What could I do, sir? You that's a sodger will think me but a silly auld
wife; but I fed him, and relieved him, and keepit him hidden till the
pursuit was ower."
"And who," said Morton, "dares disapprove of your having done so?"
"I kenna," answered the blind woman; "I gat ill-will about it amang some
o' our ain folk. They said I should hae been to him what Jael was to
Sisera. But weel I wot I had nae divine command to shed blood, and to
save it was baith like a woman and a Christian. And then they said I
wanted natural affection, to relieve ane that belanged to the band that
murdered my twa sons."
"That murdered your two sons?"
"Ay, sir; though maybe ye'll gie their deaths another name. The tane fell
wi' sword in hand, fighting for a broken national Covenant; the
tother,--oh, they took him and shot him dead on the green before his
mother's face! My auld een dazzled when the shots were looten off, and,
to my thought, they waxed weaker and weaker ever since that weary day;
and sorrow, and heart-break, and tears that would not be dried, might
help on the disorder. But, alas! betraying Lord Evandale's young blood
to his enemies' sword wad ne'er hae brought my Ninian and Johnie alive
again."
"Lord Evandale?" said Morton, in surprise.
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