ho had been so instrumental in my evasion,
were providentially enabled to get out and flee; but the other two were
taken by the soldiers and carried to prison.

The base conduct of that Menie Adams, as we some years after heard, did
not go long unvisited by the displeasure of Heaven, for, some scent of
her guilt taking wind, the whole town, in a sense, grew wud against her,
and she was mobbet, and the wells pumped upon her by the enraged
multitude; and she never recovered from the handling that she therein
suffered.

My brother and Esau Wardrop, on getting into the open fields, made all
the speed they could, like the panting hart when pursued by the hunter,
and distrusting the people of that part of the country, they travelled
all day, not venturing to approach any reeking house. Towards gloaming,
however, being hungry and faint, the craving of nature overcame their
fears, and they went up to a house where they saw a light burning.

As they approached the door they faltered a little in their resolution,
for they heard the dissonance of riot and revelry within. Their need,
however, was great, and the importunities of hunger would not be
pacified, so they knocked, and the door was soon opened by a soldier,
the party within being a horde of Dalziel's men, living at free quarters
in the house of that excellent Christian and much-persecuted man, the
Laird of Ringlewood.

CHAPTER LXV

The moment that the man who came to the door saw, by the glimpse of the
light, that both my brother and Esau Wardrop had swords at their sides,
he uttered a cry of alarm, thinking the house was surrounded, at which
all the riotous soldiers within flew to their arms, while the man who
opened the door seized my brother by the throat and harl't him in. The
panic, however, was but of short duration; for my brother soon expounded
that they were two perishing men who came to surrender themselves; so
the door was again opened and Esau Wardrop commanded to come in.

"It's but a justice to say of those rampageous troopers," said my
brother, "that, considering us as prisoners of war, they were free and
kind enough, though they mocked at our cause, and derided the equipage
of our warfare. But it was a humiliating sight to see in what manner
they deported themselves towards the unfortunate family."

Ringlewood himself, who had remonstrated against their insolence to his
aged leddy, they had tied in his arm-chair and placed at the head of his