BY THE REV. CHARLES THOMSON, OF NORTH SHIELDS
(LATTERLY FREE CHURCH MINISTER, WICK).
IV.
(Continued from p. 377).
IN the course of those frequent and rigorous searchings after John Steel, the military paid many a marauding visit to Waterhead, wasting what they could not consume; and always when they went away plundering the house, and carrying off corn, or cattle, or any other thing which they found, that would answer their purpose. But they were not always permitted to do this without obstruction. John Steel was a brawny, powerful man, possessed of great agility, capable of enduring excessive fatigue, sagacious in counselling, prudent in planning, and just as bold and brave in executing. He is said to have been of a most upright and honourable character; which was strikingly displayed in his open and manly countenance. These qualities rendered him a great and general favourite amongst his acquaintance; and being in the prime and vigour of life, he was by no means disposed tamely to permit his enemies to pillage his property, and insult and harass his wife and children. Almost all the shepherds of the district loved “the Laird,” and he, therefore, by some means or other, received information of what was doing at Waterhead. On one occasion, the dragoons had loaded their horses with his corn, and had carried it to Milton barn, a place about three miles distant from Waterhead. John went, in the night with a party of his friends, and carried it off. At another time, he followed, and, at night, recovered a flock of sheep which the plunderers had driven away. Amidst the solitudes near the source of Logan Water, in Auchangilloch Glen, did the followers of the Lamb assemble to worship the God of Israel, while the persecutors of Jesus of Nazareth were scouring the country, seeking whom they might devour. From the deep recesses of this dark and lonely region ascended the praises of the Mighty One of Jacob; and the waters of life flowed forth in the melancholy waste, to refresh his inheritance when it was weary; and the wilderness and the solitary place were made glad for them; and the desert did rejoice and blossom as the rose. It blossomed* abundantly, and rejoiced even with joy and singing; the glory of Lebanon was given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon; they beheld the glory of Jehovah, the majesty of our God. Strengthened were the weak hands and confirmed the tottering knees. It was said unto the faint-hearted, “Be strong, fear not, behold your God! vengeance! the retribution of God will come; He will come Himself, and will save you.” When the disciples of Jesus had finished their devotions, those from Lesmahagow were returning home, with John Steel in the party. Intelligence reached them, as they were coming down Logan, that a troop of cavalry had taken up quarters at Waterhead. A number of the Covenants were armed. It was now dark, and when they drew near the persecutors Steel ordered those who had muskets to fire, and the rest to clap their hands and shout. They did so; which alarmed the dragoons to such a degree that, cowardly as they were cruel, they mounted their horses and galloped off. “The wicked fleeth, when no man pursueth; but the righteous is bold as a lion.”
One evening, when Steel was at home, and the household were assembled “at the buik,”† a party of soldiers stole softly upon them, and the night being dark, had, notwithstanding a person was stationed to give notice if the persecutors appeared, completely surrounded the house before they were observed. To escape into the fields was impossible. “I am a gane man,” exclaimed the Covenanter, as his courage for a moment faltered. “Na, Johnnie,” said his heroic wife, “ye’re no gane yet”; and she hurried him into the byre, and as he lay down in a corner with the “mickle Bible” spread upon his breast, tumbled a quantity of litter upon him. The persecutors searched all the house, and the out-houses, but could not find him. They were convinced, however, that he was somewhere upon the premises, and called for candles that they might search more rigorously. Mrs Steel, trembling for her husband, but aware that to betray reluctance would only confirm the soldiers in their too well-grounded convictions, readily replied, that they should have such lights as she could give. Whereupon, she took bunches of wet straw, twisted them together for torches, thrust them into the fire, and ran with them, blazing in the soldiers faces, into the byre. The men went up to the heap of litter where John Steel was, and began to stog* the straw with their swords. The backs of Steel’s hands were slightly wounded, but he bore the pain without shrinking. His wife, however, was convinced that such a method of search would either soon discover or destroy her husband; she, therefore, while fumbling with the wet straw torch, dropped it out of her hand into a large tub containing that in which the cannie wives of Clydesdale used, in ancient times, to scour their blankets. The stench and suffocation, which had formerly been almost past endurance, now became intolerable; and the soldiers, cursing and swearing, ran for breath into the open air, and departed. One of them, who was supposed to have joined the persecutors, for the very purpose of assisting the Covenants to escape, lingered behind the rest, and, when they were a little way off, he returned to the house, and said, “Niest time ye hide, gudewife, hide better. I saw the edge of your husband’s shoe, but with the point of my sword I directed a little strae upon it, for Johnnie Steel’s blude shall not lie on my head.”
