l. If ye had
cared to look ye would have seen that godly man shot in our own
courtyard by six of Claverhouse's dragoons. Aye, and he would have
given the order in words as smooth as butter, and come back to tell
you brave tales of the court ladies with a smile upon his bonnie face.
May God smite his beauty with wasting and destruction!"

"Mother," said Jean, flushing and throwing back her head, "ye speak
what ye believe to be true, and many hard things are done in these
black days on both sides; but after I have spoken with Claverhouse, I
cannot think that he would have any good man killed in cold blood."

"What does it matter, Jean, what you think, for it is weel kent that a
young lassie's eye is caught in the snare of a glancing eye and a
gallant's lovelocks. Listen to me, and I will tell you what three
weeks ago this fair-spoken and sweet-smiling cavalier did. He was
hunting for the hidden servants of the Lord in the wild places of
Ayrshire, and he caught near his own house a faithful professor of
religion, on whose head a price was set, and for whose blood those
sons of Belial were thirsting. Claverhouse demanded that he should
take the oath, which no honest man can swear, and of which ye have
often heard. And when that brave heart would not, because he counted
his life not dear to him for the Lord's sake, Claverhouse gave him
three minutes to pray before he died. You are hearing me, Jean, for I
have not done?

"The martyr of the Lord prayed so earnestly for his wife and children,
for the downtrodden Kirk of Scotland, and for his murderer, that
Graham ordered him to rise from his knees, because his time was come.
When he rose he was made to stand upon the green before his own house,
with his wife and bairns at the door, and Claverhouse commanded so
many of his men to fire upon him. Ah! ye would have seen another
Claverhouse than ye know in that hour. But that is not all.

"His dragoons are ignorant and ungodly men, accustomed to blood, but
after hearing that prayer their hearts were softened within them and
they refused to fire. So Graham took a pistol from his saddle, and
with his own hands slew the martyr. Ye are hearing, Jean, but there is
more to follow. With her husband lying dead before her eyes,
Claverhouse asked his wife what she thought of her man now. That brave
woman, made strong in the hour of trial, wrapt her husband's head in a
white cloth and took it on her lap, and answered: 'I have always
honor