and orders in favour of Episcopacy
and against recusants, clergy and laity. It was under this authority
that all the evil deeds hitherto described were done, and of this
Commission Sharp was constant president.

It may be well to remark here that the Prelacy which was so detested by
the people of Scotland was not English Episcopacy, but Scotch Prelacy.
It was, in truth, little better at that time than Popery disguised--a
sort of confused religio-political Popery, of which system the King was
self-constituted Pope, while his unprincipled minions of the council
were cardinals.

No wonder, then, that at the mere mention of Sharp's name Mrs. Black
shook her head sorrowfully, Bruce the blacksmith frowned darkly, and
Quentin Dick not only frowned but snorted vehemently, and smote the
table with such violence that the startled pussie fled from the scene in
dismay.

"Save us a'! Quentin," said Mrs. Black, "ye'll surely be hanged or shot
if ye dinna learn to subdue yer wrath."

"Subdue my wrath, wumman!" exclaimed the shepherd, grinding his teeth;
"if ye had seen the half o' what I've seen ye wad--but ye ken 'maist
naething aboot it! Gie me some mair tatties an' mulk, it'll quiet me
maybe."

In order that the reader may know something of one of the things about
which Mrs. Black, as well as Quentin Dick himself, was happily ignorant
at that time, we must change the scene once more to the neighbourhood of
Andrew Black's cottage.

It was early in the day, and the farmer was walking along the road that
led to Cluden Ford, bent on paying a visit to Dumfries, when he was
overtaken by a troop of about twenty horsemen. They had ridden out of
the bush and come on the road so suddenly that Black had no time to
secrete himself. Knowing that he was very much "wanted," especially
after the part he had played at the recent conventicle on Skeoch Hill,
he at once decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and
took to his heels.

No man in all the country-side could beat the stout farmer at a race
either short or long, but he soon found that four legs are more than a
match for two. The troopers soon gained on him, though he ran like a
mountain hare. Having the advantage, however, of a start of about three
hundred yards, he reached the bend in the road where it begins to
descend towards the ford before his pursuers overtook him. But Andrew
felt that the narrow strip of wood beside which he was racing could not
affor