a few minutes, saying to the guards without that he went to fetch a book
of reference which he needed to convince the hard-hearted reprobate
within. He left the door partly ajar, and the guards without were
edified by catching snatches of a discourse of exceeding godliness and
unction, delivered by the preacher to the prisoner.

Presently a trampling without informed Harry and Jacob that the guard
was being changed, and half an hour later they opened the door, and
Jacob, standing for a moment as they went out, addressed a few words of
earnest exhortation to the prisoner supposed to be within, adjuring him
to bethink himself whether it was better to sacrifice his life in the
cause of a wicked king than to purchase his freedom by forsaking the
error of his ways, and turning to the true belief. Then, closing the
door after him, Jacob strode along, accompanied by Harry, to the
guardroom. They passed through the yard of the prison to the gate. There
Jacob produced his pass for the entrance and exit of two divines, and
the guard, suspecting no evil, at once suffered them to go forth.
William had already been to the inn where they stopped, and had told the
host that he was charged to examine the chamber where the persons who
abode there upon the previous day had stopped. There he had taken the
various documents from their hiding-place, and had made his way from the
city. Outside the gates he was joined by the others, and all, at a
speedy but still dignified pace, made their way to the spot where the
horses were concealed, in a little wood in a retired valley. Here they
changed their dress, and, making a bonfire of the garments which they
had taken off, mounted their Losses, and rode for the north.

CHAPTER XI.

MONTROSE.

They stopped for the night at a village fifteen miles away from
Edinburgh, and after they had had their supper Harry inquired of Jacob
how his dispute with the divines had passed off the evening before.

Jacob burst into a fit of laughter.

"It was the funniest thing you ever saw," he said, "Imagine a large
room, with the chief presbyter sitting at a table, and eight other men,
with sour countenances and large turned-down collars and bands, sitting
round it. William Long and I faced them at the other end, looking as
grave and sanctimonious as the rest of them. The proceedings were, of
course, opened with a lengthy prayer, and then the old gentleman in the
center introduced us as the commissioner