t the jail, been searched
thoroughly, having been stripped, and even the folds and linings of his
garments ripped open, to see that they contained no correspondence.
Knowing that nothing whatever could have been found against him, unless,
indeed, his followers had also fallen into the hands of the Roundheads,
Harry was able to assume a position of injured innocence.

"Your tone comports not with your condition," the Earl of Argyll said
harshly. "We have found means here to make men of sterner mold than
thine speak the truth, and in the interests of the state we shall not
hesitate to use them against you also. The torturer here hath
instruments which would tear you limb from limb, and, young sir, these
will not be spared unless that malapert tongue of thine gives us the
information we desire to learn."

"I decline to answer any questions beyond what I have already said,"
Harry replied firmly. "I tell you that I am an English gentleman
traveling here on my own private business, and it were foul wrong for me
to be seized and punished upon the suspicion of such a one as that man
there;" and he pointed contemptuously to the preacher.

"You will be brought up again in two days," the earl said, "and if by
that time you have not made up your mind to confess all, it will go hard
with you. Think not that the life of a varlet like you will weigh for
one moment in the scale with the safety of the nation, or that any
regard for what you may consider in England the usages of war will
prevail here."

He waved his hand, and Harry was conducted back to jail, feeling far
more uneasy than he had done, for he knew that in Scotland very
different manners prevailed to those which characterized the English. In
England, throughout the war, no unnecessary bloodshed took place, and up
to that time the only persons executed in cold blood had been the two
gentlemen convicted of endeavoring to corrupt the Parliament in favor of
the king. But in Scotland, where civil broils were constant, blood was
ever shed recklessly on both sides; houses were given to the flames;
men, women, and children slaughtered; lands laid waste; and all the
atrocities which civil war, heightened by religious bigotry, could
suggest, perpetrated.

Late that evening, the door of the prison opened, and a preacher was
shown into the room.

"I have come," he said in a nasal tone, "misguided young man, to pray
you to consider the wickedness of your ways. It is written that