Some
of them are dear to us still. Do we ever think of all the hardships that
were nobly endured by a Scottish girl two hundred years ago when we
quote the words of her exquisite song?--
"Were na my heart licht, I wad dee."
Of all her brothers and sisters, her eldest brother, Patrick, was her
closest friend, and, when he became one of the Prince of Orange's
Guards, Grisell had extra labours, for the Guards wore little point-lace
cravats and cuffs, and many a night she sat up to have these in such
perfect order that no dandy officer in the service could compete with
the young Scottish soldier. An added happiness to those happy, busy days
came to Grisell through her brother's fellow-guardsman and greatest
friend, for George Baillie, the lad she first met in the Tolbooth, gave
his heart to her that day within the gloomy prison walls, and they were
lovers still when, after forty-eight years of married life, death came
to part them.
With the accession of the Prince of Orange the merry, light-hearted days
in Holland came to an end. There was probably no poorer Scottish family
to be found in all Holland. There was certainly no happier one. When
they came home they were prosperous once again, and honours were
showered upon Sir Patrick Home.
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