the Reformers, the 
 Queen cited the protestant preachers to ap- 
 pear at Stirling to answer to the charges 
 which might there be preferred against them. 
 My grandfather, when this perfidy came 
 to a head, was at Finlayston-house, in the 
 shire of Renfrew, with the Earl, his master, 
 
 n 2
 
 178 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 who, when he heard of such a breach of 
 faith, smote the table, as he was then sit- 
 ting at dinner, with his right hand, and 
 said, " Since the false woman has done this, 
 there is nothing for us but the banner and 
 the blade;" and starting from his seat he 
 forthwith ordered horses, and, attended by 
 my grandfather and ten armed servants, rode 
 to Glasgow, where Sir Hugh Campbell of 
 Loudon, then sheriff of Ayr, and other wor- 
 thies of the time, were assembled on business 
 before the Lords of Justiciary ; and it was 
 instanter agreed, that they should forthwith 
 proceed to Stirling where the court was, and 
 remonstrate with the Queen. So, leaving all 
 temporal concerns, Sir Hugh took horse, and 
 they arrived at Stirling about the time her 
 Highness supped, and going straight to the 
 castle, they stood in the ante-chamber, to speak 
 if possible with her as she passed. 
 
 On entering the room to pass to her table 
 she saw them, and looked somewhat surprised
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 179 
 
 and displeased ; but without saying any thing 
 particular she desired the Earl to follow her, 
 and Sir Hugh, unbidden, went also into the 
 banquet-room. It was seldom that she used 
 state in her household, and on this occasion, 
 it being a popish fast, her table was frugally 
 spread, and only herself sat at the board. 
 
 " Well, Glencairn," said she, " what has 
 brought you hither from the west at this time ? 
 Is the realm to be for ever tossed like the sea 
 by this tempest of heresies ? The royal au- 
 thority is not always to be insulted with im- 
 punity, and in spite of all their friends the 
 protectant preachers shall be banished from 
 Scotland, aye, though their doctrines were 
 as sound as St Paul's.'" 
 
 The Earl, as my grandfather heard him 
 afterwards relate, replied, " Your Majesty 
 gave your royal promise that the Reformed 
 should be protected, and they have done no- 
 thing since to cause the forfeiture of so gra-
 
 180 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 cious a boon : I implore your Majesty to call 
 that sacred pledge to mind." 
 
 " You lack reason, my Lord," she cried, 
 sharply ; " it becomes not subjects to burden 
 their princes with promises which it may be 
 inconvenient to keep." 
 
 " If these, madam, are your sentiments," 
 replied the Earl, proudly, " the Congrega- 
 tion can no longer acknowledge your autho- 
 rity, and must renounce their allegiance to 
 your government." 
 
 She had, at the moment, lifted the salt- 
 celler to sprinkle her salad, — but she was so 
 astonished at the boldness of this speech, that 
 she dropt it from her hand, and the salt was 
 spilt on the floor — an evil omen, which all 
 present noted. 
 
 ■" My Lord Glencairn," said she, thought- 
 fully, " I would execute my great duties 
 honestly, but your preachers trouble the wa- 
 ters, and I know not where the ford lies that
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 181 
 
 I may safest ride. Go ye away and try to 
 keep your friends quiet, and I will consider 
 calmly what is best to be done for the weal 
 of all." 
 
 At these words the Earl and Sir Hugh 
 Campbell bowed, and, retiring, went to the 
 lodging of the Earl of Monteith, where they 
 were mindet to pass the night ; but, when 
 they had consulted with that nobleman, my 
 grandfather was ordered to provide himself 
 with a fresh horse from Monteith's stable, 
 and to set out for Edinburgh with letters for 
 the Lord James Stuart. 
 
 " Gilhaize," said his master, as he deliv- 
 ered them, " I foresee we must buckle on our 
 armour; but the cause of the Truth docs not 
 require that the first blow should come from 
 our side. By this time John Knox, who has 
 been long expected, may be hourly looked 
 for ; and as no man stands higher in the 
 aversion of the papists than that brave lion-
 
 182 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 est man, we shall know, by the reception he 
 meets with, what we ought to do." 
 
 So my grandfather, putting the letters in 
 his bosom, retired from the presence of the 
 Earl, and by break of day reached the West- 
 port, and went straight on to the Lord James 
 Stuart's lodging in the Canongate. But, though 
 the household were astir, it was some time be- 
 fore he got admittance ; for their master was 
 a young man of great method in all things, 
 and his chaplain was at the time reading the 
 first prayers of the morning, during which 
 the doors were shut, and no one, however 
 urgent his business, could gain admission 
 into that house while the inmates were doing 
 their homage to the King of kings.
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 183 
 
 CHAP. XVII. 
 
 As my grandfather, in the grey of the morn- 
 ing, was waiting in the Canongate till the 
 worship was over in the house of the Lord 
 James Stuart, he frequently rode up and 
 down the street as far as the Luckenbooths 
 and the Abbey's sanctuary siver, and his'mind 
 was at times smitten with the remorse of pity, 
 when he saw, as the dawn advanced, the 
 numbers of poor labouring men that came up 
 out of the closes and gathered round the 
 trone, abiding there to see who would come to 
 hire them for the day. But his compassion 
 was soon changed into a frame of thankful- 
 ness, at the boundless variety of mercies 
 which are dealt out to the children of Adam, 
 for he remarked, that, for the most part, these 
 poor men, whose sustenance was as precari-
 
 184 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 ous as that of the wild birds of the air, were 
 cheerful and jocund, many of them singing 
 and whistling as blithely as the lark, that 
 carries the sweet incense of her melodious 
 songs in the censer of a sinless breast to the 
 golden gates of the morning. 
 
 Hitherto he had never noted, or much 
 considered, the complicated cares and trials 
 wherewith the lot of man in every station is 
 chequered and environed ; and when he heard 
 those bondmen of hard labour, jocund after 
 sound slumbers and light suppers, laughing 
 contemptuously as they beheld the humiliat- 
 ing sight, which divers gallants and young- 
 sters, courtiers of the court, degraded with 
 debauch, made of themselves as they stum- 
 bled homeward, he thought there was surely 
 more bliss in the cup that was earned by the 
 constancy of health and a willing mind, than 
 in all the possets and malvesia that the hoards 
 of ages could procure. So he composed his 
 spirit, and inwardly made a vow to the Lord, 
 
 6
 
 RING AN GILHAIZE. 185 
 
 that, as soon as the mighty work of the re- 
 demption of the Gospel from the perdition of 
 papistry was accomplished, he would retire 
 into the lea of some pleasant green holm, and 
 take, for the purpose of his life, the attain- 
 ment of that happy simplicity which seeks 
 but the supply of the few wants with which 
 man comes so rich from the hands of his Ma- 
 ker, that all changes in his natural condi- 
 tion of tilling the ground and herding the 
 flocks only serve to make him poorer by in- 
 creasing. 
 
 While he was thus ruminating in the street, 
 he observed two strangers coming up the 
 Canongate. One of them had the appearance 
 of a servant, but he was of a staider and 
 more thoughtful aspect than belongs to men 
 of that degree, only he bore on his shoulder 
 a willease, and had in his hand a small pack- 
 age wrapt in a Avoollen cover and buckled 
 with a leathern strap. The other was the 
 master ; and my grandfather halted his horse
 
 186 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 to look at him as he passed, for he was evi- 
 dently no common man nor mean personage, 
 though in stature he was jimp the ordinary 
 size. He was bent more with infirmities than 
 the load of his years. His hair and long 
 flowing beard were very grey and venerable, 
 like those of the ancient patriarchs who en- 
 joyed immediate communion with God. But 
 though his appearance was thus aged, and 
 though his complexion and countenance be- 
 tokened a frail tenement, yet the brightness 
 of youth shone in his eyes, and they were 
 lighted up by a spirit over which time had 
 no power. 
 
 In his steps and gait he was a little hasty 
 and unsteady, and twice or thrice he was 
 obliged to pause in the steep of the street to 
 draw his breath ; but even in this there was 
 an affecting and great earnestness, a working 
 of a living soul within, as if it panted to en- 
 ter on the performance of some great and so- 
 lemn hest.
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 187 
 
 He seemed to be eager and zealous, like 
 the apostle Peter, in his temper, and as daunt- 
 less as the mighty and courageous Paul. 
 Many in the street stopped, and looked after 
 him with reverence and marvelling, as he pro- 
 ceeded with quick and desultory steps, follow- 
 ed by his sedate attendant. Nor was it sur- 
 prising, for he was, indeed, one of those who, 
 in their lives, are vast and wonderful, — special 
 creations that are sent down from heaven, 
 with authority attested by the glowing im- 
 press of the signet of God on their hearts, 
 to avenge the wrongs done to His truths and 
 laws in the blasphemies of the earth. — It 
 was John Knox ! 
 
 When he had passed, my grandfather rode 
 back to tlie yett of the Lord James Stuart's 
 lodgings, which by this time was opened, 
 and instanter, on mentioning to the porter 
 from whom he had come, was admitted to his 
 master. 
 
 That great worthy was at the time sitting
 
 188 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 alone in a back chamber, which looked to- 
 wards Salisbury Crags, and before him, but 
 on the opposite side of the table, among di- 
 vers letters and papers of business, lay a 
 large Bible, with brass clasps thereon, in 
 which, it would seem, some one had been ex- 
 pounding to him a portion of the Scriptures. 
 
 When my grandfather presented to' him 
 the letter from the Earl of Glencairn, he took 
 it from him without much regarding him, and 
 broke open the seal, and began to peruse it 
 to himself in that calm and methodical man- 
 ner for which he was so famed and remark- 
 able. Before, however, he had read above 
 the half thereof, he gave as it were a sudden 
 hitch, and turning round, looked my grand- 
 father sharply in the face, and said, — 
 
 " Are you Gilhaize ? " 
 
 But before any answer could be made, he 
 waved his hand graciously, pointing to a chair, 
 and desired him to sit down, resuming at the 
 same time the perusal of the letter ; and when
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 189 
 
 he had finished it, he folded it up for a mo- 
 ment ; but, as if recollecting himself, he soon 
 runkled it up in his hand and put it into the 
 fire. 
 
 " Your Lord informs me," said he, " that 
 he has all confidence, not only in your hon- 
 esty, Gilhaize, but in your discernment ; and 
 says, that in respect to the high question 
 anent Christ's cause, you may be trusted to 
 the uttermost. Truly, for so young a man, 
 this is an exceeding renown. His letter has 
 told me what passed last night with the 
 Queen's Highness. I am grieved to hear it. 
 She means well ; but her feminine fears make 
 her hearken to counsels that may cause the 
 very evils whereof she is so afraid. But the sin- 
 cerity of her favour to the Reformed will soon 
 be tried, for last night John Knox arrived, 
 and I was with him ; and, strong in the as- 
 surances of his faith, he intends to lead on 
 to the battle. This morning he was minded 
 to depart for Fife. — * Our Captain, Christ
 
 190 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 Jesus,' said he, ' and Satan, his adversary, 
 are now at open defiance ; their banners are 
 displayed, and the trumpet is blown on both 
 sides for assembling their armies. 1 As soon 
 as it is known that he is within the kingdom, 
 we shall learn what we may expect, and that 
 presently too; for this very day the clergy 
 meet in the monastery of the Greyfriars, 
 and doubtless they will be advertised of his 
 coming. You had as well try if you can 
 gain admittance among the other auditors, 
 to hear their deliberations ; afterwards come 
 again to me, and report what takes place ; by 
 that time I shall be advised whether to send 
 you back to Glencairn or else where. " 
 
 My grandfather, after this and some far- 
 ther discourse, retired to the hall, and took 
 breakfast with the household, where he was 
 much edified with the douce deportment of 
 all present, so unlike that of the lewd and 
 graceless varlets who rioted in the houses of 
 the other nobles. Verily, he used to say, the
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 191 
 
 evidences of a reforming spirit were brightly 
 seen there; and, to rule every one into a chaste 
 sobriety of conversation, a pious clerk sate at 
 the head of the board, and said grace before 
 and after the meal, making it manifest how 
 much all things about the Lord James Stuart 
 were done in order. 
 
 Having taken breakfast, and reposed him- 
 self some time, for his long ride had made 
 him very weary, he rose, and, changing his 
 apparel, went to the Greyfriars church, 
 where the clergy were assembling, and el- 
 bowing himself gently into the heart of the 
 people waiting around for admission, he got 
 in with the crowd when the doors were open- 
 ed. 
 
 The matter that morning to be considered 
 concerned the means to be taken, within the 
 local jurisdictions of those there met, to en- 
 force the process of the summons which had 
 been issued against the reformed preachers to 
 appear at Stirling.
 
 192 RINGAN GILHAIZE. . 
 
 But while they were busily conversing and 
 contriving how best to aid and further that ini- 
 quitous aggression of perfidious tyranny, there 
 came in one of the brethren of the monastery, 
 with a frightened look, and cried aloud, that 
 John Knox was come, and had been all night 
 in the town. At the news the spectators, as 
 if moved by one spirit, gave a triumphant 
 shout, — the clergy were thunderstruck, — some 
 started from their seats, unconscious of what 
 they did,— others threw themselves back 
 where they sat, — and all appeared as if a 
 judgment had been pronounced upon them. In 
 the same moment the church began to skail, — 
 the session was adjourned, — and the people 
 ran in all directions. The cry rose every 
 where, " John Knox is come i" All the town 
 came rushing into the streets, — the old and 
 the young, the lordly and the lowly, were 
 seen mingling and marvelling together, — all 
 tasks of duty, and servitude, and pleasure, 
 were forsaken, — the sick-beds of the dying
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 193 
 
 were deserted, — the priests abandoned their 
 altars and masses, and stood pale and trem- 
 bling at the doors of their churches, — mothers 
 set down their infants on the floors, and ran 
 to inquire what had come to pass, — funerals 
 were suspended, and the impious and the 
 guilty stood aghast, as if some dreadful apo- 
 calypse had been made ; — travellers, with the 
 bridles in their hands, lingering in profane 
 discourse with their hosts, suddenly mount- 
 ed, and speeded into the country with the 
 tidings. At every cottage door and wayside 
 bield, the inmates stood in clusters, silent 
 and wondering, as horseman came following 
 horseman, crying, " John Knox is come P 1 
 Barks that had departed, when they heard 
 the news, bore up to tell others that they 
 saw afar at sea. The shepherds were called 
 in from the hills ; — the warders on the castle, 
 when, at the sound of many quickened feet 
 approaching, they challenged the comers, 
 were answered, " John Knox is come V Stu- 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 194 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 dious men were roused from the spells of 
 their books ; — nuns, at their windows, looked 
 out fearful and inquiring, — and priests and 
 friars were seen standing by themselves, 
 shunned like lepers. The whole land was 
 stirred as with the inspiration of some new 
 element, and the hearts of the persecutors 
 were withered. 
 
