ance to be so much waste of breath, he snatched up
an old musket, which possibly had not seen the light since
Killiecrankie, and shot one of the dogs.

That was enough for the Marquess; he had got the old man in the wrong
now. Off he went at once and lodged with the Sheriff of Roxburghshire a
complaint against Ringan, and a summons was issued. Ringan refused to
appear in court.

"Na!" he said. "I've done nae wrong. I daur them to lay a hand on me."

But the Law was not to be thus flouted. If he wouldn't come freely, then
he must be made to come, said the sheriff. Here a difficulty arose.
Ringan's reputation for gigantic strength and utter fearlessness still
survived, and no one dared even attempt to apprehend the old man. In
such circumstances the sheriff pressed into his service the Marquess
and his men, and this party set off for Smailcleuchfoot. Friends warned
Ringan of their coming and counselled him to fly. But the dour old
Cameronian's spirit refused to let him do aught that might even remotely
suggest a doubt as to his being absolutely in the right. He only retired
into his house, and resolutely set about barring doors and windows; and
when that was done--

"Let them touch me that daur," he cried, taking up and carefully loading
the same old musket with which he had shot the dog.

Soon came the sheriff's summons, to which Ringan paid no heed, beyond
letting the party know that he was at home, and had no intention of
surrendering. There was in the house with him at this time a young girl
(whether an adopted daughter or merely a maid who cooked and looked
after the old man's house, one does not know), but she had refused to
leave when he began to barricade the place, and Ringan's sole anxiety
was now apparently for her. Of his own safety or that of his house, he
seemed to think not at all; the grim old dourness and determination that
had distinguished him at Bothwell Bridge and elsewhere were again
smouldering, ready to burst into flame.

"Keep oot o' the licht, lass, and rin nae risk; gang in ahint yon press
door," he said to the girl, when the men outside began firing at the
windows.

Then he, too, began to fire back at his enemies, and for a time he was
too much absorbed in his practice to pay attention to what the girl
might be doing. Thus, he had just fired a shot which clipped away one of
the curls from the Sheriff's wig, when a gasp, and the sound of a heavy
fall on the floor behind him, caused the o