"You have not written to her?" I said.

"Why, no," he answered. "I scarce like to intrude myself on her. She has not seen much of me, you know. Besides, I think a woman would know far better how to break such news. Men are apt to touch a wound roughly, even when they wish to act as gently as possible. No, Cary—I am unwilling to place such a burden on you, but I think it must be one of you."

Could he speak of Annas thus, if—I felt bewildered.

"Unless," he said, thoughtfully, looking out of the window, where the moon was riding like a queen through the somewhat troubled sky, "unless you think—for you, as a girl, can judge better than I—that Raymond would be the best breaker. Perhaps you do not know that Raymond is not at home? My Lady Inverness writ the news to him, and said she had not spoken either to Mrs Raymond or Miss Keith. She plainly shrank from doing it. Perhaps he would help her to bear it best."

"How should he be the best?" I said. "Mrs Raymond might—"

"Why, Cary, is it possible you do not know that Raymond and Miss Keith are troth-plight?"

"Troth-plight! Mr Raymond! Annas!"

I started up in my astonishment. Here was a turning upside down of all my notions!

"So that is news to you?" said Ephraim, evidently surprised himself. "Why, I thought you had known it long ago. Of course I must have puzzled you! I see, now."

"I never heard a word about it," I said, feeling as though I must be dreaming, and should awake by-and-by. "I always thought—"

"You always thought what?"

"I thought you cared for Annas," I forced my lips to say.

"You thought I cared for Miss Keith?" Ephraim's tone was a stronger negative than any words could have been. "Yes, I cared for her as your friend, and as a woman in trouble, and a woman of fine character: but if you fancied I wished to make her my wife, you were never more mistaken. No, Cary; I fixed on somebody else for that, a long while ago—before I ever saw Miss Keith. May I tell you her name?"

Then we were right at first, and it was Fanny. I said, "Yes," as well as I could.

"Cary, I never loved, and never shall love, any one but you."

I cannot tell you, little book, either what I said, or exactly what happened after that. I only know that the moaning wind outside chanted a triumphal march, and the dying embers on my hearthstone sprang up into a brilliant illumination, and I did not care a straw for all the battles that ever were fought, and envied neither Annas Keith nor anybody else.

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"Well, Hatty! I did not think you were going to be the old maid of the family!" said my Aunt Kezia.

"I did not, either, once," was Hatty's answer, in a low tone, but not a sad one. "Perhaps I was the best one for it, Aunt. At any rate, you and Father will always have one girl to care for you."

We did not see Flora till the next morning. I knew that my Uncle Drummond's letter must be that in which he answered the news of Angus's escape, and I did not wonder if it unnerved her. She let me read it afterwards. The Laird and Lady Monksburn had plainly given up their son for ever when they heard what he had done. And knowing what I knew, I felt it was best so. I had to tell Flora my news:—to see the light die suddenly out of her dear brown velvet eyes,—will it ever come back again? And I wondered, watching her by the light of my own new-born happiness, whether Duncan Keith were as little to her as I had supposed.

I knew, somewhat later, that I had misunderstood her, that we had misinterpreted her. Her one wish seemed to be to get back home. And Father said he would take her himself as far as the Border, if my Uncle Drummond would come for her to the place chosen.

When the parting came, as we took our last kiss, I told her I prayed God bless her, and that some day she might be as happy as I was. There was a moment's flash in the brown eyes.

"Take that wish back, Cary," she said, quietly. "Happy as you are, the woman whom Duncan Keith loved can never be, until she meet him again at the gates of pearl."

"That may be a long while, dear."

"It will be just so long as the Lord hath need of me," she answered: "and I hope, for his sake, that will be as long as my father needs me. And then—Oh, but it will be a blithe day when the call comes to go home!"

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The Fells Farm, September 25th. Five months since I writ a word! And how much has happened in them—so much that I could never find time to set it down, and now I must do it just in a few lines.

