much, and his breathing became so
loud, that it obliged Miss Gordon, lying in bed, to counterfeit and
continue a violent coughing, in order to prevent the high breathing
behind the wainscot from being heard. It may easily be conceived what
agony she would suffer, lest, by overdoing her part, she should increase
suspicion, and in fact lead to a discovery. The _ruse_ was fortunately
successful. On the search through the house being given over, Lord
Pitsligo was hastily taken from his confined situation, and again
replaced in bed; and as soon as he was able to speak, his accustomed
kindness of heart made him say to his servant, 'James, go and see that
these poor fellows get some breakfast, and a drink of warm ale, for this
is a cold morning; they are only doing their duty, and cannot bear me
any ill-will.' When the family were felicitating each other on his
escape, he pleasantly observed, 'A poor prize had they obtained it--an
old dying man!' That the friends who lived in the house,--the hourly
witnesses of his virtues, and the objects of his regard, who saw him
escape all the dangers that surrounded him, should reckon him the
peculiar care of Providence, is not to be wondered at; and that the
dream which was so opportune, as the means of preventing his
apprehension, and probably of saving his life, was supposed by some of
them at last to be a special interposition of Heaven's protecting shield
against his enemies, need not excite surprise. This was accordingly the
belief of more than one to their dying hour.

[Illustration]

After some fifteen years, the English Government ceased to think Lord
Pitsligo dangerous. He was allowed to live unmolested at the house of
his son, where he died in 1762, in his eighty-fifth year. 'He was never
heard to speak an ill word of any man living,' says one who knew him
well, and who himself spoke many ill words of others.[25] Lord Pitsligo
left a little book of 'Thoughts on Sacred Things,' which reminds those
who read it of the meditations of General Gordon. His character, as far
as its virtues went, is copied in the Baron Bradwardine, in Sir Walter
Scott's novel of 'Waverley.'[26]

FOOTNOTES:

[25] Dr. King, of St. Mary's Hall, Oxford.

[26] _From Thoughts Concerning Man's Condition and Duties in this Life_.
By Alexander, Lord Pitsligo. Edinburgh: Blackwood. 1854.

_THE ESCAPE OF CAESAR BORGIA FROM THE CASTLE OF MEDINA DEL CAMPO_

[CAESAR BORGIA forms, with his fa