midnight
`` Na , na , '' she continued ; `` my bairn , I wot weel , has been baptised by the holy Mr Welsh , and she has lang sucked in the milk o ' the true and Covenanted Word , frae worthy and godly Mr Peden , and it will ill become her to turn her baek on her first lover , for the sake o ' ony yearthly concern whatever . '' In the meantime winter drew on , with its frosts , and its blasts , and its snows , and the lovers became more and more anxious to be united in the bands of hallowed love , in consequence of the pressing and importunate addresses of the curate . Here , however , a difficulty occurred , which was , however , overcome , by bribing the schoolmaster , as session-clerk , to proclaim them to empty benches , and by obtaining Peden 's consent to perform the marriage-ceremony on their producing the requisite evidence of proclamation . The place appointed was the Bogle Glen , and the time midnight , on the second day of January , 1684 . The night -- for such meetings were usually held during night -- was stormy ; there being a considerable degree of snow-drift ; but Peden was not easily diverted from his purpose ; nor was his audience unaccustomed to such exposures . So the night-meeting for religious worship took place beneath the Gleds ' Craig , from the brow or apron of which the minister officiated . Beneath him , huddled together under plaids , stood his devoted and attentive congregation , whilst the moon looked down at intervals on a landscape over which a frosty wind was ever and anon carrying the snow-drift .