Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 November 1891 — CHAPTER IV. [ARTICLE]

CHAPTER IV.

WILLIE GOES TO CASTLE HUNGER. John Mossknow, the laird of Linne, sat in the library of the Castle—a large wainscot ted chamber, the walls of whice were adorned with a ~few old books and numerous empty shelves. A couple of fowling pieces hung over the quaintly carved oak chimney piece, and above them were the stuffed head and branching antlers of a red deer. The floor of the room was of polished oak, and in the recess of the one window, which commanded a dreary prospect seaward, was an oaken seat. A huge book upon his knee, Mossknow sat in an arm chair by the fire, reading. He was a dark but tolerably well-favored man in the prime of life, with bright, piercing eyes, thin bps. and a high, narrow forehead ; but for the frown which habitually darkened his face he might have been called handsome. It was close upon midnight, and all but the master of the house had retired to rest. Suddenly the laifd started, hearing a footstep outside the window; the next moment a mastiff in - the rear of the house barked loudly, and some one tapped softly on the window-pane. Mossknow started up and crossed to the window. “Open! open!” crid a voice. “Who’s there?” asked the laird. “Open and seer 1 Irah an angry exclamation the laird threw open the lattice of the window, which reached nearly to the ground; when, almost before he could utter a cry, a wild figure crept through the opening and leaped into the room. Mossknow knew him in a momeut; it was Willie the Preacher. “What brings you here?” cried the laird, startled in spite of himself by the apparition. “How dare you enter this house at such an hour?” “Bide a wee,” returned Willie, calmly, ‘ till I get my breath.” “Out of that window as you came! Out of this house, ye drunken vagabond!”

‘ ‘l’ll go when my business i 3 done, ’ l said themedicant. “I have a message to deliver, drunk or sober. Listen to me, John Mossknow, or refuse to listen to me and I’ll cry ye up and down the length and bredth of the laud as a man forsworn, a man of sin, and a liar, as ye are! From house to house I’ll run, like one that carries the fiery cross, till all the world knows you, till honest men turn their backs on you, till you have to bury your head from the sight of the sunshine, and maybe, in your shame, to flee the land!” □Livid with rage, not unmixed with fear, the laird listened to this extraordinary exhortation, delivered in a loud voice, in a tone of impassioned oratory. .. “Silence, you limmer!” he cried, as Willie paused. “Would ye wake the house?”

“I’ll wake the depths o’ Hell, if need be, in such a cause,” answered sinking his voice a little; nevertheless. “I come here from Lizzie Campbell, who is your wife in the sight of God, and from your own begotten son, who in the sight of God should be your heir.” “She sent you! D——■ her!” “Forbear your curses, John Mossknow, lest they come back, like ravens, to rest on your own roof. Yes, I come from the mother of your child, Robin Campbell as he is called, Robin Mossknow, lord of Linne, as he yet shall be.” “What does the woman want?” cried the laird. “Justice,” answered Willie. “She wants to know if you mean to break your word. She has kept your secret. Will you ke%p your promise?” “I promised nothing.” “That’s a lie, John Mossknow! You promised to make hey your wife. Eh. man,” he continued more gently, “have you no heart? Can vou sec that bonnie flower withering by the wayside? Can you see your bairn, flesh of your flesh and bone of your bone, cast away and neglected like the child of shame?” “I have done all I can,” returned the laird, fiercely. “She chose her own road, instead of doing my will, and must take the consequences.” “Man, do ye no’ think shame,” cried Willie, “to stand there in the sight of God, naked in sin and not afraid? Blood is thicker than water, John Mossknow, mipd trial! I have seen your wife and son, and unless you speak the word, they will sail away from you fjrever, leaving their curse to haunt you and bring the wrath of the Lord on the wicked, house of Linne. ”

“What do they want from me? Once and for all, understand that I deny having made any promise. You say she is leaving this place —so much the better. She is a wise woman." “She is a fool,” answered Willie, sententiously. “Were I in her shoon* I would stay here and cry out On you before all the world, till you set wrong right and took home your son. But mind this, Mossknow! If she is dumb, I have a tongue! It will be an ill day when 1 begin to speak!" The laird glared into the speaker's pale, determined face, and then, with an imprecation, strode up and down

the room. In spite of himself, he was somewhat daunted; for he knew what a power the man was in the district, how often his prophecies and denunciations had stirred up local storms, and made the place too hot for evil doers. Suddenly he paused, and faced his tormentor. “You want money, I suppose? That is why she has sent you.” “She wants what is her own,” returned the mehdican t. - ‘She talks of going to Canada, and has no siller to take her there.” ■* “How much does she want?” “Just a trifle,” said Willie; “about as much as John Mossknow has wasted at the gaming table in a night. Say, one hundred pounds!” “A hundred pounds!” echoed the laird. “ The man is mad!” “The man's wise enough, as ycu ken.” ’ & ■ “I’ll stay till my business is done,” was the quiet reply; and suiting the action to the words, Willie quietly seated himself in the arm chair where the laird had been seated before he entered. Then, while Mossknow shook with rage, he took up the large volume which the other had been reading, and, opening it, said, as if talking to himself—- “ Famous Scottish Criminal Trials and Capital Offences, selected and arranged by a Writer to,the Signet, Anno Domini 1797.” Fine reading for a lonely night, John Mossknow, and a braw motto —Juseitia ruat coelum et terram. I’m glad ye ken the law: but what the law spares God still punishes, and the seducer will stand yet before the Judgment seat!

“Hold vour tongue,” cried the laird, standing over him with clenched hands, “or I’ll strangle you!” In a moment, Willie was on his feet, and before the laird could make a movement or utter a cry, he had seized him in a grip of iron, and pinned him against the wall. Mossknow, although a powerful man, was no match for the mendicant. He tried to shriek for help, but the sinewy fingers gripped his throat anc) choked the shriek in its bii’th. “Man, man, I could thaw your neck like a young cock's said Willie. “See what strength God gives those that serve Him over those that bring him dishonor. But there, waste no time! Give me the siller, that I may take it this night to her ye have wronged!” [to be continted.]