It was drawing towards midnight. The troops of Claverhouse were quartered around the country, and his three prisoners, still bound to each other, were confined in a small farm-house, from which the inhabitants had been expelled. They could hear the heavy and measured tread of the sentinel pacing backward and forward in front of the house; the sound of his footsteps seemed to measure out the moments between them and eternity. After they had sung a psalm and prayed together--"I am auld," said John Brydone, "and I fear not to die, but rather glory to lay down my life for the great cause; but, oh, Daniel! my heart yearns that yer bluid also should be shed--had they only spared ye, to hae been a protector to our puir Mary!--or had I no driven Philip frae the house"----
"Mention not the name of the cast-away," said the minister.
"Dinna mourn, faither," answered Daniel, "an arm mair powerful than that of man will be her supporter and protector."
"Amen!" responded Mr. Duncan. "She has aye been cauld to me, and has turned the ear o" the deaf adder to the voice o" my affection; but even noo, when my thochts should be elsewhere, the thocht o" her burns in my heart like a coal."
While they yet spoke, a soldier, wrapt up in a cloak, approached the sentinel, and said--
"It is a cold night, brother."
"Piercing," replied the other, striking his feet upon the ground.
"You are welcome to a mouthful of my spirit-warmer," added the first, taking a bottle from beneath his cloak.
"Thank ye!" rejoined the sentinel; "but I don"t know your voice. You don"t belong to our corps, I think."
"No," answered the other; "but it matters not for that--brother soldiers should give and take."
The sentinel took the bottle and raised it to his lips; he drank, and swore the liquor was excellent.
"Drink again," said the other; "you are welcome; it is as good as a double cloak around you." And the sentinel drank again.
"Good night, comrade," said the trooper. "Good night," replied the sentinel; and the stranger pa.s.sed on.
Within half an hour, the same soldier, still m.u.f.fled up in his cloak, returned. The sentinel had fallen against the door of the house, and was fast asleep. The stranger proceeded to the window--he raised it--he entered. "Fear nothing," he whispered to the prisoners, who were bound to staples that had been driven into the opposite wall of the room. He cut the cords with which their hands and their feet were fastened.
"Heaven reward ye for the mercy o" yer heart, and the courage o" this deed," said John.
"Say nothing," whispered their deliverer, "but follow me."
Each man crept from the window, and the stranger again closed it behind them. "Follow me, and speak not," whispered he again; and, walking at his utmost speed, he conducted them for several miles across the hills; but still he spoke not. Old John marvelled at the manner of their deliverer; and he marvelled yet more when he led them to Philiphaugh, and to the very spot where, more than thirty years before, he had found the child on the bosom of its dead mother; and there the stranger stood still, and, turning round to those he had delivered--"Here we part,"
said he; "hasten to your own house, but tarry not. You will find horses in readiness, and flee into Westmoreland; inquire there for the person to whom this letter is addressed; he will protect you." And he put a sealed letter into the hands of the old man, and, at the same time, placed a purse in the hands of Daniel, saying, "This will bear your expenses by the way--Farewell!--farewell!" They would have detained him, but he burst away, again exclaiming, as he ran--"Farewell!"
"This is a marvellous deliverance," said John; "it is a mystery, an"
for him to leave us on this spot--on _this very spot_--where puir Philip"---- And here the heart of the old man failed him.
We need not describe the rage of Claverhouse, when he found, on the following day, that the prisoners had escaped; and how he examined and threatened the sentinels with death, and cast suspicious glances upon Lieutenant Mowbray; but he feared to accuse him, or quarrel with him openly.
As John, with the preacher and his son, approached the house, Mary heard their footsteps, rushed out to meet them, and fell weeping upon her father"s neck. "My bairn!" cried the old man; "we are restored to ye as from the dead! Providence has dealt wi" us in mercy an" in mystery."
His four farm-horses were in readiness for their flight; and Mary told him how the same soldier who had saved her from sharing their fate, had come to their house at midnight, and a.s.sured her that they should not die, and to prepare for their flight; "and," added she, "in token that he who had sent him would keep his promise towards you, he gave me this ring, requesting me to wear it for your deliverer"s sake."
"It is Philip"s ring!" cried the old man, striking his hand before his eyes--"it is Philip"s ring!"
"_My_ Philip"s!" exclaimed Mary; "oh, then, he lives!--he lives!"
The preacher leaned his brow against the walls of the cottage and groaned.
"It is still a mystery," said the old man, yet pressing his hands before his eyes in agony; "but it is--it maun be him. It was Philip that saved us--that conducted us to the very spot where I found him! But, oh," he added, "I wad rather I had died, than lived to ken that he has drawn his sword in the ranks o" the oppressor, and to murder the followers after the truth."
