ng
flames against the remnant of Israel. But the Lord put an end to his
piping, and all these offences were composed into one bloody grave." No
doubt this was written to excuse his slaughter; and I have never heard
it claimed for Walker that he was either a just witness or an indulgent
judge. At least, in a merely human character, Haddo comes off not wholly
amiss in the matter of these Traquairs: not that he showed any graces of
the Christian, but had a sort of Pagan decency, which might almost tempt
one to be concerned about his sudden, violent, and unprepared fate.

CHAPTER II

FRANCIE

Francie was eleven years old, shy, secret, and rather childish of his
age, though not backward in schooling, which had been pushed on far by a
private governor, one M'Brair, a forfeited minister harboured in that
capacity at Montroymont. The boy, already much employed in secret by his
mother, was the most apt hand conceivable to run upon a message, to
carry food to lurking fugitives, or to stand sentry on the skyline above
a conventicle. It seemed no place on the moorlands was so naked but what
he would find cover there; and as he knew every hag, boulder, and
heather-bush in a circuit of seven miles about Montroymont, there was
scarce any spot but what he could leave or approach it unseen. This
dexterity had won him a reputation in that part of the country; and
among the many children employed in these dangerous affairs, he passed
under the by-name of Heathercat.

How much his father knew of this employment might be doubted. He took
much forethought for the boy's future, seeing he was like to be left so
poorly, and would sometimes assist at his lessons, sighing heavily,
yawning deep, and now and again patting Francie on the shoulder if he
seemed to be doing ill, by way of a private, kind encouragement. But a
great part of the day was passed in aimless wanderings with his eyes
sealed, or in his cabinet sitting bemused over the particulars of the
coming bankruptcy; and the boy would be absent a dozen times for once
that his father would observe it.

On 2nd of July 1682 the boy had an errand from his mother, which must
be kept private from all, the father included in the first of them.
Crossing the braes, he hears the clatter of a horse's shoes, and claps
down incontinent in a hag by the wayside. And presently he spied his
father come riding from one direction, and Curate Haddo walking from
another; and Montroymont leaning d