"You have proof of that at your hand, no doubt," said he, and passed on as though that had been a thing of little import--as indeed, in the light of my succeeding admissions, it was. "You were at Sanquhar town on the day of the Declaration?" he said, looking sharply at me, no doubt expecting a denial or equivocation. Now it seemed to me that I must most certainly die, so I cared not if I did it with some credit. For the whiner got even less mercy from these men, than he that defied and outfaced them. "I was at Sanquhar, and with this hand I raised the Banner of Blue!" I said. "Note that, advocate," said Tarbet, smiling foxily. "The King hath a special interest in all that took his name in vain at Sanquhar." Mackenzie glanced with a black, side-cocking look of interest at the hand I held up, as if to say, "I shall know that again when I see it on the Netherbow!" "You were at Ayrsmoss, and won clear?" was the next interrogatory. "I was one of two that broke through both lines of the troops when we came to the charge!" I said, with perhaps more of the braggart than I care now to think on. Then all the Council looked up, and there was a sudden stir of interest. "Blood of St. Crispin!" said Queensberry, "but ye do not look like it. Yet I suppose it must be so." "It is so," said Sir George the Advocate shortly, flicking a parchment with the feather of his quill pen. He had the record before him. "Is there anything more that ye were in? Being as good as headed already, a little more will not matter. It will be to your credit when the saints come to put up your tomb, and scribe your testimony on it." "I am no saint," said I, "though I love not Charles Stuart. Neither, saving your honourable presences, do I love the way that this realm is guided. But if it please you to ken, I have been in all that has chanced since Bothwell. I was at Enterkin the day we reft the prisoners from you. I was in the ranks of the Seven Thousand when, at the Conventicle at Shalloch-on-Minnoch, the hillmen made Clavers and Strachan draw off. I was taken at the Tolbooth of Wigtown trying to deliver a prisoner, whom ye had reprieved. And had there been anything else done, I should have been in it." The Council leaned back in their chairs almost to a man, and smilingly looked at one another. The President spoke after a moment of silence. "Ye are a brisk lad and ill to content, but your sheet is gallantly filled. So that I think ye deserve heading instead of hanging, which is certainly a great remission. I shall e'en take the liberty of shaking hands with you and wishing you a speedy passage and a sharp axe. Officer, the prisoner is in your care till his warrant comes from London." And to my astonishment Queensbury turned round and very ceremoniously held out his hand to me, which I took through the bars. "I shall never again deny that Gordon blood is very good blood," he said.