I have been married six weeks. Father shook his head with a smile when Ephraim first spoke to him, and said his lass was only in the cradle yesterday: but he soon came round. It was as quiet a wedding as Sophy's, and I am sure I liked it all the better, whatever other people might think. We are to live at the Fells Farm during the year of Ephraim's curacy, and then Father thinks he can easily get him a living through the interest of friends. Where it will be, of course we cannot guess.

Flora has writ thrice since she returned home. She says my Uncle Drummond was very thankful to have her back again: but she can see that Lady Monksburn is greatly changed, and the Laird has so failed that he scarce seems the same man. Of herself she said nothing but one sentence,—

"Waiting, dear Cary,—always waiting."

From Angus we do not hear a word. Mr Raymond and Annas are to be married when their year of mourning is out. I cannot imagine how they will get along—he a Whig clergyman, and she a Tory Presbyterian! However, that is their affair. I am rather thankful 'tis not mine.

My Aunt Dorothea has writ me one letter—very kind to me—(it was writ on the news of my marriage), but very stiff toward my Aunt Kezia. I see she cannot forgive her easily, and I do not think Grandmamma ever will.

Grandmamma sent me a large chest from London, full of handsome presents,—a fine set of Dresden tea china (which travelled very well— only one saucer broke); a new hoop, so wide round that methinks I shall never dare to wear it in the country; a charming piece of dove-coloured damask, and a petticoat, to wear with it, of blue quilted satin; two calico gowns from India, a beautiful worked scarf from the same country, six pair pearl-coloured silk stockings, a new fan, painted with flowers, most charmingly done, a splendid piece of white and gold brocade, and a superb set of turquoise and pearl jewellery. I cannot think when or how I am to wear them; they seem so unfit for the wife of a country curate.

"Oh, wait till I am a bishop," says Ephraim, laughingly; "then you can make the Dean's lady faint away for envy of all your smart things. And as to the white and gold brocade, keep it till the King comes to stay with us, and it will be just the thing for a state bed for him."

"I wonder what colour it will be!" said I. "Which king?"

Ephraim makes me a low bow—over the water bottle. [Note 1.]

I must lay down my pen, for I hear a shocking smash in the kitchen. That girl Dolly is so careless! I don't believe I shall ever have much time for writing now.

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Langbeck Rectory, under the Cheviots, August the 28th, 1747. Nearly a whole year since I writ one line!

Our lot is settled now, and we moved in here in May last. I am very thankful that the lines have fallen to me still in my dear North—I have not pleasant recollections of the South. And I fancy—but perhaps unjustly—that we Northerners have a deeper, more yearning love for our hills and dales than they have down there. We are about midway between Brocklebank and Abbotscliff, which is just where I would have chosen to be, if I could have had the choice. It is not often that God gives a man all the desires of his heart; perhaps to a woman He gives it even less often. How thankful I ought to be!

My Aunt Kezia was so good as to come with us, to help me to settle down. I should not have got things straight in twice the time if she had not been here. Sophy spent the days with Father while my Aunt Kezia was here, and just went back to the Vicarage for the night. Father is very much delighted with Sophy's child, and calls him a bouncing boy, and a credit to the family; and Sophy thinks him the finest child that ever lived, as my Aunt Kezia saith every mother hath done since Eve.

The night before my Aunt Kezia went home, as she and I sat together,—it was not yet time for Ephraim to come in from his work in the parish, for he is one of the few parsons who do work, and do not pore over learned books or go a-hunting, and leave their parishes to take care of themselves—well, as my Aunt and I sat by the window, she said something which rather astonished me.

"Cary, I don't know what you and Ephraim would say, but I am beginning to think we made a mistake."

"Do you mean about the Chinese screens, Aunt?" said I. "The gold lacquer would have gone very well with the damask, but—"

"Chinese screens!" saith my Aunt, with a hearty laugh. "Why, whatever is the girl thinking about? No, child! I mean about the Prince."

"Aunt Kezia!" I cried. "You never mean to say we did wrong in fighting for our King?"

