town,
and the passage of so many soldiers from the castle, he was told that
they expected John Knox the day following, and that he was mindet to
preach, but the Archbishop has resolved no to let him. It was even so;
for the Lord James Stuart, who possessed a deep and forecasting spirit,
had, soon after my grandfather's arrival with the Reformer's answer,
made the news known to try the temper of the inhabitants and burghers.
But, saving this marvelling and preparation, nothing farther of a public
nature took place that night; so that, a short time before the hour
appointed, my grandfather went to the house of Widow Dingwall, where he
found Elspa Ruet sitting very disconsolate in a chamber by herself,
weeping bitterly at the woful account which Lucky Kilfauns had brought
of her sister's loose life, and fearing greatly that all her kind
endeavours and humble prayers would be but as water spilt on the ground.

CHAPTER XXIII

As the time of appointment drew near, Elspa Ruet was enabled to call in
her wandering and anxious thoughts, and, strengthened by her duty, the
blessing of the tranquil mind was shed upon her. Her tears were dried
up, and her countenance shone with a serene benignity. When she was an
aged, withered woman, my grandfather has been heard to say that he never
remembered her appearance without marvelling at the special effusion of
holiness and beauty which beamed and brightened upon her in that trying
hour, nor without thinking that he still beheld the glory of its
twilight glowing through the dark and faded clouds of her old age.

They had not sat long when a tapping was heard at the widow's door, and
my grandfather, starting up, retired into a distant corner of the room,
behind a big napery press, and sat down in the obscurity of its shadow.
Elspa remained in her seat beside the table, on which a candle was
burning, and, as it stood behind the door, she could not be seen by any
coming in till they had passed into the middle of the floor.

In little more than the course of a minute, the voice of her sister was
heard, and light footsteps on the timber stair. The door was then
opened, and Marion swirled in with an uncomely bravery. Elspa started
from her seat. The guilty and convicted creature uttered a shriek; but
in the same moment her pious sister clasped her with loving-kindness in
her arms, and bursting into tears, wept bitterly, with sore sobs, for
some time on her bosom, which was wantonly un