Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1856-07-26
H COVENANTERS.

enioy this ride to Aberdeen more than any
thing we had seen ct, tie country is so wild and
singular. In the afternoon we came IN sight OF
tho German Ocean. The free. bracing air from
the sea. the thought that it actually was the Ger
man Ocean, and shat over the other side was Nor
way, within a days sail of us, gave it a strange,
rumantic charm.
Suppose we Just run over to Norway; said one
Of us; and then came the idea, what we should do
if we got over there. seeing none OF us understood
Morse.
TAe whole coast along here is wild and rock
hound; occasionally long points jut into the sea;
the blue waves sparkle and dash against them in
little Jets Gf foam, and the sea birds dive and
scream around them.
On one of these points, near the town of Stone
haven, are still seen the ruins of Dunottar Castle,
bare and desolate, surrounded on all sides by the
restless, moaning waves; a place Justly held accur-
sed for the cruelties to the Coyenanters. 50 appall-
ing and brutal as to make the blsUd boil in the ie-
cital, even in this late day.
During the rpigns of Charles and James. sove-
reigns whom Macaulay justly designated as Belial
and Moloch, this castle was the state prison for
coninirg these noble people, In the reign of
James, one hundred and sixty.seven prisoners.
men W men and children, for refusing the oath of
supremacy, were arrested at their ~tiresides; herded
together like cattle; driven at the point Of the hay
onet, amid the gihs, ieers, and SCOTS of soldiers, up
this dreary place, and thrust promiscuously into u
dark vault in this castle; almost smothered in filth
and mire; n prev to pestilent disease, and to every
m~alignity which brutality could inAict, they died
here unpitied. A few escaping down the rocks
were recap,ured, and subjected to shocking tor
lures.
A moss-grown gravestone, in the parish church
yard of Dunottar, shows the last resting place OF
these sufferers.
Walter Scott, who visited this place. says, 1.-THE
peasantrv continue to attach to the tombs Of these
victims an honor which they do not render to more
splendid mausoleums; and when they point them
out to their suns, and narrate the fate of the suffer.
ers, usually conclude by exhorting them to be rea'
dy, should the times call for it. to resist to the
death in the cause Of civil and religious liberty like
their brave toretathers."
1t is also related by Gilfllan, that a minister
from this vicinity, having once lost his way in
travelling through a distant part Of Scotland, vain
" solicited the services of Il guide for sumo time
all helng engaged in peat cutting; at last one o
tie farmers, some of whose ancestors had been in
cluded among the sufferers. discovering that he
came from this vicinity. had seen the gravestunes
and could repeat the inscription, was willing t,
give up half a days work 10 guide him on hi'
way.
It is well that such spots should he venerated ~
sacred shrines among the descendants of the Gov
enanters, to whom Scotland owes what she is ant
all she may become.
Penple in cilden houses. on silken couches, n
ease among books. aud friends, and literary pas
times. may sneer at the Covenanters; it is mucI
easier TO sneer than to die for truth and right, n
they did. Whether they were right in all respect
is nothing to the purpose; but it is to the purpos
that in u crisis Of their %country's history they mp
held n great principle vital to her existence. na
not these men held up the heart of Scotland, nm
kept alive the fire of liberty on her affairs, tn,
very literature which has been used to defam
} them could rot have had its existencs, The YER
literary Gel Alri,y of Scotland has grown out q
their grave; for a vigorous and original l~iteratur
! is impossible, except 10 n strong, free, self-respec
ing people. The literature Of a people must sprin
nom the sense Of it's nationality; and natiunalir
is impossible without self-respect, and self-respeC
, is impossible without liberty.
1t is one Of the trials of oer mortal state. one
the iisciplines of our virtue, that the worlds Der
F. efac,nrs and reforms are so often without form q
G comeliness. The very force necessary to sustai
. the conflict makes them APT ear unlovely; the
d "tread the press alone, and Of the people there
none with them" The shrieks, and groans, an
o agonies of men wrestling in mortal combat an
. often not graceful or gracious; but the c1mmen,
that the children of the Puritans, and the childre
OF the Cuvenanters. make on the ungraceful ar
a severe elements which marked the struggles
their great fathers, are as ill-timed us If a so
whom a mother had just borne from a burnir
dwelling, should c~ritizise the shrieks with while
she sought him. and point cot to ridicule the di