Ringan Gilhaize, or, The Covenanters

  CHAPTER XLVII

  Nothing particular happened till the second week of November, when acitation came from Irvine, commanding the attendance of Mr Swinton, on asuffragan of Fairfoul's, under the penalties of the proclamation. In themeantime we had been preparing for the event; and my father having beensome time no more, and my brother with his family in a house of theirown, it was settled between him and me, that I should take our motherinto mine, in order that the beild of Quharist might be given up to theminister and his houseless little ones; which all our neighbours muchcommended; and there was no slackness on their part in making aprovision to supply the want of his impounded stipend.

  As all had foreseen, Mr Swinton, for not appearing to the citation, waspronounced a non-conformist; and the same night, after dusk, a party ofthe soldiers, that were marched from Ayr into Irvine on the day of theproclamation, came to drive him out of the manse.

  There was surely in this a needless and exasperating severity, for thelight of day might have served as well; but the men were not to blame,and the officer who came with them, having himself been tried in thebattles of the Covenant, and being of a humane spirit, was as meek andcompassionate in his tyrannical duty as could reasonably be hoped for.He allowed Mrs Swinton to take away her clothes, and the babies, thatwere asleep in their beds, time to be awakened and dressed, nor did heobject to their old ploughman, Robin Harrow, taking sundry articles ofprovision for their next morning's repast; so that, compared with thelewd riots and rampageous insolence of the troopers in other places, wehad great reason to be thankful for the tenderness with which ourminister and his small family of seven children were treated on thatmemorable night.

  It was about eight o'clock when Martha, the eldest daughter, came flyingto me like a demented creature, crying the persecutors were come, withnaked swords and dreadful faces; and she wept and wrung her hands,thinking they were then murdering her parents and brothers and sisters.I did, however, all that was in my power to pacify her, saying our lotswere not yet laid in blood, and, leaving her to the consolatorycounsellings of my wife, I put on my bonnet and hastened over to themanse.

  The night was troubled and gusty. The moon was in her first quarter, andwading dim and low through the clouds on the Arran hills. Afar off, thebars of Ayr, in their roaring, boded a storm, and the stars wererushing through a swift and showery south-west carry. The wind, as ithissed over the stubble, sounded like the whisperings of desolation; andI was thrice startled in my walk by passing shapes and shadows, whereofI could not discern the form.

  At a short distance from the manse door I met the godly sufferer and hisdestitute family, with his second youngest child in his arms. MrsSwinton had their baby at her bosom, and the other four poor, terrified,helpless creatures were hirpling at their sides, holding them by theskirts, and often looking round in terror, dreading the persecutors, bywhom they were in that dismal and inclement night so cast upon the mercyof the elements. But He that tempers the wind to the shorn lamb wastheir protector.

  "You see, Ringan Gilhaize," said the minister, "how it fares with themin this world whose principles are at variance with the pretensions ofman. But we are mercifully dealt by--a rougher manner and a harderheart, in the agent of persecution that has driven us from house andhome, I had laid my account for; therefore, even in this dispensation, Ican see the gentle hand of a gracious Master, and I bow the head ofthankfulness."

  While we were thus speaking and walking towards Quharist, several of theneighbours, who had likewise heard the alarm of what had thus come topass, joined us on the way; and I felt within myself that it was a proudthing to be able to give refuge and asylum to an aged gospel ministerand his family in such a time and on such a night.

  We had not been long in the house when a great concourse of his friendsand people gathered around, and among others Nahum Chapelrig, who hadbeen some time his father's successor in the school. But all presentwere molested and angry with him, for he came in battle array, with thesword and gun that he had carried in the raids of the civil war, and wasbragging of valorous things then needful to be done.

  "Nahum Chapelrig," said the Worthy to him with severity, "this is noconduct for the occasion. It would hae been a black day for Scotland hadher children covenanted themselves for temporal things. No, Nahum; ifthe prelatic reprobation now attempted on the kirk gang nae fartherthan outing her ministers from their kirks and manses, it maun betholet; so look to it, that ye give not the adversary cause to reproachus with longing for the flesh-pots of Egypt when we are free to taste ofthe heavenly manna. I redde ye, therefore, Nahum Chapelrig, before thesewitnesses, to unbuckle that belt of war, and lay down thae weapons ofoffence. The time of the shield and banner may come owre soon upon us.Let us not provoke the smiter, lest he draw his sword against us, andhave law and reason on his side. Therefore, I say unto thee, Peter, putup thy sword."

  The zealous dominie, being thus timeously rebuked, unharnessed himself,and the minister having returned thanks for the softness with which theoppression was let down upon him, and for the pious affection of hispeople, we returned home to our respective dwellings.

  But though by this Christian submission the power of cruelty was at thattime rendered innocent towards all those who did as Mr Swinton had done,we were, nevertheless, not allowed to remain long unvisited by anotherswirl of the rising storm. Before the year was out, Fairfoul, theGlasgow Antichrist, sent upon us one of the getts that prelacy was thenso fast adopting for her sons and heirs. A lang, thin, bare lad he was,that had gotten some spoonful or two of pagan philosophy at college, butnever a solid meal of learning, nor, were we to judge by his greedygaping, even a satisfactory meal of victuals. His name was AndrewDornock; and, poor fellow, being eschewed among us on account of hisspiritual leprosy, he drew up with divers loose characters, that werenae overly nice of their company.

  This made us dislike him more and more, in so much that, like others ofhis nature and calling, he made sore and secret complaints of hisparishioners to his mitred master; representing, for aught I ken to thecontrary, that, instead of believing the Gospel according to CharlesStuart, we preferred that of certain four persons, called Matthew, Mark,Luke and John, of whom, it may be doubted, if he, poor man, knew morethan the names. But be that as it may, to a surety he did grievouslyyell and cry, because we preferred listening to the Gospel melody of MrSwinton under a tree to his feckless havers in the kirk; as if it wasnae a more glorious thing to worship God in the freedom and presence ofuniversal Nature, beneath the canopy of all the heavens, than to bow thehead in the fetters of episcopal bondage below the stoury rafters of anauld bigging, such as our kirk was, a perfect howf of cloks and spiders.Indeed, for that matter, it was said that the only sensible thing AndrewDornock ever uttered from the pulpit was, when he first rose to speaktherein, and which was caused by a spider, that just at the momentlowered itself down into his mouth: "O Lord," cried the curate, "we'repuzhened wi' speeders!"