Jerviswoode and Home were
"suspects," and being known as close allies, where one was supposed to
be plotting, the other was always expected to be at his back.
To be the eldest of so large a brood must have been a sobering thing for
any little girl, but Grisell shouldered her responsibilities with a
happy heart, and united with that happy, child-like heart the wisdom and
discretion of a woman. She was only twelve when she was chosen as
messenger from her father to his friend Mr. Baillie, who was then in
prison in Edinburgh. Over lonely Soutra Hill (where highway robbery and
murder were things not unknown), it was no easy or pleasant ride from
Marchmont to the Port of Edinburgh; and here the bleaching skulls of
martyred covenanters gave to those who entered the town grim warning of
the risks of nonconformity. Doubtless little Grisell had been provided
by her parents with a suitable escort, but, even so, her heart must have
beat faster as she went up the High Street to where the "Heart of
Midlothian" then stood, and asked to see Mr. Robert Baillie, her
father's friend. The bright-eyed, slim little maid, with her chestnut
hair and exquisite complexion, must have been as unexpected a sight in
that gloomy place as a wild rose in a desert.
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