 " No tongue," often said my grandfather, 
 " could tell the sense of that great event 
 through all the bounds of Scotland, and the 
 papistical dominators shrunk as if they had 
 suffered, in their powers and principalities, an 
 awful and irremediable overthrow."
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 195 
 
 CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 When my grandfather left the Grey friars, he 
 went to the lodging of the Lord James Stuart, 
 whom he found well instructed of all that had 
 taken place, which he much marvelled at, 
 having scarcely tarried by the way in going 
 thither. 
 
 " Now, Gilhaize,'" said my Lord, " the 
 tidings fly like wild-fire, and the Queen Re- 
 gent, by the spirit that has descended into the 
 hearts of the people, will be constrained to act 
 one way or another. John Knox, as you per- 
 haps know, stands under the ban of outlawry 
 for conscience sake. In a little while we shall 
 see whether he is still to be persecuted. If 
 left free, the braird of the Lord, that begins to 
 rise so green over all the land, will grow in 
 peace to a plentiful harvest. But if he is to 
 be hunted down, there will come such a cloud
 
 196 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 and storm as never raged before in Scot- 
 land. I speak to you thus freely, that 
 you may report my frank sentiments to thir 
 noble friends and trusty gentlemen, and 
 say to them, that I am girded for the field, 
 if need be." 
 
 He then put a list of several well-known 
 friends of the Reformation ayont the frith in- 
 to my grandfather's hands, adding, " I need 
 not say that it is not fitting now to trust to 
 paper, and therefore much will depend on 
 yourself. The confidence that my friend the 
 Earl, your master, has in you, makes me deal 
 thus openly with you ; and I may add, that if 
 there is deceit in you, Gilhaize, I will never 
 again believe the physiognomy of man — so go 
 your ways; see all these, wheresoever they may 
 be, — and take this purse for your charges." 
 
 My grandfather accepted the paper and the 
 purse ; and reading over the paper, imprinted 
 the names in it on his memory, and then said — 
 
 " My Lord, I need not risk the possession
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 197 
 
 of this paper ; but it may be necessary to give 
 me some token by which the lords and lairds 
 therein mentioned may have assurance that I 
 come from you."" 
 
 For some time the Lord James made no 
 reply, but stood ruminating, with the fore- 
 finger of his left hand pressing his nether lip : 
 then he observed — 
 
 " Your request is very needful ? and tak- 
 ing the paper, he mentioned divers things of 
 each of the persons named in it, which he told 
 my grandfather had passed between him and 
 them severally when none other was present. 
 " By remembering them of these things,"" 
 said he, " they will know that you are in verity 
 sent from me." 
 
 Being thus instructed, my grandfather left 
 the Lord James, and proceeding forthwith to 
 the pier of Leith, embarked in the Burnt- 
 island ferry-boat — and considering with him- 
 self, that the farthest away of those whom he 
 was missioned to see ought to be the first in-
 
 198 
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 formed, as the nearer had other ways and 
 means of communion, he resolved to go for- 
 ward to such of them as dwelt in Angus and 
 Merns ; by which resolution he reached Dun- 
 dee shortly after the arrival there of the 
 champion of the Reformation, John Knox. 
 
 This resolution proved most wise and for- 
 tunate ; for, on landing in that town, he found 
 a great concourse of the Reformed from the 
 two shires assembled there, and among them 
 many of those to whom he was specially sent. 
 They had come to go with their ministers be- 
 fore the Queen Regent's counsel at Stirling, 
 determined to avow their adherence to the 
 doctrines of which those pious men were ac- 
 cused. And it being foreseen, that as they 
 went forward others would join, my grand- 
 father thought he could do no better in his 
 mission than mingle with them, the more 
 especially as John Knox was also to be of 
 that great company. 
 
 On the day following, they accordingly all
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 199 
 
 set forward towards Perth, — and they were a 
 glorious army, mighty with the strength of 
 their great ally the Lord of the hosts of 
 heaven. No trumpet sounded in their march, 
 nor was the courageous drum heard among 
 them, — nor the shouts of earthly soldiery, — 
 nor the neigh of the war-horse, — nor the voice 
 of any captain. But they sang hymns of 
 triumph, and psalms of the great things that 
 Jehovah had of old done for his people ; and 
 though no banner was seen there, nor sword 
 on the thighs of men of might, nor spears 
 in the grasp of warriors, nor crested hel- 
 A§t, nor aught of the panoply of battle, yet 
 the eye of faith beheld more than all these, 
 for the hills and heights of Scotland were to 
 its dazzled vision covered that day with the 
 mustered armies of the dreadful God : — the 
 angels of his wrath in their burning chariots ; 
 the archangels of his omnipotence, calm in 
 their armour of storms and flaming fires, and 
 the Rider on the white horse, were all there.
 
 200 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 As the people with their ministers advanc- 
 ed, their course was like a river, which conti- 
 nually groweth in strength and spreadeth its 
 waters as it rolls onward to the sea. On all 
 sides came streams of new adherents to their 
 holy cause, in so much that when they arriv- 
 ed at Perth it was thought best to halt there, 
 lest the approach of so great a multitude, 
 though without weapons, should alarm the 
 Queen Regent's government. Accordingly 
 they made a pause, and Erskine of Dun, one 
 of the Lord James Stuart's friends, taking 
 my grandfather with him, and only two other 
 servants, rode forward to Stirling, to repjf^ 
 sent to her Highness the faith and the firmness 
 of the people. 
 
 When they arrived, they found the town in 
 consternation. Busy were the bailies, mar- 
 shalling such of the burgesses as could be 
 persuaded to take up arms ; but all who joined 
 them were feckless aged men, dealers and 
 traffickers in commodities for the courtiers.
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 201 
 
 Proud was the provost that day, and a type 
 of the cause for which he was gathering his 
 papistical remnants. At the sight of Dun 
 and his three followers riding up the street 
 to the castle, he was fain to draw out his 
 sword and make a salutation ; but it stuck sae 
 dourly in, that he was obligated to gar ane of 
 the town-officers hold the scabbard, while he 
 pulled with such might and main at the hilt, 
 that the blade suddenly broke off, and back 
 he stumbled, and up flew his heels, so that 
 even my grandfather was constrained, not- 
 withstanding the solemnity of the occasion, 
 to join in the shout of laughter that rose 
 thereat from all present. But provosts and 
 bailies, not being men of war, should not ex- 
 pose themselves to such adversities. 
 
 Nor was the fyke of impotent preparation 
 within the walls of the castle better. The 
 Queen had been in a manner lanerly with her 
 ladies when the sough of the coming multi- 
 tude reached her. The French guards had 
 
 i 2
 
 202 
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 not come from Glasgow, and there was none 
 of the warlike nobles of the papistical sect 
 at that time at Stirling. She had therefore 
 reason both for dread and panic, when the 
 news arrived that all Angus and Merns had 
 rebelled, for so it was at first reported. 
 
 On the arrival of Dun, he was on the in- 
 stant admitted to her presence ; for she was at 
 the time in the tapestried chamber, surround- 
 ed by her priests and ladies, and many offi- 
 cers, all consulting her according to their 
 fears. The sight, said my grandfather, for 
 he also went into the presence, was a proof 
 to him that the cause of the papacy was in 
 the dead-thraws, the judgments of all present 
 being so evidently in a state of discomfiture 
 and desertion. 
 
 Dun ffoino; forward with the wonted re- 
 verences, the Queen said to him abruptly — 
 
 " Well, Erskine, what is this ?" 
 
 Whereupon he represented to her, in a sedate 
 manner, that the reformed ministers were not
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 203 
 
 treated as they had been encouraged to hope; 
 nevertheless, to show their submission to those 
 in temporal authority over them, they were com- 
 ing, in obedience to the citation, to stand trial. 
 
 " But their retinue — when have delinquents 
 come to trial so attended P 11 she exclaimed 
 eagerly. 
 
 " The people,' 1 '' please your Highness, said 
 Dun, with a steadfastness of manner that 
 struck every one with respect for him, — " the 
 people hold the same opinions and believe 
 the same doctrines as their preachers, and 
 they feel that the offence, if it be offence, of 
 which the ministers are accused, lies equally 
 against them, and therefore they have resolv- 
 ed to make their case a common cause.'" 
 
 " And do they mean to daunt us from do- 
 ing justice against seditious schismatics P" 1 
 cried her Highness somewhat in anger. 
 
 " They mean," replied Dun, " to let your 
 Highness see whether it be possible to bring- 
 so many to judgment. Their sentiment, with
 
 204 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 one voice, is, Cursed be they that seek the ef- 
 fusion of blood, or war, or dissension. Let us 
 possess the evangile, and none within Scotland 
 shall be more obedient subjects. In sooth, 
 madam, they hold themselves as guilty of 
 the crime charged as their ministers are, and 
 they will suffer with them.'" 
 
 " Suffer ! call you rebellion suffering ?" 
 exclaimed the Queen. 
 
 " They have not yet rebelled," said Dun, 
 calmly ; " they come to remonstrate with 
 your Highness first ; for, as Christians, they 
 are loth to draw the sword. They have no 
 arms with them, to the end that no one 
 may dare to accuse them of any treason." 
 
 "It is a perilous thing when subjects," 
 said the Queen, much troubled, " declare 
 themselves so openly against the authority of 
 their rulers." 
 
 "It is a bold thing for rulers," replied 
 Dun, " to meddle with the consciences of 
 their subjects."
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 205 
 
 " How V exclaimed the Queen, startled 
 and indignant. 
 
 " I will deal yet more plainly with your 
 Highness, - " said he firmly. " This pretend- 
 ed offence, of which the Reformed are accused, 
 is not against the royal authority. They are 
 good and true subjects, and, by their walk 
 and conversation, bear testimony to the ex- 
 cellence and purity of those doctrines for 
 which they are resolved to sacrifice their 
 lives rather than submit to any earthly dic- 
 tation. Their controversies pertain to things 
 of Christ's kingdom, — it is a spiritual war- 
 fare. But the papists, conscious of their 
 weakness in the argument, would fain see 
 your Highness abandon that impartial justice 
 which you were called of Heaven to adminis- 
 ter in your great office, and to act factiously 
 on their side, as if the cause of the Gospel 
 could be determined by the arm of flesh.' - ' 
 
 " What has brought you here ?" exclaim- 
 ed the Queen, bursting into tears.
 
 206 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 " To claim the fulfilment of your royal 
 promises," said Dun, making a lowly rever- 
 ence, that by its humility took away all arro- 
 gance from the boldness of the demand. 
 
 " I will," said she : "I am ever willing 
 to be just, but this rising has shaken me with 
 apprehensions ; therefore, I pray you, Ers- 
 kine, write to your brethren ; bid them dis- 
 perse ; and tell them from me, that their mi- 
 nisters shall neither be tried nor molested." 
 
 At these words, she took the arm of one 
 of her ladies and hastily retired. Dun also 
 withdrew, and the same hour sent my grand- 
 father back to Perth with letters to the Con- 
 gregation, to the effect of her request and as- 
 surance. 
 
 That same evening the multitude broke up 
 and returned to their respective homes, rejoic- 
 ing with an exceeding great joy at so blessed 
 a termination of their weaponless Christian 
 war. Dun, however, distrusting the influence 
 of some of those who were of the Queen's
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 207 
 
 council, and who had arrived at the castle soon 
 after my grandfather's departure, did not re- 
 turn, as he had intended, next morning to 
 Perth, but resolved to wait over the day of 
 trial ; or, at least, until the ministers were ab- 
 solved from attendance on the summons, ei- 
 ther by proclamation or other forms of law.
 
 208 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 CHAP. XIX. 
 
 John Knox, among all the ministers who 
 remained at Perth after the Congregation of 
 the Reformed had dispersed, was the only 
 one, my grandfather has been heard to say, 
 that expressed no joy nor exultation at the 
 assurances of the Queen Regent. " We shall 
 see, we shall see," was all he said to those 
 among them who gloried in the victory ; add- 
 ing, " But if there is truth in the Word of 
 God, it is not in the nature of the Beast to 
 do otherwise than evil ;" and his words of dis- 
 cernment and of wisdom were soon verified. 
 
 Erskine of Dun, while he remained at 
 Stirling, had his eyes and ears open ; and in 
 their porches he placed, for sentinels, Dis- 
 trust and Suspicion. He knew the fluctuat- 
 ing nature of woman ; how every succeeding
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 209 
 
 wave of feeling washes away the deepest 
 traces that are traced on the quicksands of 
 her unstable humours; and the danger having 
 passed, he jealoused that the Queen Regent 
 would forget her terrors, and give herself up 
 to the headlong councils of the adversaries, 
 whom, from her known adherence to the Ro- 
 manish ritual, he justly feared she was inclin- 
 ed to favour. Nor was he left long in doubt. 
 
 On the evening before the day which had 
 been appointed for the trial, no proclamation 
 or other token was promulged to appease 
 the anxieties of the cited preachers. He, 
 therefore, thought it needful to be prepared 
 for the worst ; so, accordingly, he ordered 
 his two serving-men to have his horses in 
 readiness forth the town in the morning, and 
 there to abide his orders. 
 
 Without giving any other about him the 
 slightest inkling of what he had conceited, 
 he went up betimes to the castle, having 
 learnt that the Queen Regent was that day to
 
 210 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 hold a council. And being a man held in 
 great veneration by all parties, and well 
 known to the household of the court, he ob- 
 tained access to the ante-chamber after the 
 council was met.; and standing there, he was 
 soon surprised by her Highness coming out, 
 leaning on the arm of the Lord Wintoun, 
 and seemingly much disturbed. On seeing 
 him she was startled, and paused for a mo- 
 ment; but soon collecting all her pride, she 
 dropped the Lord Wintoun's arm, and walk- 
 ed straight through the apartment without 
 noticing any one, and holding herself aloft 
 with an air of resolute dignity. 
 
 Dun augured no good from this; but fol- 
 lowing till the Lord Wintoun had attended 
 her to the end of the long painted gallery, 
 where she stopped at the door that opened to 
 her private apartments, he there awaited 
 that nobleman's return, and inquired of him 
 if the process against the protestant ministers 
 had been rescinded.
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 211 
 
 " No," said Wintoun, peevishly ; " the sum- 
 mons have been called over, and they have 
 not appeared, either in person or by agents." 
 
 " Say you so, my Lord!" cried Dun ; " and 
 what is the result ?" 
 
