e day following, they accordingly all set forward towards
Perth,--and they were a glorious army, mighty with the strength of their
great ally the Lord of the hosts of heaven. No trumpet sounded in their
march, nor was the courageous drum heard among them,--nor the shouts of
earthly soldiery,--nor the neigh of the war-horse,--nor the voice of any
captain. But they sang hymns of triumph, and psalms of the great things
that Jehovah had of old done for his people; and though no banner was
seen there, nor sword on the thighs of men of might, nor spears in the
grasp of warriors, nor crested helmet, nor aught of the panoply of
battle, yet the eye of faith beheld more than all these, for the hills
and heights of Scotland were to its dazzled vision covered that day with
the mustered armies of the dreadful God: the angels of his wrath in
their burning chariots; the archangels of his omnipotence, calm in their
armour of storms and flaming fires, and the Rider on the white horse,
were all there.

As the people with their ministers advanced, their course was like a
river, which continually groweth in strength and spreadeth its waters as
it rolls onward to the sea. On all sides came streams of new adherents
to their holy cause, in so much that when they arrived at Perth it was
thought best to halt there, lest the approach of so great a multitude,
though without weapons, should alarm the Queen Regent's government.
Accordingly they made a pause, and Erskine of Dun, one of the Lord James
Stuart's friends, taking my grandfather with him, and only two other
servants, rode forward to Stirling to represent to her Highness the
faith and the firmness of the people.

When they arrived, they found the town in consternation. Busy were the
bailies, marshalling such of the burgesses as could be persuaded to take
up arms, but all who joined them were feckless aged men, dealers and
traffickers in commodities for the courtiers. Proud was the provost that
day, and a type of the cause for which he was gathering his papistical
remnants. At the sight of Dun and his three followers riding up the
street to the castle, he was fain to draw out his sword and make a
salutation; but it stuck sae dourly in that he was obligated to gar ane
of the town-officers hold the scabbard, while he pulled with such might
and main at the hilt, that the blade suddenly broke off, and back he
stumbled, and up flew his heels, so that even my grandfather was
constrained, notwith