ng to come, was to be her
husband, and never once was the douce little messenger suspected.

Not many months later her own father was a prisoner in Dumbarton Castle,
and during the fifteen months in which he lay there, Grisell was still
the messenger, not only to him, but to his friends in various parts. Her
early childhood may have been unharassed, but Grisell Home's girlhood
was a careful and anxious one. On the discovery of the Rye House Plot,
Baillie of Jerviswoode and Home of Polwarth, innocent men both, were
denounced as traitors to their King. Baillie was taken, and after
several months of imprisonment in London, so heavily loaded with chains
that his health completely broke down, he was brought by sea to
Edinburgh in stormy November weather which kept the ship a fortnight on
its way. A dying man when he was put in the Tolbooth, he yet had to
undergo many exhausting examinations and a farcical trial, with "Bluidy
Mackenzie" for chief inquisitor, and on Christmas Eve, 1684, he
gallantly and cheerfully met a martyr's death at the Market Cross of
Edinburgh.

Sir Patrick Home's denunciation was longer in coming than that of his
friend, and not until November 1684 was the warrant for his apprehension
issued. He, good man, had no desire for martyrdom; moreover, at that
time he already possessed ten children, whose future as orphans was
likely to be wretched, and so Sir Patrick sought concealment from the
hounds of the law. Foiled in laying hold of him, the law seized his
eldest son, Patrick, and cast him into prison. Two days after
Jerviswoode's death, the lad petitioned the Privy Council for release.
He was but "a poor afflicted young boy," he said, loyal to his
principles and with a hatred of plots, and only craved liberty that he
might "see to some livelihood for himself" and "be in some condition" to
help and serve his disconsolate mother and the rest of his father's ten
starving children. Most grudgingly was the boon bestowed, and not until
the boy had obtained security for his good behaviour to the extent of
two thousand pounds sterling was he allowed to return to the Merse.

Meantime Redbraes Castle was constantly kept under supervision. Scarcely
a week passed without a party of redcoats clattering up the drive,
interrogating the servants, tramping through all the rooms, hunting
round the policies, and doing everything in their power to make things
unpleasant for the wife and children of this attainted rebel.