s part in the rising which was led by the Duke of Argyle.
Powerful friends, heavily bribed by Sir John's father, the Earl of
Dundonald, were working in Sir John's favour, and they had strong hopes
of obtaining a pardon. But meanwhile, Sir John lay in the Tolbooth at
Edinburgh, and the warrant for his execution was already on its way
northward, in the post-bag carried forward by horseman after horseman
throughout the length of the way. Could the arrival of the warrant only
be delayed by some means, his life might be saved. In this strait, his
daughter Grizzel, a girl of eighteen, conceived the desperate idea of
preventing the warrant's reaching its destination. Saying nothing to
anyone of her intentions, she stole away from home, and rode swiftly to
the Border. Following the road for about four miles on the English
side, she arrived at the house of her old nurse; and here she changed
her clothes, persuading the old dame to lend her a suit belonging to her
foster-brother. Making her way southward, she went to the inn at Belford
where the riders carrying the mail usually put up for the night. Here,
the same night, came the postman, and the seeming youth watched
nervously, but determinedly, for an opportunity of finding out whether
the fateful paper was in his bag or not. No slightest chance presented
itself, however, and an attempt to obtain the mail-bag during the night
failed by reason of the fact that the man slept upon it. One thing she
did accomplish, which gave her hope that the encounter for which she was
nerving herself might end successfully for her; she managed, unseen, to
draw the charges from his pistols. Then the courageous girl rode off
through the dark night to select a favourable spot in which to await his
coming. For two or three lonely hours she waited, the thought that she
was fighting for her father's life giving her courage. In the dim light
of the early dawn she heard the sound of his horse's hoofs from where
she stood in the shadow of a clump of trees; and steeling herself for
the part she was to play, and in ignorance of whether he might have
found out that the charges had been withdrawn from his pistols and might
have re-loaded them, she waited until he was almost abreast of her, and
fired at his horse, bringing it down. Before he could extricate himself
she was upon him with drawn sword; but promising to spare his life if he
would let her have the mail-bag, she seized it and darted away. He
attempte