was found to be impracticable, as the troopers were so near. He could not leave the house without being observed, and there was no place of safety to which he could betake himself so near at hand as to be able to reach it before the dragoons came up. If concealment was to be attempted at all, it must be somewhere within the house; and the hope of being successful in this endeavour was but slender, considering the smallness of the dwelling. There was no time, however, to delay; the enemy was at hand, and life was sweet. "But where shall I abscond?" said he to his wife, whose concern for his safety was extreme; "into what nook shall I creep? I see no corner that can afford a hiding-place.” "The spence, gudeman, the spence; run to the spence." The spence was an apartment in the older farm-houses of the country districts, which was appropriated more especially to the use of the family; and was of a somewhat genteeler description than the kitchen, which was common to the servants. It was to the spence, then, that honest William Good betook himself, at the suggestion of his wife, as being the only likely place in the domicile where he might remain undiscovered. The spence, in the house of Little Mark Lane, had for some time been converted into a lumber-closet, into which were' crowded articles of every kind that were unfit for use, or not immediately required. Old chests, and barrels, and chairs, and pots, were all huddled together. Among the trumpery that occupied the apartment, then, William Good hid himself, like Saul of old, among the stuff; the one from his friends, and the other from his foes. The door of the spence opened on the kitchen, and the anxious wife placed before it a ponderous stone trough which stood near, and this prevented the door from being easily opened, and, at the same time, tended to lull suspicion. The walls of the kitchen, round and round, were of a sooty black, japanned by the peat smoke of a century; and the door of the ante-chamber being of the same hue, the risk of discovery was less likely. Such was the posture of affairs when the dragoons approached the house. No sight was more appalling to the helpless peasantry than that of a gruff-looking, swearing trooper, roughly clad, sunk to the knees in large boots, with a grisly helmet on his head, a coarse cloak hanging from his shoulders, and a huge, cumbrous scabbard rattling on his heels. These, for the most part, were men of blood, who rioted in human sufferings, and to whom the wailings of humanity were merriment. A party of such men now stood in the presence of the terror-stricken Anne Campbell, whose fears were more for her husband's

safety than for her own. In the midst of her fears, however, she succeeded in maintaining an external composure before her enemies, lest any apparent trepidation on her part should beget a suspicion that the object of their search was within reach. It is wonderful to think how greatly the Lord's people are strengthened in the day of trial, and enabled "to gird up the loins of their mind." It was in the time of her greatest extremity, that the wife of John Brown of Priesthill exhibited the greatest moral heroism, to the astonishment and confusion of her deadly foes. The farm-house of Little Mark Lane underwent a strict and unsparing scrutiny; and barn, and stable, and cow-house, were all explored with as much keenness as if they expected to find some great and costly treasure, on the possession of which their future happiness was solely to depend. But though they sought, they found not. The sanctuary in which the master of the house had taken refuge was left inviolate. They never imagined that there was any such apartment within the premises; and their eyes were holden that they did not see it. It sometimes happens, that we experience a deliverance from danger when we least expect it, and that the evil which we dreaded is warded off in a very surprising manner. Almost every person may remember some incident in his history illustrative of this remark, and proving that "man's extremity is God's opportunity." The party left the abode of these good people whom God cared for, and sheltered by his power, under the impression that he of whom they were in quest was not there. When the danger was over, William left the place of his concealment, mixed again with his household, and received their gratulations on account of the narrow escape which he had made. Every one applauded Anne for the manner in which she had secreted her husband, and praised the contrivance to which the necessity of the case had so promptly given birth. If William had been seen at the door instead of his wife, his doom would have been sealed; as in that case the dragoons would have been quite certain of his being in the house, which they would not have quitted till they had found him. But the Providence that intended to deliver him ordered it otherwise, and hid him from the eyes of those who were bent on his destruction. It will surely not be deemed out of keeping with the character of this good man, to suppose that his gratitude on this occasion bore some proportion to the greatness of his deliverance; and that his prayer to the God of his life would be characterized with an increase of holy fervour, and of simplicity of confidence; and that his

future life would be more sincerely and entirely devoted to the service of Him who had graciously saved him from a violent and cruel death. A grandson of William Good died in Sanquhar about eighteen years ago, at a very advanced age; and he was a son in every respect worthy of such an ancestor.

