and set up a sign of fire in
Beth-haccerem: for evil appeareth out of the north, and great
destruction." And I thought it was a voice calling me to arm, and to
raise the banner against the oppressor; and thereupon I shut the Book,
and retiring to the fields, communed with myself for some time.

Having returned into the house, and sent Michael to my brother's to
inquire how it had fared with him and his family, I at the same time
directed Joseph to go to Irvine, and tell our friends there to help us
with a supply of blankets, for the Highlanders had taken away my horses
and driven off my cattle, and we had no means of bringing any thing.

But Joseph was not long gone when Michael came flying back from my
brother's, and I saw by his looks that something very dreadful had been
committed, and said,--

"Are they all in life?"

"Aye in life!" and, the tears rushing into his eyes, he exclaimed, "But
O! I wish that my cousin Bell had been dead and buried!"

Bell Gilhaize, my brother's only daughter, was the lightest-hearted
maiden in all our parish. It had long been a pleasure both to her father
and me to observe a mingling of affections between her and Michael, and
the year following had been fixt for their marriage.

"The time of weeping, Michael," said I, "is past, and the time of
warring will soon come. It is not in man to bear always aggression, nor
can it be required of him ever to endure contumely."

"What has befallen Bell?" said his mother to him; but instead of making
her any answer, he uttered a dreadful sound, like the howl of madness,
and hastily quitted the house.

Sarah Lochrig, who was a woman of a serene reason, and mild and gracious
in her nature, looked at me with a silent sadness, that told all the
anguish with which the horror that she guessed had darted into her soul;
and then, with an energy that I never saw in her before, folded her own
two daughters to her bosom, as if she was in terror for them, and bathed
their necks with tears.

While we were in this state my brother himself came in. He was now a man
well stricken in years, but of a hale appearance, and usually of an open
and manly countenance. Nor on this occasion did he appear greatly
altered; but there was a fire in his eye, and a severity in his aspect,
such as I'd never seen before, yet withal a fortitude that showed how
strong the self-possession was, which kept the tempest within him from
breaking out in word or gesture.

"Ringan,