As the soldiers were standing together irresolute, a noise came upon their ears like distant thunder, but even more appalling; and a slight current of air, as if propelled by it, passed whispering along the sweetbriers, and the broom, and the tresses of the birch trees.  It came deepening, and rolling, and roaring on; and the very Cartland Craigs shook to their foundation, as if in an earthquake.  “The Lord have mercy upon us!  What is this?” And down fell many of the miserable wretches on their knees, and some on their faces, upon the sharp-pointed rocks.  Now, it was like the sound of many myriads of chariots rolling on their iron axles down the strong channel of the torrent.  The old, gray-haired minister issued from the mouth of Wallace’s Cave, and said, in a loud voice, “The Lord God terrible reigneth!”

A waterspout had burst up among the moorlands, and the river, in its power, was at hand.  There it came, tumbling along into that long reach of cliffs, and, in a moment, filled it with one mass of waves.  Huge, agitated clouds of foam rode on the surface of a blood-red torrent.  An army must have been swept off by that flood.  The soldiers perished in a moment; but high up in the cliffs, above the sweep of destruction, were the Covenanters, men, women, and children, uttering prayers to God, unheard by themselves, in the raging thunder.

Notes.—­Lanark is a small town in the valley of the Clyde, in Scotland.  It is thirty miles southwest from Edinburgh.

Mouse River flows to the Clyde from the hills north of Larmrk.  Covenanter.—­Under Charles I., the Scotch were so oppressed that they organized in resistance.  The covenant was a famous paper, largely signed, in which they agreed to continue in the profession of their faith, and resist all errors.

Wallace’s Cave.—­William Wallace (b. 1270, d. 1305) was the foremost Scot of his times.  He was declared, in the absence of the king, guardian of the kingdom.  More than once was he outlawed and obliged to seek safety by concealment in the woods and caves.

XLIV.  SPARROWS. (185)

Adeline D. Train Whitney, 1824—­, was born in Boston, and was educated in the school of Dr. George B. Emerson.  Her father was Enoch Train, a well-known merchant of that city.  At the age of nineteen, she became the wife of Mr. Seth D. Whitney.  Her literary career began about 1856, since which time she has written several novels and poems; a number of them first appeared in the “Atlantic Monthly.”  Her writings are marked by grace and sprightliness. ###

Little birds sit on the telegraph wires,
  And chitter, and flitter, and fold their wings;
Maybe they think that, for them and their sires,
  Stretched always, on purpose, those wonderful strings: 
And, perhaps, the Thought that the world inspires,
  Did plan for the birds, among other things.

Little birds sit on the slender lines,
  And the news of the world runs under their feet,—­
How value rises, and how declines,
  How kings with their armies in battle meet,—­
And, all the while, ’mid the soundless signs,
  They chirp their small gossipings, foolish sweet.