ter again calmly disowning
the royal authority of Charles Stuart, we admonished our sanguinary
persecutors, that, for self-preservation, we would retaliate according
to our power, and the degree of guilt on such privy counsellors, lords
of justiciary, officers and soldiers, their abettors and informers,
whose hands should continue to be imbrued in our blood. And on the
return of Quintin Fullarton, I gave the paper to him, that it might be
seen and considered by Mr Renwick and others, previous to offering it to
the consideration of the meeting.

He read it over very sedately, and folded it up and put it in the crown
of his bonnet without saying a word; but several times, while he was
reading, he cast his eyes towards me, and when he rose to go away he
said, "Ringan Gilhaize, you have endured much; but verily, if this thing
can be brought to pass, your own and all our sufferings will soon be
richly revenged."

"Not revenged," said I; "revenge, Quintin Fullarton, becomes not
Christian men. But we shall be the executioners of the just judgments of
Him whose ministers are flaming fires, and pestilence, and war, and
storms, and perjured kings."

With these words we parted; and next morning, by break of day, I rose,
after the enjoyment of a solacing sleep, such as I had not known for
many days, and searched my way across the fields towards Laswade. I did
not, however, enter the clachan, but lingered among the woods till the
afternoon, when, descending towards the river, I walked leisurely up the
banks, where I soon fell in with others of the associated friends.

CHAPTER LXXXIV

The place where we met was a deep glen, the scroggy sides whereof were
as if rocks, and trees and brambles, with here and there a yellow
primrose and a blue hyacinth between, had been thrown by some wild
architect into many a difficult and fantastical form. Over a ledge of
rock fell the bright waters of the Esk, and in the clear linn the trouts
shuttled from stone and crevice, dreading the persecutions of the
angler, who, in the luxury of his pastime, heedeth not what they may in
their cool element suffer.

It was then the skirt of the afternoon, about the time when the sweet
breathing of flowers and boughs first begins to freshen to the gentle
senses, and the shadows deepen in the cliffs of the rocks and darken
among the bushes. The yellow sunbeams were still bright on the
flickering leaves of a few trees, which here and there raised the