dead or alive. Being captured, he was taken to Edinburgh on the
15th of July, and examined by the Council. On the 26th he was tried and
condemned, and on the 27th he was hanged, after having witnessed a good
confession, which he wound up with the words: "I forgive all men the
wrongs they have done against me. I pray that the sufferers may be kept
from sin and helped to know their duty."

About this time a _test_ oath was ordered to be administered to all men
in position or authority. The gist of it was that King Charles the
Second was the only supreme governor in the realm over all causes, as
well ecclesiastical as civil, and that it was unlawful for any subject
upon pretence of reformation, or any pretence whatever, to enter into
covenants or leagues, or to assemble in any councils, conventicles,
assemblies, etcetera, ecclesiastical or civil, without his special
permission.

Pretty well this for a king who had himself signed the covenant--without
which signing the Scottish nation would never have consented to assist
in putting him on the throne! The greater number of the men in office
in Scotland took the oath, though there were several exceptions--the
Duke of Argyll, the Duke of Hamilton, John Hope of Hopetoun, the Duchess
of Rothes, and others--among whom were eighty of the conforming clergy
whose loyalty could not carry them so far, and who surrendered their
livings rather than their consciences.

It would require a volume to record even a bare outline of the deeds of
darkness that were perpetrated at this time. We must dismiss it all and
return to the actors in our tale.

Will Wallace, after being recaptured, as already stated, was sent off to
the plantations in a vessel with about two hundred and fifty other
unfortunates, many of whom were seriously ill, if not dying, in
consequence of their long exposure in the Greyfriars' Churchyard.
Packed in the hold of the ship so closely that they had not room to lie
down, and almost suffocated with foul air and stench, the sufferings
which they endured were far more terrible than those they experienced
when lying among the tombs; but God sent most of them speedy
deliverance. They were wrecked on the coast of Orkney. At night they
were dashed on the rocks. The prisoners entreated to be let out of
their prison, but the brutal captain ordered the hatches to be chained
down. A tremendous wave cleft the deck, and a few of the more energetic
managed to escape and r