at they forgot, for the time, their
dangers and their privations, and were not displeased to hear the smugglers
sing the old song, "We are merry men all," when a figure approached, out of
breath, exclaiming--

"The gaugers! the gaugers!--the excisemen from Dumfries!"

In an instant the whole troop stood to arms. They had been
well-disciplined; and the horses, along with the parson and Walter, were
stowed away, as they called it, behind. They spoke not; but there was the
click of gunlocks, and a powerful _recover_, on the ground, of heavy
muskets, with barrels fully six feet long, which had been used by their
forefathers in the times of the first Charles and the civil commotion. The
enemy came up at the gallop; but they had plainly miscalculated the forces
of their opponents--_they_ were only about fifteen strong; so, wheeling
suddenly round, they took their departure with as much dispatch as they had
advanced.

"We must off instantly!" exclaimed the leader of this trading band. "We
must gain the pass of Enterkin ere day-dawn; for these good neighbours will
make common cause with the King's troops, whenever they meet them, and
there will be bloody work, I trow, ere these kegs and good steeds change
masters."

So saying, the march immediately proceeded up Gavin Muir, and the minister
and Walter took possession of their usual retreat--the Cairny Cave I have
so often referred to.

Douglas was not thus, by accident, to be foiled in his object; for having,
in the course of a few days, obtained additional forces from Galloway, he
returned to the search in Gavin Muir, where he had, again and again, been
told meetings still continued to be held, and some caves of concealment
existed. Old Lauderdale in council had one day said--"Why, run down the
devils, like the natives of Jamaica, with blood-hounds." And the hint was
not lost on bloody Clavers--he had actually a pair of hounds of this
description with him in Galloway at this time; and, at his earnest request,
Douglas was favoured with one of them. Down, therefore, this monster came
upon Gavin Muir, not to shoot blackcocks or muirfowl, in which it abounded,
but to track, and start and pistol, if necessary, poor, shivering,
half-starved human beings, who had dared to think the laws of their God
more binding than the empire and despotism of sinful men. The game was a
merry one, and it was played by "merry men all:" forward went the hound
through muirs and mosses; onward came