the land.  In courage my wild men are more than a match for the Lowlanders.  It is true that in the old days the clans could never carry their forays southward, for, unaccustomed to discipline and unprovided with horses or even with firearms, they fared but badly when opposed to steel-clad men and knights in armor.  But I trust it will be different this time.  I cannot hope to infuse any great discipline among them.  But they can at least be caught to charge in line, and their broad claymores may be trusted to hew a way for them through the lines of the Lowlanders.  I trust, above all things, that the king will not be persuaded to negotiate with the traitors who are opposed to him.  I know, Master Furness, that, from what you have said, your views run not there with mine, and that you think a compromise is desirable.  But you do not know these fanatics as I do.  While they clamor for toleration, they are the narrowest of bigots, and will themselves tolerate nothing.  Already I have news that the convention between the Scotch conventicle and the English rebels is agreed to, and that an order has gone forth that the Presbyterian rites are to be observed in all the churches of England.  They say that thousands of divines will be turned from their churches and their places filled with ignorant fanatics, and this they call religious liberty.  Why, when Laud was in power his rule was as a silken thread compared to the hempen rope of these bigots, and should the king make terms with them, it will be only to rule henceforth at their bidding, and to be but an instrument in their hands for enforcing their will upon the people of these countries.”

Much as Harry desired peace and leaned toward compromise, he saw that there was much in what the earl said.  All the accounts that reached them from the youth told of the iron tyranny which was being exercised throughout England.  Everywhere good and sincere men were being driven from their vicarages to live how best they might, for refusing to accept the terms of the convention.  Everywhere their places were filled with men at once ignorant, bigoted, and intolerant; holy places were desecrated; the cavalry of the Commons was stabled in St. Paul’s; the colored windows of the cathedrals and churches were everywhere destroyed; monuments were demolished; and fanaticism of the narrowest and most stringent kind was rampant.

During the time they spent at the castle the lads were greatly amused in watching the sports and exercises of the Highlanders.  These consisted in throwing great stones and blocks of wood, in contests with blunted claymores, in foot races, and in dances executed to the wild and strange music of the bagpipes—­music which Jacob declared was worse than the caterwauling upon the housetops in Cheapside.