by John Galt
CHAPTER LXVII
The noise of taking up my brother and Esau Wardrop to the tolbooth bythe soldiers bred a great wonderment in the town, and the magistratescame into the prison to see them. Then it was that they recognised theirfriendly adviser among those in authority. But he signified by winkingto them that they should not know him; to which they comportedthemselves so, that it passed as he could have wished.
"Provost," said he to the chief magistrate, who was then present withthem, "though thir honest men be concerned in a fret against the King'sgovernment, they're no just iniquitous malefactors, and therefore itbehoves us, for the little time they are to bide here, to dealcompassionately with them. This is a damp and cauld place. I'm sure wemight gi'e them the use of the council-chamber, and direk a bit spunk o'fire to be kindl't. It's, ye ken, but for this night they are to be inour aught; and their crime, ye ken, provost, was mair o' the judgmentthan the heart, and therefore we should think how we are a' prone to doevil."
By this sort of petitionary exhorting that worthy man carried his point,and the provost consented that the prisoners should be removed to thecouncil-chamber, where he directed a fire to be lighted for theirsolace.
"Noo, honest men," said their friend the deacon, when he was takingleave of them, after seeing them in the council-room, "I hope you'llmake yoursels as comfortable as men in your situation can reasonably be;and look ye," said he to my brother, "if the wind should rise, and thesmoke no vent sae weel as ye could wis, which is sometimes the case inblowy weather when the door's shut, just open a wee bit jinkie o' thiswindow," and he gave him a squeeze on the arm--"it looks into my yard.Heh! but it's weel mindet, the bar on my back-yett's in the want o'reparation--I maun see til't the morn."
There was no difficulty in reading the whumplet meaning of thiscouthiness anent the reeking o' the chamber; and my brother and Esau,when the door was locket on them for the night, soon found it expedientto open the window, and next morning the kind counsellor had moreoccasion than ever to get the bar o' his back-yett repaired; for it hadyielded to the grip of the prisoners, who, long afore day, were farbeyond the eye and jurisdiction of the magistrates of Paisley.
They took the straight road to Kilmarnock, intending, if possible, tohide themselves among some of my brother Jacob's wife's friends in thattown. He had himself been dead some short time before; but in the courseof their journey, in eschewing the high-road as much as possible, theyfound a good friend in a cottar who lived on the edge of the Mearnsmoor, and with him they were persuaded to bide till the day of thatnight when we met in so remarkable a manner on the sands of Ardrossan;and the cause that brought him there was one of the severest trials towhich he had yet been exposed, as I shall now rehearse.
James Greig, the kind cottar who sheltered them for the better part ofthree weeks, was but a poor man, and two additional inmates consumed themeal which he had laid in for himself and his wife, so that he wasobligated to apply twice for the loan of some from a neighbour, whichcaused a suspicion to arise in that neighbour's mind; and he beingloose-tongued, and a talking man, let out what he thought in a public atKilmarnock, in presence of some one connected with the soldiers thenquartered in the Dean-castle. A party, in consequence, had that morningbeen sent out to search for them; but the thoughtless man who had donethe ill was seized with a remorse of conscience for his folly, and camein time to advise them to flee; but not so much in time as to preventthem from being seen by the soldiers, who no sooner discovered them thanthey pursued them. What became of Esau Wardrop was never known; he wasno doubt shot in his flight; but my brother was more fortunate, for hekept so far before those who in particular pursued him, that, althoughthey kept him in view, they could not overtake him.
Running in this way for life and liberty, he came to a house on theroad-side, inhabited by a lanerly woman, and the door being open hedarted in, passing through to the yard behind, where he found himself inan enclosed place, out of which he saw no other means of escape butthrough a ditch full of water. The depth of it at the time he did notthink of, but plunging in, he found himself up to the chin; at thatmoment he heard the soldiers at hand; so the thought struck him toremain where he was, and to go under a bramble-bush that overhung thewater. By this means he was so effectually concealed, that the soldiers,losing sight of him, wreaked their anger and disappointment on the poorwoman, dragging her with them to the Dean-castle, where they threw herinto the dungeon, in the darkness of which she perished, as wasafterwards well known through all that country-side.
After escaping from the ditch, my brother turned his course morenortherly, and had closed his day of suffering on Kilbride-hill, where,drawn by his affections to seek some knowledge of his wife and daughter,he had resolved to risk himself as near as possible to Quharist thatnight; and coming along with the shower on his back, which blew sostrong in our faces, he saw us by the glimpses of the tempestuousmoonlight as we were approaching, and had denned himself on theroad-side till we should pass, being fearful we might prove enemies.Some accidental lament or complaint, uttered unconsciously by me, madehim, however, think he knew the voice, and moved thereby, he started up,and had just joined us when he was discovered in so awakening a manner.
Thus came my brother and I to meet after the raid of Pentland; andhaving heard from me all that he could reasonably hope for, regardingthe most valued casket of his affections, he came along with MrWitherspoon; and we were next morning safely ferried over into the weeCumbrae, by James Plowter the ferryman, to whom we were both well known.
There was then only a herd's house on the island; but there could be notruer or kinder Christians than the herd and his wife. We staid withthem till far in the year, hearing often, through James Plowter, of ourfriends; and above all the joyous news, in little more than a week afterour landing, of Sarah Lochrig having been permitted to leave thetolbooth of Irvine, without further dule than a reproof from ProvostReid, that had more in it of commendation than reproach.