ent whatever, is, nevertheless, hollow underneath, and on occasions
you may see--but only if you examine it narrowly--the blue smoke seeking
its way in tiny jets through a thousand apertures. There is, in fact, room
for four or five individuals. Beneath, there are a few plaids and
bed-covers, with an old chair, a stool, and seats of stone. There is
likewise a fire-place and some peats, extracted from the adjoining moss.
But there is, in fact, no entrance in this direction. You must bend your
course round by the brow of that hollow, over which the heather hangs
profusely; and there, by dividing and gently lifting up the heathy cover,
you will be able to insert your person into a small orifice, from which you
will escape into a dark but a roomy dungeon, which will, in its turn,
conduct you through a narrow passage, into the very heart or centre of this
seemingly solid accumulation of stones. When there, you will have light
such as Milton gives to Pandemonium--just as much as to make darkness
visible, through the small, and, on the outside, invisible crevices betwixt
the stones. Should you be surprised in your lighted and fire
apartment--should any accident or search bring a considerable weight above
you, so as to break through your slightly supported roofing--you can
retreat to your ante-room or dungeon, and from thence, if necessary, make
your way into the adjoining linn, along the bottom of which, you may
ultimately find skulking-shelter, or a pathway into a more inhabited
district. Now that you have surveyed this arrangement, as it existed a
hundred and fifty years ago, we may proceed to give you the narrative which
is connected with it.

In the year above referred to, the persecution of the saints was at its
height--Clavers, in particular, went about the country with his dragoons,
whom he designated (like the infamous Kirk) his _Lambs_, literally seeking
to hurt and destroy in all the hill country, in particular of Dumfriesshire
and Galloway. Auchincairn was a marked spot; it had often been a city of
refuge to the shelterless and the famishing; but it had so frequently been
searched, that every hole and corner was as well known to Clavers and his
troop as to the inhabitants themselves. There was now, therefore, no longer
any refuge to the faithful at Auchincairn; in fact, to come there was to
meet the enemy half-way--to rush as it were into the jaws of the lion. In
these circumstances, old Walter Gibson, a man upwards o