 " Outlawry, for non-appearance, is pronoun- 
 ced against them,' 1 replied Wintoun, haught- 
 ily, and went straight back into the council- 
 chamber. 
 
 Dun thought it unnecessary to inquire far- 
 ther ; so, without making more ado, he instan- 
 ter left the castle, and, going down the town, 
 went to the spot where his horses stood 
 ready, and, mounting, rode off with the tid- 
 ings to Perth, grieving sorely at the gross 
 perfidy and sad deceit which the Queen Re- 
 gent had been so practised on, by the heads 
 of the papist faction, to commit. 
 
 It happened on the same day, that John 
 Knox, who remained at Perth, a wakeful 
 warder on a post of peril, was moved by 
 the spirit of God to preach a sermon, in
 
 212 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 wliich he exposed the idolatry of the mass 
 and the depravity of image-worship. My 
 grandfather was present, and he often said that 
 preaching was an era and epoch worthy to be 
 held in everlasting remembrance. It took 
 place in the Greyfriars' church. There was 
 an understanding among the people that 
 it was to be there ; but many fearing the 
 monks might attempt to prevent it, a vast 
 concourse, chiefly men, assembled at the or- 
 dinary mass hour, and remained in the church 
 till the Reformer came, so that, had the friars 
 tried to keep him out, they could not have 
 shut the doors. 
 
 A lane was made through the midst of the 
 crowd to admit the preacher to the pulpit ; 
 and when he was seen advancing, aged and 
 feeble, and leaning on his staff', many were 
 moved with compassion, and doubted if it 
 could be the wonderful man of whom every 
 tongue spoke. But when he had ascended and 
 began, he seemed to undergo a great trans-
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 213 
 
 figuration. His abject mien and his sickly 
 visage became majestic and glorious. His 
 eyes lightened ; his countenance shone as with 
 the radiance of a spirit that blazed within ; 
 and his voice dirled to the heart like vehement 
 thunder. 
 
 Sometimes he spoke to the understandings 
 of those who heard him, of that insane doc- 
 trine which represented the mission of the 
 Redeemer to consist of believing, in desjpite 
 of sight, and smell, and touch, and taste, that 
 wafers and wine were actually the flesh and 
 blood of a man that was crucified, with nails 
 driven through his feet and hands, many 
 hundred years ago. Then, rising into the 
 contemplation of the divinity of the Saviour, 
 he trampled under the feet of his eloquence 
 a belief so contrary to the instincts and senses 
 with which Infinite Wisdom has gifted his 
 creatures; and bursting into ecstasy at the 
 thought of this idolatrous invention, he called 
 on the people to look at the images and the 
 
 r
 
 214 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 effigies in the building around them, and be- 
 lieve, if they could, that such things, the 
 handy works of carpenters and masons, were 
 endowed with miraculous energies far above 
 the faculties of man. Kindling into a still 
 higher mood, he preached to those very 
 images, and demanded of them, and those 
 they represented, to show any proof that 
 they were entitled to reverence. " God for- 
 give my idolatry," he exclaimed, " I for- 
 get myself — these things are but stocks and 
 stones."" 
 
 Not one of all who heard him that day ever 
 gave ear again to papistry. 
 
 When he had made an end, and had re- 
 tired from the church, many still lingered, 
 discoursing of his marvellous lecture, and, 
 among others, my grandfather. 
 
 An imprudent priest belonging to the con- 
 vent, little aware of the great conversion 
 which had been wrought, began to prepare 
 for the celebration of the mass, and a callan 
 
 'I,
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 215 
 
 who was standing near, encouraged by the 
 contempt which some of those around ex- 
 pressed at this folly, jibed the priest, and he 
 drove him away. The boy, however, return- 
 ed, and levelling a stone at a crucifix on the 
 altar, shattered it to pieces. In an instant, as 
 if caught by a whirlwind, the whole papisti- 
 cal trumpery was torn down, and dashed into 
 fragments. The cry of " Down with the 
 idols P! became universal : hundreds on hun- 
 dreds came rushing to the spot. The ma- 
 gistrates and the ministers came flying to 
 beseech order and to sooth the multitude ; 
 but a Divine ire was upon the people, who 
 heard no voice but only the cry of " Down 
 with the idols !"" and their answer was, " Burn, 
 burn, and destroy !* 
 
 The monasteries of the Black and the Grev 
 Friars were sacked and rendered desolate, and 
 the gorgeous edifice of the Carthusian monks 
 levelled to the ground. 
 
 So dreadful a tumult had never before been
 
 216 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 heard of within the realm. Many of the best 
 of the Reformed deplored the handle it would 
 give to the blasphemies of their foes. Even 
 my grandfather was smitten with consterna- 
 tion and grief; for he could not but think 
 that such a terrible temporal outrage would 
 be followed by a temporal revenge as ruth- 
 less and complete. Sober minds shuddered 
 at the sudden and sacrilegious overthrow of 
 such venerable structures ; and many that 
 stood on the threshold of the house of papist- 
 ical bondage, and were on the point of leav- 
 ing it, retired in again, and barred the doors 
 against the light, and hugged their errors as 
 blameless compared with such enormities. 
 To no one did the event give pleasure but 
 to John Knox. " The work," said he, " has 
 been done, it is true, by the rascal multitude ; 
 but when the nests are destroyed the rooks 
 will fly away." 
 
 The thing, however, most considered at 
 that time, was the panic which this intemper- 
 
 1
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 217 
 
 ance would cause to the Queen Regent ; and 
 my grandfather, seeing it had changed the 
 complexion of his mission, resolved to return 
 the same evening by the Queensferry to the 
 Lord James Stuart at Edinburgh. For the 
 people no sooner cooled, and came to a sense 
 of reflection, than they discerned that they had 
 committed a heinous offence against the laws, 
 and, apprehending punishment, prepared to 
 defend themselves. 
 
 Thus, by the irresolute and promise-break- 
 ing policy of the Queen, was the people mad- 
 dened into grievous excesses, and many of 
 those who submitted quietly in the faith of 
 her assurances, and had returned to their re- 
 spective homes, considered the trumpet as 
 sounded, and began to gird themselves for 
 battle. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 218 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 CHAP. XX. 
 
 It's far from my hand and intent, to write a 
 history of the tribulations which ensued from 
 the day of the uproar and first outbreaking 
 of the wrath of the people against the images 
 of the Romish idolatry ; and therefore I shall 
 proceed, with all expedient brevity, to relate 
 what farther, in those sore times, fell under 
 the eye of my grandfather, who, when he 
 returned to Edinburgh, found the Lord James 
 Stuart on the point of proceeding to the 
 Queen Regent at Stirling, and he went with 
 him thither. 
 
 0)i arriving at the castle, they found the 
 French soldiery all collected in the town, and 
 her Highness, like another fiery Bellona, vow- 
 ing to avenge the calamities that had befallen 
 the idols and images of Perth ; and summon-
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 210 
 
 ing and invoking the nobility, and every man 
 of substance she could think of, to come with 
 their vassals, that she might be enabled to 
 chastise such sacrilegious rebellion. 
 
 The Lord James Stuart seeing her so bent on 
 extremities, and knowing, by his secret intelli- 
 gences, that strong powers were ready to start 
 forward at a moment's warning, both in the 
 West, and in Fife, Angus, and Merns, en- 
 treated her to listen to more moderate coun- 
 cils than those of revenge and resentment, 
 and rather to think of pacification than of 
 punishment. But she was fiery with passion, 
 and a blinded instrument in the hands of 
 Providence to work out the deliverance of the 
 land, even by the crooked policy that her pa- 
 pistical counsellors hurried her into. So that 
 the Lord James, seeing she was transported 
 beyond reason, sent my grandfather and 
 other secret emissaries to warn the Lords 
 and leaders of the Congregation, and to tell 
 them, that her Highness was minded to sur-
 
 220 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 prise Perth as soon as she had gathered a 
 sufficient array. 
 
 The conduct of that great worthy was in 
 this full of wisdom, and foresight, and poli- 
 cy. By staying with the Queen he incurred 
 the suspicion of the Reformed, to whom he was 
 a devoted friend ; but he gained a knowledge 
 of the intents of their enemies, by which he 
 was enabled to turn aside the edge of ven- 
 geance when it was meant to be most deadly. 
 Accordingly, reckless of the opinions of men, 
 he went forward with the Queen's army to- 
 wards Perth ; but before they had crossed the 
 Water of Earn, word was brought to her High- 
 ness, that the Earl of Glen cairn, at the head 
 of two thousand five hundred of the Reformed, 
 was advancing from the shire of Ayr. 
 
 Such were the fruits of my grandfather's 
 mission to the Lord Boyd, and he heard like- 
 wise that the bold and free lairds of Angus and 
 Merns, with all their followers, had formed 
 themselves in battle-array to defend the town.
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 221 
 
 Still, however, her Highness was resolute to 
 go on ; for she was instigated by her feminine 
 anger, even as much as by the wicked councils 
 of the papist lords by whom she was sur- 
 rounded. 
 
 But when she reached the heights that 
 overlooked the sweet valley of the Tay, whose 
 green and gentle bosom was then sparkling 
 with the glances of warlike steel, her heart was 
 softened, and she called to her the Lord James 
 Stuart and the young Earl of Argyle, — 
 the old Lord, his father, had died some time 
 prior, — and sent them to the army of the Con- 
 gregation, that peace might still be preserved. 
 They accordingly went into the town, and 
 sending notice to the leaders of the Reformed 
 to appoint two of their party to confer with 
 them, John Knox and the Master Willocks 
 were nominated. My grandfather, who attend- 
 ed the Lord James on this occasion, was di- 
 rected by him to receive the two deputies at the 
 door and to conduct them in ; and when they
 
 222 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 came he was much troubled to observe the 
 state of their minds ; for Master Willocks was 
 austere in his looks as if resolved on quarrel, 
 and the Reformer was agitated and angry, 
 muttering to himself as he ascended the stairs, 
 making his staff often dirl on the steps. No 
 sooner were they shown into the presence of 
 the two lords, even before the door was shut, 
 than John Knox began to upbraid the Lord 
 James for having broken the covenant and 
 forsaken the Congregation. 
 
 Much to that effect, my grandfather after- 
 wards learnt, passed ; but the Lord James 
 pacified him with the assurance that his heart 
 and spirit were still true to the cause, and that 
 he had come with Argyle to prevent, if pos- 
 sible, the shedding of blood ; he likewise de- 
 clared both for himself and the Earl, who 
 had hilherto always abided by the Queen, 
 that if she refused to listen to reasonable 
 terms, or should break any treaty entered in- 
 to, they would openly take part against her.
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 Upon these assurances a treaty was con- 
 cluded, by which it was agreed, that both ar- 
 mies should retire peaceably to their respec- 
 tive habitations; that the town should be 
 made accessible to the Queen Regent ; that 
 no molestation should be given to those who 
 were then in arms for the Congregation, and 
 no persecutions undertaken against the Re- 
 formed, — with other covenants calculated to 
 sooth the Congregation and allay men's fears. 
 But no sooner was this treaty ratified, the 
 army of the Congregation dispersed, and her 
 Highness in possession of the town, than it 
 was manifest no vows nor obligations were 
 binding towards the heretics, as the Reformed 
 were called. The Queen's French guards, even 
 when attending her into the town, fired into 
 the house of a known zealous protestant and 
 killed his son; the inhabitants were plun- 
 dered and insulted with impunity, and the 
 magistrates were dismissed to make way for 
 men devoted to papistry.
 
 224 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 The Earl of Argyle and the Lord James 
 Stuart, filled with wrath and indignation at 
 such open perfidy, went straight into her 
 Highness*' presence without asking audience, 
 and reproached her with deceit and craftiness ; 
 and having so vented their minds, instanter 
 quitted the court and the town, and, attended 
 by my grandfather and a few other servants, 
 departed for Fife, to which John Kncx had 
 also retired after the dispersion of the Congre- 
 gation at Perth. The Lord James, in virtue 
 of being Prior of St Andrews, went thither 
 attended by the Earl, and sent my grandfa- 
 ther to Crail, where the Reformer was then 
 preaching, to invite him to meet them and 
 others of the Congregation with all convenient 
 expedition. 
 
 My grandfather never having been before 
 in Crail, and not knowing how the people 
 there might stand affected, instead of in- 
 quiring for John Knox, bethought himself 
 of his acquaintance with Bailie Kilspinnie,
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 225 
 
 and so speired his way to his dwelling, little 
 hoping, from the fearful nature of that honest 
 man, he would find him within. But, contrary 
 to his expectation, he was not only there, but 
 he welcomed my grandfather as an old and 
 very cordial friend, leading him into his 
 house and making much of him, telling him, 
 with a voice of cheerfulness, that the day of 
 reckoning had at last overtaken the lascivious 
 idolaters. 
 
 Then he caused to be brought in before my 
 grandfather the five pretty babies that his 
 wife had abandoned for her papistical para- 
 mour, the eldest of whom was but turned 
 of nine years. The thoughts of their mo- 
 ther's shame overcame their father at that 
 moment, and the tears coming into his eyes 
 he sobbed aloud as he looked at them, and 
 wepf bitterly, while they flocked around, and 
 wreathed him, as it were, with their caresses 
 and innocent blandishments. So tender a 
 scene melted my grandfather's spirit into sad- 
 
 k 2
 
 226 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 ness ; and he could not remain master of him- 
 self, when the eldest, a mild and meek little 
 maiden, said to him, as if to excuse her fa- 
 ther's sorrow, " A foul friar made my mother 
 an ill-doer, and took her away ae night when 
 she wasy just done wi' harkening our prayers." 
 
 At this juncture, a blooming and modest- 
 eyed damsel came into the room ; but, seeing 
 a stranger, she drew back and was going 
 away, when the bailie, drying his eyes, said — 
 
 " Come ben, Elspa ; this is the young man 
 that ye hae heard me sae commend for his 
 kind friendship to me, in that dotage-dauner 
 that I made in my distraction to St Andrews. 
 This, ,, he added, turning to my grandfather, 
 " is Elspa Ruet, the sister of that misfortu- 
 nate woman ; — to my helpless bairns she does 
 their mother's duty." 
 
 Elspa made a gentle beck as her brother-in- 
 law was speaking, and turning round, dropt 
 a tear on the neck of the youngest baby, as 
 she leant down to take it up for a screen to
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 227 
 
 hide her blushing face, that reddent with the 
 thought at seeing one who had so witnessed 
 her sister's shame. 
 
 From that hour her image had a dear place 
 in my grandfather's bosom, and after the 
 settlement of the Reformation throughout the 
 realm, he courted her, and she became his 
 wife, and in process of time my grandmother. 
 But of her manifold excellencies I shall have 
 occasion to speak more at large hereafter, 
 for she was no ordinary woman, but a saint 
 throughout life, returning in a good old age 
 to her Maker, almost as blameless as she 
 came from His pure hands ; and nothing 
 became her more in all her piety, than the 
 part she acted towards her guilty sister. 
 
