ster rose up to
speak to us. At sight of him a murmur went about, and wonder and joy sat
on every face. He was an old man, tall and gaunt. His hair, lyart and
long, fell upon his shoulders. His beard descended upon his breast.

"Peden the Prophet!" was the whisper that went about. And all bent
eagerly forward to look at the famous wanderer, whom all held to have
gifts of utterance and prophecy beyond those of mortal. He it was that
had been a thousand times hunted like a partridge upon the mountains, a
hundred times taken in the net, yet had ever escaped. He it was for the
love of whom men had laid down their lives like water, only that
Alexander Peden might go scatheless and speak his Master's will.

Bowed he was and broken; yet when he spoke his natural strength was in
no wise abated, and at his first word the fear of the Lord came upon us.
I looked at Lochinvar, who in his time had ridden so hard on his track.
He sat open-mouthed, and there was a daze of awe in his look.

Alexander Peden had hardly spoken a sentence to us when the spirit of
prophecy brake upon him, and he cried out for Scotland as was his wont
in those days. His voice rose and rang--not like a war-trumpet as did
Cameron's, but rather like the wild wind that goes about the house and
about the house, and cries fearful words in at the chinks and crevices.

"A bloody sword, a bloody sword for thee, O puir Scotland! Many a mile
shall they travel in thee and see naught but waste places, nor so much
as a house reeking pleasantly on the brae. Many a conventicle has been
wared on thee, my Scotland. And Welsh and Semple, Cameron and Cargill
have cried to thee. But ere long they shall all be put to silence and
God shall preach to thee only with the bloody sword. Have ye never
witnessed for the cause and Covenants? Or have ye been dumb dogs that
would not bark? If that be so, as sayeth godly Mr. Guthrie of Fenwick,
God will make the tongues that owned Him not to fry and flutter upon the
hot coals of hell. He will gar them blatter and bleeze upon the burning
coals of hell!

"Speak, sirs, or He will gar these tongues that He hath put into your
mouths to popple and play in the pow-pot of hell!"

As he said these words his eyes shone upon us like to burn us through,
and his action was most terrifying as he took his great oaken staff and
shook it over us. And we fairly trembled beneath him like silly bairns
taken in a wrong.

But he went on his way as one that