Ringan Gilhaize, or, The Covenanters
Page 55
CHAPTER LIV
In the course of the night, shortly after the third watch had been set,some of those who had tarried by the way came to the camp with thetidings that Dalziel and all the royal forces in Glasgow were comingupon us. This, though foreseen, caused a great panic, and a council ofwar, consisting, as usual, of ministers and officers, was held, todetermine what should be done; but it was likewise, as usual, only afruitless controversy. I, however, on this occasion, feeling myselfsustained in spirit by the assurances I had received in my meditationson the rock, ventured to speak my mind freely; which was to the effectthat, taking our dejected condition, the desertion of our friends, andour disappointments from the city, into consideration, we could do nobetter thing than evade the swords of our adversaries by disbandingourselves, that each might be free to seek safety for himself.
Many were inclined to this counsel; and I doubt not it would have beenfollowed; but, while conferring together, an officer came from theprivy-council to propose a cessation of arms till our demands could beconsidered. It was manifest that this was a wily stratagem to keep us inthe snare till Dalziel had time to come up, and I did all in my power tomake the council see it in the same light; but there was a blindness ofmind among us, and the greater number thought it augured a speedyredress of the wrongs for which we had come to seek reparation. Nor didtheir obstinacy in this relax till next morning, when, instead ofanything like their improbable hopes, came a proclamation ordering us todisperse, and containing neither promise of indemnity nor of pardon. Butthen it was too late. Dalziel was in sight. His army was coming like astream along the foot of the Pentland-hills,--we saw his banners and theglittering of his arms, and the sound of his musicants came swelling onthe breeze.
It was plain that his purpose was to drive us in towards the town; buthad we dispersed we might even then have frustrated his intent. Therehappened, however, besides Learmont and Wallace, to be several officersamong us who had stubborn notions of military honour; and they would notpermit so unsoldier-like a flight. There were also divers heated andfanatical spirits, whom, because our undertaking had been for religiousends, nothing could persuade that Providence would not interfere in somesignal manner for their deliverance, yea, even to the overthrow of theenemy; and Mr Whamle, a minister, one of these, getting upon the top ofthe rock where I had sat the night before, began to preach of the mightythings that the Lord did for the children of Israel in the valley ofAjalon, where He not only threw down great stones from the heavens, butenabled Joshua to command the sun and moon to stand still,--which to anycomposed mind was melancholious to hear.
In sequence to these divisions and contrarieties which enchanted us tothe spot, Dalziel, considering that we were minded to give him battle,brought on his force; and it is but due to the renown of the valour ofthose present to record that, notwithstanding a fearful odds, our men,having the vantage ground, so stoutly maintained their station that werepulsed him thrice.
But the victory, as I have said, was not ordained for us. In theafternoon Dalziel was reinforced by several score of mounted gentlemenfrom the adjacent counties, and with their horse, about sunset, ourphalanx was shattered, our ranks broken,--and then we began to quit thefield. The number of our slain, and of those who fell into the hands ofthe enemy, did not in the whole exceed two hundred men. The dead mighthave been greater, but for the compassion of the gentlemen, who hadrespect to the cause which had provoked us to arms, and who, instead ofdoing as Dalziel's men did, without remorse or pity, cried to thefugitives to flee, and spared many in consideration of the commonwrongs.
When I saw that our host was dashed into pieces, and the fragmentsscattered over the fields, I fled with the flying, and gained, withabout some thirty other fugitives, the brow of a steep part of thePentland-hills, where the mounted gentlemen, even had they beeninclined, could not easily follow us. There, while we halted to rest alittle, we heard a shout now and then rise startling from the field ofbattle below; but night coming on, all was soon silent, and we sat, inthe holiness of our mountain-refuge, in silent rumination till the moon,rolling slowly from behind Arthur's Seat, looked from her window in theclouds, as if to admonish us to flee farther from the scene of danger.
