by John Galt
CHAPTER LXXXI
I had laid that son, my only son, whom I so loved, on the altar of theCovenant, an offering unto the Lord; but still I did hope that maybe itwould be according to the mercy of wisdom that He would provide a lambin the bush for the sacrifice; and when the stripling had parted fromme, I often felt as the mother feels when the milk of love is in herbosom, and her babe no longer there. I shall not, however, here relatehow my soul was wounded at yon sight, nor ask the courteous reader toconceive with what agony I exclaimed, "Wherefore was it, Lord, that Iwas commanded to do that unfruitful thing!" for in that very moment thecry of my failing faith was rebuked, and the mystery of the requiredsacrifice was brought into wonderful effect, manifesting that it was forno light purpose I had been so tried.
My fellow-sufferer, who hung by the bars of the prison-window, was, likethe other witnesses, so shaken by the woful spectacle, that he suddenlyjerked himself aside to avoid the sight, and by that action the weightof his body loosened the bar, so that when the pageantry of horrors hadpassed by, he felt it move in his grip, and he told us that surelyProvidence had an invisible hand in the bloody scene; for, by theloosening of that stancher, a mean was given whereby we might allescape. Accordingly it was agreed that as soon as the night closed overthe world, we should join our strengths together to bend the bar fromits socket in the lintel.
And then it was I told them that what they had seen was the last relicof my martyred family; and we made ourselves wroth with the recital ofour several wrongs; for all there had endured the scourge of thepersecutors; and we took each other by the hand, and swore a dreadfuloath, never to desist in our endeavours till we had wrenched the sceptrefrom the tyrannical grasp of the Stuarts, and broken it into pieces forever; and we burst into a wild strain of complaint and clamour, callingon the blood of our murdered friends to mount, with our cries, to thegates of Heaven; and we sang, as it were, with the voices of the angrywaters and the winds, the hundred and ninth psalm; and at the end ofevery verse we joined our hands, crying, "Upon Charles and James Stuart,and all their guilty line, O Lord, let it be done;" and a vast multitudegathered around the prison, and the lamentations of many without was achorus in unison with the dismal song of our vengeance and despair.
At last the shadows of the twilight began to darken in the town, and thelights of the windows were to us as the courses of the stars of that skywhich, from our prison chamber, could not be seen. We watched theirprogress, from the earliest yellow glimmering of the lamp in thedarksome wynd, till the last little twinkling light in the dwelling ofthe widow that sits and sighs companionless with her distaff in thesummits of the city. And we continued our vigil till they were all oneby one extinguished, save only the candles at the bedsides of the dying.Then we twined a portion of our clothes into a rope, and, havingfastened it to the iron bar, soon drew it from its place in the stone;but just as we were preparing to take it in, by some accident it fellinto the street.
The panic which this caused prevented us from attempting any thing moreat that time; for a sentinel walked his rounds on the outside of thetolbooth, and we could not but think he must have heard the noise. Asullen despair in consequence entered into many of our hearts, and wecontinued for the remainder of the night silent.
But though others were then shaken in their faith, mine was nowconfident. I saw, by what had happened in the moment of myremonstrance, that there was some great deliverance in reservation; so Isat apart by myself, and I spent the night in inward thanksgiving forwhat had been already done. Nor was this confidence long without itsreward.
In the morning a brother of one of my fellow-sufferers coming to condolewith him, it being generally reported that we were all doomed to die, hehappened to see the bar lying on the street, and, taking it up, hid ittill he had gone into a shop and provided himself with a cord. He thenhastened to us, gave us the cord, and making what speed he could,brought the iron in his plaid; and, we having lowered the string fromthe window, he fastened the bar to it, and we drew it up undiscovered,and reset it in its place, by which the defect could not be seen by anyone, not even from the street.
That morning, by the providence which was visible in this, became, inour prison, a season indeed of light and gratulation; and the day passedwith us as a Sabbath to our spirits. The anvils of Fear were hushed, andthe shuttles in the looms of Anxiety were at rest, while Hope againwalked abroad in those sunny fields where, amidst vernal blossoms andshining dews, she expatiates on the delights of the flowing cluster andthe ripened fruit.
The young man, who had been so guided to find the bar of iron, concertedwith another friend of his to be in readiness at night on a signal fromus, to master the sentinel. And at the time appointed they did so; andit happened that the soldier was the same humane Englisher, JackWindsor, who had allowed me to escape at Kilmarnock, and he not onlyremained silent, but even when relieved from his post, said nothing; sothat, to the number of more than twenty, we lowered ourselves into thestreet and escaped.
But the city gates at that hour being shut, there was no egress from thetown, and many of us knew not where to hide ourselves till the morning.Such was my condition; and wandering up and down for some time, at lastI turned into the Blackfriars-wynd, where I saw a light in a window: onlooking around I beheld, by that light, engraven on the lintel of anopposite door, "IN THE LORD IS MY HOPE."
Heartened by the singular providence that was so manifest in thatcheering text, I went to the door and knocked, and a maiden answered tothe knocking.
I told her what I was, and whence I had come, and entreated her to havecompassion, and shelter me for the night.
"Alas!" said she, "what can hae sent you here, for this is a bishop'shouse?"
I was astounded to hear that I had been so led into the lion's den; butI saw pity in the countenance of the damsel, and I told her that I wasthe father of the poor youth whose head had been carried by theexecutioner through the town the day before, and that I could not butbelieve Providence had sent me thither; for surely no one would everthink of searching for me in a bishop's house.
Greatly moved by what I said, she bade me softly follow her, and she ledme to a solitary and ruinous chamber. She then retired, but presentlyreturned with some refreshment, which having placed on an old chest, shebade God be with me, and went away.
With a spirit of inexpressible admiration and thanksgiving I partook ofthat repast, and then laying myself down on the bare floor, was blessedwith the enjoyment of a downy sleep.