strong, and muscular, though something under the middle size, seemed to announce a man unlikely to understand rude jesting, or to receive insults with impunity. "And what is the consequence," said he, "if I should not be disposed to comply with your uncivil request?" "The consequence thereof, beloved," said Bothwell, in the same tone of raillery, "will be, firstly, that I will tweak thy proboscis or nose. Secondly, beloved, that I will administer my fist to thy distorted visual optics; and will conclude, beloved, with a practical application of the flat of my sword to the shoulders of the recusant." "Is it even so?" said the stranger; " then give me the cup;" and, taking it in his hand, he said, with a peculiar expression of voice and manner, "The Archbishop of St Andrews, and the place he now worthily holds ;-may each prelate in Scotland soon be as the Right Reverend James Sharpe !" "He has taken the test," said Halliday, exultingly. "But with a qualification," said Bothwell;-" I don't understand what the devil the crop-eared whig means.' 66 Come, gentlemen," said Morton, who became impatient of their insolence, "we are here met as good subjects, and on a merry occasion; and we have a right to expect we shall not be troubled with this sort of discussion." Bothwell was about to make a surly answer, but Halliday reminded him in a whisper, that there were strict injunctions that the soldiers should give no offence to the men who were sent out to the musters agreeably to the council's orders. So, after honouring Morton with a broad and fierce stare, he said, “Well, Mr Popinjay, I shall not disturb your reign; I reckon it will be out by twelve at night.-Is it not an odd thing, Halliday," he continued, addressing his companion, "that they should make such a fuss about cracking off their birding-pieces at a mark which any woman or boy could hit at a day's practice? If Captain Popinjay, now, or any of his troop, would try a bout, either with the broadsword, backsword, single rapier, or rapier and dagger, for a gold noble, the first-drawn blood, there would be some soul in it,- -or, zounds! would the bumpkins but wrestle, or pitch the bar, or putt the stone, or throw the axle-tree, if" (touching the end of Morton's sword scornfully with his toe)66 they carry things about them that they are afraid to draw." Morton's patience and prudence now gave way entirely, and he was about to make a very angry answer to Bothwell's insolent observations, when the stranger stepped forward. "This is my quarrel," he said, "and in the name of the good cause, I will see it out myself. - Hark thee, friend," (to Bothwell), “wilt thou wrestle a fall with me?" "With my whole spirit, beloved," answered Bothwell; " yea I will strive with thee, to the downfall of one or both." "Then, as my trust is in Him that can help," retorted his anta gonist, "I will forthwith make thee an example to all such railing Rabshakehs." With that he dropped his coarse grey horseman's coat from his shoulders, and, extending his strong brawny arms with a look of determined resolution, he offered himself to the contest. The soldier was nothing abashed by the muscular frame, broad chest, square shoulders, and hardy look of his antagonist, but, whistling with great composure, unbuckled his belt, and laid aside his military coat. The company stood round them, anxious for the event. In the first struggle the trooper seemed to have some advantage, and also in the second, though neither could be considered as decisive. But it was plain he had put his whole strength too suddenly forth, against an antagonist possessed of great endurance, skill, vigour, and length of wind. In the third close, the countryman lifted his opponent fairly from the floor, and hurled him to the ground with such violence, that he lay for an instant stunned and motionless. His comrade Halliday immediately drew his sword-"You have killed my sergeant," he exclaimed to the victorious wrestler," and by all that is sacred you shall answer it!" "Put "Stand back!" cried Morton and his companions, "it was all fair play your comrade sought a fall, and he has got it." "That is true enough," said Bothwell, as he slowly rose. up your bilbo, Tom. I did not think there was a crop-ear of them all could have laid the best cap and feather in the King's LifeGuards on the floor of a rascally change-house.-Hark ye, friend, give me your hand." The stranger held out his hand. "I promise you," said Bothwell, squeezing his hand very hard," that the time will come when we shall meet again, and try this game over in a more earnest manner." "And I'll promise you," said the stranger, returning the grasp with equal firmness," that when we next meet, I will lay your head as low as it lay even now, when you shall lack the power to lift it up again." "Well, beloved," answered Bothwell," if thou be'st a whig, thou art a stout and a brave one, and so good-even to thee— Hadst best take thy nag before the Cornet makes the round; for I promise thee, he has stay'd less suspicious-looking persons." The stranger seemed to think that the hint was not to be neglected; he flung down his reckoning, and going into the stable, saddled and brought out a powerful black horse, now recruited by rest and forage, and turning to Morton, observed, "I ride towards Milnwood, which I hear is your home: will you give me the advantage and protection of your company?" "Certainly," said Morton; although there was something of gloomy and relentless severity in the man's manner, from which his mind recoiled. His companions, after a courteous good-night, broke up and went off in different directions, some keeping them company for about a mile, until they dropped off one by one, and the travellers were left alone. The company had not long left the Howff, as Blane's public house was called, when the trumpets and kettle-drums sounded. The troopers got under arms in the market-place at this unexpected summons, while, with faces of anxiety and earnestness, Cornet Grahame, a kinsman of Claverhouse, and the Provost of the borough, followed by half-a-dozen soldiers, and town-officers with halberts, entered the apartment of Niel Blane. "Guard the doors!" were the first words which the Cornet spoke; "let no man leave the house. So, Bothwell, how comes this? Did you not hear them sound boot and saddle?" "he "He was just going to quarters, sir," said his comrade; has had a bad fall." "In a fray, I suppose?" said Grahame. "If you neglect duty in this way, your royal blood will hardly protect you." "How have I neglected duty?" said Bothwell, sulkily. 66 "You should have been at quarters, Sergeant Bothwell," replied the officer; you have lost a golden opportunity. Here are news come that the Archbishop of St Andrews has been strangely and foully assassinated by a body of the rebel whigs, who pursued and stopped his carriage on Magus Muir, near the town of St Andrews, dragged him out, and dispatched him with their swords and daggers."