racter; where, as Scott says in his "Lady of the Lake," the briar
rose and fell in streamers green,

And creeping shrubs of thousand dyes,
Waved in the west wind's summer sighs,
Boon nature scattered free and wild
Each plant or flower, the mountain's child,
Here eglantine embalmed the air,
Hawthorn and hazel mingled there.
The primrose pale and violet flower,
Found in each cliff's narrow bower;
Foxglove and nightshade side by side,
Emblems of punishment and pride;
Gray birch and aspen wept beneath;
Aloft the ash and warrior oak,
Cast anchor in the rifted rock;
And higher yet the pine-tree hung,
His shattered trunk, and frequent flung
Where seemed the cliff to meet on high,
His boughs athwart the narrow sky,
So wondrous wild, the whole might seem
The scenery of a fairy dream.

Here, in a roughly wooded island, the country people secreted their
wives and children, and their most valuable effects from the rapacity
of Cromwell's soldiers during their inroad into Scotland. The soldiers
resolved to plunder this island; an expert swimmer swam toward it to
fetch the boat to his comrades, which had carried the women to their
place of refuge. It lay moored in one of the creeks; his companions
stood watching on the shore; but just as the soldier reached the
nearest point of the island, and was laying hold of a black rock to get
on shore, a heroine who stood on the very point where he meant to land,
hastily snatching a dagger from below her tartan apron, with one quick,
sharp stroke severed his jugular vein, killing him instantly.

The soldiers on the other shore seeing the disaster, relinquished all
future hope of revenge or conquest, and made the best of their way out
of a perilous position. Thus the women and children and valuables were
saved by the bravery of this noble heroine, Ellen Stuart. Such is the
way God saves the family to-day, by guiding the feet of our missionary
to many a distressed household, instantly relieving their wants, and
putting in their hands the Word of the Spirit which is the Word of God.
Let this record be an incentive to others to go and do likewise, by
pleading for the poor and the fatherless. God grant that her words may
be as goads to arouse sleepy professors to a realizing sense of their
great obligation to Him who is the God of Israel, our father's God, and
we will trust Him.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE POWER OF