About noon
After enduring for several years great affliction in his father 's house from his mother , a termagant woman , who was entirely under the dominion of her confessor , my grandfather entered into a paction with two other young lads to quit their homes for ever , and to enter the service of some of those pious noblemen who were then active in procuring adherents to the protestant cause , as set forth in the first covenant . Accordingly , one morning in the spring of 1558 , they bade adieu to their fathers ' doors , and set forward on foot towards Edinburgh . `` We had light hearts , '' said my grandfather , `` for our trust was in Heaven ; we had girded ourselves for a holy enterprise , and the confidence of our souls broke forth into songs of battle , the melodious breathings of that unison of spirit which is alone known to the soldiers of the great Captain of Salvation . '' About noon they arrived at the Cross of Edinburgh , where they found a crowd assembled round the Luckenbooths , waiting for the breaking up of the States , which were then deliberating anent the proposal from the French king that the Prince Dolphin , his son , should marry our young queen , the fair and faulty Mary , whose doleful captivity and woful end scarcely expiated the sins and sorrows that she caused to her ill-used and poor misgoverned native realm of Scotland . While they were standing in this crowd , my grandfather happened to see one Icener Cunningham , a servant in the household of the Earl of Glencairn , and having some acquaintance of the man before at Lithgow , he went towards him , and after some common talk , told on what errand he and his two companions had come to Edinburgh . It was in consequence agreed between them that this Icener should speak to his master concerning them , the which he did as soon as my Lord came out from the Parliament ; and the Earl was so well pleased with the looks of the three young men that he retained them for his service on the spot , and they were conducted by Icener Cunningham home to his Lordship 's lodgings in St Mary 's Wynd . Thus was my grandfather enlisted into the cause of the Lords of the Congregation , and in the service of that great champion of the Reformation , the renowned , valiant and pious Earl of Glencairn , he saw many of those things , the recital of which kindled my young mind to flame up with no less ardour than his against the cruel attempt that was made , in our own day and generation , to load the neck of Scotland with the grievous chains of prelatic tyranny .