entler mood returned. "Didst Thou not set the woman beside the
man in the Garden? Has not the love of Jacob for Rachel been glorified
in Thy word? Art not Thou Thyself the bridegroom, and is not the kirk
Thy bride? Are we not called to the marriage supper of the Lamb? Is
not marriage Thine own ordinance, and shall I count that unclean, as
certain vain persons have imagined, which Thou hast established? Oh,
my Saviour, wast Thou not born of a woman? My soul is torn within me,
and unto Thee, therefore, do I look for light; give me this day a sign
that I may know what Thou wouldst have me to do, that it may be well
for Thy cause in the land, and the souls of Thy servants committed to
my charge."

He is unconscious of everything except the agony of duty through
which he is passing, and his words, though spoken low, have a sweet
and penetrating note, which arrest the attention of one who has come
down the gallery, and is now standing at the opening of the alcove
where Pollock is hidden. It is his hostess, the widow of Lord
Cochrane, the eldest son of the Earl of Dundonald, who was still
living, though old and feeble, and who left the management of
affairs very much to Lady Cochrane. Like many other families in the
days of the "Troubles," the Cochranes was a house divided against
itself, although till now the strength had been all on one side. Lord
Dundonald had been a loyal adherent of the Stuarts, and had rendered
them service in earlier days, for which it was understood he had
received his earldom; but he was a broken man now, and had no
strength in him to resist his masterful daughter-in-law. She was a
child of the Earl of Cassillis, one of the stoutest and most
thoroughgoing of Covenanters; her husband had died in the year when
the Battle of Bothwell-Brig had been fought, and his last prayers
were for the success of the Covenanters. His younger brother had
been one of the Rye House Plot men, and was now an exile for the
safety of his life in Holland. By her blood and by her sympathy, by
everything she thought and felt, Lady Cochrane was a Covenanter, and
in her face and figure, as she stands with the light from the
window falling upon her, she symbolizes her cause and party. Tall and
strong-boned, with a lean, powerful face, and clear, unrelenting eyes,
yet with a latent suggestion of enthusiasm which would move her to
any sacrifice for what she judged to be righteousness, and with an
honest belief in her religious cree