ad come to the Dean Castle, which stands in a pleasant green
park about a mile aboon the town-head of Kilmarnock, on entering the
gate, my grandfather hastily alighted, and giving his horse a sharp
prick of his spur as he lap off, the beast ran capering out of his hand,
round the court of the castle.

With the well-feigned voice of great anxiety, my grandfather cried to
the servants to shut the gate and keep it in; and Winterton alighting,
ran to catch it, giving his own horse to a stripling to hold. At the
same moment, however, my grandfather sprung upon him, and seizing him by
the throat, cried out for help to master a spy.

Winterton was so confounded that he gasped and looked round like a man
demented, and my grandfather ordered him to be taken by the serving-men
to their master, before whom, when they were all come, he recounted the
story of his adventures with the prisoner, telling his Lordship what his
master, the Earl of Glencairn, suspected of him. To which, when
Winterton was asked what he had to say, he replied bravely, that it was
all true, and he was none ashamed to be so catched, when it was done by
so clever a fellow.

He was then ordered by the Lord Boyd to be immured in the dungeon-room,
the which may be seen to this day; and though his captivity was
afterwards somewhat relaxed, he was kept a prisoner in the castle till
after the death of the Queen Dowager, and the breaking-up of her
two-faced councils. This exploit won my grandfather great favour, and he
scarcely needed to show the signet-ring when he told his message from
the Lords of the Congregation.

CHAPTER XVI

By such devices and missions, as my grandfather was engaged in for the
Earl Glencairn with the Lord Boyd, a thorough understanding was
concerted among the Reformed throughout the kingdom; and encouraged by
their great strength and numbers, which far exceeded what was expected,
the Lords of the Congregation set themselves roundly to work, and the
protestant preachers openly published their doctrines.

Soon after my grandfather had returned from the shire of Ayr, there was
a weighty consultation held at the Earl his patron's lodging in
Edinburgh, whereat, among others present, was that pious youth,
afterwards the good Regent Murray. He was, by office and appointment,
then the head and lord of the priory of St Andrews; but his soul
cleaving to the Reformation and the Gospel, he laid down the use of that
title, and about this ti