THE ENTERKIN FIGHT.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 433, 24 January 1912, Page 2

THE ENTERKIN FIGHT.

"DELIVER OUR MINISTER."

The Enterkin, an eerie glen in the Lowthers, is the scene of a bloodstirring adventure in the Killing Times.

A party of twenty-eight soldiers were marching, two by two, up the narrow path, the abyss with its "dismal bottom" on the right. With them they had some sixteen prisoners, one of them a minister, on theii way to "glorify God at the Grassmarket," as his Grace of Lauderdale aptly put it. Suddenly, out o! the mist on the hilltop, high above them, came a man's voice, calling loudly. The procession halted. "What d'ye want, and who an ye ?" called the commanding officer.

Thereat came out of the mist, anc stood 0 n the hillside, twelve men. "What are ye ?" again called th< officer. "Stand !"

To which came the reply of tin leader of the men above, " Make ready !"

To the dragoon officer on the narrow path below he then called, "Sir will ye deliver our minister ?"

With an oath the dragoon shemtec back, "No, sir, an' ye were to b« damned !"

A shot from the Covenanting lea3er ended the parley. It was aimed truly. The officer fell from his horse shot through the head. The horse reared, swayed, and crashed dowr the precipice, rolling over and over, ind arriving a crushed and mangled mass of dead flesh in the glen far below. The twelve men on the hill had prepared to fire a volley wher the officer next in command callec for a parley. That mangled mass o< bones and blood beneath them sickened the soldiers. "Not a man c them durst stir a foot or ofler tc fire a shot." It was the last droi in their cup of dread when twe scouts returned to tell them that at the top of the hill in front thert awaited yet another body of armed men. The dragoon officer called tc she foe above inquiring what they would have.

"Deliver our minister," was the re-

ply. "Well, sir," said the dragoon, 'ye'fee get your minister an' ye will lorbear firing." "Indeed, we'll forbear," called the leader of the enemy. "We desire tc aurt none of ye ; but, sir, belike ye aave more prisoners ?" "Indeed have we," said the officer. "An' ye maun deliver them all/' said the Covenanter.

"Well,ye shall have them, then,' said the dragoon. "Bring forward the minister." So the minister's bonds were cut, ind he climbed up the rocky hillside ind joined his deliverers. "You owe your life to this damnec mountain," said the officer, as he set him free.

"Rather, sir," said the minister, •'to that God that made this mountain."

When the minister had safely reached his friends, the leader called t< ;he dragoons to deliver the other prisoners, and they too, were allowed to climb the hillside. The officer, feeling then that his part o! the bargain had been handsomely fulfilled, called to the Covenanters to withdraw the men posted at the aead of the pass.

"They belong not to us," was the reply. "They are unarmed people waiting till you pass by." "Say you so ?" asked the officer. "Had I known that, you had not gotten your men so cheap, or come off so free !"

"Are ye for battle, sir ?" asked the gallant soldier of the Covenant. "We are ready for you still. If you think you are able for us, ye may try your hands. We quit the truct if you like." "No," said the officer—and Defoe, who tells the tale, puts the refusal in italics—"l think ye be bravo fellows. E'en gang your gait."—"A Land of Romance."