Chapter I: Front Matter

THE STANDARD BEARER

BOOKS BY S. R. CROCKETT.

Uniform edition. Each, 12 mo. Cloth, $1.50.

Lads’ Love.

_Illustrated._

In this fresh and charming story, which in some respects recalls “The
Lilac Sunbonnet,” Mr. Crockett returns to Galloway and pictures the
humor and pathos of the life which he knows so well.

Cleg Kelly, Arab of the City.

His Progress and Adventures.

_Illustrated._

“A masterpiece which Mark Twain himself has never rivaled.... If ever
there was an ideal character in fiction it is this heroic
ragamuffin.”--_London Daily Chronicle._

“In no one of his books does Mr. Crockett give us a brighter or more graphic picture of contemporary Scotch life than in ‘Cleg Kelly.’ It is one of the great books.”--_Boston Advertiser._

Bog-Myrtle and Peat.

“Here are idyls, epics, dramas of human life written in words that thrill and burn.... All are set down in words that are fit, chaste, and noble. Each is a poem that has the immortal flavor.”--_Boston Courier._

The Lilac Sunbonnet.

“A love story pure and simple--one of the old-fashioned, wholesome, sunshiny kind, with a pure-minded, sound-hearted hero, and a heroine who is merely a good and beautiful woman; and if any other love story half so sweet has been written this year it has escaped our notice.”--_New York Times._

NEW YORK: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.

THE STANDARD BEARER

BY

S. R. CROCKETT

AUTHOR OF
THE LILAC SUNBONNET, BOG-MYRTLE AND PEAT,
CLEG KELLY, LADS’ LOVE, THE RAIDERS, ETC.

NEW YORK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1898

COPYRIGHT, 1897, 1898,
BY S. R. CROCKETT.

_GRATEFULLY AND RESPECTFULLY
I DEDICATE
TO THE GOOD AND KINDLY FOLK
OF MY NATIVE PARISH OF BALMAGHIE
THIS RENDERING OF
STRANGE HAPPENINGS AMONG THEIR FOREBEARS,
OF WHICH THEY HAVE
NOT YET QUITE LOST THE MEMORY._

THE FOREWORD.

A book iron-grey and chill is this that I have written, the tale of times when the passions of men were still working like a yeasty sea after the storms of the Great Killing. If these pages should chance to be read when the leaves are greening, they may taste somewhat unseasonably in the mouth. For in these days the things of the spirit had lost their old authority without gaining a new graciousness, and save for one man the ancient war-cry of “God and the Kirk” had become degraded to “The Kirk and God.”

This is the story of the one man whose weak and uncertain hand held aloft the Banner of Blue that I have striven to tell--his failures mostly, his loves and hates, his few bright days and his many dark nights. Yet withal I have found green vales of rest between wherein the swallow swept and the cuckoo called to her mate the cry of love and spring.

Who would know further and better of the certainty of these things must procure and read A Cameronian Apostle, by my excellent friend, the Reverend H. M. B. Reid, presently minister of the parish wherein these things were done, in whose faithful and sympathetic narrative they will find many things better told than I can tell them. The book may be had of the Messrs. Gardiner, of Paisley, in Scotland.

Yet even in this imperfect narrative of strange events there may be heard the beating of a man’s heart, weak or strong, now arrogant, and now abased, not according to the fear of man or even of the glory of God, but more according to the kindness which dwelt in woman’s eyes.

For there is but one thing stronger in the world than the love of woman. And that is not of this world.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE

I.--THE YEAR TERRIBLE 1

II.--THE BLOOD OF THE MARTYRS 15

III.--THE LITTLE LADY OF EARLSTOUN 22

IV.--MY SISTER ANNA 30

V.--I CONSTRUCT A RAFT 42

VI.--ACROSS THE MOONLIGHT 52

VII.--MY BROTHER HOB 60

VIII.--THE MUSTER OF THE HILL FOLK 69

IX.--I MEET MARY GORDON FOR THE SECOND TIME 76

X.--THE BLUE BANNER IS UP 85

XI.--THE RED GRANT 93

XII.--THE LASS IN THE KIRKYARD 105

XIII.--MY LADY OF PRIDE 112

XIV.--THE TALE OF MESS HAIRRY 120

XV.--ALEXANDER-JONITA 129

XVI.--THE CORBIES AT THE FEAST 137

XVII.--THE BONNY LASS OF EARLSTOUN 144

XVIII.--ONE WAY OF LOVE 154

XIX.--ANOTHER WAY OF LOVE 169

XX.--MUTTERINGS OF STORM 185

XXI.--THE EYES OF A MAID 193

XXII.--THE ANGER OF ALEXANDER-JONITA 204

XXIII.--AT BAY 215

XXIV.--MARY GORDON’S LAST WORD 225

XXV.--BEHIND THE BROOM 233

XXVI.--JEAN GEMMELL’S BARGAIN WITH GOD 240

XXVII.--RUMOUR OF WAR 252

XXVIII.--ALEXANDER-JONITA’S VICTORY 262

XXIX.--THE ELDERS OF THE HILL FOLK 269

XXX.--SILENCE IS GOLDEN 275

XXXI.--THE FALL OF EARLSTOUN 286

XXXII.--LOVE OR DUTY 293

XXXIII.--THE DEMONIAC IN THE GARRET 304

XXXIV.--THE CURSING OF THE PRESBYTERY 310

XXXV.--LIKE THE SPIRIT OF A LITTLE CHILD 317

XXXVI.--THE STONE OF STUMBLING 325

XXXVII.--FARE YOU WELL! 331

XXXVIII.--“I LOVE YOU, QUINTIN!” 338

XXXIX.--THE LAST ROARING OF THE BULL 350

THE STANDARD BEARER.