captured him in this singular manner.
"Weel, what d'ye think o' me?" asked Andrew, with what may be termed agrave smile.
"If you want to know my true opinion," returned Wallace, "I should saythat I would not have thought, from the look of you, that you could havetaken mean advantage of a sleeping foe."
"Ay--an' I would not have thought, from the look o' _you_," retortedAndrew, "that ye could hae sell't yersel' to gang skulkin' aboot thehills as a spy upon the puir craters that are only seekin' to worshiptheir Maker in peace."
Without further remark Andrew Black, leaving his coat and plaid to keepcompany with the sword and stick, led his prisoner down the hill.
Andrew's cottage occupied a slight hollow on the hillside, whichconcealed it from every point of the compass save the high ground aboveit. Leading the trooper up to the door, he tapped gently, and waspromptly admitted by some one whom Wallace could not discern, as theinterior was dark.
"Oh, Uncle Andrew! I'm glad ye've come, for Peter hasna come back yet,an' I'm feared somethin' has come ower him."
"Strike a light, lassie. I've gotten haud o' a spy here, an' canna weeldo't mysel'."
When a light was procured and held up, it revealed the pretty face ofJean Black, which underwent a wondrous change when she beheld the faceof the prisoner.
"Uncle Andrew!" she exclaimed, "this is nae spy. He's the man that cam'to the help o' Aggie an' me against the dragoon."
"Is that sae?" said Black, turning a look of surprise on his prisoner.
"It is true, indeed, that I had the good fortune to protect Jean and herfriend from an insolent comrade," answered Wallace; "and it is also truethat that act has been partly the cause of my deserting to the hills,being starved for a day and a night, and taken prisoner now as a spy."
"Sir," said Andrew, hastily untying the kerchief that bound themtogether, "I humbly ask your pardon. Moreover, it's my opeenion that ifye hadna been starvin' ye wadna have been here 'e noo, for ye'reuncommon teuch. Rin, lassie, an' fetch some breed an' cheese. Whar'sMarion an' Is'b'l?"
"They went out to seek for Peter," said Jean, as she hastened to obeyher uncle's mandate.
At that moment a loud knocking was heard at the door, and the voice ofMarion, one of the maid-servants, was heard outside. On the door beingopened, she and her companion Isabel burst in with excited looks and theinformation, pantingly given, that the "sodgers were comin'."
"Haud yer noise, lassie, an' licht the fire--pit on the parritch pat.Come, Peter, let's hear a' aboot it."
Ramblin' Peter, who had been thus named because of his inveteratetendency to range over the neighbouring hills, was a quiet, undersized,said-to-be weak-minded boy of sixteen years, though he looked littlemore than fourteen. No excitement whatever ruffled his placidcountenance as he gave his report--to the effect that a party ofdragoons had been seen by him not half an hour before, searchingevidently for his master's cottage.
"They'll soon find it," said the farmer, turning quickly to hisdomestics--"Away wi' ye, lassies, and hide."
The two servant-girls, with Jean and her cousin Aggie Wilson, ran atonce into an inner room and shut the door. Ramblin' Peter sat stolidlydown beside the fire and calmly stirred the porridge-pot, which wasnearly full of the substantial Scottish fare.
"Noo, sir," said Black, turning to Will Wallace, who had stood quietlywatching the various actors in the scene just described, "yercomrades'll be here in a wee while. May I ask what ye expect?"
"I expect to be imprisoned at the least, more probably shot."
"Hm! pleasant expectations for a young man, nae doot. I'm sorry thatit's oot o' my power to stop an' see the fun, for the sodgers havestrange suspicions aboot me, so I'm forced to mak' mysel' scarce an'leave Ramblin' Peter to do the hospitalities o' the hoose. But before Igang awa' I wad fain repay ye for the guid turn ye did to my bairns. Ifye are willin' to shut yer eyes an' do what I tell ye, I'll put you in aplace o' safety."
