At Wellwood he found a safe and comfortable abode for å few months; but the curate of Sorn having discovered his hiding-place, determined to employ every means for his apprehension. It happened on a clear moonlight night that a company of dragoons arrived at Wellwood, with the intention of seizing Hepburn. He was in bed, as were the whole family; and when his danger was perceived, every one became solicitous about his safety. The bright shining of the moon, sailing in silvery majesty along the dusky vault of the nocturnal sky, was unfavourable to his escape; for the watchful troopers were stationed around the dwelling to prevent his elopement. There happened, at the time to be a large quantity of wool piled in sacks at the one end of the house, and among these George, in his perplexity, resolved to attempt a concealment. Accordingly, he crept in among wool sacks, and ensconced himself in a soft hiding-place from the vigilance of the soldiers. The dwelling was searched in every corner without success; and the troopers coming to the place where the wool lay, instead of tearing it down, thrust their long swords between and into the heart of the sacks, if perchance they might probe any lurking fugitive among the wool. Their swords, however, did not reach the place where Hepburn lay; and they withdrew, thinking any further search unnecessary. This was the second time that this recent convert escaped his enemies, and Providence afforded him respite, that his faith in the Gospel, and his confidence in his profession, might become stronger.

the

During the short time which, after this, he remained at Wellwood, he was under the necessity of leaving the house at night, and of seeking a hiding-place on the banks of the Ayr. Here he found a cave to which he resorted every night, for the space, it is said, of six months. At length, having become tired of this precarious way of living, he determined to leave the district. Accordingly, he removed to the higher parts of Galloway, where he expected to meet with less annoyance; but in this he was disappointed. On his way to Galloway he called at the house of a true friend to the cause -Mr Campbell of Lochbruin. He was not at home, the soldiers having been in pursuit of him on a previous part of the day, and he had taken refuge among the dark and frowning heights on the romantic Water of Afton. Hepburn was prevailed on by the hospitable wife of William Campbell to spend the night in their house, as she expected her husband home in the evening. During the night the soldiers again visited the place, in the hope of finding Campbell, and they unhappily

seized on Hepburn. He was now in the firm grasp of his foes, who bound him tightly, and placed him on horseback behind one of the troopers, and having twisted a rope of hay, they attached him to the horseman, and rode off. In crossing a deep ravine, however, called Carcaw Burn, the rope gave way, and he slid from behind the dragoon and lighted safely on his feet, and being favoured by the obscurity of the night, he made his escape, and left the soldiers to grope their way after him in the best manner they could.

Having obtained this unexpected deliverance, he proceeded, according to his intention, to Galloway. As he advanced into the country, he fell in with Mr Renwick, to whom he now attached himself, and became his companion in travail. Many a time he listened to the glorious Gospel preached by this interesting youth, and great was the spiritual benefit he derived from his ministrations. In company with Mr Renwick, he frequently made narrow escapes from the military in the houses where they lodged.

Hepburn survived the persecution many years. He retired into Nithsdale, where he settled, and died, it is said, in 1728. He is probably the person who hid in a cave nearly opposite the village of Kirkconnell, a few miles above the town of Sanquhar. The old people have a tradition of a person of the name of Hepburn, who concealed himself in the fore-mentioned place, but can state nothing definite concerning him.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

James Muirhead-Mrs Hewatson-John Ferguson of Wee
Woodhead.

THE town of Dumfries is situated on the fair stream of the Nith, and occupies a place in the heart of one of the sweetest localities in the south of Scotland. This place, not unknown in Scottish history, was, in times of persecution, the scene of Christian martyrdom, and several of the witnesses for Christ's crown and covenant have their resting-place in its ancient burying-ground. The inhabitants of Dumfries had their own share of the troubles which befell the country in the stirring times of the royal brothers. The worthy men who moved in this emporium of the south, and in its immediate vicinity, felt, like their brethren in other places, the strong arm of oppression in the days when the honest inhabitants of the land were called to endure hardships for conscience' sake. One of the individuals who, belonging to this place, was in his day honoured to bear witness to the truth, and to suffer in its behalf, was James Muirhead, a bailie of the town. He was a man, it is said, of strict integrity in all his transactions, of great religious seriousness, and of uncommon placidity of mind. His brethren in the magistracy generally looked up to him with much deference; for he was a man universally esteemed. When he was in office, he laboured assiduously to screen the Nonconformists; and it was owing to his great efforts in this way that he was suspected of favouring the persecuted party. The justness of their principles, the holiness of their lives, and their constancy in suffering, had, it would appear, been operating for a good while deeply on his mind, and leading him gradually to the adoption of their views. At length the obvious interest which he manifested in behalf of the Covenanters led to his expulsion from office, and this being considered as a

