Ringan Gilhaize, or, The Covenanters
Page 63
CHAPTER LXII
The deep sleep into which I had fallen when Sarah Lochrig and my sonwere admitted to see me, and during the season of which they had sat insilence beside me till revived nature again unsealed my eyes, was sorefreshing, that after they were gone away I was enabled to consider mycondition with a composed mind, and free from the heats of passion andanxiety wherewith I had previously been so greatly tossed. And callingto mind all that had taken place, and the ruthless revenge with whichthe cruel prelates were actuated, I saw, as it were written in a book,that for my part and conduct I was doomed to die. I felt not, however,the sense of guilt in my conscience; and I said to myself, that thissore thing ought not to be, and that, as an innocent man and the head ofa family, I was obligated by all expedient ways to escape, if it werepossible, from the grasps of the tyranny. So from that time, the firstnight of my imprisonment, I set myself to devise the means of workingout my deliverance; and I was not long without an encouraging glimmer ofhope.
It seemed to me, that in the piety and simplicity of Willie Sutherland,instruments were given by which I might break through the walls of myprison; and accordingly, when he next morning came in to see me, Ifailed not to try their edge. I entered into discourse with him, andtold him of many things which I have recorded in this book, and so wonupon his confidence and the singleness of his heart, that he shed tearsof grief at the thought of so many blameless men being ordained to anuntimely end. "It has pleased God," said he, "to make me as it were aleper and an excommunicant in this world, by the constraints of a lowestate, and without any fault of mine. But for this temporal ignominy,He will, in His own good time, bestow an exceeding great reward;--andthough I may be called on to fulfil the work of the persecutors, itshall yet be seen of me, that I will abide by the integrity of my faith,and that, poor despised hangman as I am, I have a conscience that willnot brook a task of iniquity, whatsoever the laws of man may determine,or the King's judges decree."
I was, as it were, rebuked by this proud religious declaration, and Igently inquired how it was that he came to fall into a condition sorejected of the world.
"Deed, sir," said he, "my tale is easy told. My parents were very poorneedful people in Strathnavar, and no able to keep me; and it happenedthat, being cast on the world, I became a herd, and year by year, havinga desire to learn the Lowland tongue, I got in that way as far asPaisley, where I fell into extreme want and was almost famished; for themaster that I served there being in debt, ran away, by which cause Ilost my penny fee, and was obligated to beg my bread. At that time manyworthy folk in the shire of Renfrew having suffered great molestationfrom witchcraft, divers malignant women, suspectit of that black art,were brought to judgment, and one of them being found guilty, wascondemned to die. But no executioner being in the town, I was engaged,by the scriptural counsel of some honest men, who quoted to me the text,'Suffer not a witch to live,' to fulfil the sentence of the law. Afterthat I bought a Question-book, having a mind to learn to read, that Imight gain some knowledge of THE WORD. Finding, however, the people ofPaisley scorn at my company, so that none would give me a lesson, I cameabout five years since to Irvine, where the folk are more charitable;and here I act the part of an executioner when there is any malefactorto put to death. But my Bible has instructed me, that I ought not toexecute any save such as deserve to die; so that, if ye should becondemned, as like is you will be, my conscience will ne'er allow me toexecute you, for I see you are a Christian man."
I was moved with a tender pity by the tale of the simple creature; but astrong necessity was upon me, and it was needful that I should make useof his honesty to help me out of prison. So I spoke still more kindly tohim, lamenting my sad estate, and that in the little time I had in alllikelihood to live, the rigour of the jailor would allow but littleintercourse with my family, wishing some compassionate Christian friendwould intercede with him in order that my wife and children, if notpermitted to bide all night, might be allowed to remain with me as longand as late as possible.
The pious creature said that he would do for me in that respect all inhis power, and that, as Mungo Robeson was a sober man, and aye wantedto go home early to his family, he would bide in the tolbooth to let outmy wife, though it should be till ten o'clock at night--"for," said he,piteously, "I hae nae family to care about."
Accordingly, he so set himself, that Mungo Robeson consented to leavethe keys of the tolbooth with him; and for several nights everything wasso managed that he had no reason to suspect what my wife and I wereplotting; for he being of a modest and retiring nature, never spoke toher when she parted from me, save when she thanked him as he let herout; and that she did not do every night lest it should grow into ahabit of expectation with him, and cause him to remark when the civilitywas omitted.
In the meantime all things being concerted between us, through the meanof a friend a cart was got in readiness, loaded with seemingly a hoggetof tobacco and grocery wares, but the hogget was empty and loose in thehead.
This was all settled by the nineteenth of December; on the twenty-fourthof the month the Commissioners appointed to try the Covenanters in theprisons throughout the shire of Ayr were to open their court at Ayr, andI was, by all who knew of me, regarded in a manner as a dead man. On thenight of the twentieth, however, shortly before ten o'clock, JamesGottera, our friend, came with the cart in at the town-head port, and ingoing down the gait stopped, as had been agreed, to give his beast adrink at the trough of the cross-well, opposite the tolbooth-stair foot.
When the clock struck ten, the time appointed, I was ready dressed in mywife's apparel, having, in the course of the day, broken the chain ofthe shackle on my arm; and the door being opened by Willie Sutherland inthe usual manner, I came out, holding a napkin to my face and weeping insincerity very bitterly, with the thought of what might ensue to SarahLochrig, whom I left behind in my place.
In reverence to my grief the honest man said nothing, but walked by myside till he had let me out at the outer stair-head door, where heparted from me, carrying the keys to Mungo Robeson's house, aneath thetolbooth, while I walked towards James Gottera's cart, and was presentlyin the inside of the hogget.
With great presence of mind and a soldierly self-possession, thatventurous friend then drew the horse's head from the trough, and beganto drive it down the street to the town-end port, striving as he did soto whistle, till he was rebuked for so doing, as I heard, by an oldwoman then going home, who said to him that it was a shame to hear suchprofanity in Irvine when a martyr doomed to die was lying in thetolbooth. To the which he replied scoffingly, "that martyr was a newname for a sworn rebel to king and country,"--words which so kindled theworthy woman's ire, that she began to ban his prelatic ungodliness tosuch a degree that a crowd collected, which made me tremble. For thepeople sided with the zealous carlan, and spoke fiercely, threatening togar James Gottera ride the stang for his sinfulness in so traducingpersecuted Christians. What might have come to pass is hard to say, hadnot Providence been pleased, in that most critical and perilous time, tocause a foul lum in a thacket house in the Sea-gate to take fire, bywhich an alarm was spread that drew off the mob, and allowed JamesGottera to pass without farther molestation out at the town-end port.