"Wrong? No, child, for we meant to do right. I gather from Scripture that the Lord takes a deal more account of what a man means than of what he does. Thank God it is so! For if a man means to come to Christ, he does come, no matter how: ay, and if a man means to reject Christ, he does that too, however fair and orthodox he may look in the eyes of the world. Therefore, as to those matters that are in doubt, and cannot be plainly judged by Scripture, but Christian men may and do lawfully differ about them, if a man honestly meant to do God's will, so far as he knew it, I don't believe he will be judged as if he had not cared to do it. But what I intend to say is this—that it is plain to me now that the Lord hath repealed the decree whereby He gave England to the House of Stuart. There is no right against Him, Cary. He doeth as He will with all the kingdoms of the world. Maybe it's not so plain to you—if so, don't you try to see through my eyes. Follow your own conscience until the Lord teaches yourself. If our fathers had been truer men, and had passed the Bill of Exclusion in 1680, the troubles of 1688 would never have come, nor those of 1745 neither. They ate sour grapes, and set our teeth on edge—ay, and their own too, poor souls! It was the Bishops and Lord Halifax that did it, and the Bishops paid the wyte, as Sam says. It must have been a bitter pill to those seven in the Tower, to think that all might have been prevented by lawful, constitutional means, and that they—their Order, I mean—had just pulled their troubles on their own heads."

"Aunt Kezia," I cried in distress, "you never mean to say that Colonel Keith died for a wrongful cause?"

"God forbid!" she said, gravely. "Colonel Keith did not die for that Cause. He died for right and righteousness, for truth and honour, for faithfulness, for loyalty and love—no bad things to die for. Not for the Prince—only for God and Flora, and a little, perhaps, for Angus. God forbid that I should judge any true and honourable man—most of all that man who gave his life for those we love. Only, Cary, the Cause is dead and gone. The struggle is over for ever: and we may thank God it is so. On the wreck of the old England a new England may arise—an England standing fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made her free, free from priestly yoke and priest-ridden rulers, free not to revolt but to follow, not to disobey, but to obey. If only—ah! if only she resolve, and stand to it, never to be entangled again with the yoke of bondage, never to forget the lessons which God has taught her, never again to eat the sour grapes, and set the children's teeth on edge. Let her once begin to think of the tiger's beauty, and forget its deathly claws—once lay aside her watchword of 'No peace with Rome'—and she will find it means no peace with God, for His scourge has always pursued her when she has truckled to His great enemy. Eh, but men have short memories, never name short sight. Like enough, by a hundred years are over, they'll be looking at Roman sugar-sticks as the Scarlet Woman holds them out, and thinking that she is very fair and fine-spoken, and why shouldn't they have a few sweets? Well! it is well the government of the world isn't in old Kezia's hands, for if it were, some people would find themselves uncommonly uncomfortable before long."

"You don't mean me, I hope?" I said, laughing.

"Nay, child, I don't mean you, nor yet your husband. Very like you'll not see it as I do. But you'll live to see it—if only you live long enough."

Well, my Aunt Kezia may be right, though I do not see it. Only that I do think it was a sad blunder to throw out the Bill of Exclusion. It had passed the Commons, so they were not to blame. But one thing I should like to set down, for any who may read this book a hundred years hence, if it hath not been tore up for waste-paper long ere that—that we Protestants who fought for the Prince never fought nor meant to fight for Popery. We hated it every bit as much as any who stood against him. We fought because the contrary seemed to us to be doing evil that good might come. But I won't say we may not live to be thankful that we lost our cause.

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It has been a warm afternoon, and I sat with the window open in the parlour, singing and sewing; Ephraim was out in the parish. I was turning down a hem when a voice in the garden spoke to me,—

"An't like you, Madam, to give a drink of whey to a poor soldier?"

There was a slight Scots accent with the words.

"Whence come you?" I said.

"I fought at Prestonpans," he answered. He looked a youngish man, but very ragged and bemired.

"On which side?" I said, as I rose up. Of course I was not going to refuse him food and drink, however that might be, but I dare say I should have made it a little more dainty for one of Prince Charlie's troops than for a Hanoverian, and I felt pretty sure he was the former from his accent.

