d another; "now for the pretty, sanctified
face, that rolled its demure eyes below it." But after a few jests and
oaths, the soldiers stood still, eying with a kind of mysterious dread the
black and silent walls of the rocks that hemmed them in, and hearing only
the small voice of the stream that sent a profounder stillness through the
heart of that majestic solitude. "What if these cowardly Covenanters
should tumble down upon our heads pieces of rock, from their hiding
places! Advance, or retreat?"

There was no reply; for a slight fear was upon every man. Musket or
bayonet could be of little use to men obliged to clamber up rocks, along
slender paths, leading they know not where. And they were aware that armed
men nowadays worshiped God; men of iron hearts, who feared not the glitter
of the soldier's arms, neither barrel nor bayonet; men of long stride,
firm step, and broad breast, who, on the open field, would have overthrown
the marshaled line, and gone first and foremost, if a city had to be taken
by storm.

As the soldiers were standing together irresolute, a noise came upon their
ears like distant thunder, but even more appalling; and a slight current
of air, as if propelled by it, passed whispering along the sweetbriers,
and the broom, and the tresses of the birch trees. It came deepening, and
rolling, and roaring on; and the very Cartland Craigs shook to their
foundation, as if in an earthquake. "The Lord have mercy upon us! What is
this?" And down fell many of the miserable wretches on their knees, and
some on their faces, upon the sharp-pointed rocks. Now, it was like the
sound of many myriads of chariots rolling on their iron axles down the
strong channel of the torrent. The old, gray-haired minister issued from
the mouth of Wallace's Cave, and said, in a loud voice, "The Lord God
terrible reigneth!"

A waterspout had burst up among the moorlands, and the river, in its
power, was at hand. There it came, tumbling along into that long reach of
cliffs, and, in a moment, filled it with one mass of waves. Huge, agitated
clouds of foam rode on the surface of a blood-red torrent. An army must
have been swept off by that flood. The soldiers perished in a moment; but
high up in the cliffs, above the sweep of destruction, were the
Covenanters, men, women, and children, uttering prayers to God, unheard by
themselves, in the raging thunder.

NOTES.--Lanark is a small town in the valley of the Clyde, in Scotland. It