Nothing particular happened till the second week of November, when a
citation came from Irvine, commanding the attendance of Mr Swinton, on a
suffragan of Fairfoul's, under the penalties of the proclamation. In the
meantime we had been preparing for the event; and my father having been
some time no more, and my brother with his family in a house of their
own, it was settled between him and me, that I should take our mother
into mine, in order that the beild of Quharist might be given up to the
minister and his houseless little ones; which all our neighbours much
commended; and there was no slackness on their part in making a
provision to supply the want of his impounded stipend.
As all had foreseen, Mr Swinton, for not appearing to the citation, was
pronounced a non-conformist; and the same night, after dusk, a party of
the soldiers, that were marched from Ayr into Irvine on the day of the
proclamation, came to drive him out of the manse.
There was surely in this a needless and exasperating severity, for the
light of day might have served as well; but the men were not to blame,
and the officer who came with them, having himself been tried in the
battles of the Covenant, and being of a humane spirit, was as meek and
compassionate in his tyrannical duty as could reasonably be hoped for.
He allowed Mrs Swinton to take away her clothes, and the babies, that
were asleep in their beds, time to be awakened and dressed, nor did he
object to their old ploughman, Robin Harrow, taking sundry articles of
provision for their next morning's repast; so that, compared with the
lewd riots and rampageous insolence of the troopers in other places, we
had great reason to be thankful for the tenderness with which our
minister and his small family of seven children were treated on that
memorable night.
It was about eight o'clock when Martha, the eldest daughter, came flying
to me like a demented creature, crying the persecutors were come, with
naked swords and dreadful faces; and she wept and wrung her hands,
thinking they were then murdering her parents and brothers and sisters.
I did, however, all that was in my power to pacify her, saying our lots
were not yet laid in blood, and, leaving her to the consolatory
counsellings of my wife, I put on my bonnet and hastened over to the
manse.
The night was troubled and gusty. The moon was in her first quarter, and
wading dim and low through the clouds on the Arran hills. Afar off, the
bars of Ayr, in their roaring, boded a storm, and the stars were
rushing through a swift and showery south-west carry. The wind, as it
hissed over the stubble, sounded like the whisperings of desolation; and
I was thrice startled in my walk by passing shapes and shadows, whereof
I could not discern the form.
At a short distance from the manse door I met the godly sufferer and his
destitute family, with his second youngest child in his arms. Mrs
Swinton had their baby at her bosom, and the other four poor, terrified,
helpless creatures were hirpling at their sides, holding them by the
skirts, and often looking round in terror, dreading the persecutors, by
whom they were in that dismal and inclement night so cast upon the mercy
of the elements. But He that tempers the wind to the shorn lamb was
their protector.
"You see, Ringan Gilhaize," said the minister, "how it fares with them
in this world whose principles are at variance with the pretensions of
man. But we are mercifully dealt by--a rougher manner and a harder
heart, in the agent of persecution that has driven us from house and
home, I had laid my account for; therefore, even in this dispensation, I
can see the gentle hand of a gracious Master, and I bow the head of
thankfulness."
While we were thus speaking and walking towards Quharist, several of the
neighbours, who had likewise heard the alarm of what had thus come to
pass, joined us on the way; and I felt within myself that it was a proud
thing to be able to give refuge and asylum to an aged gospel minister
and his family in such a time and on such a night.
We had not been long in the house when a great concourse of his friends
and people gathered around, and among others Nahum Chapelrig, who had
been some time his father's successor in the school. But all present
were molested and angry with him, for he came in battle array, with the
sword and gun that he had carried in the raids of the civil war, and was
bragging of valorous things then needful to be done.
"Nahum Chapelrig," said the Worthy to him with severity, "this is no
conduct for the occasion. It would hae been a black day for Scotland had
her children covenanted themselves for temporal things. No, Nahum; if
the prelatic reprobation now attempted on the kirk gang nae farther
than outing her ministers from their kirks and manses, it maun be
tholet; so look to it, that ye give not the adversary cause to reproach
us with longing for the flesh-pots of Egypt when we are free to taste of
the heavenly manna. I redde ye, therefore, Nahum Chapelrig, before these
witnesses, to unbuckle that belt of war, and lay down thae weapons of
offence. The time of the shield and banner may come owre soon upon us.
Let us not provoke the smiter, lest he draw his sword against us, and
have law and reason on his side. Therefore, I say unto thee, Peter, put
up thy sword."
The zealous dominie, being thus timeously rebuked, unharnessed himself,
and the minister having returned thanks for the softness with which the
oppression was let down upon him, and for the pious affection of his
people, we returned home to our respective dwellings.
But though by this Christian submission the power of cruelty was at that
time rendered innocent towards all those who did as Mr Swinton had done,
we were, nevertheless, not allowed to remain long unvisited by another
swirl of the rising storm. Before the year was out, Fairfoul, the
Glasgow Antichrist, sent upon us one of the getts that prelacy was then
so fast adopting for her sons and heirs. A lang, thin, bare lad he was,
that had gotten some spoonful or two of pagan philosophy at college, but
never a solid meal of learning, nor, were we to judge by his greedy
gaping, even a satisfactory meal of victuals. His name was Andrew
Dornock; and, poor fellow, being eschewed among us on account of his
spiritual leprosy, he drew up with divers loose characters, that were
nae overly nice of their company.
This made us dislike him more and more, in so much that, like others of
his nature and calling, he made sore and secret complaints of his
parishioners to his mitred master; representing, for aught I ken to the
contrary, that, instead of believing the Gospel according to Charles
Stuart, we preferred that of certain four persons, called Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John, of whom, it may be doubted, if he, poor man, knew more
than the names. But be that as it may, to a surety he did grievously
yell and cry, because we preferred listening to the Gospel melody of Mr
Swinton under a tree to his feckless havers in the kirk; as if it was
nae a more glorious thing to worship God in the freedom and presence of
universal Nature, beneath the canopy of all the heavens, than to bow the
head in the fetters of episcopal bondage below the stoury rafters of an
auld bigging, such as our kirk was, a perfect howf of cloks and spiders.
Indeed, for that matter, it was said that the only sensible thing Andrew
Dornock ever uttered from the pulpit was, when he first rose to speak
therein, and which was caused by a spider, that just at the moment
lowered itself down into his mouth: "O Lord," cried the curate, "we're
puzhened wi' speeders!"