public stigma, he became generally regarded as an obnoxious person. When matters were brought to this pass, he saw it was now needless to conceal his principles, and perceiving the danger in which he was placed, found it necessary to secure his safety by flight. To this his friends urged him, for they saw the storm that was coming, and they were anxious to hide him from its fury. He left the town in great secrecy, and pursued his way to Tinwald, where, in a friend's house, he found a retreat in quietude. In this concealment he remained for a good while, hoping, no doubt, that the tempest would soon pass away, and that he might in due time be forgotten; but his enemies were on the watch, for they considered him as an individual who ought not to pass with impunity. His retreat was at length discovered, and a party of soldiers were sent in as cautious a manner as possible to apprehend him. Accordingly, in an unexpected hour, they arrived at the place where he lodged. Their coming was so hasty, that all about the house was thrown into confusion. The great anxiety of the inmates was about the concealment of the refugee, and for doing this effectually no time was afforded, as the troopers were just at the door. There stood in the kitchen a wooden seat in the form of a sofa, called a lang settle-a piece of furniture common in those times. Underneath this seat the gudewife directed Muirhead to creep with all despatch, while she hastily covered him with a bundle of old clothes. The soldiers entered, and began the usual search, but though they explored every place, they never thought of looking below the lang settle, although they passed and repassed it, and probably sat down upon it. The troopers departed, and our worthy escaped.

His place of concealment in Tinwald being thus discovered, he found it necessary to seek another retreat. He now resolved to join the company of the wanderers who were lurking in the hilly parts of Kirkmahoe. This circumstance imparted much satisfaction to the sufferers in that district, whose hands were strengthened by the accession of so worthy a person to their number. In these secluded parts he and his associates continued for some time, till they were discovered. This occasioned their removal to another part of the locality; for these worthies had no fixed place of abode, but were driven about "like a ball in a wide country." At last, when he and a number of his friends in affliction were hiding in the neighbourhood of Carberrie Hill, on the west side of the Nith, opposite Dumfries, they were caught by the enemy, who exulted in their success in having at length apprehended a

man who had been for so long a period the object of their search. The troopers, it is said, used the party with great cruelty, and vented their rage in a very barbarous manner. Every indignity was employed; for they considered Muirhead a capital offender. His capture happened in the year 1684. His sufferings and death are incidentally mentioned by Wodrow, in speaking of the harassings of Mr William M'Millan of Caldow, in the parish of Balmaclellan, in Galloway: "On the 22d of November, he (Mr M'Millan) with upwards of eighty others, men, women, and some children, were carried to Moffat kirk, where they lay that night under great extremity of cold, being wet through, and most of them being in the hazard of drowning in the waters under the cloud of night, before they could reach that station. Next day, being Sabbath, the soldiers' travelling day, they were carried twenty-four miles to Peebles, under a guard of three troops of dragoons, commanded by Captain Clelland. There several of the prisoners were sorely beat and cruelly mocked by the barbarous soldiers, and all of these in hazard of their lives by crossing the water in a violent spate. Upon the 24th, they were carried to Leith Tolbooth, and reproached bitterly as they went through Edinburgh. There they were so thronged that they could scarce stand together, and had no conve nience so much as to ease nature. Here James Muirhead, late bailie of Dumfries, through the terrible fatigue, fell into a severe distemper; and such was the barbarity of this time, that neither surgeon nor physician was allowed him, and he died in Leith Tolbooth a little after their arrival.” Thus died among the hands of his barbarous foes this good man, and though he was not publicly executed on the scaffold, nor privately shot on the moorlands, yet he obtained the martyr's crown.

The following tradition relates to a worthy woman in the same county. The farm of Laight is situated in the beautiful valley of the Scar, in the parish of Tynron. It was in the times of the persecution occupied by Thomas Hewatson, in whose household was the fear of the Lord, and whose wife was, in common with himself, firmly attached to the cause of the covenants. The house of Laight, which stands on a rising ground, on the west bank of the pleasant stream which winds its way through the valley, was frequently visited, in the days of ecclesiastical oppression, by rude troopers, who were commissioned to seize the obnoxious inmates. Mrs Hewatson, to whom the following anecdotes refer, was a woman whose rare worth and firm religious principles gained