Alexander Napier de Wrichtyshouse appears as one of an inquest in 1488. His coat-armorial was a bend charged with a crescent, between two mullets. He married Margaret Napier of Merchiston, whose father was slain at the battle of Flodden. In 1581, among the commissioners appointed by James VI., "anent the cuinze," we find William Napier of the Wrightshouse, (_Acta Parliamentorum_) and in 1590, Barbara Napier, his sister, was convicted of sorcery, for which on the llth of May she was sentenced to be burnt at a "stake sett on the Castellhill, with barrels, coales, heather, and powder;" but when the torch was about to be applied, pregnancy was alleged, and the execution delayed. (_Calderwood's Historic._) In 1632, William of the Wrightshouse was a commissioner at Holyrood, anent the valuation of Tiends ; and two years after we find him retoured heir to his father William in certain lands in Berwickshire; but in 1626, "_terrarum de Brounisfield, infra parochiam de Sanct. Cuthbert_" belonged to Sir William Fairlie of Braid. In 1649 he obtained a crown charter of his lands (_MS. Mag. Sigilli_), and in 1680, the last notice of this old family will be found in the _Inquisitionum Retornatarum_, where it ends in a female. Thus about the close of the 17th century, the Napiers had passed away, and their barony was possessed by the Laird of Pennicuick. All that now remains of them is their burial place on the north side of St. Giles' Cathedral, where may still be seen their mouldering coat-armorial, with this inscription:-- S. E. D. Fam. de Naperarum interibus, Hic situm est. EDINBURGH, _March_, 1850. WALTER FENTON; OR, THE SCOTTISH CAVALIER. CHAPTER I. THE PLACE OF BRUNTISFIELD. There is nae Covenant noo, Lassie, There is nae covenant, noo; The solemn league and covenant, Are a' broken through. OLD SONG. One evening in the month of March, 1688, a party of thirty soldiers mustered rapidly and silently under the arches of the White Horse Hostel, an old and well-known inn on the north side of the Canongate of Edinburgh. The night was dark and cold, and a high wind swept in gusts down the narrow way between the picturesque houses of that venerable street and the steep side of the bare and rocky Calton-hill. Gathering in cautious silence, the soldiers scarcely permitted the butts of their heavy matchlocks to touch the pavement: in a loud whisper the officer gave the order to march, and they moved off with the same air of quietness and rapidity which characterized their muster, and showed that a very secret or important duty was about to be executed. In those days the ranks were drawn up three deep, and such was the mode until a later period; so, by simply facing a body of men to the right or left, they found themselves three abreast without confusion or delay.