As she had foreseen, this delay in the execution gave time for friends in London to raise a ransom, so the heroic girl saved her father and made her name famous in Scottish legend.[1]Mr.
The doom that enveloped the house of Campbell affected the safety of Sir John Cochrane; he was taken prisoner after a deadly struggle, tried, and condemned to die upon the scaffold.
Fourteen days must again elapse ere the warrant could be renewed—but just before the expiration of the time, the old Earl of Dundonald rushed into the arms of his son, and proved to be the bearer of his pardon, wrung from the king, by the interest of Father Petre, his confessor, who had stipulated to receive the sum of five thousand pounds as the price of his intercession.
The mail robber was the prisoner's daughter, Grizel Cochrane, who, in disguise, had twice perilled her life in attempting the arduous achievement, but received her reward in the rescue of her beloved sire.
[3] The same doom befell Sir John Cochrane; for he was surrounded by the King's troops, and though he made a desperate resistance, was overpowered and conveyed to prison in Edinburgh.
His trial was brief, the judgment decisive, and the jailor waited but the arrival of his death warrant from London to lead him forth to execution, when Grizel Cochrane, the pride of his life, and the noble daughter of his house, determined on rescuing her father from the scaffold.
Three days had passed: Sir John Cochrane yet lived, and before another order for his execution could reach Edinburgh, the intercession of his father, the Earl of Dundonald, with the King's Confessor might be successful.