Adam Hepburn's Vow: A Tale of Kirk and CovenantSwan, Annie S.
History
Adam Hepburn's Vow: A Tale of Kirk and Covenant
Swan, Annie S.
Covenanters -- Fiction; Scotland -- History -- 17th century -- Fiction
"Yes, I saw the face of your cousin, David Gray, the minister of
Broomhill, and he also recognised me. I saw, too, a figure I could swear
belongs to Adam Hepburn, though the face was so changed that I would not
have known it," returned the old man, sorrowfully.
Ailie Kilgour reflected a moment in silence, and then spoke in quiet but
decided tones.
"Since they allow women to carry necessaries to the prisoners, I will go
at once and take some food to my cousins. I am not afraid of the
insults of the soldiers, for I can bear much, and make no sign."
"My daughter, I knew your kind heart would be moved to do this thing,"
said the old man, gladly. "Make haste, then, Ailie, for if ever hunger
and want set their mark on human faces I saw it to-day on the wretched
countenances of your cousins."
Accordingly, Ailie got some food prepared, and immediately set out for
the Greyfriars. As was to be expected, there were many people about,
for the unwonted spectacle to be seen in the churchyard drew many to the
place, some out of idle curiosity, others out of sorrow and anxiety,
lest perchance any relative or friend might be among that miserable
throng. The chief entrance to the churchyard was guarded by
half-a-dozen soldiers, who alternately amused themselves with the
prisoners within and those compassionate people who sought to minister
to them from without. The captives, gaunt, hungry-eyed, and
eager-looking, were flocking near the entrance, watching with painful
intensity the meagre dole of provisions allowed to be passed within the
bars.
Ailie Kilgour stood a little back, scanning the faces in the hope that
her eyes would presently fall upon that of her cousin, David Gray. Adam
Hepburn she did not think she could recognise again, having only seen
him on the occasion of his marriage with her cousin Agnes, thirty years
before. Seeing an old, worn-looking man, with a thin, haggard face, and
flowing white hair, very earnestly regarding her, she looked more
particularly at him, and then gave a violent start, for a look of
undisguised recognition of her was on his face. Could that old, old
man, with the bent head and tottering frame, be her cousin David, whom
she had last seen in all the pride and glory of his manhood, not ten
years before? The recognition was so marked, and there was something so
strangely familiar in the glance of the eye, that she felt she could not
be mistaken. She therefore made a sign to him, and advanced towards the
gate. Her basket was then rudely snatched from her by a soldier, and
emptied of its contents. The tastiest morsels he reserved for his own
eating; then, pointing to what lay on the ground, he bade her, with an
oath and a coarse laugh, feed the dogs with the crumbs which fell from
the master’s table.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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