he
fragments. He was sent first to the castle of Edinburgh and afterwards
to the Bass, 'for a change of air' as the record quaintly says. Finally,
he was despatched to Blackness Castle, where he remained close in hold
till the revolution. Not till June 5, 1689, were his prison doors thrown
open, but even then Alexander Gordon would not go till he had obtained
signed documents from the governor and officials of the prison to the
effect that he had never altered any of his opinions in order to gain
privilege or release.

Alexander Gordon returned to Earlstoun, and lived there quietly far into
the next century, taking his share in local and county business with
Grierson of Lag and others who had hunted him for years--which is a
strange thing to think on, but one also very characteristic of those
times.

On account of his great strength and the power of his voice he was
called 'the Bull of Earlstoun,' and it is said that when he was rebuking
his servants, the bellowing of the Bull could plainly be heard in the
clachan of Dalry, which is two miles away across hill and stream.

FOOTNOTE:

[40] See the story of 'How they held the Bass for King James.'

_THE STORY OF GRISELL BAILLIE'S SHEEP'S HEAD_

THE Lady Grisell Baillie, as she was called after her marriage, was the
daughter of a very eminent Covenanter, Sir Patrick Hume of Polwarth.
Grisell was born in 1665, and during all the years of her girlhood her
father was seldom able to come home to his house of Polwarth, for fear
of the officers of the Government seizing him. On one occasion he was
taken and cast into prison in Dumbarton Castle for full fifteen months.
Grisell was but a little girl at the time, but she had a wisdom and a
quaint discretion beyond her years. Often she was entrusted with a
letter to carry to him past the guard, and succeeded in the attempt
where an elder person would certainly have been suspected and searched.

When her father was set at liberty, it was not many weeks till the
soldiers again came seeking him; for new troubles had arisen, and the
suspicion of the King was against all men that were not active in his
service.

Parties of soldiers were continually searching the house in pursuit of
him. But this occasioned no alarm to his family, for they all, with
three exceptions, thought him far from home.

Only Sir Patrick's wife, his little daughter Grisell, and a carpenter
named James Winter were trusted with the secret. The serva