The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1857-12-23

Charles. But the truth was, that Neil
! had Joined him short time before the
battle of Culloden, being drawn at last
from his home by the spectacle of an in
| vading enemy in his native country.
Let us leave for while the landlord Of
| the Crook, to whom this was destined to
be an eyentful day, and follow the party
of soldiers in their slow march up the
vale of Tweed. As the landlord had pre-
dicted, the mists did not claar up as the
day grew older. Other par.s-ef thazeauu. :.
try, indeed, might have been free of fog,
but at every STEP. the soldiers were NOV
ing higher aud higher, and the white eriz-
cling feeces on the hill-sides became
thicker and thicker
1t is TO be questioned if there is in all
the Lowlands of Scotland, more eleyat-
ed piece of table land than that lying
some ten miles above Crook, from which
springs the foundations of the three great
riyers-the Clyde, the Amman, and the
Tweed. 1 he road travelled by Maclaren
and his captors, crossed this obtrnsely
pyramidal height at a spot called Erriek-
Stane Brae
After the height of the country had
been passed it proceeded for some way
| along the brink of hollow, in which the
AMMAN takes its rise, aud which is usually
termed the Devils but sometimes also the
| Marquis of Annandale's Beef Tub, from
some resem blance 1t bears to that domes
tic utensii, and because the robbers of he
great Border house of Johnstone, used of
old to conceal their stolen cattle in it.
As implied by this appellation, the
sides of this hollow are nearly perpen-
dic1lar all around; in clear weather, a
traveller looking down into it from the.
road is surprised at its depth. On the
present occasion however, it was filled to
the brim by the dense fog which pervaded
the atmosphere.
The soldiers, though the country was
entirely new to them, passed along the
high and perilous road with feelings little
impressed by it The dreariness and
monotony of their days. march bad render
ed their minds dull and inattentive, aud
Instead of keeping a close circle round
their prisoner, they struggled along IN the
line, in which he was sometimes near the
rear. Very different was the mental con-
dition OF Maclsren, who, from his having
passed this way with cattle, was aequaint-
ed with every foot of the way, and long
meditated particular mode of escape,
wbioh he was now to put into execution
How great the astonishmsnt OF the
soldiers when Maclaren, who at one mo-
ment was pacing quietly along iu the
dreary march, was the next seen to start
from their line, towards the edge of the.
precipice, over which he plunged head
foremost, and was instantly out of sight.
To rush after him was but tho work of
q moment; yet so quick had been his
movements, that he was already absorbed
in the sea of mist which filed the Beef
Tub. With his head firmly clenched be-
tween his knees, and holding his feet In
his hands, he had formed his body ss near
Iy as possible into q round form, and al
lowed himself freely to roll heels over
head down the steep side of the hollow,
the surface of which he knew presented
at this place DO Instructions capable of
iDjuring him. In their ignorance of the
ground, no one burst follow him. The
brave lieutenant could only, as soon as he
recovered breath, exclaim with an oath
-..Stop, sir arrest you in,the kings
name ' while the soldiers fred their
muskets at random into the gulf, CT ran
little way round its edges in the hope of
finding less perilous descent to the bot
tom. 1t was all in vain and, after once
more gathering, they could only console
themselves with the undoubtipg assurance
that the rascal must have broken his neck
in the descent, and so relieved the king of
the duty of Furnishing his rebellion.
He arrived, however, at the bottom,
without the slightest injury; and the mo-
ascent on the opposite side. When he
~. I.
with the ground, he set off at full speed iu
the direction of his father in-laW's house,
not the road in which -he had come, but
the hill sides, where he was not likely to
be seen by any one He took this route,
in the hope that in some of the many cor
ner holes about Crook he might easily lie
until the hue and cry was blown
uver.
After the departure of the sol5iers, the
landlord was surprised by the arrival of /
visitors that were near and dear to him
namely, his daughter Allie with her rinfant
child. The poor young thing had heard
Of her husbands capture, and was on the
way to Carlisle to beg his life, or to die
with him. Her parents persuaded or
rather compelled her TO stay a night with
tuctu III OEuCI W tdAc tudb IcsbOl HDiCH
she stood SO much In need but as may
be imagined they could offer her no other
Consolation however, was
not far off, though they then saw it not.
After night had set in, the landlord, with
he view of excluding as much as possible
al Spectators of his daughters grief, went
put in person to bring supply of fuel for
,he parlor FIRE from the peat stock While
al IL
voice whispered his name and 6uding by
he terrified {. whats that ?r that it was
ais father-in-law, Maclaren revealed him
'elf, and told the story Of his marvellous
escape. 1t would be hard to say whether
oy or alarm was the most predominantin in
he old mans mind on hearing it, for he
cared the return of the soldiers He had
nevertheless no thought for an instant of
abandoning Neil. He led his son in-law
o an unoccppied and well concealed part
# his premises, aud then, having prepar-