ther.

They were now at a fearful height from the ground; but the mist was
thick, and no one saw the dizzy eminence to which he had attained. It
happened, however, that just as Jordanhill reached the summit, and while
my grandfather and the bailie were about half-way up the ladder, the
mist below rolled away, and the stars above shone out, and the bailie,
casting his eyes downward, was so amazed and terrified at the eagle
flight he had taken, that he began to quake and tremble, and could not
mount a step farther.

At that juncture delay was death to success. It was impossible to pass
him. To tumble him off the ladder and let him be dashed to pieces, as
some of the men both above and below roughly bade my grandfather do, was
cruel. All were at a stand.

Governed, however, by a singular inspiration, my grandfather took off
his own sword-belt and also the bailie's, and fastened him with them to
the ladder by the oxters and legs, and then turning round the ladder,
leaving him so fastened pendent in the air on the lower side, the
assailants ascended over his belly, and courageously mounted to their
perilous duty.

Jordanhill shouted as they mustered on the summit. The officers and
soldiers of the garrison rushed out naked, but sword in hand. The
assailants seized the cannon. Lord Fleming, the governor, leaped the
wall into the boat that had brought the scaling ladders and was rowed
away. The garrison, thus deserted, surrendered, and the guilty prelate
was among the prisoners.

As soon as order was in some degree restored, my grandfather went with
two other soldiers to where the bailie had been left suspended, and
having relieved him from his horror, which the breaking daylight
increased by showing him the fearful height at which he hung, he brought
him to Jordanhill, who, laughing at his disaster, ordered him to be one
of the guard appointed to conduct the Archbishop to Stirling.

In that service the worthy magistrate proved more courageous, and
upbraided the prisoner several times on the road for the ill he had done
to him. But that traitorous high priest heard his taunts in silence, for
he was a valiant and proud man; such, indeed, was his gallant bearing in
the march that the soldiers were won by it to do him homage as a true
knight: and had he been a warrior as he was but a priest, it was thought
by many that, though both papist and traitor, they might have been
worked upon to set him free. To Stirling, however, h