as one whose
spirit was troubled. "You did well, Macdonald!" said he, at length--"you
did well!" He was again silent, and again he added--"And you found the
preacher in the old man's house--_you found_ HIM _there_!" There was an
anxious wildness in the tone of the lieutenant.

"We found him there," replied the soldier.

The officer was again silent--again he thoughtfully paced across the
floor of his apartment. At length, turning to the soldier, he added--"I
can trust you, Macdonald. When night has set in, take your horse and
ride to the house of the elder prisoner, and tell his daughter--the
maiden whom you saved--to have horses in readiness for her father,
her brother, and--and her--her _husband!_" said the lieutenant,
faltering as he spoke; and when he had pronounced the word _husband_,
he again paused, as though his heart were full. The soldier was
retiring--"Stay," added the officer, "tell her, her father, her brother,
and--the preacher, shall not die; before daybreak she shall see them
again; and give her this ring as a token that ye speak truly."

He took a ring from his finger, and gave it into the hands of the
soldier.

It was drawing towards midnight. The troops of Claverhouse were
quartered around the country, and his three prisoners, still bound
to each other, were confined in a small farm-house, from which the
inhabitants had been expelled. They could hear the heavy and measured
tread of the sentinel pacing backward and forward in front of the house;
the sound of his footsteps seemed to measure out the moments between
them and eternity. After they had sung a psalm and prayed together--"I
am auld," said John Brydone, "and I fear not to die, but rather glory to
lay down my life for the great cause; but, oh, Daniel! my heart yearns
that yer bluid also should be shed--had they only spared ye, to hae been
a protector to our puir Mary!--or had I no driven Philip frae the
house"----

"Mention not the name of the cast-away," said the minister.

"Dinna mourn, faither," answered Daniel, "an arm mair powerful than that
of man will be her supporter and protector."

"Amen!" responded Mr. Duncan. "She has aye been cauld to me, and has
turned the ear o' the deaf adder to the voice o' my affection; but even
noo, when my thochts should be elsewhere, the thocht o' her burns in my
heart like a coal."

While they yet spoke, a soldier, wrapt up in a cloak, approached the
sentinel, and said--

"It is a cold night, br