6, for Sir Patrick Hume had returned home after seventeen months'
imprisonment in Stirling Castle.

No one was more delighted at his return than his little ten years' old
daughter, Grizel, who loved him dearly, and was proud that he had
suffered imprisonment for conscience sake. He had been imprisoned as
'a factious person,' because he refused to contribute to the support of
the soldiers stationed in the country for the suppression of the
meetings of the Covenanters.

Grizel was a very intelligent child, and surprised her father by her
knowledge of the political events of the day, and her detestation of
the Government. Some men would have been simply amused at her interest
in politics, but Sir Patrick saw that she was an exceptionally clever
child, and told her many things which he would have confided to few of
her seniors. One thing that he told her was of his desire to get a
letter conveyed to his friend Robert Baillie of Jerviswoode, who was
confined in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh for rescuing a minister--his
brother-in-law--from the hands of the Government's servants.

Grizel at once volunteered to take the letter, and having overcome her
father's objections to sending her on such a dangerous mission, she
started on her long journey to Edinburgh, which she reached without
mishap.

Being at Edinburgh she had now to devise some means of getting into
Robert Baillie's prison. For a child of her age to outwit the prison
officials one would think an impossibility; but she did. Joanna
Baillie states that she slipped in, noiselessly and unobserved, behind
the jailer, and hid in a dark corner until he withdrew, when she
stepped forward and presented the letter to the astonished prisoner.
Whether or not this be true, it is a fact that she gained admission to
the prison, delivered her letter, and escaped with the reply.

Two years later, Sir Patrick Hume was again arrested, and although he
was neither tried nor told of what he was accused, he was kept in
prison for fifteen months. At first he was confined at Edinburgh, but
afterwards he was removed to Dumbarton Castle.

At both of these places Grizel was allowed to visit him, but the
authorities never suspected that such a child would be used as a
political messenger. In the presence of the jailer she would give Sir
Patrick news of home. She showered kisses upon him, and delivered
loving messages from her mother, sisters, and brothers. But when the
jailer had wit