‘Have you never read of the persecutions of the Covenanters, and Graham of Claverhouse, and the martyrs?’ asked Margaret again, with wonder in her eyes. ‘Oh yes, of course; but I didn’t know that these things happened in this part of the country.’ ‘Yes,’ said Margaret. ‘The Martyrs’ Cairn is only a little way beyond Blackwater. You know the Covenanters were not allowed to worship in their own way, and they used to meet in hollows of the hills and on the open moors. The country was full of soldiers, sent to keep down the people; and when the Covenanters went to the preaching, they used to take arms with them. One Sabbath morning a large number of them were attending a service on the lonely moor at Drumclog when the English soldiers, who had somehow heard of the gathering, bore down upon them. They were dragoons, led by “the bloody Claverhouse,” as they call him to this day. Providentially there was a bog in front of the Covenanters. The horses of the dragoons could not cross it; and those soldiers who did cross at last were beaten off by the Covenanters, and many of them were killed.’ ‘I remember it now,’ said Cameron; ‘I have read about it in “Old Mortality.”’ ‘The most unfair book that ever was written!’ exclaimed Margaret with some heat--‘a book that every true Scotchman should be ashamed of.’ ‘I don’t see that,’ returned Cameron; ‘I think Sir Walter held the balance very fairly.’ ‘He simply turns the Covenanters into ridicule and tries to make his readers sympathize with the persecutors,’ said Margaret. ‘Well, you can’t deny that a good many of them _were_ ridiculous,’ said Cameron lightly. ‘And you have no sympathy for these brave men who won our liberties for us with their blood!’ exclaimed the girl. ‘I don’t say that,’ said the young Highlander cautiously; ‘but I’m not so sure about their having won our liberties for us,’ he added with a laugh. ‘There wasn’t much liberty in the Highlands when _their_ King got the upper hand.’ Then he tried to change the subject; but Margaret answered him only in monosyllables. This daughter of the Covenanters could not forgive anyone who refused to consider those who took part in the petty rebellion of the west as heroes and martyrs. She made their cause her own, and decided that Cameron was thenceforth to be regarded as a ‘malignant.’ As for Cameron, he mentally banned the whole tribe of Covenanters, as well as his own folly in offering any opposition to Margaret’s prejudices; and before he could make his peace with her Mr. Lindsay drove up, and the _tête-à-tête_ came to an end.