venge on the
part of General Lesly.

John Brydone, having been furnished with a sword, had not been idle
during the engagement; but, as he had fought upon foot, and the greater
part of Lesly's army were cavalry, he had not joined in the pursuit;
and, when the battle was over, he conceived it to be as much his duty
to act the part of the Samaritan, as it had been to perform that of a
soldier. He was busied, therefore, on the field in administering, as he
could, to the wounded; and whether they were Cavalier or Covenanter, it
was all one to John; for he was not one who could trample on a fallen
foe, and in their hour of need he considered all men as brothers. He was
passing within about twenty yards of a tent upon the Haugh, which had a
superior appearance to the others--it was larger, and the cloth which
covered it was of a finer quality; when his attention was arrested by a
sound unlike all that belonged to a battle-field--the wailing and the
cries of an infant! He looked around, and near him lay the dead body of
a lady, and on her breast, locked in her cold arms, a child of a few
months old was struggling. He ran towards them--he perceived that
the lady was dead--he took the child in his arms--he held it to his
bosom--he kissed its cheek--"Puir thing!--puir thing!" said John; "the
innocent hae been left to perish amang the unrighteous." He was bearing
away the child, patting its cheek, and caressing it as he went, and
forgetting the soldier in the nurse, when he said unto himself--"Puir
innocent!--an' belike yer wrang-headed faither is fleeing for his life,
an' thinking aboot ye an' yer mother as he flees! Weel, ye may be
claimed some day, an' I maun do a' in my power to gie an account o' ye."
So John turned back towards the lifeless body of the child's mother; and
he perceived that she wore a costly ring upon her finger, and bracelets
on her arms; she also held a small parcel, resembling a book, in her
hands, as though she had fled with it, without being able to conceal it,
and almost at the door of her tent she had fallen with her child in her
arms, and her treasure in her hand. John stooped upon the ground, and
took the ring from her finger, and the bracelets from her arms; he took
also the packet from her hands, and in it he found other jewels, and a
purse of gold pieces. "These may find thee a faither, puir thing," said
he; "or if they do not, they may befriend thee when John Brydone
cannot."

He carried home t