column of smoke. This was their beacon. It led them to the Miny. Gilbert and his wife, with Sandy, the herd boy, were now the only inhabitants.

'I dinna like the look o' the sun at his setting the night,' said Grizzy. 'It seems as if his face were covered wi' a cloth dipped in blood. It's fearfu' to look at.'

'Hoot awa, woman; ye are aye thinkin' o' bluid,' said Gilbert.

And can I miss,' she replied, 'when there has been sae muckle bluid shed in these moorlands, and when we canna tell how soon our ain may dye the heather bloom. I had a unco dream yesternight. I thought I was reading these verses in the Hebrews,-They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented: Of whom the world was not worthy they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens, and caves of the earth. And just as I was reading, there fell twa draps o' bright red bluid on the very words; and I closed the Book, for I could read nae mair. And then I thought I went to the end of the house, and saw, in the dark muir, a deep, deep, grave wi' the black moss lying on the side, and I awoke in a fright.'

At this moment a gentle knock was heard at the door, and the two men stood before it. Gilbert kindly asked them in, not knowing whether to consider them friends or foes. In a brief space, however, suspicions vanished, the men were welcomed

as suffering brethren, and their story was soon told.

'There now,' exclaimed Grizzy, I hae my dream read. Gibby, my man,' turning to her husband, who had sought to discourage the love for dreams and portents which his gude wife had in common with thousands of her sex. 'Gibby-ye see there is mair in dreams then some folk well wot o'.'

It was agreed to wait till night had set in before venturing back again to the murdered Covenanter. Meanwhile the two strangers enjoyed the hospitalities of the Miny, and declared that they already knew its inmates before they came from the account of friends who had sojourned with them.

The darkness having set in, the three men proceeded along the dreary moss, the footing of which was somewhat dangerous. Sandy followed with a lantern, which was not lit till they were half a mile from the house. On reaching the body, the leaves were removed, a grave was dug in the moss, just where the martyr fell, and the face having been covered with a napkin, the body was gently lowered into its narrow bed. The body was now strewn with leaves stripped from the branches, and then the moss covered all. A stone was placed at the head of the grave, and another at the foot. The little company knelt down round the spot, their faces bathed in tears, and prayed, and the Comforter was with them, and filled their hearts with peace.

GLENMUIR WATER is a beautiful strath that stretches up through the moorlands, south of Muirkirk. The upper part is wild and desolate in the extreme, and as secluded a glen as could be desired. Far up the strath, in the very heart of the solitudes, stood an old baronial castle. The ruins remain to this day, and are environed by aged trees, the growth of centuries, which

seem to guard the venerable spot. Close to the old castle, near the stream that flows through the lonely glen, stood a farmhouse known as Glenmuir Shaw. Its distance from the Miny was inconsiderable, and the worthy farmer who occupied it and Gilbert were fast friends.

It had been agreed at one of the prayer-meetings held at Friarminion that a conventicle should be kept at

'Ho, Eddie,' cried Crichton, 'is this you? Why, man, you are everywhere.'

'And it's e'en gude for some folks that I am to be found here and there,' said Eddie, else it might be worse for them. Ye ken yoursel', yer honour ?'

'I think I know what you mean. But there is no second danger of that sort here, I think.'

'May be no, may be no; but whar are ye gaen wi' thim puir men this morning, yer honour ?'

'Why, they are rebels, to be sure. They have transgressed the Conventicle Act, and they must be shot.'

'Noo, hear me ance, Captain. A word privately in yer lug Ye mind the day when I saved your life in the moss. Noo, Captain when you and yer horse, wi' your reckless riding, were plunged baith o'er the head in that deep wellee, twenty feet to the bottom, and I drew yer out like a dead salmon to the hard turf, and ye find yoursel' actually alive-a thing ye didna expect twa minutes afore; and when ye stood a' drookit and shiverin', mair frae fear than frae cald-Noo, Captain, what did ye say to me? "Eddie," says ye, "ye have saved my life. Had it not been for you I should have perished in that hell'spit." These were yer verra words. And then ye added in the overflowing o' yer heart, "Eddie, can I do a favour for yer? Just ask, and I'll grant it." "I hae nae favours," I said, "to ask for mysel', for neither me nor the auld cuddie needs muckle; but may be I may hae occasion to ax a boon frae ye in anither direction; and that occasion has come, and I earnestly request the lives o' these four men."

only three days since I was near the black bottom of that execrable well, and I feel a shuddering yet. But still if I were to comply with your request, these fellows here, and Cochrane, would lodge information against me.'

I'll tell you what to do, yer honour. Order them a' back to the Shaw again, and just say that if these men are to be shot, it is better that they be shot near the place where they were taken, as a warnin to others. Order Geordy Ga' and a company to guard them, and-leave the rest to me.'

'Right, Eddie, right. That is the very thing. I see the issue. Keep this secret; or if you whisper it, a whizzing ball goes through your brains.'

'Chap me for that, yer honour. It will fyke some folk to howk that out o' me.'

Crichton did according to Eddie's suggestion, and marched forward himself to Muirkirk.

'I didna ken,' said Eddie, to Geordy Ga', 'I didna ken how I could stand to see these poor men shot on the green the morn.'

'Nor I,' said Ga'.' 'It's a black business, and I wish I had been a hundred miles off.'

'But ye'll be obliged to execute it, though!'

