"Jamie M'Birnie, what's that ye're about? Down wi' yer hand, man!--down wi' yer hand, this moment!--or ye may weel expect it to rot aff by the shackle-bane, man! Ye're but a young man, Jamie, and muckle atweel ye seem to require counsel. Had Peter M'Birnie, yer worthy faither--now with his Maker--stood where I now (though with tottering joints and a feeble voice) stand, he would neither have held his peace nor withheld his admonition. He would rather hae seen that hand--now stretched oot to abjure Christ and his Covenanted Kirk--burning and frying in the hettest flame, than hae witnessed the waefu sicht I now see. It's weel wi' him!--oh, it's weel wi' him, that his eyes are shut on earth, and that, in heaven, there is nae annoyance; otherwise, sair, sair would his heart hae been, to see my sister's wean devoting himsel wi' his ain uplifted hand to Satan. O Jamie, what says the Bible? It says awfu things to you, Jamie--it says, 'If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, for it is better to go into heaven with one eye, than that the whole body'--Jamie, mark that! the whole body--'should be cast into hell fire.' And is not an eye dearer than a hand, and must not the dearest member be sacrificed, if it stand in the way of the soul's salvation? Ye may own King James, and muckle thanks ye'll get for't; and ye may abjure and renounce Christ, and ye'll sune see wha will gain or lose by that. And ye may adhere to the king's curates, or to the bishops' curates, and starve at the breast o' a _yeld_, a milkless mither; but tak tent that ye dinna feed and nourish in your bosom a fearful _worm_, that winna die nor lie still, but will gnaw and gnaw as lang as the fire burns and isna quenched."
Jamie M'Birnie's hand continued to fall gradually during this address, and, when his aunt had concluded, his arm hung pendulous and seemingly powerless by his side. At this instant, a young woman of uncommon personal attractions was seen hurrying from a boat which had just landed. She had scarcely set foot on shore, when a commotion was observed in the court, and a face full of anguish and despair was presented to the party assembled in the Tolbooth. The Laird of Gosford, after cursing the aunt for an old Covenanting hag, had just put the question of abjuration to Jamie for the last time. Jamie now remained inflexible, and was immediately ordered to be handcuffed, and marched with the rest to Dunnottar Castle. Hereupon, as the Laird of Balmagechan expresses it--The maiden, who was fair to look upon, pushed herself suddenly forward, and rushed into the arms of her lover--for such he behoved, from her words and her conduct, to be.