anddespotic house of Stuart for ever; opened the prison gates to theCovenanters; restored to some extent the reign of justice and mercy;crushed, if it did not kill, the heads of Popery and absolute power, andsent a great wave of praise and thanksgiving over the whole land.Prelacy was no longer forced upon Scotland. The rights and liberties ofthe people were secured, and the day had at last come which crowned thestruggles and sufferings of half a century. As Mrs. Black remarked--
"Surely the blood o' the martyrs has not been shed in vain!"
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But what of the fortunes of those whose adventures we have followed solong? Whatever they were, the record has not been written, yet we havebeen told by a man whose name we may not divulge, but who is anunquestionable authority on the subject, that soon after the persecutionabout which we have been writing had ceased, a farmer of the name ofBlack settled down among the "bonnie hills of Galloway," not far fromthe site of the famous Communion stones on Skeoch Hill, where he took tohimself a wife; that another farmer, a married man named Wallace, wentand built a cottage and settled there on a farm close beside Black; thata certain Ru Peter became shepherd to the farmer Black, and, with hiswife, served him faithfully all the days of his life; that the familiesof these men were very large, the men among them being handsome andstalwart, the women modest and beautiful, and that all of them wereloyal subjects and earnest, enthusiastic Covenanters. It has been alsosaid, though we do not vouch for the accuracy of the statement, that inthe Kirk-session books of the neighbouring kirk of Irongray there may befound among the baptisms such names as Andrew Wallace and Will Black,Quentin Dick Black, and Jock Bruce Wallace; also an Aggie, a Marion, andan Isabel Peter, besides several Jeans scattered among the threefamilies.
It has likewise been reported, on reliable authority, that the originalMr. Black, whose Christian name was Andrew, was a famous teller ofstories and narrator of facts regarding the persecution of theCovenanters, especially of the awful killing-time, when the powers ofdarkness were let loose on the land to do their worst, and when theblood of Scotland's martyrs flowed like water.
Between 1661, when the Marquis of Argyll was beheaded, and 1668, whenJames Renwick suffered, there were murdered for the cause of Christ andChristian liberty about 18,000 noble men and women, some of whom weretitled, but the most of whom were unknown to earthly fame. It is amarvellous record of the power of God; and well may we give all honourto the martyr band while we exclaim with the "Ayrshire Elder":--
"O for the brave true hearts of old, That bled when the banner perished! O for the faith that was strong in death-- The faith that our fathers cherished.
"The banner might fall, but the spirit lived, And liveth for evermore; And Scotland claims as her noblest names The Covenant men of yore."
THE END.
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