About four o'clock
The children were next baptised from an adjoining well , which presented itself opportunely , like the waters of Meribah , from a cleft of the rock . The young people had just been united , and Peden was in the act of pronouncing the usual benediction , when the tramp of horses ' feet was suddenly heard ; and , in an instant , a discharge of muskets indicated but too surely the nature of the assault . All was challenge , capture , and dispersion ; through which the screams of the young bride and the menacing voice of the curate were distinctly heard . About four o'clock of the same eventful night , the manse of New Luce was discovered to be on fire , and some hundreds of figures were seen congregated in frantic and menacing attitudes around it . At last a form was discovered , bearing off from the flames something which appeared to be inanimate . The curate 's screams were heard from his bedroom-window , and , by the assistance of the military , who had now arrived , he was relieved by a rope from his critical situation ; and the young lovers were next morning discovered , safe and uninjured , in their own home , and in each other 's arms . The miseries of war are not confined to the battle-field and the actual return of the killed and wounded .