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Updated: June 26, 2025
"Thou hast spoken it," replied the prisoner. "Well, then," continued the interrogator, "let us know if you saw John Balfour of Burley among the party? I presume you know him?" "I bless God that I do know him," replied Macbriar; "he is a zealous and a sincere Christian." "And when and where did you last see this pious personage?" was the query which immediately followed.
"But is it not in our hands?" said Macbriar, looking up towards the Keep of the Castle; "and are not these the colours of the Covenant that float over its walls?" "A stratagem a mere trick," said Burley, "an insult over our disappointment, intended to aggravate and embitter our spirits."
They were, however, drawn out with some regularity; and as they still possessed the appearance of an army, their leaders had only to hope that some favourable circumstance would restore their spirits and courage. Kettledrummle, Poundtext, Macbriar, and other preachers, busied themselves in their ranks, and prevailed on them to raise a psalm.
But my attention was speedily withdrawn from the preacher, and the circle round him, by a figure which knelt alone at some distance; it was a living image of Scott's Macbriar, as young, as wild, and as terrible.
He therefore retreated, or rather fled, to Hamilton, with the tidings, that Burley, Macbriar, and Kettledrummle, were coming to Hamilton as soon as they could collect a body of Cameronians sufficient to overawe the rest of the army.
"It is the sough of the wind among the bracken," said another. "It is the galloping of horse," said Morton to himself, his sense of hearing rendered acute by the dreadful situation in which he stood; "God grant they may come as my deliverers!" The noise approached rapidly, and became more and more distinct. "It is horse," cried Macbriar. "Look out and descry who they are."
The night march of Morton had been accomplished with such dexterity, and the men were so faithful to their trust, that Burley received no intelligence of what had happened until the morning was far advanced. His first enquiry was, whether Macbriar and Kettledrummle had arrived, agreeably to the summons which he had dispatched at midnight.
"But is it not in our hands?" said Macbriar, looking up towards the Keep of the Castle; "and are not these the colours of the Covenant that float over its walls?" "A stratagem a mere trick," said Burley, "an insult over our disappointment, intended to aggravate and embitter our spirits."
Macbriar had scarce understood the purport of the words as first pronounced by the Lord President of the Council; but he was sufficiently recovered to listen and to reply to the sentence when uttered by the harsh and odious voice of the ruffian who was to execute it, and at the last awful words, "And this I pronounce for doom," he answered boldly " My Lords, I thank you for the only favour I looked for, or would accept at your hands, namely, that you have sent the crushed and maimed carcass, which has this day sustained your cruelty, to this hasty end.
"I am here to answer for myself," said Macbriar, in the same dauntless manner, "and not to endanger others." "We shall know," said Dalzell, "how to make you find your tongue." "If you can make him fancy himself in a conventicle," answered Lauderdale, "he will find it without you. Come, laddie, speak while the play is good you're too young to bear the burden will be laid on you else."
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