"Thank you, Mr. Black," returned Wallace; "of course I shall only be tooglad to escape from the consequences of my unfortunate position; but donot misunderstand me: although neither a spy nor a Covenantor I am aloyal subject, and would not now be a deserter if that character had notbeen forced upon me, first by the brutality of the soldiers with whom Iwas banded, and then by the insolence of my comrade-in-arms to yourdaughter--"
"Niece; niece," interrupted Black; "I wish she _was_ my dauchter, blessher bonny face! Niver fear, sir, I've nae doot o' yer loyalty, thoughyou an' yer freends misdoot mine. I claim to be as loyal as the best o'ye, but there's nae dictionary in _this_ warld that defines loyalty tobe slavish submission o' body an' sowl to a tyrant that fears naetherGod nor man. The quastion noo is, Div ye want to escape and wull yetrust me?"
The sound of horses galloping in the distance tended to quicken theyoung trooper's decision. He submitted to be blindfolded by his captor.
"Noo, Peter," said Andrew, as he was about to lead Wallace away, "ye kenwhat to dae. Gie them plenty to eat; show them the rum bottle, let themhae the rin o' the hoose, an' say that I bade ye treat them weel."
"Ay," was Ramblin' Peter's laconic reply.
Leading his captive out at the door, round the house, and re-entering bya back door, apparently with no other end in view than to bewilder him,Andrew went into a dark room, opened some sort of door--to enter whichthe trooper had to stoop low--and conducted him down a steep, narrowstaircase.
The horsemen meanwhile had found the cottage and were heard at thatmoment tramping about in front, and thundering on the door foradmittance.
Wallace fancied that the door which closed behind him must be of amazingthickness, for it shut out almost completely the sounds referred to.
On reaching the foot of the staircase, and having the napkin removedfrom his eyes, he found himself in a long, low, vaulted chamber. Therewas no one in it save his guide and a venerable man who sat beside adeal table, reading a document by the light of a tallow candle stuck inthe mouth of a black bottle.
The soldiers, meanwhile, having been admitted by Ramblin' Peter,proceeded to question that worthy as to Andrew Black and his household.Not being satisfied of the truth of his replies they proceeded to applytorture in order to extract confession. It was the first time that thismode of obtaining information had been used in Black's cottage, and itfailed entirely, for Ramblin' Peter was staunch, and, although inhumanlythrashed and probed with sword-points, the poor lad remained dumb,insomuch that the soldiers at length set him down as an idiot, for hedid not even cry out in his agonies--excepting in a curious,half-stifled manner--because he knew well that if his master were madeaware by his cries of what was going on he would be sure to hasten tothe rescue at the risk of his life.
Having devoured the porridge, drunk the rum, and destroyed aconsiderable amount of the farmer's produce, the lawless troopers, whoseemed to be hurried in their proceedings at that time, finally left theplace.
About the time that these events were taking place in and around Black'scottage, bands of armed men with women and even children were hasteningtowards the same locality to attend the great "conventicle," for whichthe preparations already described were being made.
The immediate occasion of the meeting was the desire of the parishionersof the Reverend John Welsh, a great-grandson of John Knox, to makepublic avowal, at the Communion Table, of their fidelity to Christ andtheir attachment to the minister who had been expelled from the churchof Irongray; but strong sympathy induced many others to attend, not onlyfrom all parts of Galloway and Nithsdale, but from the distant Clyde,the shores of the Forth, and elsewhere; so that the roads were crowdedwith people making for the rendezvous--some on foot, others onhorseback. Many of the latter were gentlemen of means and position,who, as well as their retainers, were more or less well armed andmounted. The Reverend John Blackadder, the "auld" minister ofTroqueer--a noted hero of the Covenant, who afterwards died a prisoneron the Bass Rock--travelled with his party all the way from Edinburgh,and a company of eighty hors
e proceeded to the meeting from Clydesdale.
Preliminary services, conducted by Mr. Blackadder and Mr. Welsh, wereheld near Dumfries on the Saturday, but at these the place of meeting onthe Sabbath was only vaguely announced as "a hillside in Irongray," soanxious were they to escape being disturbed by their enemies, and thesecret was kept so well that when the Sabbath arrived a congregation ofabove three thousand had assembled round the Communion stones in thehollow of Skeoch