Page:The Early Kings of Norway.djvu/295

 THE PORTRAITS OF JOHN KNOX. 285 the scarf or ribband which soldiers then wore round their neck, tied an effective measure of rope, mutely intimating, " If I flinch or falter, let me straightway die the death of a dog." They were three hundred these staunch Townsmen when they marched out of Perth; but the country gathered to them from right and from left, all through the meek twilight of the summer night ; and, on reaching Stirling they were five thousand strong. The gates of Stirling were flung mde open, then strictly barricaded; and the French marching thitherward out of Edinburgh, had to wheel right about, faster than they cam.e ; and in fact retreat swiftly to Dunbar ; and there wait reinforcement from beyond seas. This of the three hundred Perth townsmen and their ropes was noised of with due plaudits ; and, in calmer times, a rather heavy-footed joke arose upon it, and became current ; and men would say of such and such a scoundrel worthy of the gallows, that he deserved a St. Johnston's ribband. About a hundred years ago, James Cant used to see, in the Town-clerk's office at Perth, an old Picture of the March of these three hundred with the ropes about their necks ; whether