e Maid, on horseback, is near the place where she was wounded.

[25] Paris, as the Clerk of Parliament wrote in his note-book, could
only be taken by blockade. It was a far larger city than Orleans, and we
see how long the English, in the height of courage and confidence, were
delayed by Orleans. But the Maid did not know the word 'impossible.'
Properly supported, she could probably have taken Paris by assault; at
the least she would not have left it while she lived.

[26] In 1715.

_HOW THE BASS WAS HELD FOR KING JAMES_

[Illustration: 'INSTANTLY A GUST OF WIND BLEW HER OFF THE ROCK INTO THE
SEA']

THE Bass Rock is a steep black mass of stone, standing about two miles
out to sea, off the coast of Berwickshire. The sheer cliffs, straight as
a wall, are some four hundred feet in height. At the top there is a
sloping grassy shelf, on which a few sheep are kept, but the chief
inhabitants of the rock are innumerable hosts of sea-birds. Far up the
rock, two hundred years ago, was a fortress, with twenty cannons and a
small garrison. As a boat can only touch at the little island in very
fine weather, the fortress was considered by the Government of Charles
II. an excellent prison for Covenanters. There was a house for the
governor, and a chapel where powder was kept, but where no clergyman
officiated. As the covenanting prisoners were nearly all ministers, and
a few of them prophets, it was thought, no doubt, that they could attend
to their own devotions for themselves. They passed a good deal of their
time in singing psalms. One prisoner looked into the cell of another
late at night, and saw a shining white figure with him, which was taken
for an angel by the spectator. Another prisoner, a celebrated preacher,
named Peden, once told a merry girl that a 'sudden surprising judgment
was waiting for her,' and instantly a gust of wind blew her off the rock
into the sea. The Covenanters, one of whom had shot at the Archbishop of
St. Andrews, and hit the Bishop of Orkney, were very harshly treated.
'They were obliged to drink the twopenny ale of the governor's brewing,
scarcely worth a half-penny the pint,' an inconvenience which they
probably shared with the garrison. They were sometimes actually
compelled to make their own beds, a cruel hardship, when their servants
had been dismissed, probably for plotting their escape. They had few
pleasures except writing accounts of their sufferings, and books on
religion; or stu