TALE II.-CONTINUED, OLD MORTALITY, CHAPTER I. My hounds may a' rin masterless, For there again maun I ne'er be! Old Ballad. WE left Morton, along with three companions in captivity, travelling in the custody of a small body of soldiers who formed the rear-guard of the column under the command of Claverhouse, and were immediately under the charge of Serjeant Bothwell. Their route lay towards the hills in which the insurgent presbyterians were reported to be in arms. They had not prosecuted their march a quarter of a mile ere Claverhouse and Evandale galloped past them, followed by their orderly-men, in order to take their proper places in the column which preceded them. No sooner were they past than Bothwell halted the body which he commanded, and disencum bered Morton of his irons. 'King's blood must keep word,' said the dragoon. 'I promised you should be civilly treated so far as rested with inc.-Here, Corporal Inglis, let this gentleman ride alongside of the other young fellow who is prisoner; and you may permit them to converse together at their pleasure, under their breath, but take care they are guarded by two files with loaded carabines. If they attempt an escape, blow their brains out.-You cannot call that using you uncivilly,' he continued, addressing himself to Morton, 'it's the rules of war, you know.-And, Inglis, couple up the parson and the old woman, they are fittest company for each other, d-n me; a single file may guard them well enough. If they speak a word of cant or fanatical nonsense, let them have a strapping with a shoulder belt. There's some hope of choaking a silenced parson; if he is not allowed to hold forth, his own treason will burst him." Having made this arrangement, Bothwell placed himself at the head of the party, and Inglis, with six dragoons, brought up the rear. The whole then set forward at a trot, with the purpose of overtaking the main-body of the regiment. Morton, overwhelmed with a complication of feelings, was totally indifferent to the various arrangements made for his secure custody, and even to the relief afforded him, by his release from the fetters. He experienced that blank and waste of the heart which follows the hurricane of passion, and, no longer supported by the pride and conscious rectitude which dictated his answers to Claverhouse, he surveyed with deep dejection the glades through which he travelled, each turning of which had something to remind him of past happiness and disappointed hope. The eminence which they now ascended was that from which he used first and last to behold the ancient tower when approaching or retiring from it, and it is needless to add, that there he was wont to pause, and gaze with a lover's delight on the battlements, which, rising at a distance out of the lofty wood, indicated the dwelling of her, whom he either hoped soon to meet or had recently parted from. Instinctively he turned his head back to take a last look of a scene formerly so dear to him, and no less instinctively he heaved a deep sigh. It was echoed by a loud groan from his companion in misfortune, whose eyes, moved, perchance, by similar reflections, had taken the same direction. This indication of sympathy, on the part of the captive, was uttered in a tone more coarse than sentimental; it was, however, the expression of a grieved spirit, and so far corresponded with the sigh of Morton, in turning their heads their eyes met, and Morton recognized the stoled countenance of Cuddie Headrigg, bearing a rueful expression, in which sorrow for his own lot was mixed with sympathy for the situation of his companion. "Hegh, sirs!" was the expression of the cidevant ploughman of the Mains of Tillietudiem; "it's an unco thing that decent folk should be harled through the country this gate, as if they were a warld's wonder.” "I am sorry to see you here, Cuddie," said Morton, who, even in his own distress, did not loose feeling for that of others. "And sae am I, Mr. Henry," answered Cuddie, " baith for mysel and you; but neither of our sorrows will do muckle gude that I can see. To be sure, for me," continued the captive agriculturist, relieving his heart by talking, though he well knew it was to little purpose," to be sure, for my part, I hae nae right to be here ava', for I never did nor said a word against either king or curate; but my mother, puir body, coulna haud the auld tongue o' her, and we maun baith pay for't, it's like." Your mother is their prisoner likewise?' said Morton, hardly knowing what he said. In troth is she, riding ahint ye there like a bride wi that auld carle o' a minister, that they ca' Gabriel Kettledrummle-De'l that he had been in the inside of a drum or a kettle either, for myshare o' him! Ye see, we were nae sooner chased out o' the doors o' Milnwood, and your uncle and the housekeeper banging them to and bearing them ahint us, as if we had the plague on our bodies, than I says to my mother, What are we to do neist, for every hole and bore in the country will be steekit against us, now that ye hae affronted my auld leddy, and gar't the troopers tak up young Milnwood? Sae she says to me, Binna cast doun, but gird yousel up to the great task o' the day, and gi’e your testimony like a man upon the mount o' the Covenant.' ton. And so I suppose you went to a conventicle?' said Mor 'Ye sall hear,' continued Cuddie. Aweel, I kenn'd na muckle better what to do, sae I e'en ga'ed wi' her to an auld daft carline like hersel, and we gat some water-broo and bannocks, and money a weary grace they said, and mony a psalin they sung, or they wad let me win to, for I was amaist famished wi' vexation. Aweel, they had me up in the grey o' the morning, and I behoved to hig awa' wi' them, reason or nane, to a great gathering o' their folk at the Miry-sikes, and there this chield, Gabriel Keitledrummle, was blasting awa'to them on the hill-side, about lifting up their testimony, uae doubt, and ganging down to the battle of Ramoth Gilead, or some sic place. h, Mr. Henry! but the carle gae them a screed o' doctrine ! Ye might hae heard him a mile down the wind-He routed like a cow in a fremd loaning.-Weel, thinks I, there's nae place in this country they ca' Roman Gilead-it will be some gate in the west moorlands; and or we win there I'll 'see to slip awa' wi' this mother o' mine, for I winna rin my neck into a tether for ony Kettlediummle in the country side.-Aweel,' continued Cuddie, relieving himself by detailing his misfortunes, without being scrupulous concerning the degree of attention which his companion bestowed on his narrative, just as I was wearying for the tail o' the preaching, cam word that the dragoons were upon us— Some ran, and some cried stand, and some cried down wi' the Philistines-I was at my mother to get her awa' sting and ling or the read-coats cam up, but I might as weel hae tried to drive our auld fore-a-hand ox without the goadde'il a step wad she budge-Weel, after a', the cleugh we were in was strait, and the mist cam thick, and there was gude hope the dragoons wad hae missed us if we could hae held our ain tongues; but, as if auld Kettledrummle himsel hadna made din aneuch to waken the very dead, they behoved a' to skirl up a psalm that ye wad hae heard as far as Lanrick !-Aweel, to mak a lang tale short, up cam my young Lord Evandale, skelping as fast as his horse could trot, and twenty red-coats at his back. Twa or three chields wad needs fight, wi' the pistol and the whinger in the tae hand, and the Bible in the t'other, and they got their crowns weel clowred; but there was nae muckle skaith dune, for Evendale aye cried to scatter us, but to spare life.'' 6 And did you not resist?' said Morton, who probably felt, that, at that moment, he himself would have encountered Lord Evendale on much slighter grounds. 6 Na, truly,' answered Cuddie,' I keepit aye before the auld woman, and cried for mercy to life and limb; but twa o' the red-coats cam up, and ane o' them was gaun to strike my mother wi' the side o' his broad-sword-So I gat up my kebbie at them, and said I wad gi'e them as gude. Weel, they turned on me, and clinked at me with their swords, and I garr'd my hand keep my head as weel as I could till Lord Evendale cam up, and then I cried out I was a servant at Tillietudlem-ye ken yoursel he was aye judged to hae a look after the young leddy-and he bade me fling doun my kent, and sae me and my mother yielded |