em. It was in
1679 that a band of horsemen slew Archbishop Sharp upon Magnus Moor
and then dispersed. Four of them, among whom was John Balfour of
Kinloch,--the redoubtable Burley of _Old Mortality_,--took refuge
in the house of a widow of the vicinity of Perth. Here they remained
hidden, to watch as to what steps would be taken in regard to their
apprehension. Afterward they retired to Dupplin, thereby escaping
seizure. On June 22d the battle of Bothwell Brig was fought and lost
to the Covenanters. At about this time the first subject of this
sketch, Isobel Alison, an obscure maiden, comes into the stream of
historical occurrence. She was about twenty-five years of age, resided
at Perth, and was of excellent repute. She had been trained in the
strictest Presbyterian faith, and was well versed in the Scriptures.
She had occasionally had the privilege of hearing field preaching,
although field conventicles were not common in the country. Her
sympathies with the persecuted ministers of her faith and her personal
acquaintance with several of them enlisted her aid for the fugitives
in hiding them from the authorities, whose search for them was
relentlessly pursued. The work of bloody persecution continued for
eighteen months, during which many of the Covenanters died in the
maintenance of their convictions. But it was not until the end of 1680
that Isobel attracted attention by reason of her outspoken utterances
against the tyranny under which the country suffered. It was not
long, then, before she was arraigned for her sentiments, and, in the
simplicity of her nature, volunteered the confession that she was in
communication with some of those who had been declared rebels. The
magistrates, however, charitably sought to shield her from the effects
of actions the serious purport of which they did not believe that
she fully realized, and so dismissed her with a caution to be more
circumspect in her speech. But she was not to escape thus easily; some
busybodies speedily reported what she had said to the Privy Council,
which issued a warrant for her arrest. Under a charge of treason,
she was carried from the peaceful seclusion of her humble home, and
immured in the prison at Edinburgh. At her hearing before the Privy
Council, she acknowledged to acquaintance with all those for whom the
authorities were seeking as assassins of Archbishop Sharp. When asked
if she did not know that she was aiding those whose hands were dyed
with th