med.

At first the particulars were not known, for it was described as the
muttering of unclean spirits against the purity of the Truth; but the
tidings startled us like the growl of some unknown and dreadful thing,
and I dreamt that night of my grandfather, with his white hair and the
comely venerableness of his great age, appearing pale and sorrowful in a
field before me, and pointing with a hand of streaming light to
horsemen, and chariots, and armies with banners, warring together on the
distant hills.

Saturday was then the market-day at Irvine; and though I had but little
business there, I yet went in with my brother Robin, chiefly to hear the
talk of the town. In this I but partook of the common sympathy of the
whole country-side; for, on entering the town-end port, we found the
concourse of people there assembled little short of the crowd at Marymas
Fair, and all eager to learn what the council held at Glasgow had done;
but no one could tell. Only it was known that the Earl of Eglinton, who
had been present at the council, was returned home to the castle, and
that he had sent for the provost that morning on very urgent business.

While we were thus all speaking and marvelling one with another, a cry
got up that a band of soldiers was coming into the town from Ayr, the
report of which, for the space of several minutes, struck every one with
awe and apprehension. And scarcely had the sough of this passed over us,
when it was told that the provost had privately returned from Eglinton
Castle by the Gallows-knowes to the backsides, and that he had sent for
the minister and the bailies, with others of the council, to meet him in
the clerk's chamber.

No one wist what the meaning of such movements and mysteries could be;
but all boded danger to the fold and flock, none doubting that the
wolves of episcopalian covetousness were hungering and thirsting for the
blood of the covenanted lambs. Nor were we long left to our guesses;
for, soon after the magistrates and the minister had met, a copy of the
proclamation of the council held at Glasgow was put upon the Tolbooth
door, by which it was manifested to every eye that the fences of the
vineyard were indeed broken down, and that the boar was let in and
wrathfully trampling down and laying waste.

CHAPTER XLVI

The proclamation was as a stunning blow on the forehead of the
Covenanters, and for the next two Sabbaths Mr Swinton was plainly in
prayer a weighed d