Swindon Burn, down what is called The Lady's Walk, Grisell nightly came
to the vault with her little store of provisions. She was an
imaginative, poetic little maid, and the whisper of the wind in the lime
trees that grew on either hand would make her shiver, and yet more
loudly would her heart thump when in the darkness she stumbled over the
graves in the kirkyard, and remembered all the tales she had ever heard
of bogles and of ghosts. That lonely walk in the night must always have
been full of terrors, yet Grisell's love for her father was so great
that she steadfastly braved them all. One fear only she had--that of the
soldiers. The wind moaning through the trees or rustling the long grass,
the sound of a rabbit or some other wild thing in the bracken, the
sudden bark of a dog,--all these made her sure that some spy had found
out her secret, and sent her running as fast as her little legs could
carry her to try to save her father from his captors. The first night
she went was the worst, for the minister kept dogs, and the manse was
near the church, and even her light footfall was sufficient to set every
one of them a-barking. But Lady Home sent for the minister next day, and
upon the pretence of one of them being mad, persuaded their owner to
hang them all. Grisell and her father had the same sunny nature, and
both dearly loved a joke, and each amusing little incident of the day
was saved up by the former to be told while the prisoner made a meal on
the food which she brought with her. Many a hearty laugh they had
together in that dark, dismal place, and often Grisell stayed so late
that she had to run up the glen, so as to get home before day dawned.
The difficulties she encountered in securing food enough for her father
without arousing the suspicion of the servants was always a subject for
jest, for, more often than not, the only possible means of getting the
food was by surreptitiously conveying it, during a meal, from her own
plate into her lap. Her amazing appetite was bound to be commented upon,
but never did she surprise her brothers and sisters more than on a day