from
the hands of your enemies, and to lead you whither you please. A
speedy reply is desired with all expedition, and then we surcease."

To this demand she sent a reply temperate and dignified, but
unyielding. It was as follows:

"I received your letter wherein you threaten to sack this my castle by
his Majesty's authority. I have ever been a loyal subject and a
good neighbor among you, and therefore cannot but wonder at such an
assault. I thank you for your offer of a convoy, wherein I hold little
safety; and therefore my resolution is that, being free from offending
his Majesty, or doing wrong to any of you, I will live and die
innocently. I will do the best to defend my own, leaving the issue
to God; and though I have been, I am still desirous to avoid shedding
blood, yet, being provoked, your threats shall no way dismay me."

The rebels took no notice of her answer, but kept up the siege. After
two months, Lord Viscount Clanmalier brought to bear against the
castle a piece of ordnance. Before using this formidable instrument,
which was cast by a local ironworker out of pots and pans contributed
for the purpose, Clanmalier, who was her kinsman, sent her a letter
repeating the demand for the surrender of the castle. She replied to
this missive, which was signed "your loving cousin," by saying
that she had not expected such treatment at the hands of a kinsman,
repeating her innocence of wrong-doing, and expressing her adherence
to her position as stated in her former reply to similar demands.

After this answer had been delivered to his lordship he discharged the
home-made cannon at the castle, and it promptly exploded at the first
shot; to which fact was due the ability of Baroness Ophaly to hold the
castle against all attack through the long months until the rebellion
had waned and the besiegers withdrew. What she must have suffered
during all the dangers of the siege, in which ingenuity was taxed to
the utmost to effect an entrance within the strong walls, can never be
stated; on the one hand was the terror of famine, on the other,
death. When she was rescued from her perilous situation by Sir Richard
Greville, she went to her husband's late property of Colehill and
there spent the remainder of her life, dying in 1648.

Among the Scotch Covenanters, the names of Isobel Alison of Perth and
Marion Harvie of Bo'ness take high rank because of their undaunted
courage and the strength of conviction displayed by th