I fancied I saw a twinkle in his eyes.

"The side you are on, Madam," said he.

"How can you know which side I am on?" said I. "Come round to the back-door, friend, and I will find you a drink of whey."

"I suppose," said my beggar, looking down at himself, "I don't look quite good enough for the front door. But I am an officer for all that, Madam."

"Sir, I beg your pardon," I made answer. "I will let you in at the front,"—for when he spoke more, I heard the accent of a gentleman.

"Pray don't give yourself that trouble, Cousin Cary."

And to my utter amazement, the beggar jumped in at the window, which was low and easily scaled.

"Angus!" I almost screamed.

"At your service, Madam."

"When did you leave France? Where are you come from? Have you been to Abbotscliff? Are—"

"Halt! Can't fight more than three men at once. And I won't answer a question till I have had something to eat. Forgive me, Cary, but I am very nearly starving."

I rushed into the kitchen, and astonished Caitlin by laying violent hands on a pan of broth which she was going to serve for supper. I don't know what I said to her. I hastily poured the broth into a basin, and seizing a loaf of bread and a knife, dashed back to Angus.

"Eat that now, Angus. You shall have something better by-and-by."

He ate like a man who was nearly starving, as he had said. When he had finished, he said,—

"Now! I left France a fortnight since. I have not been to Abbotscliff. I know nothing but the facts that you are married, and where you live, which I learned by accident, and I instantly thought that your house, if you would take me in, would be a safer refuge than either Brocklebank or Abbotscliff. Now tell me some thing in turn. Are my father and Flora well?"

"Yes, for anything I know."

"And all at Brocklebank?"

"Quite."

"And the Keiths? Has Annas bagged her pheasant?"

"What do you mean, Angus?"

"Why, is she Mrs Raymond? I saw all that. I suppose Duncan got away without any difficulty?"

"Annas is Mr Raymond's wife," I said. "But, Angus, I cannot think how it is, but—I am afraid you do not understand."

"Understand what?"

"Is it possible you do not know what price was paid for your ransom?"

Angus rose hastily, and laid his hand on my arm.

"Speak out, Cary! What do I not know?"

"Angus, Colonel Keith bought your life with his own."

In all my life I never saw a man's face change as the face of Angus Drummond changed then. It was plainly to be read there that he had never for a moment understood at what cost he had been purchased. A low moan of intense sorrow broke from him, and he hid his face upon the table.

"I think he paid the price very willingly, Angus," I said, softly. "And he sent Annas a last message for you—he bade you, to the utmost of what your opportunities might be, to be to God and man what he hoped to have been."

"O Duncan, Duncan!" came in anguish from the white lips. "And I never knew—I never thought—"

Ah, it was so like Angus, "never to think."

He lifted his head at last, with the light of a settled purpose shining in his eyes.

"To man I can never be what he would have been. I am a proscribed fugitive. You harbour me at a risk even now. But to God! Cary, I have been a rebel: but I never was a deserter from that service. God helping me, I will enlist now. If my worthless life have cost the most precious life in Scotland, it shall not have been given in vain."

"There was Another who gave His life for you, Angus," I could not help saying.

"Ay, I have been bought twice over," was the trembling answer. "God help me to live worthy of the cost!"

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We all keep the name of Duncan Keith in our inmost hearts—unspoken, but very dear. But I think it is dearest of all in a little house in the outskirts of Amsterdam, where, now that my Uncle Drummond has been called to his reward, our Flora keeps home bright for a Protestant pastor who works all the day through in the prisons of Amsterdam, among the lowest of the vile; who knows what exile and imprisonment are; and who, once in every year, as the day of his substitute's death comes round, pleads with these prisoners from words which are overwhelming to himself,—"Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price."

Many of those men and women sink back again into the mire. But now and then the pastor knows that a soul has been granted to his pleadings,— that in one more instance, as in his own case, the price was not paid in vain.

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Note 1. The recognised Jacobite way of answering:—"The King over the water."

THE END.