Hunted and Harried
Page 20
to themeeting on the morrow. Arriving next day at the rendezvous, thecongregation made way for the minister and his host. The latter wasthen invited to take a seat, and, to his great amazement, his guest ofthe previous night stood up and preached. At the close of the sermonMr. Welsh held out his hand to his host.
"I promised," he said, "to give you Mr. Welsh by the hand."
"Yes," returned the gentleman, who was much affected, as he grasped thehand, "and you said that you were sent to apprehend rebels. Let meassure you that I, a rebellious sinner, have been apprehended this day."
It was at this interesting moment that Quentin and Peter recognised eachother, and, forgetting all other points of interest, turned aside todiscuss their own affairs.
"Then there's nae use o' my gaun ony farer," said the shepherdthoughtfully.
"Nane whatever," said Peter; "ye'd best c'way back t' toon wi' me.Ye'll be safer there nor here, an' may chance to be o' service to thelassies."
Alas for the poor lassies! They were in the fangs of the wolves at thatvery time. In that council-room where, for years, the farce of "trial"and the tragedy of cruel injustice had been carried on, Marion Clark andIsabel Scott were standing before their civil and clerical inquisitors.The trial was nearly over. Proceeding upon their mean principle ofextracting confession by the method of entrapping questions, and thusobtaining from their unsuspecting victims sufficient evidence--as theysaid--to warrant condemnation, they had got the poor serving-maids toadmit that they had attended field-preachings; had conversed with somewhom the Government denounced as rebels; and other matters whichsufficed to enable them to draw up a libel. Those two innocent girlswere then handed over to the Justiciary Court, before which they werecharged with the crime of receiving and corresponding with Mr. DonaldCargill, Mr. Thomas Douglas, Mr. John Welsh, and Mr. Richard Cameron;with the murderers of Archbishop Sharp; and with having heard the saidministers preach up treason and rebellion!
When the indictment was read to them the poor things meekly admittedthat it was correct, except in so far as it called the ministers rebelsand asserted that they preached up treason. The jury were exceedinglyunwilling to serve on the trial, but were compelled to do so underthreat of fine. After deliberating on the evidence they found the girlsboth guilty, by their own confession, of holding the opinions chargedagainst them, but that as actors, or receivers of rebels, the charge wasnot proven.
Upon this they were condemned to die, but before leaving the courtIsabel Scott said impressively: "I take all witness against another atyou to your appearance before God, that your proceeding against us thisday is only for owning Christ, His Gospel, and His members." [See _ACloud of Witnesses_, page 122 (edition 1871.)] They were then led backto prison.
When Quentin and Peter arrived in Edinburgh, two days later, they passedunder the West Port, which was decorated with the shrivelled heads andhands of several martyrs, and made their way to the Grassmarket, whichthey had to traverse in going towards Candlemaker Row. Here they founda large crowd surrounding the gallows-tree which did such frequentservice there. Two female figures were swinging from the beam.
"The auld story," said the shepherd in a low sad voice. "What was theircrime?" he inquired of a bystander.
"They tried to serve the Lord, that was a'," replied the man bitterly."But they ended their coorse bravely. Ane sang the 84th Psalm and theither spake of God's great love an' free grace to her and to sinfu'man."
"Puir things!" exclaimed Quentin with tremulous voice. "It's ower noo.They're fairly inside o' the celestial gates."
The sight was all too common in those dark days to induce delay, but thetwo friends had to pass near the gallows, and naturally looked up inpassing.
"Quentin!" gasped Peter, stretching out both hands towards the martyrs,whose now soulless frames were hanging there, "it's--it's Marion an'--"
A low wail followed, as the poor boy fell over in a swoon.
The shepherd's heart almost stood still, and his great chest quiveredfor a moment as he gazed, but he was a man of strong will and ironmould. Stooping, he picked up his little friend and carried himsilently away.
Their grief was, however, diverted to other channels on reaching theabode of Mrs. Black, for there they found her and Mrs. Wallace and Jeanin deepest sorrow over the terrible news just brought to them by JockBruce.
