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HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

chap. On the same day two women, Margaret Maclachlan andlesi. ~ Margaret Wilson, the former an aged widow, the latter amaiden of eighteen, suffered death for their religion inWigtonshire. They were offered their lives if they wouldconsent to abjure the cause of the insurgent Covenanters, andto attend the Episcopal worship. They refused; and theywere sentenced to be drowned. They were carried to a spotwhich the Solway overflows twice a day, and were fastened tostakes fixed in the sand, between high and low water mark.The elder sufferer was placed near to the advancing flood, inthe hope that her last agonies might terrify the younger intosubmission. The sight was dreadful. But the courage of thesurvivor was sustained by an enthusiasm as lofty as any thatis recorded in martyrology. She saw the sea draw nearerand nearer, but gave no sign of alarm. She prayed and sangverses of psalms till the waves choked her voice. When shehad tasted the bitterness of death she was, by a cruel mercy,unbound and restored to life. When she came to herself,pitying friends and neighbours implored her to yield. “DearMargaret, only say, God save the King!” The poor girl,true to her stern theology, gasped out, “May God save him,if it bo God’s will!” Her friends crowded round the pre-siding officer. “She has said it; indeed, Sir, she has saidit.” “Will she take the abjuration?” he demanded.“Never!” she exclaimed. “I am Christ’s; let me go!” Andthe waters closed over her for the last time. *

Thus was Scotland governed by that prince whom ignorantmen have represented as a friend of religious liberty, whose

* Wodrow, III. ix.O. The epitaph ofMargaretWilson, in the church-yard at Wigton, is printed in the Appendix to the Cloud of Witnesses:

“ Murdered for owning Christ supremeHead of his Church, and no more crime,

But her not owning Prelacy,

And not abjuring Presbytery,

Within the sea, lied to a stake,

She suffered for Christ Jesus’ sake."