TRADITIONS OF THE COVENANTERS

(Continued from last issue)

At length all retired to rest; and it was not long before the husband and the father, worn out with hunger, and fatigue, and watchfulness, sank into a profound sleep. But while this pious household were slumbering in fancied security from the intrusion of their enemies, those very enemies were at the door. They had set out in quest of their victim, having by some means been informed of his hiding place; and not finding him there as they anticipated, they hoped to capture him in his own house. Accordingly, having reached the solitary dwelling at the dead of night, they stationed six of their number before the door, while four of them entered the house, having softly lifted the latch—the door, by an unaccountable oversight, having been left unlocked. At this juncture the wife of Howatson awoke, and, to her amazement, saw four men standing before the fire attempting to light a candle; and rightly judging who the intruders were, she, without uttering a word, grasped her husband firmly by the arm. He instantly started up and saw the men, and, observing that their backs were towards him, he slipped gently from his bed on the clay floor, and stole softly to the door. It was guarded by the dragoons. He hesitated for a moment, and then darted like an arrow through the midst of them. The waving of his snow-white shirt, like a sheet of lightning, terrified the horses, land threw the party into confusion, and, though they fired several times, he escaped unscathed. He fled with the utmost speed to the house of a friend, where he obtained a lodging for the remainder of the night; and next day his clothing was conveyed to him by his wife, who could not but observe the hand of a special providence stretched out for the protection of her husband.

On another occasion, however, the same individual was not quite so fortunate, though he eventually escaped with his life. His enemies, being constantly in search of him, at length got hold of him; and the laird of Drumlanrig, the leader of the persecuting party in that district, brought him to his castly and confined him in a dungeon called “the pit of Drumlanrig.” This prison-house was covered above with strong boards secured with massive bars of iron, so that escape was rendered impossible. In this place was Howatson inearcerted, not knowing the fate that might be awaiting him, whether he should be hanged aloft on the gallows-tree before the castle gate, or shot by the dragoons on the lawn; or, worst of all, be left to perish with hunger in the pit. There lived in the neighborhood a halfwitted man of the name of Hastie, a person of very great bodily strength, and who frequently performed feats that were incredible. To this person the wife of Howatson offered a sum of money to attempt the rescue of her husband. His bodily prowess and his partial insanity amply qualified him for the undertaking; for by the one he could accomplish the work, and by the other he would be screened from punishment, if caught in the attempt. Hastie agreed to the proposal; and, under the cloud of night, succeeded in removing the covering of the pit, and in effecting the release of the prisoner.

This good man lived some time at Locherben; and his piety and non-conformity exposed him to the notice of his enemies. Like the most of those who were friendly to the same cause, he was obliged to consult his safety by withdrawing from his own house, and hiding himself in the dens and caves of the earth. Near his little cottage there was a rocky place in the hill above, to which he frequently betook himself for concealment. Here he found a refuge when the enemy was searching all around for their prey; and he succeeded in keeping himself out of the way of the destroyer till the danger was overpast. It was no trivial advantage to his family that his place of concealment was so near them; for, on account of its contiguity to his house, he could easily visit them by stealth, and could both give and receive that assistance which was needed. A hidingplace so favorable was not always the good fortune of many of those who were placed in similar circumstances. They had often to remain in the heart of the dreariest solitudes, with none to comfort them, and none to tell how it fared with those who were left behind. Howatson’s family when he durst not venture to his house, could occasionally meet him in the cave, and bring him a supply of food and other necessaries.

On one occasion, when Howatson, on account of the strict search made for him, was obliged to confine himself in his cave, his wife was delivered of a child. A party of the dragoons arrived at the house in quest of her husband, and, finding the poor woman in this situation, behaved in the most insolent and brutal manner. They searched every corner of the dwelling, but without success. They then proceeded to the bed on which the woman was lying, and stabbed with their swords all around her, beneath the bed-clothes, if perchance they might find her husband. The annoyance which this gave the honest woman was peculiarly distressing to a person in her condition. They threatened her in the most violent manner, if she did not instantly reveal her husband’s hiding-place. The good woman, whose mind was kept in comparative composure, and who was fortified with more than ordinary strength to maintain her ground, and to out-brave her persecutors, answered with firmness and determination, that she would not comply with their request, nor on any account betray her husband. The rude and unmannerly assailants were abashed at her fortitude, and, though they vaunted and threatened all manner of mischief, they were not permitted to inflict any injury on her person. She upbraided them for their mean and unmannerly conduct in thus assaulting a helpless and unprotected female, and expressed her confidence in the protection of that God whom she and her husband served, and who had promised not to abandon in the day of their distress those who trusted in him.

