f seventy years of
age, who, by his prayers and his attending conventicles, had rendered
himself particularly obnoxious, was obliged to prolong a green old age by
taking up his abode in the cave and under the cairn which has already been
described. With him were associated, in his cold and comfortless retreat,
the Rev. Robert Lawson, formerly minister of the parish of Closeburn; but
who, rather than conform to the English prayer-book and formula, had taken
to the mountain, to preach, to baptize, and even to dispense the Sacrament
of the Supper, in glens, and linns, and coverts, far from the residence of
man. Their retreat was known to the shepherds of the district, and indeed
to the whole family of Auchincairn; but no one ever was suspected of
imitating the conduct of the infamous Baxter, who had proved false, and
discovered a cave in Glencairn, where four Covenanters were immediately
shot, and two left hanging upon a tree. On one occasion, a little innocent
girl, a grand-daughter of old Walter, was surprised whilst carrying some
provisions towards the hill-retreat, by a party of Clavers' dragoons, who
devoured the provisions, and used every brutal method to make the girl
disclose the secret of the retreat; but she was neither to be intimidated
nor cajoled, and told them plainly that she would rather die, as her
granduncle had done before her, than betray her trust. They threw her into
a peat-hag filled with water, and left her to sink or swim. She did _not_
swim, however, but sank never to rise again. Her spirit had been broken,
and life had been rendered a burden to her. She expressed to her murderers,
again and again, a wish that they would send her to meet her uncle (as she
termed it) William. Her body was only discovered some time after, when the
process of decomposition had deformed one of the most pleasing countenances
which ever beamed with innocence and piety.

"The old hound will not be far off, when the young whelp was so near,"
exclaimed Clavers, upon a recital of the inhuman murder. "We must watch the
muirs by night; for it is then that these creatures congregate and fatten.
We must continue to spoil their feasting, and leave them to feed on
cranberries and moss-water." In consequence of this resolution, a strict
watch was set all along Gavin Muir; and it became almost impossible to
convey any sustenance to the famishing pair; yet the thing was done, and
wonderfully managed, not in the night-time, but in the