Ringan Gilhaize, or, The Covenanters

by John Galt

  CHAPTER XXXIII

  After the battle of Langside, many of the nobles and great personages ofthe realm grew jealous of the good Regent Murray, and, by their owndemeanour, caused him to put on towards them a reserve and coldness ofdeportment, which they construed as their feelings and fancies led them,much to his disadvantage; for he was too proud to court the good-willthat he thought was his due. But to all people of a lower degree, likethose in my grandfather's station, he was ever the same punctual andgracious superior, making, by the urbanity of his manner, smallcourtesies recollected and spoken of as great favours, in so much that,being well-beloved of the whole commonality, his memory, long after hisfatal death, was held in great estimation among them, and his fame asthe sweet odour of many blessings.

  Few things, my grandfather often said, gave him a sorer pang than thebase murder by the Hamiltons of that most eminent worthy; and in all thelabours and business of his long life, nothing came ever more pleasantto his thoughts than the remembrance of the part he had himself in theretribution with which their many bloody acts were in the end overtakenand punished. Indeed, as far as concerns their guiltiest instigator andkinsman, the adulterous Antichrist of St Andrews, never was a justvengeance and judgment more visibly manifested, as I shall now, withall expedient brevity, rehearse, it being the last exploit in which mygrandfather bore arms for the commonweal.

  Bailie Kilspinnie of Crail having dealings with certain Glasgowmerchants, who sold plaiding to the Highlanders of Lennox and Cowal,finding them dour in payment, owing, as they said, to their customerslengthening their credit of their own accord, on account of the times,the west having been from the battle of Langside unwontedly tranquil,he, in the spring of 1571, came in quest of his monies, and mygrandfather having notice thereof, took on behind him on horseback, tosee her father, Agnes Kilspinnie, who had lived in his house from thetime of his marriage to her aunt, Elspa Ruet. And it happened thatCaptain Crawford of Jordanhill, who was then meditating his famousexploit against the castle of Dumbarton, met my grandfather by chance inthe Trongait, and knowing some little of him, and of the great regard inwhich he was held by many noblemen, for one of his birth, spoke to himcordially, and asked him to be of his party, assigning, among otherthings, as a motive, that the great adversary of the Reformation, theArchbishop of St Andrews, had, on account of the doom and outlawrypronounced upon him, for being accessory both to the murder of KingHenry, the Queen's protestant husband, and of the good Regent Murray,taken refuge in that redoubtable fortress.

  Some concern for the state of his wife and young family weighed with mygrandfather while he was in communion with Jordanhill; but after partingfrom him, and going back to the Saracen's inn in the Gallowgait, whereBailie Kilspinnie and his daughter were, he had an inward urging of thespirit, moving him to be of the enterprise, on a persuasion, as I haveheard him tell himself, that without he was there something would ariseto balk the undertaking. So he was in consequence troubled in thought,and held himself aloof from the familiar talk of his friends all theremainder of the day, wishing that he might be able to overcome thethirst which Captain Crawford had bred within him to join his company.

  Bailie Kilspinnie seeing him in this perplexity of soul, spoke to him asa friend, and searched to know what had taken possession of him, and mygrandfather, partly moved by his entreaty and partly by the thought ofthe great palpable Antichrist of Scotland, who had done the bailie'sfireside such damage and detriment, being in a manner exposed to theirtaking, told him what had been propounded by Jordanhill.

  "Say you so," cried the bailie, remembering the offence done to hisfamily, "say you so; and that he is in a girn that wants but a manlyhand to grip him. Body and soul o' me, if the thing's within the powerof the arm of flesh he shall be taken and brought to the wuddy, if theLord permits justice to be done within the realm of Scotland."

  The which bold and valorous breathing of the honest magistrate of Crailkindled the smoking yearnings of my grandfather into a bright andblazing flame, and he replied,--

  "Then, sir, if you be so minded, I cannot perforce abide behind, butwill go forth with you to the battle, and swither not with the swordtill we have effected some notable achievement."

  They accordingly went forthwith to Captain Crawford and proffered to himtheir service; and he was gladdened that my grandfather had come to sowarlike a purpose; but he looked sharply at the bailie, and twice smiledto my grandfather, as if in doubt of his soldiership, saying, "But,Gilhaize, since you recommend him, he must be a good man and true."