 Having taken away the children, she then 
 brought in divers refreshments, add a flagon 
 of posset ; but she remained not with the bai- 
 lie and my grandfather while they partook 
 thereof; so that they were left free to con- 
 verse as they listed, and my grandfather was
 
 228 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 glad to find, as I have already said, that the 
 poor man had triumphed over his fond grief, 
 and was reconciled to his misfortunes as well 
 as any father could well be, with so many 
 deserted babies, and three of them daughters. 
 
 He likewise learnt, with no less solace and 
 satisfaction, that the Reformed were strong in 
 Crail, and that the magistrates and beinest 
 burgesses had been present on the day before 
 at the preaching of John Knox, and had 
 afterwards suffered the people to demolish 
 the images and all the monuments of papis- 
 try, without molestation or hinderance ; so 
 that the town was cleansed of the pollution of 
 idolatry, and the worship of humble and con- 
 trite hearts established there, instead of the 
 pagan pageantry of masses and altars. 
 
 After the repast was finished, the bailie 
 conducted my grandfather to the house where 
 John Knox then lodged, to whom he com- 
 municated his message from the Lord James 
 Stuart.
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 229 
 
 " Tell your master," was the reply of the 
 Reformer, " that I will be with him, God 
 willing ; and God is willing, for this invita- 
 tion, and the state of men's minds, maketh 
 his will manifest. Yea, 1 was minded myself 
 to go thither ; for that same city of St An- 
 drews is the Zion of Scotland. Of old, the 
 glad tidings of salvation were first heard 
 there, — there, amidst the damps and the 
 darkness of ages, the ancient Culdees, men 
 whose memory is still fragrant for piety and 
 purity of faith and life, supplied the oil of 
 the lamp of the living God for a period of 
 four hundred years, independent of pope, 
 prelate, or any human supremacy. There it 
 was that a spark of their blessed embers 
 was, in our own day, first blown into a flame, 
 — and there, please God, where I, his un- 
 worthy instrument, was condemned as a cri- 
 minal for His truth's sake, shall I, in His 
 strength, be the herald of His triumph and 
 great victory."
 
 30 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 CHAP. XXI. 
 
 When my grandfather had returned to the 
 bailie's house after delivering his message to 
 the Reformer, he spent an evening of douce 
 but pleasant pastime with him and the mo- 
 dest Elspa Ruet, whose conversation was 
 far above her degree, and seasoned with the 
 sweet savour of holiness. But ever and anon, 
 though all parties strove to eschew the sub- 
 ject, they began to speak of her erring sister, 
 the bailie compassionating her continuance in 
 sin as a man and a Christian should, but show- 
 ing no wish nor will to mind her any more 
 as kith or kin to him or his ; a temper that 
 my grandfather was well content to observe 
 he had attained. Not so was that of Elspa ; 
 but her words were few and well-chosen, and 
 they made a deep impression on my grand-
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 231 
 
 father ; for she seemed fain to hide what was 
 passing in her heart. 
 
 Twice or thrice she spoke of the ties of 
 nature, intimating that they were as a bond 
 and obligation laid on by the Maker, 
 whereby kindred were bound to stand by one 
 another in weal or in wo, lest those who sin- 
 ned should be utterly abandoned by all the 
 world. The .which tender and Christian sen- 
 timent, though it was melodious to my grand- 
 father's spirit, pierced it with a keen pain ; 
 for he thought of the manner in which he 
 had left his own parents, even though it was 
 for the blessed sake of religion, and his bo- 
 som was at the moment filled with sorrow. 
 But, when he said how much he regretted 
 and was yet unrepentant of that step, Elspa 
 cheered him with a consolation past utter- 
 ance, by reminding him, that he had neither 
 left them to want nor to sin ; that, by quitting 
 the shelter of their wing, he had but obeyed 
 the promptings of nature, and that if, at
 
 232 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 any time hereafter, father or mother stood in 
 need of his aid or exhortation, he could still 
 do his duty. 
 
 Without well considering what he said, 
 the bailie observed on this, that he was sur- 
 prised to hear her say so, and yet allow her 
 sister to remain so long unreproved in her 
 offences. 
 
 Elspa Ruet to this made no immediate re- 
 ply, — she was indeed unable ; — and my grand- 
 father sympathized with her, for the sting had 
 plainly penetrated to the very marrow of her 
 soul. At last, however, she said, — 
 
 " Your reproach is just, I hae been to 
 blame baith to Heaven and man — but the thing 
 has na been unthought, only I kent na how 
 to gang about the task ; and yet what gars me 
 say sae but a woman's weakness, for the road's 
 no sae lang to St Andrews, and surely iniqui- 
 ty does not there so abound, that no ane 
 would help me to the donsie woman's bower." 
 
 My grandfather, on hearing this, answered,
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 233 
 
 that if she was indeed minded to try to res- 
 cue her sister, he was ready and willing to do 
 all with her and for her that she could desire ; 
 but, bearing in mind the light woman's open 
 shame, he added, " I'm fearful it's yet owre 
 soon to hope for her amendment : she'll hae to 
 fin the evil upshot of her ungodly courses, I 
 doubt, before she'll be wrought into a frame 
 of sincere penitence." 
 
 " Nevertheless," replied Elspa Ruet, " I 
 will try ; it's my duty, and my sisterly love 
 bids me no to be slothful in the task." At 
 which words she burst into sore and sorrow- 
 ful weeping, saying, " Alas, alas ! that she 
 should have so fallen ! — I loved her — oh ! nae- 
 body can tell how dearly — even as I loved 
 myself. When I first saw my ain face in a 
 looking-glass I thought it was her, and kiss- 
 ed it for the likeness, in pity that it didna look 
 sae fair as it was wont to be. But it's the Lord's 
 pleasure, and in permitting her to sink so low 
 he has no doubt some great lesson to teach."
 
 234 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 Thus, from less to more, as they continued 
 conversing, it was agreed that Elspa Ruet 
 should ride on a pad ahint my grandfather 
 next morning to St Andrews, in order to try 
 if the thing; could be to move her sister to 
 the humiliation of contrition for her loose life. 
 And some small preparations being needful, 
 Elspa departed and left the bailie and my 
 grandfather together. 
 
 " But," said my grandfather to him, af- 
 ter she had been some time away, " is't your 
 design to take the unfortunate woman back 
 amang your innocent lassie bairns ?" 
 
 " No," replied the bailie ; " that's no a thing 
 to be now thought of ; please Providence, she'll 
 ne'er again darken my door ; I'll no, however, 
 allow her to want. Her mother, poor auld 
 afflicted woman, that has ne'er refrain't from 
 greeting since her flight, she'll tak her in ; 
 but atween her and me there's a divorce for 
 
 ever." 
 
 By daylight my grandfather had his horse
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 235 
 
 at the door ; and Elspa having borrowed the 
 provost's lady's pad over night, it was buck- 
 led on, and they were soon after on the road. 
 
 It was a sunny morning in June, and all 
 things were bright, and blithe, and blooming. 
 The spirits of youth, joy, and enjoyment, were 
 spread abroad on the earth. The butterflies, 
 like floating lilies, sailed from blossom to blos- 
 som, and the gowans, the bright and beautiful 
 eyes of the summer, shone with gladness, as 
 Nature walked on bank and brae, in maiden 
 pride, spreading and showing her new flowery 
 mantle to the sun- The very airs that stirred 
 the glittering trees were soft and genial as the 
 breath of life ; and the leaves of the aspine 
 seemed to lap the sunshine like the tongues of 
 young and happy creatures that delight in 
 their food. 
 
 As my grandfather and Elspa Ruet rode 
 along together, they partook of the universal 
 benignity with which all things seemed that 
 morning so graciously adorned, and their
 
 236 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 hearts were filled with the hope that their 
 united endeavours to save her fallen sister 
 would be blessed with success. But when 
 they came in sight of the papal towers and 
 gorgeous edifices of St Andrews, which then 
 raised their proud heads, like Babel, so auda- 
 ciously to the heavens, they both became 
 silent. 
 
 My grandfather's thoughts ran on what 
 might ensue if the Archbishop were to sub- 
 ject him to his dominion, and he resolved, as 
 early as possible, to make known his arrival 
 to the Lord James Stuart, who, in virtue of 
 being head of the priory, was then resident 
 there, and to claim his protection. Accord- 
 ingly he determined to ride with Elspa Ruet 
 to the house of the vintner in the Shoegate, 
 of which I have already spoken, and to leave 
 her under the care of Lucky Kilfauns, as the 
 hostess was called, until he had done so. But 
 fears and sorrows were busy with the fancy of 
 his fair companion ; and it was to her a bit-
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 237 
 
 ter thing, as she afterwards told him, to think 
 that the purpose of her errand was to entreat 
 a beloved sister to leave a life of shame and 
 sin, and sadly doubting if she would succeed. 
 
 Being thus occupied with their respective 
 cogitations, they entered the city in silence, 
 and reached the vintner's door without having 
 exchanged a word for several miles. There 
 Elspa alighted, and being commended to the 
 care of Lucky Kilfauns, who, though of a 
 free outspoken nature, was a most creditable 
 matron, my grandfather left her, and rode up 
 the gait to the priory yett, where, on his ar- 
 rival, he made himself known to the porter, 
 and was admitted to the Lord Prior, as the 
 Lord James was there papistically called. 
 
 Having told his Lordship that he had de- 
 livered his message to John Knox, and that 
 the Reformer would not fail to attend the call, 
 he then related partly what had happened to 
 himself in his former sojourn at St Andrews, 
 and how and for what end he had brought
 
 238 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 Elspa Ruet there that day with him, entreat- 
 ing the Lord James to give him his livery and 
 protection, for fear of the Archbishop ; which, 
 with many pleasing comments on his devout 
 and prudent demeanour, that noble worthy 
 most readily vouchsafed, and my grandfather 
 returned to the vintner's,
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 239 
 
 CHAP. XXII. 
 
 When my grandfather had returned to the 
 vintner's, he found that Elspa had conferred 
 with Lucky Kilfauns concerning the afflict- 
 ing end and intent of her journey to St An- 
 drews ; and that decent woman, sympathizing 
 with her sorrow, telling her of many woful 
 things of the same sort she had herself known, 
 and how a cousin of her mothei-'s, by the fa- 
 ther's side, had been wiled away from her 
 home by the abbot of Melrose, and never 
 heard tell of for many a day, till she was dis- 
 covered, in the condition of a disconsolate 
 nun, in a convent, far away in Nithsdale. But 
 the great difficulty was to get access to Marion 
 Ruet's bower, for so, from that day, was Mrs 
 Kilspinnie called again by her sister; and, af- 
 ter no little communing, it was proposed by
 
 240 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 Lucky Kilfauns, that Elspa should go with 
 her to the house of a certain widow, Dingwall, 
 and there for a time take up her abode, and 
 that my grandfather, after putting on the 
 Prior's livery, should look about him for the 
 gilly, his former guide, and, through him, 
 make a tryst to meet the dissolute madam 
 at the widow's house. Accordingly the mat- 
 ter was so settled, and while Lucky Kil- 
 fauns, in a most motherly and pitiful man- 
 ner, carried Elspa Ruet to the house of 
 the Widow Dingwall, my grandfather went 
 back to the priory to get the cloak and arms 
 of the Lord James 1 livery. 
 
 When he was equipped, he then went 
 fearless all about the town, and met with no 
 molestation; only he saw at times divers of 
 the Archbishop's men, who recollected him, 
 and who, as he passed, stopped and looked 
 after him, and whispered to one another and 
 muttered fierce words. Much he desired to 
 fall in with that humane Samaritan, Leonard
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 241 
 
 Meldrum, the seneschal of the castle, and 
 fain would he have gone thither to inquire 
 for him ; but, until he had served the turn of 
 the mournful Elspa Ruet, he would not 
 allow any wish of his own to lead him to 
 aught wherein there was the hazard of any 
 trouble that might balk her pious purpose. 
 
 After daunering from place to place, and 
 seeing nothing of the stripling, he was obli- 
 gated to give twalpennies to a stabler's lad 
 to search for him, who soon brought him to 
 the vintner's, where my grandfather, putting 
 on the look of a losel and roister, gave him 
 a groat, and bade him go to the madam's 
 dwelling, and tell her that he would be, 
 from the gloaming, all the night at the Wi- 
 dow Dingwall's, where he would rejoice ex- 
 ceedingly if she could come and spend an 
 hour or two. 
 
 The stripling, so fee'd, was right glad, and 
 made himself so familiar towards my grand- 
 father, that Lucky Kilfauns observing it. 
 
 vol. i. L
 
 242 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 the better to conceal their plot, feigned to be 
 most obstreperous, flyting at him with all her 
 pith and bir, and chiding my grandfather, 
 as being as scant o -> grace as a gaberlunzie, or 
 a novice of the Dominicans. However, they 
 worked so well together, that the gilly never 
 misdoubted either her or my grandfather, 
 and took the errand to his mistress, from 
 whom he soon came with a light foot and a 
 glaikit eye, saying she would na fail to keep 
 the tryst. 
 
 That this new proof of the progress she 
 was making in guilt and sin might be the 
 more tenderly broken to her chaste and gen- 
 tle sister, Lucky Kilfauns herself undertook 
 to tell El spa what had been covenanted to 
 prepare her for the meeting. My grandfa- 
 ther would fain have had a milder mediatrix, 
 for the vintner's worthy wife was wroth 
 against the concubine, calling her offence 
 redder than the crimson of schism, and black- 
 er than the broth of the burning brimstone of
 
 RINGAN GILIIAIZE. 243 
 
 heresy, with many other vehement terms of 
 indignation, none worse than the wicked 
 woman deserved, though harsh to be heard 
 by a sister, that grieved for her unreo-encrate 
 condition far more than if she had come from 
 Crail to St Andrews only to lay her head in 
 the coffin. 
 
 The paction between all parties being thus 
 covenanted, and Lucky Kilfauns gone to 
 prepare the fortitude of Elspa Iluet for the 
 trial it was to undergo, my grandfather walk- 
 ed out alone to pass the time till the trysted 
 hour. It was then late in the afternoon, 
 and as he sauntered along he could not but 
 observe that something was busy with the 
 minds and imaginations of the people. Knots 
 of the douce and elderly shopkeepers were 
 seen standing in the street, with their heads 
 laid together ; and as he walked towards the 
 priory he met the provost between two of the 
 bailies, with the dean of guild, coming se- 
 dately, and with very great solemnity in their
 
 244 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 countenances, down the crown of the causey, 
 heavily laden with magisterial fears. He 
 stopped to look at them, and he remarked 
 that they said little to one another, but what 
 they did say seemed to be words of weight ; 
 and when any of their friends and acquain- 
 tances happened to pass, they gave them a 
 nod that betokened much sadness of heart. 
 
