Old Mortality, Volume 2.

Scotland, 1679. The Convenanters have risen in armed rebellion against royal religious persecution, and civil war flames across the Lowlands. Henry Morton, the young hero caught between worlds, must now choose his side as the Presbyterian army prepares to lay siege to Tillietudlem Castle, where the family he loves remains trapped behind enemy walls. Burley, the fierce one-eyed veteran, demands unity against the King's forces, but the council rings with bitter infighting over tactics and theology. Morton stands among men who would kill for their faith and others who would betray it, all while the woman he loves, Edith, pleads from across an uncrossable line. Scott's second volume deepens the tragic machinery: every victory breeds new cruelty, every alliance masks a potential dagger, and the cause that began in conscience ends in blood. This is historical fiction at its most muscular and moral, a novel where the past feels urgently present and every choice carries the weight of hanged men.