During the uproar, a little boy, who was standing near his mother, began to cry bitterly. He was terrified at the appearance of the dragoons; their pistols, their broad-swords, and their loud and angry voices filled him with terror. He clung to the bed on which his mother lay, his little heart was ready to burst, and his screams filled the apartment. The behavior of the child arrested the attention of the soldiers, and one of them, seizing him by the tiny arm, dragged him from the house, in spite of the entreaties and expostulations of his mother. They carried him to the brow of the hill, not far from his father’s hidingplace, who was at that moment concealed in the cave. Their object was to extort from the boy information regarding his father’s retreat, and they expected to find him more communicative on this subject than his mother. In order the better to succeed in their design, they resolved to operate on his fears, and accordingly they tied him to a tree, and plainly informed him that they would either stab him with their swords, or shoot him dead on the spot. The timid child, fearing lest the soldiers would fulfil their threatenings, screamed louder than before, and his shrill and agonizing cries reached the inmost recesses of the cavern in which his father lay. The well-known voice of the boy in the utmost distress, roused Howatson, who, looking forth from his concealment, beheld, in consternation, his beloved child tied fast to a tree, and the dragoons standing before him, as if about to put him to instant death. Not a moment was to be lost; he issued from the cave, and sprang between the soldiers and his little son, prepared to save the life of the dear boy at the expense of his own. The stratagem planned by the soldiers being thus successful, Howatson was instantly seized, and his child dismissed. The party proceeded with him to Drumlanrig. The road along which they marched passed a place called Closeburn Mill, where a small house of entertainment was kept; and here the troopers halted, for the purpose of regaling themselves with liquor. They continued to drink deep, and Howatson continued to watch his opportunity of escape. In a short time the intoxicating beverage began to operate, and soon rendered them oblivious, both of themselves and of their prisoner. Howatson, who now saw his advantage, stole quietly from the apartment without being observed, and speedily made his escape. When the soldiers awoke from their stupefaction, their captive was gone. Satan caught them in his snare, and while they were held in it, this honest witness for the truth obtained his free dom. This father was ready to sacrifice his life for the sake of his child; and now the Master whom he served rewarded him by giving him his own life for a prey in return. He was restored again to his family, who in the day of their tribulation trusted in the Lord, and he did not forsake them. Howatson, at length, wearied out by a ceaseless persecution, retired with a fellow-sufferer, of the name of Harkness, to Ireland, where he lived in concealment till the Revolution, when he returned to his native land, and died in peace.

Another anecdote is told of a pious man named Hair, who lived in a secluded place called Burn-crooks, near Kirkland, in the parish of Kirkconnel, a few miles to the west of Sanquhar. This inoffensive man was seized by his persecutors, and doomed to die. The cruel and brutal conduct of the dragoons was peculiarly” displayed in the treatment of this godly person. They rallied him on the subject of his death, and told him that they intended to kill him in a way that would afford them some merriment; that as his name was Hair, they wished to enjoy something of the same sport in putting an end to his life that they used to enjoy in killing the cowering and timid animal that bore a similar name. Instead, therefore, of shooting him before his own door, they placed him on horseback behind a dragoon, and carried him to the top of a neighboring hill, that in the most conspicuous and insulting manner they might deprive him of his life. The spot where the cavalcade halted happened to be on the very brink of one of the most romantic glens in the west of Scotland. Glen Aylmer forms an immense cleft between two high mountains, and opens obliquely towards the meridian sun. The descent on either side for several hundred feet is very steep, and in some places is almost perpendicular. The whole valley is clothed with rich verdure, and through its centre flows a gentle stream of many crooks and windings, appearing from the summit of the declivity like a silver thread stretching along the deep bottom of the glen. The breadth of this sweet vale is, generally speaking, not more perhaps than a hundred yards; and the whole scene strongly reminds one of the beautiful Vale of Tempe, so graphically described by AElian. And though there are here

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