than done, was the order of these dreadful times. Catherine
Chalmers was placed in one of her father's carts; and, notwithstanding
every remonstrance, and an assurance that poor Catherine was now a widow,
she was placed betwixt two soldiers, who rode alongside the cart on
horseback, and conveyed her to Dumfries, there to stand her trial before
the Sheriff, Clavers, and the inhuman Laird of Lag. When arrived at her
destination, she was put under lock and key, but allowed more personal
liberty than many others who were accused of crimes more heinous in the
eyes of the persecutors, than those of which she was merely suspected to be
guilty. It so happened, that the quarterly meeting of the court was held in
a few days, and the chief witness produced against Catherine Wilson, was a
servant maid of her father, who was compelled, very much against her will,
to bear evidence to her having seen Sergeant Wilson and her mistress (for
Catherine kept her father's house) several times together in the old tower,
as well as under a particular tree at the end of the old avenue, and that
her mistress had told her that Sergeant Wilson was heartily tired of the
service in which he was engaged. Her own father, too, was compelled to
confess, that he had had an interview with the sergeant, in the tower, who
had confessed to him the marriage, had asked and with difficulty obtained
his forgiveness, and that he meditated a departure along with his wife, to
some distant place, beyond the reach of his enemies. There was no direct
evidence, however, that Catherine had persuaded him to desert, or to vilify
the service which he had left; and the court were about to dismiss her
_simpliciter_ from the bar, when, to the amazement of all, Catherine rose
in her place, and addressed the court to the following purpose:--"And now
ye have done your utmost, and I am innocent, in as far as your evidence has
gone; but I am NOT INNOCENT--I am deeply guilty, if guilt ye deem it, in
this matter. 'Twas I that first awakened poor William's conscience to a
sense of his danger, in serving an emissary of Satan; 'twas I that spoke to
him of the blood that cries day and night under the Altar; 'twas I that
made him tremble--ay, as an aspen leaf, and as some here will yet shake
before the Judge of all--when I brought to his recollection the brutal
scenes which he had witnessed, and in which he had taken a part; 'twas I
that agreed to marry him privately, without my dear father