‘The Catholics!’ exclaimed Alec, with horror. If his friend had said that he had occasionally joined in the rites of pagans, and had witnessed human sacrifices, he could hardly have shocked this son of the Covenanters more seriously.
‘Hoots, ay!’ said the Highlander, with a half-affected carelessness. ‘There’s a lot o’ them in Glenstruan.’
‘At home? In the north?’ asked Alec, in astonishment.
‘Yes; in out-of-the-way corners there are many Catholics. In some parishes there are but few Protestants.’
‘How did they come there?’
‘They have always been there.’
It was news to Alec, Scotchman as he was, that there are to this day little communities of Catholics hidden among the mountains of Ross and Inverness, living in glens so secluded that one might almost fancy that the fierce storms of the sixteenth century had never reached them.
Wondering in his heart how it was possible that even unlettered Highlanders should have clung so long to degrading superstitions, Alec descended from his friend’s garret, and set off alone for St. Simon’s Free Church. The Free Churchmen in the Scotch towns frequently name their places of worship after the Apostles, not with any idea of honouring the Apostles’ memory, but solely by way of keeping up a healthful and stimulating rivalry with the Establishment. Thus we have ‘St. Paul’s,’ and ‘Free St. Paul’s’—‘St. John’s,’ and ‘Free St. John’s’—and so forth.
Alec set out alone, and he felt very lonely as he made his way over the sloppy pavements. Among all these crowds of respectably-dressed people, there was not one face he knew, not the least possibility that anyone would give him a greeting. He would much rather have stayed at home over a pipe and a book, like Duncan Cameron; but his conscience would have made him miserable for a month if he had been guilty of such a crime. The jangling of bells filled the murky air. Most places of worship in Scotland have a bell, but very few have more than one. There is, therefore, no reason why each church should not have as large and as loud a bell as is consistent with the safety of the belfry.
In a short time Alec reached ‘Free St. Simon’s,’ a building which outwardly resembled an Egyptian temple on a small scale, and inwardly a Methodist chapel on a large scale. In all essential points the worship was exactly a counterpart of that to which he had always been accustomed at Muirburn; but the details were different. Here the passages were covered with matting, and the pews were carpeted and cushioned. Hassocks were also provided, not for kneeling upon, but for the greater comfort of the audience during the sermon.