 The cause of all this anxiety was not, in 
 its effects and influence, meted only to the 
 men and magistrates : the women partook of 
 them even to a greater degree. They were 
 seen passing from house to house, out at one 
 door and into the next, and their faces were 
 full of strange matters. One in particular, 
 whom my grandfather noticed coining along, 
 was often addressed with brief questions, and 
 her responses were seemingly as awful as an 
 oracle's. She was an aged carlin, who, in her 
 day, had been a midwife, but having in course 
 of time waxed old, and being then somewhat 
 slackened in the joints of the right side by a
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 245 
 
 paralytic, she eked out the weakly remainder 
 of her thread of life in visitations among; the 
 families that, in her abler years, she had as- 
 sisted to increase and multiply. She was 
 then returning home after spending the day, 
 as my grandfather afterwards heard from the 
 Widow Dingwall, with the provost's daugh- 
 ter, at whose birth she had been the howdy, 
 and who, being married some months, had 
 sent to consult her anent a might-be occasion. 
 As she came toddling along, with pitty- 
 patty steps, in a rose satin mantle that she 
 got as a blithemeat gift when she helped the 
 young master of Elcho into the world, drawn 
 close over her head, and leaning on a staff 
 with her right hand, while in her left she 
 carried a Flanders pig of strong ale, with a 
 clout o'er the mouth to keep it from jawping, 
 scarcely a door or entry mouth was she al- 
 lowed to pass, but she was obligated to stop 
 and speak, and what she said appeared to be 
 tidings of no comfort.
 
 246 KINGAN GTLHAIZE. 
 
 All these things bred wonder and curiosity 
 in the breast of my grandfather, avIio, not 
 being acquaint with any body that he saw, 
 did not like for some time to inquire ; but at 
 last his diffidence and modesty were overcome, 
 by the appearance of a strong party of the 
 Archbishop's armed retainers, followed by a 
 mob of bairns and striplings, yelling, and 
 scoffing at them with bitter taunts and many 
 titles of derision ; and on inquiring at a 
 laddie, what had caused the consternation in 
 the town, and the passage of so many soldiers 
 from the castle, he was told that they ex- 
 pected John Knox the day following, and 
 that he was mindet to preach, but the Arch- 
 bishop has resolved no to let him. It was 
 even so ; for the Lord James Stuart, who 
 possessed a deep and forecasting spirit, had, 
 soon after my grandfather's arrival with the 
 Reformer's answer, made the news, known to 
 try the temper of the inhabitants and burgh- 
 ers. But, saving this marvelling and pre-
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 247 
 
 paration, nothing farther of a public nature 
 took place that night; so that, a short time 
 before the hour appointed, my grandfather 
 went to the house of Widow Dingwall, where 
 he found Elspa Ruet sitting very disconsolate 
 in a chamber by herself, weeping bitterly 
 at the woful account which Lucky Kilfauns 
 had brought of her sister's loose life, and fear- 
 ing greatly that all her kind endeavours and 
 humble prayers would be but as water spilt 
 on the ground.
 
 248 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 CHAP. XXIII. 
 
 As the time of appointment drew near, Elspa 
 liuet was enabled to call in her wandering 
 and anxious thoughts, and, strengthened by 
 her duty, the blessing of the tranquil mind 
 was shed upon her. Her tears were dried 
 up, and her countenance shone with a serene 
 benignity. When she was an aged withered 
 woman, my grandfather has been heard to 
 say, that he never remembered her appear- 
 ance without marvelling at the special effusion 
 of holiness and beauty which beamed and 
 brightened upon her in that trying hour, nor 
 without thinking that he still beheld the glory 
 of its twilight glowing through the dark and 
 faded clouds of her old age. 
 
 They had not sat long when a tapping was 
 heard at the widow's door, and my grandfather,
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 249 
 
 starting up, retired into a distant corner of 
 the room, behind a big napery-press, and sat 
 down in the obscurity of its shadow. Elspa 
 remained in her seat beside the table, on 
 which a candle was burning, and, as it stood 
 behind the door, she could not be seen by 
 any coming in, till they had passed into the 
 middle of the floor. 
 
 In little more than the course of a minute, 
 the voice of her sister was heard, and light 
 footsteps on the timber stair. The door was 
 then opened, and Marion swirled in with an 
 uncomely bravery. Elspa started from her 
 seat. The guilty and convicted creature ut- 
 tered a shriek ; but in the same moment her 
 pious sister clasped her with loving-kindness 
 in her arms, and bursting into tears, wept 
 bitterly, with sore sobs, for some time on her 
 bosom, which was wantonly unkerchiefed. 
 
 After a short space of time, with confusion 
 of face, and frowns of mortification, and 
 glances of rage, the abandoned Marion disen- 
 
 T. 9.
 
 250 BINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 gaged herself from her sister's fond and sor- 
 rowful embraces, and, retreating to a chair, 
 sat down, and seemed to muster all the evil 
 passions of the guilty breast, — fierce anger, 
 sharp hatred, and gnawing contempt ; and a 
 bad boldness of look that betokened a worse 
 spirit than them all. 
 
 " It was na to see the like of you I cam" 
 here, 11 said she, with a scornful toss of her 
 head. 
 
 " I ken that, Marion, 11 replied Elspa, 
 mournfully. 
 
 " And what business then hae ye to come 
 to snool me P" 1 
 
 Elspa for a little while made no answer to 
 this, but, drying her eyes, she went to her 
 seat composedly, and then said, — 
 
 " 'Cause ye're my sister, and brought 
 shame and disgrace on a 1 your family. — O 
 Marion, I'm wae to say this ! — but ye're owre 
 brave in your sin. 
 
 " Do ye think Fll e'er gae back to that
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 251 
 
 havering, daunering cuif o' a creature, the 
 Crail bailie ?" 
 
 " He's a man o' mair worth and conduct, 
 Marion, 1 ' replied her sister, firmly, " than to 
 put that in your power — even, woman, if ye 
 were penitent, and besought him for charity." 
 
 " Weel, weel, no to clishmaclaver about 
 him, how's a 1 wi' the bairns ?" 
 
 " Are ye no frighted, Marion, to speer sic 
 a question, when ye think how ye left them, 
 and what for ye did sae ?" 
 
 " Am na I their mither, have na I a right 
 to speer ?" 
 
 " No,"" said Elspa ; " when ye forgot that 
 ye were their father's wife, they lost their 
 mother." 
 
 " Ye need na be sae snell wi' your taunts," 
 exclaimed Marion, evidently endeavouring to 
 preserve the arrogance she had assumed ; " ye 
 need na be sae snell ; I'm far better off, and 
 happier than e'er I was in James Kilspinnie's 
 aught."
 
 252 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 " That's no possible," said her sister. " It 
 would be an unco thing of Heaven to let 
 wickedness be happier than honesty. But, 
 Marion, dinna deceive yoursel', ye hae nae 
 sure footing on the steading where ye stan\ 
 The Bishop will nae mair, than your gude- 
 man, thole your loose life to him. If he kent 
 ye were here, I doubt he would let you bide, 
 and what would become of you then ?" 
 
 " He's no sic a fool as to be angry that I 
 am wi' my sister."" 
 
 " That may be," replied Elspa : " I'm 
 thinking, however, if in my place here he saw 
 but that young man," and she pointed to my 
 grandfather, whom her sister had not till then 
 observed, " he would have some cause to 
 consider." 
 
 Marion attempted to laugh scornfully, but 
 her heart gurged within her, and instead of 
 laughter, her voice broke out into wild and 
 horrid yells, and falling back in her chair, 
 she grew stiff and ghastly to behold, in so
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 253 
 
 much, that both Elspa and my grandfather 
 were terrified, and had to work with her for 
 some time before they were able to recover 
 her ; nor indeed did she come rightly to her- 
 self till she got relief by tears ; but they were 
 tears of rage, and not shed for any remorse 
 on account of her foul fault. Indeed, no soon- 
 er was she come to herself, than she began to 
 rail at her sister and my grandfather, calling 
 them by all the terms of scorn that her tongue 
 could vent. At last she said — 
 
 " But nae doubt ye're twa Reformers." 
 " Ay," replied Elspa, <l in a sense we are 
 sae, for we would fain help to reform you." 
 
 But after a long, faithful, and undaunted 
 endeavour on the part of Elspa, in this man- 
 ner, to reach the sore of her sinful conscience, 
 she saw that all her ettling was of no avail, 
 and her heart sank, and she began to weep, 
 saying, — " O Marion, Marion, ye were my 
 dear sister ancc, but frae this night, if ye 
 leave me to gang again to your sins, I hope
 
 254 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 the Lord will erase the love I bear you utter- 
 ly out of my heart, and leave me but the re- 
 membrance of what ye were when we were 
 twa wee playing lassies, clapping our young 
 hands, and singing for joy in the bonny 
 spring mornings that will never, never come 
 again."" 
 
 The guilty Marion was touched with her 
 sorrow, and for a moment seemed to relent 
 and melt, replying in a softened accent — 
 
 " But tell me, Eppie, for ye hae na telt 
 me yet, how did ye leave my weans ?" 
 
 " Would you like to see them ?"" said Elspa, 
 eagerly. 
 
 " I would na like to gang to Crail," replied 
 her sister, thoughtfully ; " but if — , and 
 she hesitated. 
 
 " Surely, Marion,'" exclaimed Elspa, Avith 
 indignation, " ye 7 re no sae lost to all shame 
 as to wish your innocent dochters to see you in 
 the midst of your iniquities ?" 
 
 Marion reddened, and sat abashed and re-
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 255 
 
 buked for a short time in silence, and then re- 
 verting to her children, she said, somewhat 
 humbly — 
 
 " But tell me how they are — poor things !" 
 
 " They are as weel as can be hoped for," 
 replied Elspa, moved by her altered manner ; 
 " but they 1 !! lang miss the loss of their mo- 
 ther's care. O, Marion, how could ye quit 
 them ! The beasts that perish are kinder to 
 their young, for they nourish and protect 
 them till they can do for themselves; but 
 your wee May can neither yet gang nor 
 speak. — She's your very picture, Marion, — 
 as like you as — God forbid that she ever be 
 like you !" 
 
 The wretched mother was unable to resist 
 the energy of her sister's appeal, and, bursting 
 into tears, wept bitterly for some time. 
 
 Elspa, compassionating her contrition, rose, 
 and, taking her kindly by the hand, naid, — 
 " Come, Marion, we'll gang hame — let us 
 leave this guilty city — let us tarry no longer
 
 256 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 within its walls — the curse of Heaven is dark- 
 ening over it, and the storm of the hatred of 
 its corruption is beginning to lighten : — let us 
 flee from the wrath that is to come.' 1 
 
 " I'll no gang back to Crail — I dare na 
 gang there — every one would haud out their 
 fingers at me — I canna gang to Crail — Eppie, 
 dinna bid me — I'll mak away wi 1 mysel 1 be- 
 fore ril gang to Crail. 11 
 
 " Dinna say that, 11 replied her sister: " O, 
 Marion, if ye felt within the humiliation of a 
 true penitent, ye would na speak that way, 
 but would come and hide your face in your 
 poor mother's bosom ; often, often, Marion, 
 did she warn you no to be ta'en up wi 1 the 
 pride and bravery of a fine outside. 11 
 
 " Ye may gang hame yoursei 1 , 11 exclaimed 
 the unpenitent woman, starting from her seat; 
 " 111 no gang wi 1 you to be looket down on 
 by every one. If I should hae had a misfor- 
 tune, nane's the sufferer but mysel 1 ; and what 
 would I hae to live on wi 1 my mother ? She's
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 257 
 
 pinched enough for her ain support. No ; 
 since I hae't in my power, I'll tak my plea- 
 sure o't. Ony body can repent when they 
 like, and it's no convenient yet for me. Since 
 I hae slippit the tether, I may as well tak a 
 canter o'er the knowes. I won'er how I could 
 be sae silly as to sit sae lang willy- waing wi' you 
 about that blethering bodie, James Kilspinnie. 
 He could talk o' naething but the town-coun- 
 cil, the cost o' plaiding, and the price o' woo'. 
 No, Eppie, I'll no gang wi' you, but I'll be 
 glad if ye'll gang o'er the gait and tak your 
 bed wi' me. I hae a braw bower — and, let 
 me tell you, this is no a house of the best re- 
 pute." 
 
 "Is your's ony better," replied Elspa, fer- 
 vently. " No, Marion ; sooner would I enter 
 the gates of death, than darken your guilty 
 door. Shame upon* you, shame! — But the 
 sweet Heavens, in their gracious hour of mer- 
 cy, will remember the hope that led me here, 
 and some day work out a blessed change.
 
 258 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 The prayers of an afflicted parent, and the 
 cries of your desolate babies, will assuredly 
 bring down upon you the purifying fires of 
 self-condemnation. Though a wicked pride 
 at this time withholds you from submitting 
 to the humiliation which is the just penalty of 
 your offences, still the day is not far off, when 
 you will come begging for a morsel of bread 
 to those that weep for your fall, and implore 
 you to eschew the evil of your way." 
 
 To these words, which were spoken as with 
 the vehemence of prophecy, the miserable 
 woman made no answer, but plucked her 
 hand sharply from her sister's earnest pres- 
 sure, and quitted the room with a flash of 
 anger. My grandfather then conveyed the 
 mournful Elspa back to the house of Lucky 
 Kilfauns, and returned to the priory.
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 259 
 
 CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 The next day, Elspa Ruet, under the escort- 
 ing of my grandfather, was minded to have 
 gone home to Crail, but the news that John 
 Knox was to preach on the morrow at St An- 
 drews had spread far and wide ; no man 
 could tell by what wonderful reverberation 
 the tidings had awakened the whole land. 
 From all quarters droves of the Reformed and 
 the Pious came pressing to the gates of the 
 city, like sheep to the fold and doves to the 
 windows. The Archbishop and the priests 
 and friars were smitten with dread and con- 
 sternation ; the doom of their fortunes was 
 evident in the distraction of their minds : but 
 the Earl of Argyle and the Lord James 
 Stuart, at the priory, remained calm and 
 collected.
 