* All stood aghast at the intelligence. “Here are their descriptions," continued the Cornet, pulling out a proclamation; "the reward of a thousand merks is on each of their heads." "The test, the test, and the qualification!" said Bothwell to Halliday; "I know the meaning now-Zounds! that we should not have stopt him! Go saddle our horses, Halliday.-Was there one of the men, Cornet, very stout and square-made, doublechested, thin in the flanks, hawk-nosed?" 66 Stay, stay," said Cornet Grahame, "let me look at the paper. -Hackston of Rathillet, tall, thin, black-haired." "That is not my man," said Bothwell. "John Balfour, called Burley, aquiline nose, red-haired, five feet eight inches in height”. "It is he-it is the very man!" said Bothwell;-" skellies fearfully with one eye?" "Right," continued Grahame-" rode a strong black horse, taken from the primate at the time of the murder." "The very man," exclaimed Bothwell, "and the very horse! he was in this room not a quarter of an hour since." *The general account of this act of assassination is to be found in all histories of the period. A more particular narrative may be found in the words of one of the actors, James Russell, in the Appendix to Kirkton's History of the Church of Scotland, published by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esquire,-4to, Edinburgh, 1817. A few hasty inquiries tended still more to confirm the opinion that the reserved and stern stranger was Balfour of Burley, the actual commander of the band of assassins, who, in the fury of misguided zeal, had murdered the primate, whom they accidentally met, as they were searching for another person against whom they bore enmity.* In their excited imagination, the casual rencounter had the appearance of a providential interference, and they put to death the archbishop, with circumstances of great and cold-blooded cruelty, under the belief, that the Lord, as they expressed it, had delivered him into their hands.+ "Horse, horse, and pursue, my lads!" exclaimed Cornet Grahame; "the murdering dog's head is worth its weight in gold." CHAPTER V Arouse thee, youth!-it is no human call- JAMES DUFF MORTON and his companion had attained some distance from the town before either of them addressed the other. There was something, as we have observed, repulsive in the manner of the stranger, which prevented Morton from opening the conversation, and he himself seemed to have no desire to talk, until, on a sudden, he abruptly demanded, "What has your father's son to do with such profane mummeries as I find you this day engaged in?" "I do my duty as a subject, and pursue my harmless recreations according to my own pleasure,” replied Morton, somewhat offended. "Is it your duty, think you, or that of any Christian young man, to bear arms in their cause who have poured out the blood of God's saints in the wilderness as if it had been water? or is it a lawful recreation to waste time in shooting at a bunch of feathers, and close your evening with wine-bibbing in public-houses and market-towns, when He that is mighty is come into the land with his fan in his hand, to purge the wheat from the chaff?" "I suppose, from your style of conversation," said Morton, "that you are one of those who have thought proper to stand out against the Government. I must remind you that you are unnecessarily using dangerous language in the presence of a mere stranger, and that the times do not render it safe for me to listen to it." * One Carmichael, sheriff-depute in Fife, who had been active in enforcing the penal measures against non-conformists. He was on the moors hunting, but receiving accidental information that a party was out in quest of him, he returned home, and escaped the fate designed for him, which befell his patron the Archbishop. + See Note C,-Murderers of Archbishop Sharpe. C b "Thou canst not help it, Henry Morton," said his companion; "thy Master has his uses for thee, and when he calls, thou must obey. Well wot I thou hast not heard the call of a true preacher, or thou hadst ere now been what thou wilt assuredly one day become." "We are of the presbyterian persuasion, like yourself," said Morton; for his uncle's family attended the ministry of one of those numerous presbyterian clergymen, who, complying with certain regulations, were licensed to preach without interruption from the Government. This indulgence, as it was called, made a great schism among the presbyterians, and those who accepted of it were severely censured by the more rigid sectaries, who refused the proffered terms. The stranger, therefore, answered with great disdain to Morton's profession of faith,— "That is but an equivocation-a poor equivocation. Ye listen on the Sabbath to a cold, worldly, time-serving discourse, from one who forgets his high commission so much as to hold his apostleship by the favour of the courtiers and the false prelates, and ye call that hearing the word! Of all the baits with which the devil has fished for souls in these days of blood and darkness, that Black Indulgence has been the most destructive. An awful dispensation it has been, a smiting of the shepherd and a scattering of the sheep upon the mountains-an uplifting of one Christian banner against another, and a fighting of the wars of darkness with the swords of the children of light!" "My uncle," said Morton, " is of opinion that we enjoy a reasonable freedom of conscience under the indulged clergymen, and I must necessarily be guided by his sentiments respecting the choice of a place of worship for his family." "Your uncle," said the horseman, " is one of those to whom the least lamb in his own folds at Milnwood is dearer than the whole Christian flock. He is one that could willingly bend down to the golden-calf of Bethel, and would have fished for the dust thereof when it was ground to powder and cast upon the waters. Thy father was a man of another stamp." "My father," replied Morton, "was indeed a brave and gallant man. And you may have heard, sir, that he fought for that royal family in whose name I was this day carrying arms.' "Ay; and had he lived to see these days, he would have cursed the hour he ever drew sword in their cause. But more of this hereafter-I promise thee full surely that thy hour will come, and then the words thou hast now heard will stick in thy bosom like barbed arrows. My road lies there." He pointed towards a pass leading up into a wild extent of dreary and desolate hills; but as he was about to turn his horse's head into the rugged path which led from the high-road in that direction, an old woman wrapped in a red cloak, who was sitting by the cross-way, arose, and approaching him, said, in a mysterious tone of voice, "If ye be of our ain folk, gangna up the |