idnicht. I heard them talk o' the premium that was set
upon your life, and slipped out o' the town immediately, without
performing a single transaction, or speaking a word to a living
creature. How I've got alang the road is mair than I can tell; for I was
literally sick, blind, and desperate wi' grief. I've this minute
arrived, and whatever can be done to save you maun be done instantly."

Lady Polwarth burst into tears. Sir Patrick grasped the hand of his
faithful servant. Little Grizel gazed in her father's face with a look
of silent despair, but neither spoke nor wept.

"Oh, fly! fly instantly, my dear husband!" cried Lady Polwarth, "and
Heaven direct you."

"Be composed, my love," said Sir Patrick; "I fear that flight is
impossible; but some means of evading them may perhaps be devised."

"Oh, my leddy," said Jamie Winter, "to flee is out o' the question
athegither. Government has its spies at every turn o' the road--in every
house in the country--even in this house. Our only hope is to conceal
Sir Patrick; but how or where is beyond my comprehension."

Many were the schemes devised by the anxious wife--many the suggestions
of her husband, and honest Jamie proposed numerous plans--but each was,
in its turn, rejected as being unsafe. More than an hour had passed in
these anxious deliberations; within three hours more, and the king's
troops would be at his gate. Grizel had, till now, remained silent, and
dashing away the first tear that rolled down her cheek, she flung her
arms around her father's neck, and exclaimed, in an eager and breathless
whisper--

"I ken a place, faither--I ken a place that the king's troopers and his
spies will never find out; and I'll stop beside ye, to bear ye company."

"Bless the bairn!" said Sir Patrick, pressing her to his breast; "and
where's the place, dearest?"

"The aisle below Polwarth Kirk, faither," returned Grizel. "Nae trooper
will find out such a hiding-place; for the mouth's a bit wee hole, and
the long grass, and the docks, and the nettles grow owre it, and I could
slip out and in without trampling them down; and naebody would think o'
seeking ye there, faither."

Lady Polwarth shuddered, and Sir Patrick pressed the cheek of his lovely
daughter to his lips.

"Save us a', bairn!" said Jamie, "there's surely something no earthly
about yer young laddyship, for ye hae mair sense than us a' put
thegither. The aisle is the very place. I'll steal awa, and hae a kind
o'