Ringan Gilhaize, or, The Covenanters
Page 77
CHAPTER LXXVI
On arriving in Irvine, we went to the shop of Archibald Macrusty, adealer in iron implements, and I bought from him two swords withouthilts, which he sold, wrapt in straw-rope, as scythe-blades,--a methodof disguise that the ironmongers were obligated to have recourse to atthat time, on account of the search now and then made for weapons by thesoldiers, ever from the time that Claverhouse came to disarm the people;and when I had bought the two blades we went to Bailie Girvan's shop,which was a nest of a' things, and bought two hilts, without anyquestions being asked; for the bailie was a discreet man, with a warmheart to the Covenant, and not selling whole swords, but only hilts andhefts, it could not be imputed to him that he was guilty of selling armsto suspected persons.
Being thus provided with two swords, we went into James Glassop'spublic, where, having partaken of some refreshment, we remained solemnlysitting by ourselves till towards the gloaming, when, recollecting thatit would be a comfort to us in the halts of our undertaking, I sent outmy son to buy a Bible, and while he was absent I fell asleep.
On awaking from my slumber I felt greatly composed and refreshed. Ireflected on the events of the day, and the terrible truths that hadbroken in upon me, and I was not moved with the same stings ofdesperation that, on my coming to myself, had shot like fire through mybrain; so I began to consider of the purpose whereon I was bowne, andthat I had formed no plan, nor settled towards what airt I should directmy steps. But I was not the less determined to proceed, and I said to myson, who was sitting very thoughtful with THE BOOK lying on the tablebefore him,--
"Open the Bible, and see what the Lord instructs us to do at this time."And he opened it, and the first words he saw and read were those of thenineteenth verse of the forty-eighth chapter of the Prophet Jeremiah,--
"O inhabitant of Aroer, stand by the way and espy; ask him that fleeth,and her that escapeth, and say, What is done?"
So I rose, and bidding my son close the Book, and bring it with him, wewent out, with our sword-hilts, and the blades still with the straw-ropeabout them in our hands, into the street together, where we had not longbeen when a soldier on horseback passed us in great haste; and manypersons spoke to him as he rode by, inquiring what news he had brought;but he was in trouble of mind, and heeded them not till he reached thedoor of the house where the captain of the soldiers then in Irvine wasabiding.
When he had gone into the house and delivered his message, he returnedto the street, where by that time a multitude, among which we were, hadassembled, and he told to the many, who inquired, as it were, with onevoice,--That Mr Cargill, and a numerous party of the Cameronians, hadpassed that afternoon through Galston, and it was thought they meditatedsome disturbance on the skirts of Kilmarnock, which made the commanderof the King's forces in that town send for aid to the captain of thosethen in Irvine.
As soon as I heard the news, I resolved to go that night to Kilmarnock,and abide with my sister-in-law, the widow of my brother Jacob, by whoseinstrumentality I thought we might hear where the Cameronians then were.For, although I approved not of their separation from the generalpresbyterian kirk of Scotland, nor was altogether content with theirdeclaration published at Sanquhar, there was yet one clause which, tomy spirit, impoverished of all hope, was as food and raiment; and thatthere may be no perversion concerning the same in after times, I shallhere set down the words of the clause, and the words are these:--
"Although we be for government and governors such as the Word of God andour Covenant allows, yet we for ourselves, and all that will adhere tous, do, by thir presents, disown Charles Stuart, that has been reigning(or rather tyrannizing as we may say) on the throne of Britain theseyears bygone, as having any right or title to, or interest in, the crownof Scotland for government, he having forfeited the same several yearssince by his perjury and breach of Covenant both to God and His kirk;"and further, I did approve of those passages wherein it was declared,that he "should have been denuded of being king, ruler, or magistrate,or having any power to act or to be obeyed as such:" as also, "we beingunder the standard of our Lord Jesus Christ, Captain of Salvation, dodeclare a war with such a tyrant and usurper, and all the men of hispractices, as enemies to our Lord."
Accordingly, on hearing that the excommunicated and suffering society ofthe Cameronians were so near, I resolved, on receiving the soldier'sinformation, and on account of that recited clause of the Sanquhardeclaration, to league myself with them, and to fight in their avengingbattles; for, like me, they had endured irremediable wrongs, injustice,and oppressions, from the persecutors, and for that cause had, like me,abjured the doomed and papistical race of the tyrannical Stuarts. Withmy son, therefore, I went toward Kilmarnock, in the hope and with theintent expressed; and though the road was five long miles, and though Ihad not spoken more to him all day, nor for days, and weeks, and monthsbefore, than I have set down herein, we yet continued to travel insilence.
The night was bleak, and the wind easterly, but the road was dry, and mythoughts were eager; and we hastened onward, and reached the widow'sdoor, without the interchange of a word in all the way.
"Wha do ye want?" said my son, "for naebody hae lived here since thedeath of aunty."
I was smote upon the heart, by these few words, as it were with astone; for it had not come into my mind to think of inquiring how longthe eclipse of my reason had lasted, nor of what had happened among ourfriends in the interim. This shock, however, had a salutary effect instaying the haste which was still in my thoughts, and I conversed withmy son more collectedly than I could have done before it, and he told meof many things very doleful to hear, but I was thankful to learn thatthe end of my brother's widow had been in peace, and not caused by anyof those grievous unchances which darkened the latter days of so many ofthe pious in that epoch of the great displeasure.
But the disappointment of finding that Death had barred her door againstus, made it needful to seek a resting-place in some public, and as itwas not prudent to carry our blades and hilts into any such place ofpromiscuous resort, we went up the town, and hid them by the star-lightin a field at a dyke-side, and then returning as wayfarers, we entered apublic, and bespoke a bed for the night.
While we were sitting in that house by the kitchen fire, I bethought meof the Bible which my son had in his hand, and told him that it would dous good if he would read a chapter; but just as he was beginning, themistress said,--
"Sirs, dinna expose yoursels; for wha kens but the enemy may come inupon you. It's an unco thing now-a-days to be seen reading the Bible ina change-house."
So, being thus admonished, I bade my son put away the Book, and weretired from the fireside and sat by oursels in the shadow of a corner;and well it was for us that we did so, and a providential thing that theworthy woman had been moved to give us the admonition; for we were notmany minutes within the mirk and obscurity into which we had removed,when two dragoons, who had been skirring the country, like blood-hounds,in pursuit of Mr Cargill, came in and sat themselves down by the fire.Being sorely tired with their day's hard riding, they were wroth andblasphemous against all the Covenanters for the trouble they gave them;and I thought when I heard them venting their bitterness, that theyspoke as with the voice of the persecutors that were the true cause ofthe grievances whereof they complained; for no doubt it was a hatefulthing to persons dressed in authority not to get their own way, yet Icould not but wonder how it never came into the minds of such personsthat if they had not trodden upon the worm it would never have turned.As for the Cameronians they were at war with the house of Stuart, andhaving disowned King Charles, it was a thing to be looked for, that allof his sect and side would be their consistent enemies. So I was nonetroubled by what the soldiers said of them, but my spirit was chafedinto the quick to hear the remorselessness of their enmity against allthe Covenanters and presbyterians, respecting whom they swore with thehoarseness of revenge, wishing in such a frightful manner the whole ofus in the depths of perdition, that I could no longer hear them witho
utrebuking their cruel hatred and most foul impiety.