CHAPTER XXII.

Alexander Gray of Cambusnethan Mains-James Gray.

IN the catalogue of our Scottish martyrs, we are not to include those only who suffered death by the immediate hand of their persecutors. There were many who died martyrs, whose blood stained neither the heath nor the scaffold, but who lost their lives owing to the many hardships to which they were subjected for their adherence to the truth. Hunger, and cold, and fatigue, the buffetings of the storm, and exposure in damp and dreary caves, wore down the stoutest constitutions, and superinduced diseases which brought multitudes to a premature grave. The numbers who died by this means have not been accurately calculated, but they cannot be small; and many of them being strangers in the locality where they ended their days, must have been buried quietly in the moors and wastes by those who were brethren and sufferers in the same common cause. These worthies, as they belonged to the great cloud of witnesses who held the testimony of Christ in the day of Scotland's tribulation, deserve the honourable appellation of martyrs; for they were really such in every sense, excepting that of a military or public execution. The traditions respecting such individuals are not indeed so numerous as those respecting the witnesses who came to a more tragical end; but they are not the less valuable, nor less deserving of record. The present chapter shall be occupied with a few notices of two brothers of this class, of the name of Gray, whose worth of character and stedfastness of principle deserve remembrance.

Alexander Gray, the first of the brothers whom we shall notice, was born in the parish of Cambusnethan, where his parents long resided, and where he lived till the period of his death, which was near the close of the persecution. Tradition has preserved but few particulars of his life; but

these, scanty as they are, are fully decisive of the excellency of his character as a man of sincere godliness. He was warmly attached to the principles of civil and religious liberty, for which the Covenanters so nobly and disinterestedly contended.

The district in which Alexander Gray lived had produced many worthy Christians, and many leal-hearted patriots. The upper and middle wards of Lanarkshire were famous for the support of the covenants in the stirring times of the second Charles; and many a brave heart poured forth its best blood in behalf of a cause for the maintenance of which no sacrifice was deemed too great.

Cambusnethan occupies a beautiful locality on the Clyde, the vale of which, as a popular writer remarks, "is soft, sunny, and fructiferous, and one of the finest pieces of country that Sco land can boast of." Cambusnethan House is an elegant mansion, and stands a few miles above the town of Hamilton, and almost in the centre of a district of orchards and splendid villas. It is second only to the princely castle of Mauldslee, standing in a like position about two miles farther up the river, in the parish of Carluke. It was near this latter place that Gavin Hamilton resided, who suffered in 1666. Cambusnethan has been the scene of Christian martyrdom; for it was here that Arthur Inglis was killed by the troopers, when they found him sitting in the field reading the Word of God. On the eastern boundary of this parish, and at the junction of Clydesdale and Lothian, is the famous Darmeid Muir, where many a conventicle was held by the worthies in those suffering times; on which account, as Patrick Walker informs us, it got the name of the " Kirk of Darmeid." It is a secluded spot, and surrounded by high moorlands; so that a company of worshippers could remain long in its secrecy without their being observed, and the marshes and mosses contiguous to it would present an effectual barrier in the case of pursuit by horsemen. In this place Richard Cameron, on his return from Holland in 1680, held a fast with Cargill and Douglas; and here they agreed to maintain more firmly the standard of the Gospel, in the face of the abounding defection of the times. This led to the Sanquhar Declaration, which was published in the midsummer of this year. In 1683 Mr Renwick commenced his ministerial work in Scotland on the same hallowed spot, "taking up," as his biographer remarks, "the testimony of the standard of Christ where it had fallen, at the removal of the former witnesses, Messrs Cameron and Cargill."