 260 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 Foreseeing that the step they had taken 
 would soon be visited by the wrath of the 
 Queen Regent, they resolved to prepare for 
 the worst, and my grandfather was ordered 
 to hold himself in readiness for a journey. 
 Thus was he prevented from going to Crail 
 with Elspa Ruet, who, with a heavy heart, 
 went back in the evening with the man and 
 horses that brought the Reformer to the 
 town. For John Knox, though under the 
 ban of outlawry, was so encouraged with in- 
 ward assurances from on High, that he came 
 openly to the gate, and passed up the crown 
 o 1 the causey on to the priory, in the pre- 
 sence of the Archbishop's guards, of all the 
 people, and of the astonished and dismayed 
 priesthood. 
 
 As soon as the Antichrist heard of his ar- 
 rival, he gave orders for all his armed re- 
 tainers, to the number of more than a hun- 
 dred men at arms, to assemble in the cloisters 
 of the monastery of the Blackfriars; for he
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 261 
 
 was a man of a soldierly spirit, and though a 
 loose and immoral churchman, would have 
 made a valiant warrior ; and going thither 
 himself, he thence sent word to the Lord 
 James Stuart at the priory, that if John 
 Knox dared to preach in the cathedral, as 
 was threatened, he would order his guard to 
 fire on him in the pulpit. 
 
 My grandfather, with others of the retinue 
 of the two noblemen, had accompanied the 
 Archbishop's messenger into the Prior's cham- 
 ber, where they were sitting with John Knox 
 when this bold challenge to the champion of 
 Christ's cause was delivered ; and it was plain 
 that both Argyle and the Lord James were 
 daunted by it, for they well knew the fear- 
 lessness and the fierceness of their consecrated 
 adversary. 
 
 After the messenger had retired, and the 
 Lord James, in a particular manner, had ta- 
 citly signified to my grandfather to remain in 
 the room, and had taken a slip of paper, he
 
 262 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 began to write thereon, while Argyle said to 
 the Reformer, — 
 
 " Master Knox, this is what we could na 1 
 but expect ; and though it may seem like a 
 misdooting of our cause now to desist, Fm in a 
 swither if ye should mak the attempt to preach. " 
 
 The Reformer made no answer; and the 
 Lord James, laying down his pen, also said, 
 " My thoughts run wi 1 Argyle's, — consider- 
 ing the weakness of our train, and the Arch- 
 bishop's preparations, with his own regardless 
 character, — I do think we should for a while 
 rest in our intent. The Queen Regent has 
 come to Falkland wi' her French force, and 
 we are in no condition to oppose their entrance 
 into the town ; besides, your appearance in 
 the pulpit may lead to the sacrifice of your 
 own most precious life, and the lives of many 
 others who will no doubt stand forth in your 
 defence. Whether, therefore, you ought, in 
 such a predicament, to think of preaching, 
 is a thing to be well considered. 11
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 263 
 
 " In the strength of the Lord,' 1 '' exclaimed 
 John Knox, with the voice of an apostle, " I 
 will preach. God is my witness that I never 
 preached in contempt of any man, nor would 
 I willingly injure any creature ; but I cannot 
 delay my call to-morrow if I am not hindered 
 by violence. As for the fear of danger that 
 may come to me, let no man be solicitous ; 
 for my life is in the custody of Him whose 
 glory I seek, and threats will not deter me 
 from my duty when Heaven so offereth the 
 occasion. I desire neither the hand nor the 
 weapon of man to defend me ; I only crave 
 audience, which, if it be denied to me here at 
 this time, I must seek where I mav have it." 
 The manner and confidence with which 
 this Avas spoken silenced and rebuked the 
 two temporal noblemen, and they offered no 
 more remonstrance, but submitted as servants, 
 to pave the way for this intent of his cou- 
 rageous piety. Accordingly, after remaining 
 a short time, as if in expectation to hear what
 
 264 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 the Earl of Argyle might further have to say, 
 the Lord James Stuart took up his pen 
 again, and when he had completed his wri- 
 ting, he gave the paper to my grandfather, — 
 (it was a list of some ten or twelve names,) — 
 saying, " Make haste, Gilhaize, and let these, 
 our friends in Angus, know the state of peril 
 in which we stand. Tell them what has 
 chanced ; how the gauntlet is thrown ; and 
 that our champion has taken it up, and is 
 prepared for the onset." 
 
 My grandfather forthwith departed on his 
 errand, and spared not the spur till he had 
 delivered his message to every one whose 
 names were written in the paper ; and their 
 souls were kindled, and the spirit of the Lord 
 quickened in their hearts. 
 
 The roads sparkled with the feet of sum- 
 moning horsemen, and the towns rung with 
 the sound of warlike preparations. 
 
 On the third day, towards the afternoon, 
 my grandfather embarked at Dundee on his 
 
 1
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 265 
 
 return, and was landed at the Fife water-side. 
 There were many in the boat with him ; and 
 it was remarked by some among them, that, 
 for several days, no one had been observed 
 to smile, and that all men seemed in the ex- 
 pectation of some great event. 
 
 The weather being loun and Very sultry, 
 he travelled slowly with those who were bound 
 for St Andrews, conversing with them on the 
 troubles of the time, and the clouds that were 
 gathering and darkening over poor Scotland ; 
 but every one spoke from the faith of his own 
 bosom, that the terrors of the storm would 
 not be of long duration, — so confident were 
 those unlettered men of the goodness of Christ's 
 cause in that epoch of tribulation. 
 
 While they were thus communing together, 
 they came in sight of the city, with its coronal 
 of golden spires, and Babylonian pride of 
 idolatrous towers, and they halted for a mo- 
 ment to contemplate the gorgeous insolence 
 with which Antichrist had there built up and 
 
 M
 
 %66 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 invested the blood-stained throne of his blas- 
 phemous usurpation. 
 
 " The walls of Jericho, 1 ' said one of the 
 travellers, "fell at the sound but of rams' 1 
 horns, and shall yon Babel withstand the 
 preaching of John Knox ?" 
 
 Scarcely had he said the words, when the 
 glory of its magnificence was wrapt with a 
 shroud of dust ; a dreadful peal of thunder 
 came rolling soon after, though not a spark 
 of vapour was seen in all the ether of the blue 
 sky ; and the rumble of a dreadful destruction 
 was then heard. My grandfather clapped 
 spurs to his horse, and galloped on towards the 
 town. The clouds rose thicker, and filled the 
 whole air. Shouts and cries, as he drew near, 
 were mingled with the crash of falling edifices. 
 The earth trembled, and his horse stood still, 
 regardless of the rowels, as if it had seen the 
 angel of the Lord standing in his way. On 
 all sides monks and nuns came flying from the 
 town, wringing their hands as if the horrors
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 267 
 
 of the last judgment had surprised them in 
 their sins. The guards of the Archbishop 
 were scattered among them like chaff in the 
 swirl of the wind ; then his Grace came him- 
 self on Sir David Hamilton's fleet mare, with 
 Sir David and divers of his household fast 
 following. The wrath of Heaven was behind 
 them, and they rattled past my grandfather 
 like the distempered phantoms that hurry 
 through the dreams of dying men. 
 
 My grandfather's horse at last obeyed the 
 spur, and he rode on and into the city, the 
 gates of which were deserted. There he be- 
 held on all sides, that the Loi*d had indeed put 
 the besom of destruction into the hands of the 
 Reformers ; and that not one of all the build- 
 ings which had been polluted by the papistry, — 
 no, not one had escaped the erasing fierceness 
 of its ruinous sweep. The presence of the ma- 
 gistrates lent the grace of authority to the zeal 
 of the people, and all things were done in or- 
 der. The idols were torn down from the al-
 
 268 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 tars, and deliberately broken by the children 
 with hammers into pieces. There was no 
 speaking, — all was done in silence ; the noise 
 of the falling churches, the rending of the 
 shrines, and the breaking of the images, were 
 the only sounds heard. But for all that, the 
 zeal of not a few was, even in the midst of 
 their dread solemnity, alloyed with covetous- 
 ness. My grandfather himself saw one of the 
 town-council slip the bald head, in silver, of 
 one of the twelve apostles into his pouch.
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 269 
 
 CHAP. XXV. 
 
 The triumph of the truth at St Andrews was 
 followed by the victorious establishment, from 
 that day thenceforward, of the Reformation in 
 Scotland. The precautions taken by the deep 
 forecasting mind of the Lord James Stuart, 
 through the instrumentality of my grand- 
 father and others, were of inexpressible bene- 
 fit to the righteous cause. It was foreseen that 
 the Queen Regent, who had come to Falkland, 
 would be prompt to avenge the discomfiture of 
 her sect, the papists ; but the zealous friends 
 of the Gospel, seconding the resolution of the 
 Lords of the Congregation, enabled them to 
 set all her power at defiance. 
 
 With an attendance of few more than a 
 hundred horse, and about as many foot, the 
 Earl of Argyle and the Lord James set out 
 from St Andrews, to frustrate, as far as the
 
 270 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 means they had concerted might, the wrath- 
 ful measures which they well knew her High- 
 ness would take. But this small force was 
 by the next morning increased to full three 
 thousand fighting men ; and so ardently did 
 the spirit of enmity and resistance against 
 the papacy spread, that the Queen Regent, 
 when she came with her French troops 
 and her Scottish levies, under the command 
 of the Duke of Chatelherault, to Cupar, 
 found that she durst not encounter in battle 
 the growing strength of the Congregation, 
 so she consented to a truce, and, as usual 
 in her dissimulating policy, promised many 
 things which she never intended to per- 
 form. But the protestants, by this time know- 
 ing that the papists never meant to keep their 
 pactions with them, discovering the policy of 
 her Highness, silently moved onward. They 
 proceeded to Perth, and having expelled the 
 garrison, took the town, and fired the abbey 
 of Scone. But as my grandfather was not
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 271 
 
 with them in those raids, being sent on the 
 night of the great demolition at St Andrews 
 to apprise the Earl of Glencairn, his patron, 
 of the extremities to which matters had come 
 there, it belongs not to the scope of my story to 
 tell what ensued, farther than that from Perth 
 the Congregation proceeded to Stirling, where 
 they demolished the monasteries ; — then they 
 went to Lithgow, and herret the nests of the 
 locust there; and proceeding bravely on, purg- 
 ing the realm as they went forward, they arriv- 
 ed at Edinburgh, and constrained the Queen 
 Regent, who was before them with her forces 
 there, to pack up her ends and her awls, and 
 make what speed she could with them to 
 Dunbar. But foul as the capital then was, 
 and covered with the leprosy of idolatry, they 
 were not long in possession till they so medi- 
 cated her with the searching medicaments of 
 the Reformation, that she was soon scrapit of 
 all the scurf and kell of her abominations. 
 There was not an idol or an image within her
 
 272 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 bounds that, in less than three days, was not 
 beheaded like a traitor and trundled to the 
 dogs, even with vehemence, as a thing that 
 could be sensible of contempt. But as all 
 these things are set forth at large in the chro- 
 nicles of the kingdom, let suffice it to say, 
 that my grandfather continued for nearly two 
 years after this time a trusted emissary among 
 the Lords of the Congregation, in their many 
 arduous labours and perilous corresponden- 
 cies, till the Earl of Glencairn was appointed 
 to see idolatry banished and extirpated from 
 the West Country, — in which expedition, his 
 Lordship, being minded to reward my grand- 
 father's services in the cause of the Reforma- 
 tion, invited him to be of his force; to which 
 my grandfather, not jealousing the secular i- 
 ties of his patron's intents, joyfully agreed, 
 hoping to see the corner-stone placed on the 
 great edifice of the Reformation, which all 
 good and pious men began then to think near 
 completion.
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 273 
 
 Having joined the EaiTs force at Glasgow, 
 my grandfather went forward with it to Pais- 
 ley. Before reaching that town, however, 
 they were met by a numerous multitude of 
 the people, half way between it and the castle 
 of Cruikstone, and at their head my grand- 
 father was blithened to see his old friend, the 
 gentle monk Dominick Callender, in a sol- 
 dier's garb, and with a ruddy and embolden- 
 ed countenance, and by his side, with a sword 
 manfully girded on his thigh, the worthy 
 Bailie Pollock, whose nocturnal revels at the 
 abbey had brought such dule to the winsome 
 Maggy Napier. 
 
 For some reason, which my grandfather 
 never well understood, there was more lenity 
 shown to the abbey here than usual ; but the 
 monks were rooted out — the images given 
 over to destruction — and the old bones and 
 miraculous crucifixes were either burnt or in- 
 terred. Less damage, however, was done to 
 the buildings than many expected, partly 
 
 m 9
 
 274 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 through the exhortation of the magistrates, 
 who were desirous to preserve so noble a build- 
 ing for a protestant church, but chiefly out 
 of some paction or covenant secretly entered 
 into anent the distribution of the domains and 
 property, wherein the house of Hamilton was 
 concerned, the Duke of Chatelherault, the 
 head thereof, notwithstanding the papistical 
 nature of his blood and km, having some time 
 before gone over to the cause of the Congre- 
 gation. 
 
 The work of the Reformation being thus 
 abridged at Paisley, the Earl of Glencairn 
 went forward to Kilwinning, where he was 
 less scrupulous ; for having himself obtained a 
 grant of the lands of the abbacy, he was fain 
 to make a clean hand 0% though at the time 
 my grandfather knew not of this. 
 
 As soon as the army reached the town, the 
 soldiers went straight on to the abbey, and en- 
 tering the great church, even while the monks 
 were chanting their paternosters, they began
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 275 
 
 to show the errand they had come on. Dread- 
 ful was the yell that ensued, when my grand- 
 father, going up to the priest at the high 
 altar, and pulling him by the scarlet and fine 
 linen of his pageantry, bade him decamp, and 
 flung the toys and trumpery of the mass after 
 him as he fled away in fear. 
 