'I am sure I wish most heartily,' answered Ga', 'that they may find some way of escape ere the morning.'

'I would like to see,' said Eddie, how they are put up, and to take a last farewell; for I canna think o' staying here till mornin.'

By this Eddie thought he should be helped to devise some way for their escape. Their prison was a barn, with two soldiers as guards at the door.

‘I think,' said Eddie to Ga', 'if this business pinches yer conscience, ye may possibly avoid it. It's an unco thing to be accessory to the murder of gude folks. Yer ain godly father wad sooner hae laid yer head in the grave than--' 'I understand you. It is a wretched business, but sooner than

see these men shot, I will quit the army.'

'There is no occasion for that either,' said Eddie, for these reckless men would shoot them in your absence, and think it good sport. Leave the thing to me-between us twa-I'll manage it.'

'Do as you like.'

"Then,' said Eddie, 'a' that I ask is that, after it is mirk dark ye will ca' the guards in to their supper, so that the ground without may be clear.'

Everything was arranged according to Eddie's wish. When the soldiers were feasting in the kitchen of the Shaw, he crept up to the door, took down the key, and stood in the dark beside the prisoners. 'Ye ken me,' he said. 'I have opened the way for your escape. The soldiers are at their supper. In five minutes after this-for I must return to the house to avoid suspicion-issue ye frae yer prisonhouse, and when ye get to the close, lift every man a large stone and smash the barn door to pieces, and syne make the best o' yer way to the muir.'

Eddie returned to the kitchen. The soldiers went on with their supper. In the midst of their hilarity a loud crash was heard, as if the broadside of the house had been

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battered in. Instantly all were on their feet. A general rush was made to the door. Perhaps the horses had broken loose-but nothing was seen but the darkness. A light was obtained. The barn door was found broken to pieces, and the prisoners were gone! Conjecture was useless. The general opinion was that a rescue had taken place.

The four men made the best of their way to the Miny. Sarah and Grizzy had been fervent in their supplications for the welfare of their husbands and brethren. While they were praying the party suddenly appeared in their midst.

The next morning Eddie with his cuddie called to see how his friends fared at the Miny. Before he reached the farm-steading all went out to meet him. Though they did not know all, they knew that he had been the means of delivering them from death.

Eddie was received with a shout, and such a welcome as any prince might have been proud to earn. Every one strove to show him kindness, which greatly affected the honest keelman. He wept like a child, and all fell on their knees and gave thanks to Him whose care had been so visibly shewn.

THE most exemplary patience will sometimes give way under severe pressure, and an accumulation of indignities will often rouse the meekest of men. By the relentless zeal of his opponents, who compassed sea and land to tarnish his fair fame, Arminius was at last compelled to stand upon his own defence. To be regarded as a heretic in the judgment of men who were themselves by bell, book, and candle already excommunicated as heretics, was not perhaps so serious a mischance that he need

give it importance by a public selfvindication. The world had long been familiar with the exhibition of tyranny on the part of those who had but just escaped a tyrant's hand. But the honour and good faith of Arminius were called in question; his credit, character, position were at stake; his usefulness in the church and in the university was imperilled; everywhere at home and abroad his name and opinions were denounced or held in suspicion; young men were frightened away from his lectures,

For a time, however, he was content to rely upon private correspondence or conference with the most influential of his friends. Some of the leading statesmen and of the most judicious divines of that day were personally attached to him, and he frankly put himself in communication with them that he might disabuse their minds of suspicion, and at the same time furnish them with materials with which they might disabuse the minds of others. He wrote to Drusius, Hebrew Professor in the University of Franeker, telling him of the unfounded charges brought against him, and declaring his sole fault to be that he firmly held the great first principle of Protestantism, the determination to consider no buman formularies as the standard by which the Scriptures are to be judged, and to recognize no authoritative rule of faith but the Word of God. He wrote to Sebastian Egberts, the chief magistrate of Amsterdam, assuring him that the charge of throwing contempt upon the Genevan divines was utterly and completely false. So far from this,' he says, after the reading of Scripture, which I strenuously inculcate and more than any other (as the whole Accademy, yea the conscience of my colleagues will testify,) I recommend that the commentaries of Calvin be read, whom I extol in higher terms than Helmich himself, as he owned to me, ever did. For I affirm that

But here I add-with discrimination, as the writings of all men ought to be read. Of this my mode of advice, I could produce innumerable witnesses; they cannot produce as much as one whom I advised to study Coornhert and the followers of Loyala.' He also had an interview with the Ambassador of the Prince Palatine, Frederick the Fourth, one Hippolytus á Collibus, who hearing from Heidelberg reports concerning Arminius and his difference of opinion from the received faith, thought it best to invite him to give a candid exposition of his sentiments before he joined in the prevalent condemnation of them. Arminius ingenuously explained his views concerning the Divinity of Christ, Providence, Predestination, Grace and Freewill, and Justification; and so pleased was Hippolytus with the explanation that he requested a written copy of it for his own satisfaction and that of his friends. The statement appears in the form of an epistle in the published works of Arminius, and in the close of it Arminius says, 'I will not refuse to appear before any convention, whether of all the ministers of our United Netherlands, or of some of them, to be summoned from the several provinces; or even of all the ministers of Holland and West Friesland (to which province our Leyden College belongs), or of some to be nominated from their number, provided the whole affair be transacted under the cognizance of our rightful rulers; nay, further, I neither shrink from nor dread the presence of learned