"Oh, dinna think that o" him, father!" exclaimed Mary; "Philip wadna--he couldna draw his sword but to defend the helpless!"
Knowing that they had been pursued and sought after, they hastened their flight to England, to seek the refuge to which their deliverer had directed them. But as they drew near to the Borders, the Rev. Mr. Duncan suddenly exclaimed--"Now, here we must part--part for ever! It is not meet that I should follow ye farther. When the sheep are pursued by the wolves, the shepherd should not flee from them. Farewell, dear friends--and, oh! farewell to you, Mary! Had it been sinful to hae loved you, I would hae been a guilty man this day--for, oh! beyond a" that is under the sun, ye hae been dear to my heart, and your remembrance has mingled wi" my very devotions. But I maun root it up, though, in so doing, I tear my very heart-strings. Fareweel!--fareweel! Peace be wi"
you--and may ye be a" happier than will ever be the earthly lot o"
Andrew Duncan!"
The tears fell upon Mary"s cheeks; for, though she could not love, she respected the preacher, and she esteemed him for his worth. Her father and brother entreated him to accompany them. "No! no!" he answered; "I see how this flight will end. Go--there is happiness in store for you; but my portion is with the dispersed and the persecuted." And he turned and left them.
Lieutenant Mowbray was disgusted with the cold-blooded butchery of the service in which he was engaged; and, a few days after the escape of John Brydone and his son, he threw up his commission, and proceeded to Dumfriesshire. It was a Sabbath evening, and near nightfall; he had wandered into the fields alone, for his spirit was heavy. Sounds of rude laughter broke upon his ear; and, mingled with the sound of mirth, was a voice as if in earnest prayer. He hurried to a small wood from whence the sounds proceeded, and there he beheld four troopers, with their pistols in their hands, and before them was a man, who appeared to be a preacher, bound to a tree.
"Come, old Psalmody!" cried one of the troopers, raising his pistol, and addressing their intended victim, who was engaged in prayer; "make ready--we have other jobs on hand--and we gave you time to speak a prayer, but not to preach."
Mowbray rushed forward. He sprang between the troopers and their victim.
"Hold! ye murderers, hold!" he exclaimed. "Is it thus that ye disgrace the name of soldiers by washing your hands in the blood of the innocent?"
They knew Mowbray, and they muttered, "You are no officer of ours now; he is our prisoner, and our orders ere to shoot every conventicle knave who falls into our hands."
"Shame on him who would give such orders!" said Mowbray; "and shame on those who would execute them! There," added he, "there is money! I will ransom him."
With an imprecation, they took the money that was offered them, and left their prisoner to Mowbray. He approached the tree where they had bound him--he started back--it was the Rev. Andrew Duncan!
"Rash man!" exclaimed Mowbray, as he again stepped forward to unloose the cords that bound him. "Why have ye again cast yourself into the hands of the men who seek your blood? Do you hold your life so cheap, that, in one week, ye would risk to sell it twice? Why did not ye, with your father, your brother, and your _wife_, flee into England, where protection was promised!"
"My father!--my brother!--my wife!--mine!--mine!" repeated the preacher wildly. "There are no such names for my tongue to utter!--none!--none to drop their love as morning dew upon the solitary soul o" Andrew Duncan!"
"Are they murdered?" exclaimed Mowbray, suddenly, in a voice of agony.
"Murdered!" said the preacher, with increased bewilderment. "What do you mean?--or wha" do you mean?"
"Tell me," cried Mowbray, eagerly; "are not you the husband of Mary Brydone?"
"Me!--me!" cried the preacher. "No!--no!--I loved her as the laverock loves the blue lift in spring, and her shadow cam between me and my ain soul--but she wadna hearken unto my voice--she is nae wife o" mine!"
"Thank Heaven!" exclaimed Mowbray; and he clasped his hands together.
It is necessary, however, that we now accompany John Brydone and his family in their flight into Westmoreland. The letter which their deliverer had put into their hands was addressed to a Sir Frederic Mowbray; and, when they arrived at the house of the old knight, the heart of the aged Covenanter almost failed him for a moment; for it was a proud-looking mansion, and those whom he saw around wore the dress of the Cavaliers.
"Who are ye?" inquired the servant who admitted them to the house.
"Deliver this letter into the hands of your master," said the Covenanter; "our business is with him."
"It is the handwriting of Master Edward," said the servant, as he took the letter into his hand; and, having conducted them to a room, he delivered it to Sir Frederic.
In a few minutes the old knight hurried into the room, where the Covenanter, and his son and his daughter, stood. "Welcome, thrice welcome!" he cried, grasping the hand of the old man; "here you shall find a resting-place and a home, with no one to make you afraid."
He ordered wine and food to be placed before them, and he sat down with them.