  So the same night they set out at dusk, with a chosen troop and band ofnot more than two hundred men. A boat, provided with ladders, droppeddown the river with the tide, to be before them.

  By midnight the expedition reached the bottom of Dumbuckhill, where,having ascertained that the boat was arrived, Jordanhill directed thoseaboard to keep her close in with the shore, and move with their march.

  The evening when they left Glasgow was bright and calm, and the moon, inher first quarter, shed her beautiful glory on mountain and tower andtree, leading them as with the light of a heavenly torch; and when theyreached the skirts of the river, it was soon manifest that theirenterprise was favoured from on high. The moon was by that time set, anda thick mist came rolling from the Clyde and the Leven, and made thenight air dim as well as dark, veiling their movements from all mortaleyes.

  Jordanhill's guide led them to a part of the rock which was seldomguarded, and showed them where to place their ladders. He had been inthe service of the Lord Fleming, the governor, but on account ofcontumelious usage had quitted it, and had been the contriver of thescheme.

  Scarcely was the first ladder placed when the impatience of the menbrought it to the ground; but there was a noise in the ebbing waters ofthe Clyde that drowned the accident of their fall, and prevented it fromalarming the soldiers on the watch. This failure disconcerted Jordanhillfor a moment; but the guide fastened the ladder to the roots of an ashtree which grew in a cleft of the rock, and to the first shelf of theprecipice they all ascended in safety.

  The first ladder was then drawn up and placed against the upper story,as it might be called, of the rock, reaching to the gap where they couldenter into the fortress, while another ladder was tied in its placebelow. Jordanhill then ascended, leading the way, followed by his men,the bailie of Crail being before my grandfather.

  They were now at a fearful height from the ground; but the mist wasthick, and no one saw the dizzy eminence to which he had attained. Ithappened, however, that just as Jordanhill reached the summit, and whilemy grandfather and the bailie were about half-way up the ladder, themist below rolled away, and the stars above shone out, and the bailie,casting his eyes downward, was so amazed and terrified at the eagleflight he had taken, that he began to quake and tremble, and could notmount a step farther.

  At that juncture delay was death to success. It was impossible to passhim. To tumble him off the ladder and let him be dashed to pieces, assome of the men both above and below roughly bade my grandfather do, wascruel. All were at a stand.

  Governed, however, by a singular inspiration, my grandfather took offhis own sword-belt and also the bailie's, and fastened him with them tothe ladder by the oxters and legs, and then turning round the ladder,leaving him so fastened pendent in the air on the lower side, theassailants ascended over his belly, and courageously mounted to theirperilous duty.

  Jordanhill shouted as they mustered on the summit. The officers andsoldiers of the garrison rushed out naked, but sword in hand. Theassailants seized the cannon. Lord Fleming, the governor, leaped thewall into the boat that had brought the scaling ladders and was rowedaway. The garrison, thus deserted, surrendered, and the guilty prelatewas among the prisoners.

  As soon as order was in some degree restored, my grandfather went withtwo other soldiers to where the bailie had been left suspended, andhaving relieved him from his horror, which the breaking daylightincreased by showing him the fearful height at which he hung, he broughthim to Jo
rdanhill, who, laughing at his disaster, ordered him to be oneof the guard appointed to conduct the Archbishop to Stirling.

  In that service the worthy magistrate proved more courageous, andupbraided the prisoner several times on the road for the ill he had doneto him. But that traitorous high priest heard his taunts in silence, forhe was a valiant and proud man; such, indeed, was his gallant bearing inthe march that the soldiers were won by it to do him homage as a trueknight: and had he been a warrior as he was but a priest, it was thoughtby many that, though both papist and traitor, they might have beenworked upon to set him free. To Stirling, however, he was carried; andon the fourth day from the time he was taken he was executed on thegallows, where, notwithstanding his guilty life, he suffered with thebravery of a gentleman dying in a righteous cause, in so much that thepapists honoured his courage as if it had been the virtue of a holymartyr; and Bailie Kilspinnie all his days never ceased to wonder how sowicked a man could die so well.