 This resolute act was the signal for the ge- 
 es o 
 
 neral demolition, and it began on all sides ; my 
 grandfather giving a leap, caught hold of a 
 fine effigy of the Virgin Mary by the leg to pull 
 it down ; but it proved to be the one which 
 James Coom the smith had mended, for the 
 leg came off, and my grandfather fell back- 
 ward, and was for a moment stunned by his 
 fall. A band of the monks, who were stand- 
 ing trembling spectators, made an attempt, at 
 seeing this, to raise a shout of a miracle ; but 
 my grandfather, in the same moment recover- 
 ing himself, seized the Virgin's timber leg, and 
 flung it with violence at them, and it hap- 
 pened to strike one of the fattest of the flock
 
 276 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 with such a bir that it was said the life was 
 driven out of him. This, however, was not the 
 case ; for, although the monk was sorely hurt, 
 he lived many a day after, and was obligated, 
 in his auld years, when he was feckless, to be 
 carried from door to door on a hand-barrow, 
 begging his bread. The wives, I have heard 
 tell, were kindly to him, for he was a jocose 
 carl ; but the weans little respected his grey 
 hairs, and used to jeer him as auld Father Pa- 
 ternoster, for even to the last he adhered to his 
 beads. It was thought, however, by a certain 
 pious protestant gentlewoman of Irvine, that 
 before his death he got a cast of grace ; for 
 one day, when he had been carried over to beg 
 in that town, she gave him a luggie of kail 
 owre het, which he stirred with the end of the 
 ebony crucifix at his girdle, thereby showing, 
 as she said, a symptom that it held a lower 
 place in his spiritual affections than if he had 
 been as sincere in his errors as he let wot.
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 277 
 
 CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 Although my grandfather had sustained a 
 severe bruise by his fall, he was still enabled, 
 after he got on his legs, to superintend the de- 
 molishment of the abbey till it was complete. 
 But in the evening, when he took up his quar- 
 ters in the house of Theophilus Lugton with 
 Dominick Callender, who had brought on a 
 party of the Paisley reformers, he was so 
 stiff and sore, that he thought he would be 
 incompetent to go over next day with the 
 force that the Earl missioned to berry the 
 Carmelyte convent at Irvine. Dominick Cal- 
 lender, had, however, among other things, 
 learnt, in the abbey of Paisley, the salutary 
 virtues of many herbs, and how to decoct from 
 them their healing juices; and he instructed 
 Dame Lugton to prepare an efficacious medi-
 
 278 ItlNGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 cament, that not only mitigated the anguish 
 of the pain, but so suppled the stiffness, that 
 my grandfather was up by break of day, and 
 ready for the march, a renewed man. 
 
 In speaking of this., he has been heard to 
 say, it was a thing much to be lamented, that 
 when the regular abolition of the monasteries 
 was decreed, no care was taken to collect the 
 curious knowledges and ancient traditionary 
 skill preserved therein, especially in what per- 
 tained to the cure of maladies ; for it was his 
 opinion, and many were of the same mind, 
 that among the friars were numbers of potent 
 physicians, and an art in the preparation of 
 salves and sirups, that has not been surpassed 
 by the learning of the colleges. But it is not 
 meet that I should detain the courteous read- 
 er with such irrelevancies ; the change, how- 
 ever, which has taken place in the realm, in 
 all things pertaining to life, laws, manners, 
 and conduct, since the extirpation of the Ro- 
 man idolatry, is, from the perfectest report,
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 279 
 
 so wonderful, that the inhabitants can scarcely 
 be said to be the same race of people ; and, 
 therefore, I have thought, that such occasion- 
 al ancestral intimations might, though they 
 proved neither edifying iior instructive, be yet 
 deemed worthy of notation in the brief spaces 
 which they happen herein to occupy. But now, 
 returning from this digression, I will take up 
 again the thread and clue of my story. 
 
 The Earl of Glencairn, after the abbey of 
 Kilwinning was sacked, went and slept at Eg- 
 linton Castle, then a stalwart square tower, 
 environed with a wall and moat, of a rude and 
 unknown antiquity, standing on a gentle ris- 
 ing ground in the midst of a bleak and moor- 
 land domain. And his Lordship having order- 
 ed my grandfather to come to him betimes in 
 the morning Avith twenty chosen men, the 
 discreetest of the force, for a special service 
 in which he meant to employ him, he went 
 thither accordingly, taking with him Dominick 
 Callender, and twelve godly lads from Paisley,
 
 280 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 with seven others, whom he had remarked in 
 the march from Glasgow, as under the mani- 
 fest guidance of a sedate and pious temper. 
 
 When my grandfather with his company 
 arrived at the castle yett, and he was admitted 
 to the Earl his patron, his Lordship said to 
 him, more as a friend than a master, — 
 
 " I am in the hope, Gilhaize, that after this 
 day, the toilsome and perilous errands on which, 
 to the weal of Scotland and the true church, 
 you have been so meritoriously missioned ever 
 since you were retained in my service, will 
 soon be brought to an end, and that you will 
 enjoy in peace the reward you have earned so 
 well, that I am better pleased in bestowing it 
 than you can be in the receiving. But there 
 is yet one task which I must put upon you. 
 Hard by to this castle, less than a mile east- 
 ward, stands a small convent of nuns, who 
 have been for time out of mind under the pro- 
 tection of the Lord Eglinton's family, and he, 
 having got a grant of the lands belonging to
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 281 
 
 their house, is desirous that they should be 
 flitted in an amiable manner to a certain street 
 in Irvine, called the Kirkgate, where a lodg- 
 ing is provided for them. To do this kindly 
 I have bethought myself of you, for I know 
 not in all my force any one so well qualified. 
 Have you provided yourself with the twenty 
 douce men that I ordered you to bring 
 hither ?" 
 
 My grandfather told his Lordship that he 
 had done as he was ordered. " Then," re- 
 sumed the Earl, " take them with you, and 
 this mandate to the superior, and one of Eg- 
 lintoiVs men to show you the way ; and when 
 you have conveyed them to their lodging, 
 come again to me." 
 
 So my grandfather did as he was directed 
 by the Earl, and marched eastward with his 
 men till he came to the convent, which was a 
 humble and orderly house, with a small chapel, 
 and a tower, that in after times, when all the 
 other buildings were erased, was called the
 
 282 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 Stane Castle, and is known by that name even 
 unto this day. It stood within a high wall, 
 and a little gate, with a stone cross over the 
 same, led to the porch. 
 
 Compassionating the simple and silly sis- 
 terhood within, who, by their sequestration 
 from the world, were become as innocent as 
 birds in a cage, my grandfather halted his 
 men at some distance from the yett, and going 
 forward, rung the bell ; to the sound of which 
 an aged woman answered, who, on being told 
 he had brought a letter to the superior, gave 
 him admittance, and conducted him to a little 
 chamber, on the one side of which was a grat- 
 ing, where the superior, a short corpulent 
 matron, that seemed to bowl rather than to 
 walk as she moved along, soon made her ap- 
 pearance within. 
 
 He told her in a meek manner, and with 
 some gentle prefacing, the purpose of his visit, 
 and showed her the Earl's mandate ; to all 
 which, for some time, she made no reply, but
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 283 
 
 she was evidently much moved ; at last she 
 gave a wild skreigh, which brought the rest 
 of the nuns, to the number of thirteen, all 
 rushing into the room. Then ensued a dread- 
 ful tempest of all feminine passions and griefs, 
 intermingled with supplications to many a 
 saint ; but the powers and prerogatives of 
 their saints were abolished in Scotland, and 
 they received no aid. 
 
 Though their lamentation, as my grand- 
 father used to say, could not be recited with- 
 out moving to mirth, it was yet so full of 
 maidenly fears and simplicity at the time to 
 him, that it seemed most tender, and he was 
 disturbed at the thought of driving such 
 fair and helpless creatures into the bad 
 world ; but it was his duty ; — so, after sooth- 
 ing them as well as he could, and representing 
 how unavailing their refusal to go would be, 
 the superior composed her grief, and exhort- 
 ing the nuns to be resigned to their cruel fate, 
 which, she said, was not so grievous as that
 
 284 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 which many of the saints had in their day 
 suffered, they all became calm and prepared 
 for the removal. 
 
 My grandfather told them to take with 
 them whatsoever they best liked in the house ; 
 and it was a moving sight to see their simpli- 
 city therein. One was content with a flower- 
 pot ; another took a cage in which she had a 
 lintie ; some of them "half-finished patterns of 
 embroidery. One aged sister, of a tall and 
 spare form, brought away a flask of eye- water 
 which she had herself distilled ; but, saving 
 the superior, none of them thought of any of 
 the valuables of the chapel, till my grand- 
 father reminded them, that they might find 
 the value of silver and gold hereafter, even in 
 the spiritual-minded town of Irvine. 
 
 There was one young and graceful maiden 
 among them who seemed but little moved by 
 the event ; and my grandfather was melted 
 to sympathy and sorrow by the solemn se- 
 renity of her deportment, and the little heed
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 285 
 
 she took of any thing. Of all the nuns she 
 was the only one who appeared to have no- 
 thing to care for ; and when they were ready, 
 and came forth to the gate, instead of joining 
 in their piteous wailings as they bade their 
 peaceful home a long and last farewell, she 
 walked forward alone. No sooner, however, 
 had she passed the yett, than, on seeing the 
 armed company without, she stood still like a 
 statue, and, littering a shrill cry, fainted 
 away, and fell to the ground. Every one ran 
 to her assistance ; but when her face was un- 
 veiled to give her air, Dominick Callender, 
 who was standing by, caught her in his arms, 
 and was enchanted by a fond and strange en- 
 thusiasm. She was indeed no other than the 
 young maiden of Paisley, for whom he had 
 found his monastic vows the heavy fetters 
 of a bondage that made life scarcely worth 
 possessing ; and when she was recovered, an 
 interchange of great tenderness took place be- 
 tween them, at which the superior of the
 
 286 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 convent waxed very wroth, and the other 
 nuns were exceedingly scandalized. But Mag- 
 dalene Sauchie, for so she was called, heeded 
 them not ; for, on learning that popery was put 
 down in the land by law, she openly declared, 
 that she renounced her vows ; and during the 
 walk to Irvine, which was jimp a mile, she 
 leant upon the arm of her lover: and they 
 were soon after married, Dominick settling in 
 that town as a doctor of physic, whereby he 
 afterwards earned both gold and reputation. 
 
 But to conclude the history of the convent, 
 which my grandfather had in this gentle man- 
 ner herret, the nuns, on reaching the foot of 
 the Kirkgate, where the Countess of Eglin- 
 ton had provided a house for them, began to 
 weep anew with great vehemence, fearing that 
 their holy life was at an end, and that they 
 would be tempted of men to enter into the 
 temporalities of the married state; but the 
 superior, on hearing this mournful apprehen- 
 sion, mounted upon the steps of the tolbooth 
 
 5
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 287 
 
 stair, and, in the midst of a great concourse 
 of people, she lifted her hands on high, and 
 exclaimed, as with the voice of a prophetess, 
 " Fear not, my chaste and pious dochters ; 
 for your sake, and for my sake, I have an as- 
 surance at this moment from the Virgin Mary 
 herself, that the calamity of the marriage-yoke 
 will never be known in the Kirkgate of Irvine, 
 but that all maidens who hereafter may enter, 
 or be born to dwell therein, shall live a life 
 of single-blessedness — unasked and untempted 
 of men. 1 "' Which delightful prediction the 
 nuns were so happy to hear, that they dried 
 their tears, and chanted their Ave Maria, 
 joyfully proceeding towards their appointed 
 habitation. It stood, as I have been told, on 
 the same spot where King James the Sixth's 
 school was afterwards erected, and endowed 
 out of the spoils of the Carmelytes"' monastery, 
 which, on the same day, was, by another di- 
 vision of the Earl of Glencairn 1 s power, sacked 
 and burnt to the ground.
 
 %88 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 CHAP. XXVII. 
 
 When my grandfather had, in the manner 
 rehearsed, disposed of those sisters of simpli- 
 city in the Kirkgate of Irvine, he returned 
 back in the afternoon to the Earl of Glen- 
 cairn at Eglinton Castle to report what he 
 had done ; and his Lordship again, in a most 
 laudatory manner, commended his prudence 
 and singular mildness of nature, mentioning 
 to the Earl and Countess of Eglinton, then 
 present with him, divers of the missions 
 wherein he had been employed, extolling his 
 zeal, and above all his piety. And the Lady 
 Eglinton, who was a household character, 
 striving, with great frugality, to augment the 
 substance of her Lord, by keeping her maid- 
 ens from morning to night eydent at work, 
 some at. their broidering drums, and some at
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 289 
 
 their distaifs, managing all within the castle 
 that pertained to her feminine part in a way 
 most exemplary to the ladies of her time and 
 degree, indeed to ladies of all times and de- 
 grees, promised my grandfather that when he 
 was married, she would give his wife some- 
 thing to help the plenishing of their house, 
 for the meek manner in which he had com- 
 ported himself toward her friend, the superior 
 of the nuns. Then the Earl of Glencairn 
 said, — 
 
 " Gilhaize, madam, is now his own master, 
 and may choose a bride when it pleases himself; 
 for I have covenanted with my friend, your 
 Lord, to let him have the mailing of Quharist, 
 in excambio for certain of the lands of late 
 pertaining to the abbacy of Kilwinning, the 
 which lie more within the vicinage of this 
 castle ; and, Gilhaize, here is my warrant to 
 take possession.' 1 
 
 With which words the Earl rose and pre- 
 sented him with a charter for the lands, 
 
 VOL. I. n
 
 290 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 signed by Eglinton and himself, and he shook 
 him heartily by the hand, saying, that few 
 in all the kingdom had better earned the 
 guerdon of their service than he had done. 
 
 Thus it was that our family came to be 
 settled in the shire of Ayr ; for after my 
 grandfather had taken possession of his fee, 
 and mindful of the vow he had made in the 
 street of Edinburgh on that blessed morning 
 when John Knox, the champion of the true 
 church, arrived from Geneva, he went into 
 the east country to espouse Elspa Ruet, if 
 he found her thereunto inclined, which happi- 
 ly he soon did. For their spirits were in 
 unison ; and from the time they first met, 
 they had felt toward one another as if they 
 had been acquaint in loving-kindness before, 
 which made him sometimes say, that it was to 
 him a proof and testimony that the souls of 
 mankind have, perhaps, a living knowledge 
 of each other before they are born into this 
 world.
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 291 
 
 At their marriage, it was agreed that they 
 should take with them into the west Agnes 
 Kilspinnie, one of the misfortunate bailie's 
 daughters. As for her mother, from the day 
 of the overthrow and destruction of the papis- 
 try at St Andrews, she had never been heard 
 of; all the tidings her sister could gather 
 concerning her were, that the same night she 
 had been conveyed away by some of the Arch- 
 bishop's servants, but whither no one could 
 tell. So they came with Agnes Kilspinnie to 
 Edinburgh ; and, for a ploy to their sober 
 wedding, they resolved to abide there till the 
 coming of Queen Mary from France, that 
 they might partake of the shows and pastimes 
 then preparing for her reception. They, 
 however, during the season of their sojourn, 
 feasted far better than on royal fare, in the 
 gospel banquet of John Knox's sermons, of 
 which they enjoyed the inexpressible beati- 
 tude three several Sabbath-days before the 
 Queen arrived.
 