The Reverend Mr Witherspoon being among us, was the first to feel thegracious admonition, and, rising from the ground, he said,--
"Friends, we must not tarry here, the hunters are forth, and we are theprey they pursue. They will track us long, and the hounds are not of anature to lose scent, especially when they have tasted, as they havedone this day, the rich blood of the faithful and the true. Thereforelet us depart; but where, O where shall we find a home to receiveus?--Where a place of rest for our weary limbs, or a safe stone for apillow to our aching heads? But why do I doubt? Blameless as we are,even before man, of all offence, save that of seeking leave to worshipGod according to our conscience, it cannot be that we shall be leftwithout succour. No, my friends! though our bed be the damp grass andour coverlet the cloudy sky, our food the haws of the hedge, and ourdrink the drumly burn, we have made for our hearts the down-beds ofreligious faith, and have found a banquet for our spirits in theambrosial truths of the Gospel--luxuries that neither a James Sharp nora Charles Stuart can ever enjoy, nor all the rents and revenues, finesand forfeitures, which princes may exact and prelates yearn to partakeof, can buy."
He then offered up a thanksgiving that we had been spared from the swordin the battle; after which we shook hands in silence together, and eachpursued his own way.
Mr Witherspoon lingered by my side as we descended the hill, and Idiscerned that he was inclined to be my companion; so we continuedtogether, stretching towards the north-west, in order to fall into theLithgow road, being mindet to pass along the skirts of Stirlingshire,thence into Lennox, in the hope of reaching Argyle's country by the wayof the ferry of Balloch. But we had owre soon a cruel cause to changethe course of our flight.
In coming down towards the Amond-water, we saw a man running before usin the glimpse of the moonshine, and it was natural to conclude, fromhis gestures and the solitude of the place, that no one could be sofar-a-field at such a time, but some poor fellow-fugitive fromRullion-green where the battle was fought; so we called to him to stop,and to fear no ill, for we were friends. Still, however he fled on, andheeded not our entreaty, which made us both marvel and resolve toovertake him. We thought it was not safe to follow long an unknownperson who was so evidently afraid, and flying, as we supposed, to hishome. Accordingly we hastened our speed, and I, being the nimblestreached him at a place where he was stopped by a cleft in the rocks onthe river's woody brink.
"Why do you fly so fast from us?" said I; "we're frae the Pentland-hillstoo."
At these words he looked wildly round, and his face was as ghastly as aghost's in the moonlight; but, distorted as he was by his fears, Idiscovered in him my neighbour, Nahum Chapelrig, and I spoke to him byname.
"O, Ringan Gilhaize!" said he, and he took hold of me with his righthand, while he raised his left and shook it in a fearful and franticmanner, "I am a dead man, my hours are numbered, and the sand-glass ofmy days is amaist a' run out. I had been saved from the sword, sparedfrom the spear, and, flying from the field, I went to a farm-houseyonder; I sought admission and shelter for a forlorn Christian man; butthe edicts of the persecutors are more obeyed here than the laws of God.The farmer opened his casement, and speering if I had been at the raidof the Covenanters, which, for the sake of truth and the glory of God, Icouldna deny, he shot me dead on the spot; for his bullet gaed in mybreast, and is fast in my--"
He could say no more; for in that juncture he gave as it were a gurglein the throat, and swirling round, fell down a bleeding corpse on theground where he stood, before Mr Witherspoon had time to come up.
We both looked at poor guiltless Nahum as he lay on the grass, and,after some sorrowful communion, we lifted the body, and carrying it downaneath the bank of the river, laid stones and turfs upon it by themoonlight, that the unclean birds might not be
able to molest hismartyred remains. We then consulted together; and having communedconcerning the manner of Nahum's death, we resolved not to trustourselves in the power of strangers in those parts of the country, wherethe submission to the prelatic enormity had been followed with suchwoful evidence of depravity of heart. So, instead of continuing ourjourney to the northward, we changed our course, and, for the remainderof the night, sought our way due west, by the skirts of the moors andother untrodden ways.