ch it
wasnae worthy. And though Tam Dale carried a firelock there, a single
sodger, and liked a lass and a glass, as I was sayin', the mind of the
man was mair just than set with his position. He had glints of the glory
of the kirk; there were whiles when his dander rase to see the Lord's
sants misguided, and shame covered him that he should be haulding a
can'le (or carrying a firelock) in so black a business. There were
nights of it when he was here on sentry, the place a' wheesht, the
frosts o' winter maybe riving in the wa's, and he would hear are o' the
prisoners strike up a psalm, and the rest join in, and the blessed
sounds rising from the different chalmers--or dungeons, I would raither
say--so that this auld craig in the sea was like a pairt of Heev'n.
Black shame was on his saul; his sins hove up before him muckle as the
Bass, and above a', that chief sin, that he should have a hand in
hagging and hashing at Christ's Kirk. But the truth is that he resisted
the spirit. Day cam, there were the rousing companions, and his guid
resolves depairtit.

In thir days, dwalled upon the Bass a man of God, Peden the Prophet was
his name. Ye'll have heard tell of Prophet Peden. There was never the
wale of him sinsyne, and it's a question wi' mony if there ever was his
like afore. He was wild 's a peat-hag, fearsome to look at, fearsome to
hear, his face like the day of judgment. The voice of him was like a
solan's and dinnle'd in folks' lugs, and the words of him like coals of
fire.

Now there was a lass on the rock, and I think she had little to do, for
it was nae place far dacent weemen; but it seems she was bonny, and her
and Tam Dale were very well agreed. It befell that Peden was in the
gairden his lane at the praying when Tam and the lass cam by; and what
should the lassie do but mock with laughter at the sant's devotions? He
rose and lookit at the twa o' them, and Tam's knees knoitered thegether
at the look of him. But whan he spak, it was mair in sorrow than in
anger. "Poor thing, poor thing!" says he, and it was the lass he lookit
at. "I hear you skirl and laugh," he says, "but the Lord has a deid shot
prepared for you, and at that surprising judgment ye shall skirl but the
ae time!" Shortly thereafter she was daundering on the craigs wi'
twa-three sodgers, and it was a blawy day. There cam a gowst of wind,
claught her by the coats, and awa' wi' her bag and baggage. And it was
remarked by the sodgers that she gied