of the United Societies.

Behind upon the hillside was drawn up a guard of two hundred horse. And
the tossing bits and jingling accoutrements made a pleasant sound to me
that loved such things, which were mostly the portion of our enemies.
The wide amphitheatre opposite to the Session Stone was occupied chiefly
by the women and older men, who, as I have said, sat upon plaids spread
upon the bank. Behind these again, and extending far up the gently
sloping side of the Shalloch Hill, was a noble sight, that made me gasp
for gladness. Company behind company were ranked the men whom Robert
Hamilton had called the Seven Thousand. There were officers on their
flanks, on whose drawn swords the sun glittered; and though there was no
uniformity of dress, there was in every bonnet the blue favour of the
Covenant. Their formation was so steady and their numbers so large that
the whole hillside seemed covered with their regiments. Looking back
over the years, I think we might have risked a Dunkeld before the time
with such an ordered host.

I heard one speaking in the French language at my elbow and looked about
me. Whereupon I spied two men who had been walking to and fro among the
companies.

"But all this will do little good for a time," said one of the speakers.
"We must keep them out of the field till we are ready. They need one to
draw them into the bond of obedience. They are able to fight singly, but
together they cannot fight."

"No matter," said the other, "they will stand us in good stead one day
when the Prince sails over. The Seven Thousand shall be our mainstay in
that day, not in Scotland only, but in Britain."

By this I guessed that these two were officers of the Prince of Orange
sent over to see if the times were yet ripe.

Meanwhile the meeting proceeded to its end amid the voice of prayer and
the solemn throb of psalmody. It was a great and gracious thing to hear
the swell of praise that went up from that hillside, from the men who
had worshipped only in the way of silence and in private, because they
dared no other, for many weary months.

It was about the third hour of the afternoon, and we had not begun to
wax weary, when, away on the hillside, we heard the sound of cheering.
We looked about us to see what might be the cause. There came one riding
slowly down upon a much tired horse between the ranks of the
companies--a great tall man in a foreign coat and hat, whom at the first
glint my mother knew