Andrew Black, he told them, had been sent a prisoner to the Bass Rock,and Will Wallace, with two hundred others, had been banished to theplantations in Barbadoes, where they were to be sold as slaves.
Quentin sat down, covered his face with both hands, and groaned aloud onhearing this. Peter, who had recovered by that time, looked about himwith the expressionless face of one whose reason has been unseated.Observing that Jean was sitting apart, sobbing as if her heart wouldbreak, he went quietly to her, and, taking one of her hands, began tostroke it gently. "Dinna greet, Jean," he said; "the Lord will deliverthem. Marion aye telt me that, an' I believe she was richt."
Truly these unfortunate people needed all the consolation that the Wordcould give them, for banishment to the plantations usually meantbanishment for life, and as to the hundreds who found a prison on thebleak and rugged Bass Rock at the mouth of the Forth, many of these alsofound a grave.
After the battle of Bothwell Bridge the persecutions which had been sosevere for so many years were continued with intensified bitterness.Not only were all the old tyrannical laws carried into force withincreased severity, but new and harsher laws were enacted. Among otherthings the common soldiers were given the right to carry these laws intoeffect--in other words, to murder and plunder according to their ownwill and pleasure. And now, in 1680, began what has been termed _thekilling-time_; in which Graham of Claverhouse (afterwards ViscountDundee), Grierson of Lagg, Dalziel, and others, became pre-eminentlynotorious for their wanton cruelty in slaughtering men, women, and evenchildren.
On 22nd June 1680 twenty armed horsemen rode up the main street of theburgh of Sanquhar. The troop was headed by Richard Cameron and hisbrother Michael, who, dismounting, nailed to the cross a paper which thelatter read aloud. It was the famous "Declaration of Sanquhar," inwhich Charles Stuart was publicly disowned.
While the fields of Scotland were being traversed and devastated by alawless banditti, authorised by a lawless and covenant-breaking king andGovernment, those indomitable men who held with Cameron and Cargillunited themselves more closely together, and thus entered into a newbond pledging themselves to be faithful to God and to each other inasserting their civil and religious rights, which they believed couldonly be secured by driving from the throne that "perfidiouscovenant-breaking race, untrue both to the most high God and to thepeople over whom for their sins they were set."
If the Cameronians were wrong in this opinion then must the whole nationhave been wrong, when, a few years later, it came to hold the sameopinion, and acted in accordance therewith! As well might we find faultwith Bruce and Wallace as with our covenanting patriots.
Be this as it may, Richard Cameron with his followers asserted theprinciple which afterwards became law--namely, that the House of Stuartshould no longer desecrate the throne. He did not, however, live to seehis desire accomplished.
At Airsmoss--in the district of Kyle--with a band of his followers,numbering twenty-six horse and forty foot, he was surprised by a partyof upwards of one hundred and twenty dragoons under command of Bruce ofEarlshall. The Cameronians were headed by Hackston of Rathillet, whohad been present at the murder of Sharp, though not an activeparticipator. Knowing that no mercy was to be expected they resolved tofight. Before the battle Cameron, engaging in a brief prayer, used theremarkable words: "Lord, take the ripe, but spare the green." The issueagainst such odds was what might have been expected. Nearly all theCovenanters were slain. Richard Cameron fell, fighting back to backwith his brother. Some of the foot-men escaped into the moss. Hackstonwas severely wounded and taken prisoner. Cameron's head and hands werecut off and taken to Edinburgh, where they were
cruelly exhibited to hisfather--a prisoner at the time. "Do ye know them?" asked the wretch whobrought them. The old man, kissing them, replied, "Ay, I know them!They are my son's--my own dear son's! It is the Lord; good is the willof the Lord, who cannot wrong me nor mine, but has made goodness andmercy to follow us all our days." A wonderful speech this from onesuffering under, perhaps, the severest trial to which poor human naturecan be subjected. Well might be applied to him the words--slightlyparaphrased--"O man, great was thy faith!"
Hackston was taken to Edinburgh, which he entered on a horse with hishead bare and his face to the tail, the hangman carrying Cameron's headon a halter before him. The indignities and cruelties which wereperpetrated