ered the wood to which she had alluded, and
tying the strange horse to a tree, out of all observation from the road,
proceeded to unfasten the straps of the mail. By means of a sharp
penknife, which set at defiance the appended locks, she was soon
mistress of the contents, and with an eager hand broke open the
Government despatches, which were unerringly pointed out to her by their
address to the council in Edinburgh and their imposing weight and broad
seals of office. Here she found not only the fatal warrant for her
father's death, but also many other sentences inflicting different
degrees of punishment on various delinquents. These, however, it may
readily be supposed, she did not then stop to examine; she contented
herself with tearing them into small fragments and placing them
carefully in her bosom.

The intrepid girl now mounted her steed and rode off, leaving all the
private papers where she had found them, imagining (what eventually
proved the case) that they would be discovered ere long from the hints
she had thrown out about the wood, and thus reach their proper places of
destination. She now made all haste to reach the cottage of her nurse,
where, having not only committed to the flames the fragments of the
dreaded warrant, but also the other obnoxious papers, she quickly
resumed her female garments, and was again, after this manly and daring
action, the simple and unassuming Miss Grizel Cochrane. Leaving the
cloak and pistols behind her, to be concealed by her nurse, she again
mounted her horse and directed her flight towards Edinburgh, and, by
avoiding as much as possible the high road, and resting at sequestered
cottages, as she had done before, and that only twice for a couple of
hours each time, she reached town early in the morning of the next day.

It must now suffice to say that the time gained by the heroic act
related above was productive of the end for which it was undertaken, and
that Sir John Cochrane was pardoned, at the instigation of the king's
favourite counsellor, who interceded for him in consequence of receiving
a bribe of five thousand pounds from the Earl of Dundonald.

A WIFE'S STRATAGEM.

_A TALE OF 1715._

BY LUCY HARDY.

It was with mingled feelings of annoyance and satisfaction that old Lady
Glenlivet and her daughters received the intelligence that the only son
of the house was about to bring an English bride to the grey old Scotch
mansion where so many generations