 292 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 Of the joyous preparations to greet Queen 
 Mary withal, neither my grandfather nor 
 grandmother were ever wont to discourse 
 much at large, for they were holy-minded 
 persons, little esteeming the pageantries of 
 this world. But my aunt, for Agnes Kil- 
 spinnie being in progress of time married to 
 my father's fourth brother, became sib to me 
 in that degree, was wont to descant and en- 
 large on the theme with much wonderment 
 and loquacity, describing the marvellous fa- 
 brics that were to have been hung with tap- 
 estry to hold the ladies, and the fountains 
 that were to have spouted wine, which no- 
 body was to be allowed to taste, the same 
 being only for an ostentation, in order that 
 the fact thereof might be recorded in the 
 chronicles for after-times. And great things 
 have I likewise heard her tell of the para- 
 phernalia which the magistrates and town- 
 council were getting ready. No sleep, in a 
 sense, she used to say, did Maccalzean of
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 293 
 
 • 
 
 Cliftonhall, who was then provost, get for 
 more than a fortnight. From night to morn- 
 ing the sagacious bailies sat in council, exer- 
 cising their sagacity to contrive devices to 
 pleasure the Queen, and to help the custom 
 of their own and their neighbours 1 shops. 
 Busy and proud men they were, and no 
 smaller were the worshipful deacons of the 
 crafts. It was just a surprise and consterna- 
 tion to every body, to think how their weak 
 backs could bear such a burden of cares. No 
 time had they for their wonted jocosity. To 
 those who would fain have speered the news, 
 they shook their heads in a Solomon-like 
 manner, and hastened by. And such a bat- 
 tle and tribulation as they had with their vas- 
 sals, the magistrates of Leith ! who, in the 
 most contumacious manner, insisted that their 
 chief bailie should be the first to welcome the 
 Sovereign on the shore. This pretence was 
 thought little short of rebellion ; and the pro- 
 vost and the bailies, and all the wise men that
 
 294 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 sat in council with them, together with the 
 help of their learned assessors, continued de- 
 liberating anent the same for hours together. 
 It was a dreadful business that for the town 
 of Edinburgh. And the opinions of the 
 judges of the land, and the lords of the council, 
 were taken, and many a device tried to over- 
 come the upsetting, as it was called, of the 
 Leith magistrates; but all was of no avail. 
 And it was thought there would have been 
 a fight between the bailies of Leith and the 
 bailies of Edinburgh, and that blood Avould 
 have been shed before this weighty question, 
 so important to the dearest interests of the 
 commonweal of Scotland, could be determin- 
 ed. But, in the midst of their contention, 
 and before their preparations were half finish- 
 ed, the Queen arrived in Leith Roads; and 
 the news came upon them like the cry to the 
 foolish virgins of the bridegroom in the street. 
 Then they were seen flying to their respective 
 places of abode, to dress themselves in their
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 295 
 
 coats of black velvet, their doublets of crimson 
 satin, and their hoes of the same colour, which 
 they had prepared for the occasion. Anon 
 they met in the council-chamber — what con- 
 fusion reigned there ! Then how they flew 
 down the street ! Provost Maccalzean, with 
 the silver keys in his hand, and the eldest 
 bailie with the crimson-velvet cod, whereon 
 they were to be delivered to her Majesty, 
 following as fast as any member of a city 
 corporation could be reasonably expected to 
 do. But how the provost fell, and how the 
 bailies and town-council tumbled over him, 
 and how the crowd shouted at the sight, are 
 things whereof to understand the greatness 
 it is needful that the courteous reader should 
 have heard my aunty Agnes herself rehearse 
 the extraordinary particularities. 
 
 Meanwhile the Queen left her galley in a 
 small boat, and the bailies of Leith had 
 scarcely time to reach the pier before she 
 was on shore. Alas ! it was an ill-omened
 
 296 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 landing. Few were spectators, and none 
 cheered the solitary lady, who, as she looked 
 around and heard no loyal greeting, nor be- 
 held any show of hospitable welcome, seemed 
 to feel as if the spirit of the land was sullen 
 at her approach, and grudged at her return 
 to the dark abodes of her fierce ancestors. In 
 all the way from Leith to Holyrood she never 
 spoke, but the tear was in her eye and the 
 sigh in her bosom ; and though her people 
 gathered, when it was known she had landed, 
 and began at last to shout, it was owre late 
 to prevent the mournful forebodings, which 
 taught her to expect but disappointments and 
 sorrows from subjects so torn with their own 
 factions, as to lack even the courtesies due to 
 their sovereign, a stranger, and the fairest 
 lady of all her time.
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 297 
 
 CHAP. XXVIII. 
 
 Soon after Queen Mary's return from France, 
 my grandfather, with his wife and Agnes Kil- 
 spinnie, came from Edinburgh and took up 
 their residence on his own free mailing of 
 Quharist, where the Lady Eglinton was as 
 good as her word in presenting to them divers 
 articles of fine napery, and sundry things of 
 plenishing both for ornament and use ; and 
 there he would have spent his days in blame- 
 less tranquillity, serving the Lord, but for 
 the new storm that began to gather over the 
 church, whereof it is needful that I should 
 now proceed to tell some of the circumstantials. 
 No sooner had that thoughtless Princess, if 
 indeed one could be so called, who, though 
 reckless of all consequences, was yet double 
 beyond the imagination of man ; no sooner, I 
 say, had she found herself at home, than, 
 
 n 2
 
 298 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 with all the craft and blandishments of her 
 winning airs and peerless beauty, she did set 
 herself to seduce the Lords of the Congrega- 
 tion from the sternness wherewith they had 
 thrown down, and were determined to resist 
 the restoration of the Roman idolatry ; and 
 with some of them she succeeded so far, that 
 the popish priests were heartened, and, know- 
 ing her avowed partiality for their sect, the 
 Beast began to shoot out its horns again, and 
 they dared to perform the abomination of the 
 mass in different quarters of the kingdom. 
 
 It is no doubt true, that the Queen's coun- 
 cil, by proclamation, feigned to discountenance 
 that resuscitation of idolatry ; but the words of 
 their edict being backed by no demonstration 
 of resolution, save in the case of a few worthy 
 gentlemen in the shire of Ayr and in Gallo- 
 way, who took up some of the offenders in 
 their district and jurisdiction, the evil con- 
 tinued to strike its roots, and to bud and 
 flourish in its pestiferous branches. 
 
 1
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 299 
 
 When my grandfather heard of these things, 
 his spirit was exceedingly moved, and he got 
 no rest in the night, with the warsling of 
 troubled thoughts and pious fears. Some new 
 call, he foresaw, would soon be made on the 
 protestants, to stand forth again in the gap that 
 the Queen's arts had sapped in the bulwarks 
 of their religious liberty, and he resolved to 
 be ready against the hour of danger. So, 
 taking his wife and Agnes Kilspinnie with 
 him, he went in the spring to Edinburgh, and 
 hired a lodging for them ; and on the same 
 night he presented himself at the lodging of 
 the Lord James Stuart, who had some time 
 before been created Earl of Murray ; but the 
 Earl was gone with the Queen to Lochleven. 
 Sir Alexander Douglas, however, the master 
 of his Lordship's horse, was then on the eve 
 of following him with John Knox, to whom 
 the Queen had sent a peremptory message, 
 requiring his attendance ; and Sir Alexander 
 invited my grandfather to come with them ;
 
 300 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 the which invitation he very joyfully accept- 
 ed, on account of the happy occasion of tra- 
 velling in the sanctified company of that brave 
 worthy. 
 
 In the journey, however, save in the boat 
 when they crossed the ferry, he showed but 
 little of his precious conversation ; for the 
 knight and the Reformer rode on together 
 some short distance before their train, earnest- 
 ly discoursing, and seemingly they wished not 
 to be overheard. But when they were all 
 seated in the ferry-boat, the ardour of the 
 preacher, which on no occasion would be 
 reined in, led him to continue speaking, by 
 which it would seem, that they had been con- 
 versing anent the Queen's prejudices in mat- 
 ters of religion and the royal authority. 
 
 " When I last spoke with her Highness, 11 
 said John Knox, " she laid sore to my charge, 
 that I had brought the people to receive a 
 religion different from what their princes al- 
 lowed, asking sharply, if this was not contrary
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 301 
 
 to the Divine command, which enjoins that 
 subjects should obey their rulers ; so that I 
 was obliged to contend plainly, that true re- 
 ligion derived, its origin and authority, not 
 from princes, but from God ; that princes were 
 often most ignorant respecting it, and that 
 subjects never could be bound to frame their 
 religious sentiments according to the pleasure 
 of their rulers, else the Hebrews ought to have 
 conformed to the idolatry of Pharaoh, and 
 Daniel and his associates to that of Nebu- 
 chadnezzar, and the primitive Christians to 
 that of the Roman emperors. 1 ' 
 
 " And what could her Highness answer to 
 this ?*" said Sir Alexander. 
 
 " She lacketh not the gift of a shrewd and 
 ready wit, -11 replied Master Knox ; for she nim- 
 bly remarked, " That though it was as I had 
 said, yet none of those men raised the sword 
 against their princes ;" — which enforced me to 
 be more subtle than I was minded to have 
 been, and to say, " that nevertheless, they did
 
 302 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 resist, for those who obey not the command- 
 ments given them, do in verity resist.'''' — 
 " Ay, 1 ' cried her Highness, " but not with 
 the sword," which was a thrust not easy to be 
 turned aside, so that I was constrained to 
 speak out, saying, " God, madam, had not 
 given them the means and the power." Then 
 said she, still more eagerly, " Think you that 
 subjects, having the power, may resist their 
 princes ?" — And she looked with a triumph- 
 ant smile, as if she had caught me in a trap ; 
 but I replied, "If princes exceed their bounds, 
 no doubt they may be resisted, even by 
 power. For no greater honour or greater 
 obedience is to be given to kings and princes 
 than God has commanded to be given to fa- 
 ther and mother. But the father may be 
 struck with a phrenzy, in which he would slay 
 his children ; in such a case, if the children 
 arise, join together, apprehend the father, take 
 the sword from him, bind his hands and keep 
 him in prison till the phrenzy be over, think
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 303 
 
 you, madam,'" quo" 1 1, " that the children do any 
 wrong ? Even so is it with princes that would 
 slay the children of God that are subject to 
 them. Their blind zeal is nothing but phren- 
 zy, and therefore to take the power from them 
 till they be brought to a more sober mind, is 
 no disobedience to princes, but a just accord- 
 ance to the will of God. — So I doubt not," 
 continued the Reformer, " I shall again have 
 to sustain the keen encounter of her Highness 1 
 wit in some new controversy." 
 
 This was the chief substance of what my 
 grandfather heard pass in the boat ; and when 
 they were again mounted, the knight and 
 preacher set forward as before, some twenty 
 paces or so in advance of the retinue. 
 
 On reaching Kinross, Master Knox rode 
 straight to the shore, and went oft' in the 
 Queen's barge to the castle, that he might 
 present himself to her Highness before supper, 
 for by this time the sun was far down. In 
 the meantime, my grandfather went to the
 
 304 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 house in Kinross where the Earl of Murray 
 resided, and his Lordship, though albeit a 
 grave and reserved man, received him with 
 the familiar kindness of an old friend, and he 
 was with him when the Reformer came back 
 from the Queen, who had dealt very earnest- 
 ly with him to persuade the gentlemen of the 
 west country to desist from their interruption 
 of the popish worship. 
 
 " But to this, 1 ' said the Reformer to the 
 Earl, " I was obligated, by conscience and the 
 fear of God, to say, that if her Majesty would 
 exert her authority in executing the laws of 
 the land, I would undertake for the peace- 
 able behaviour of the protestants ; but if she 
 thought to evade them, there were some who 
 Avould not let the papists offend with im- 
 punity. 1 '' 
 
 " Will you allow,"" exclaimed her High- 
 ness, " that they shall take my sword in their 
 hands ?" 
 
 " The sword of justice is God's," I replied,
 
 KINGAN GILHAIZE. 305 
 
 " and is given to princes and rulers for an 
 end, which if they transgress, sparing the 
 wicked and oppressing the innocent, they 
 who in the fear of God execute judgment 
 where God has commanded, offend not God, 
 although kings do it not. The gentlemen of 
 the west, madam, are acting strictly accord- 
 ing to law ; for the act of parliament gave 
 power to all judges within their jurisdiction 
 to search for and punish those who transgress 
 its enactments ;" and I added, " it shall be 
 profitable to your Majesty to consider what is 
 the thing your Grace's subjects look to receive 
 of your Majesty, and what it is that ye ought 
 to do unto them by mutual contract. They 
 are bound to obey you, and that not but in 
 God ; ye are bound to keep laws to them — 
 ye crave of them service, they crave of you 
 protection and defence. Now, madam, if you 
 shall deny your duty unto them (which espe- 
 cially craves that ye punish malefactors), can
 
 306 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 ye expect to receive full obedience of them ? 
 I fear, madam, ye shall not.*" 
 
 " You have indeed been plain with her 
 Highness,"" said the Earl thoughtfully ; " and 
 what reply made she ? v> 
 
 " None,"" said the Reformer ; " her counte- 
 nance changed; she turned her head abruptly 
 from me, and, without the courtesy of a good 
 night, signified with an angry waving of her 
 hand, that she desired to be rid of my pre- 
 sence ; whereupon I immediately retired, and, 
 please God, I shall, betimes in the morning, 
 return to my duties at Edinburgh. It is 
 with a sad heart, my Lord, that I am com- 
 pelled to think, and to say to you, who stand 
 so near to her in kin and affection, that I 
 doubt she is not only proud but crafty ; not 
 only wedded to the popish faith, but averse 
 to instruction. She neither is nor will be of 
 our opinion ; and it is plain that the lessons 
 of her uncle, the Cardinal, are so deeply print-
 
 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 307 
 
 ed in her heart, that the substance and quali- 
 ty will perish together. I would be glad to 
 be deceived in this, but I fear I shall not ; 
 never have I espied such art in one so young ; 
 and it will need all the eyes of the Reformed to 
 watch and ward that she circumvent not the 
 strong hold in Christ, that has been but so 
 lately restored and fortified in this misfortu- 
 nate kingdom." 
 
 Nothing farther passed that night ; but the 
 servants being called in, and the preacher 
 having exhorted them in their duties, and 
 prayed with even more than his wonted ear- 
 nestness, each one retired to his chamber, and 
 the Earl gave orders for horses to be ready 
 early in the morning, to convey Master Knox 
 back to Edinburgh. This, however, was not 
 permitted ; for by break of day a messen- 
 ger came from the castle, desiring him not to 
 depart until he had again spoken with her 
 Majesty ; adding, that as she meant to land by
 
 308 RINGAN GILHAIZE. 
 
 sunrise witli her falconer, she would meet him 
 on the fields where she intended to take her 
 pastime — and talk with him there. 
 
 END OF VOLUME T. 
 
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