The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-11-27

us and a picture of Burley which Is dark and forbidding.
 XZOUNG Henry Morton having won
 the first prize. which was the
 4 title of Captain of the Popin- 1ay," by his skill In shooting at a stuffed popinjay on a pole at the militia gathering, or wapinschaw, of Upper Clydesdale, was entertaining his com petitors In the hospitable inn of Neil Blanc in the little borough town near the place of gathering. Besides those who had ridden with Morton from the waplnschaw there was at the inn a company of soldiers of the Royal Life Guards, under command of Sergeant Francis Stewart. called by his fellow dragons, and by his officers also, Ser geant Bothwell, as being the heir of the last Earl of Bothwel, whose name had been attained and whose estates had been confiscated. Bothwell had served as a soldier of fortune in many parts of the world and had been familiar with courts as well camps, but his disslpated and reckless character, his insubordination and his turbulence, had, in spite of his birth and his undoubted bravery and skill as soldier, reduced him to the humble position which he now held and kept him there.
 The times were those which imme
 diately preceded the uprising of the Covenanters in the year 1679 The sec
 tion of country in which the opening of the story is laid was strongly Presbyterian, the sterner of the sect, those who scorned to "sit under" an ''indulged" minister, but thought him but false shepherd" who, though of their own faith, made any compro- mise with government, these fanatics, stern, cruel and bloody, regarded the wapinschaw as flowing down to Baal" "profanation and goddess revel or siHs=though in truth the thing was Harmless enough. Harmless enough from any standpoint, as the loyal gen try of the country though they had ex- erted themselves to the utmost, had been able to muster but a scant ant motely assemblage of armed vassals and retainers. Most of the peasantry and yoemanry simply discoursed about "Belial" the scarlet woman,' and other unpleasant persons and refused to attend. There was at the gathering the courag- eous and stately dame, the widowed Lady Margaret Bellenden, in whose house the | Fewer of Tillietudem. his sacred majesty | the second Charles had once "degned to | partake of his disiune"-as she told every one who would listen to her over and over again with all the narrowing details of that morning feast until self preser- walton required that the good lady should be cut short by some inter5ected sub ject as soon as she was observed ap- preaching the subject of His Majesty's | breakfast Lady Margaret had chair ! fin which His Majesty had sat and called | 1t the throne, and would allow no one 10 sit in it. But she was obliged. in order to fill up the quota of her vas- sals on the day of the wapinschat, to arm the butler and the household serv- ants, even calling in the service of Goose Gibble, the half-witted goose boy, and | inclosing him in jackboots and breast plate. Tn this guise, being mounted on a horse, Gibble looked fierce enough un- til, before the whole assembled gentry, | > Lady Margaret's improvised man-at-arms
  ed with difficulty from the entanglement | of his sword and armor, greatly to the amusement of the crowd and to the modification and rage of Lady Margaret.
 But the adventures of Goose Gibble had not so much interested Lady Margaret's granddaughter, the fair Edith Bellenden, whose attention was more bestowed upon Henry Morton. Mortons father, Silas Morton, had been a Roundhead soldier in the days of Cromwell, but had afterward served with the royal party in the events which had led to the restoration of the House of Stuart. Henry lived with his uncle, Morton of Milnwood, a cautious old miser, who, though a Presbyterian, ''sat under an "indulged" minister-that is, one who had taken out a license from the government to preach-and sought In every way in those troublous times to keep on the side of the powerful. Henry, though of the faith of his father, was what was called moderate and had no liking for the fanatical tenets of the Cameronians, as the more violent portion of the Covenanters were called, or of those other extremists who would make the restoration of the Solemn League and Covenant" the first and only work