own and sorrowful-hearted man, but he said nothing in
his discourses that particularly affected the marrow of that sore and
solemn business. On the Friday night, however, before the last Lord's
day of that black October, he sent for my brother, who was one of his
elders, and told him that he had received a mandatory for conformity to
the proclamation, and to acknowledge the prelatic reprobation that the
King's government had introduced into the church; but that it was his
intention, strengthened of the Lord, to adhere to his vows and
covenants, even to the uttermost, and not to quit his flock, happen what
would.

"The beild of the kirk and the manse," said he, "being temporalities,
are aneath the power and regulation of the earthly monarch; but in the
things that pertain to the allegiance I owe to the King of Kings, I will
act, with His heartening, the part of a true and loyal vassal."

This determination being known throughout the parish, and the first of
November being the last day allowed for conforming, on the Sabbath
preceding we had a throng kirk and a solemneezed congregation. According
to their wonted custom, the men, before the hour of worship, assembled
in the kirk-yard, and there was much murmuring and marvelling among us,
that nobody in all the land would stand forth to renew the Covenant, as
was done in the year thirty-eight; and we looked around and beheld the
green graves of many friends that had died since the great day of the
covenanting, and we were ashamed of ourselves and of our time, and
mourned for the loss of the brave spirits which, in the darkness of His
mysterious wisdom, the Lord had taken away.

The weather, for the season, was bright and dry; and the withered leaf
still hung here and there on the tree, so that old and young, the infirm
and the tender, could come abroad; and many that had been bed-rid were
supported along by their relations to hear the word of Truth, for the
last time, preached in the house of God.

Mr Swinton came, followed by his wife and family. He was, by this time,
a man well stricken in years, but Mrs Swinton was of a younger
generation; and they had seven children,--Martha, the eldest, a fine
lassie, was not passing fourteen years of age. As they came slowly up
the kirk-stile, we all remarked that the godly man never lifted his eyes
from the ground, but came along perusing, as it were, the very earth for
consolation.

The private door which, at that epoch, led to