During this dismal period Marion Steel was delivered of a child when a party of soldiers was watching the house. Some of them behaved in so shameful and indecent a manner as to cause even their comrades to blush, wicked and hardened as they were. In 1684, John Steel, having heard that one of the outed ministers was hiding about Lanark, proceeded thitherward, for the purpose of engaging him to come to Waterhead and baptize his young child. He was accompanied by Archibald Stewart of Underbank, near Stonebyres, in Lesmahagow. When they were near the head of Lanark Braes, they were met at a spot, still called Steel’s Cross, by some persons who knew the two Covenants. One of them threw Stewart to the ground, and kept him down; but Steel, who was a very powerful man, made a stout resistance; and would, in all probability, soon have delivered himself and rescued his friend, had not the Miller of Mouse-mill, who had seen Steel, whom he knew, pass, and dogged his steps, that he might give information of him, for the reward, come behind them as they were struggling and, with the mill-rynd† felled him to the ground. After Steel appeared to be quite dead the party went to Lanark with Stewart, their prisoner, rejoicing at the prospect of getting the thousand merks set upon Steel’s head. Having delivered up Stewart, they returned with a party of soldiers to remove Steel’s corpse into the town; but, during their absence, the cold, for it was winter and a keen frost, stanched his wounds, and he recovered so far from his stupor as to be able to crawl down the braes. Clyde was frozen over, and a number of people were curling on the ice. The players were so intent upon their national game that Steel crossed the river unobserved, and hid among the broom, on the opposite side, on Boat-hill. When the party from Lanark came to lift his corpse, to their bitter disappointment he was not to be found; which so irritated the soldiers that they fell upon the miller, who had wounded Steel, and beat him “till within an inch of his life.” A little old white pony came, and looked upon John Steel while he was lurking in the broom. Afraid lest it should attract attention, he tried to scare it away, but it grazed near him till night came on, when he mounted it and rode home. An owner could never afterwards be found for the pony, though diligently sought for; and the little nag was kept at Waterhead, and petted till it died of old age. From Waterhead Steel went to his dreary hiding-hole on Mennock Hill, where he remained till his wounds were healed; but he bore on his head the scars occasioned by the mill-rynd till his dying day. Archibald Stewart was taken to Glasgow, convicted of being a Christian, and hanged. His body was buried in the churchyard of St Mungo’s, where his name appears, along with the names of several other martyrs, on a stone attached to the north wall of that majestic and venerable pile. Stewart, who was about twenty years of age, was the particular friend of Donald Cargill, and was with him when he narrowly escaped from being taken at Queensferry.
* “Surely,” said Renwick, “if God could be tied to a spot, it would, methinks, be to the muirs of Scotland.—The mosses and mountains of the West are flowered with Martyrs.”
† At the buik, at family worship.
* To stog, to push a stick, sword, or other instrument, into anything not liquid, for the purpose of ascertaining what is below.
† Mill-rynd, a piece of iron, resembling a star, or the rowel of an old spur, sunk into the centre of the upper millstone. There is a square orifice in the middle of it for receiving the iron spindle by which the upper millstone is turned.—Jamieson.