The noise of taking up my brother and Esau Wardrop to the tolbooth by
the soldiers bred a great wonderment in the town, and the magistrates
came into the prison to see them. Then it was that they recognised their
friendly adviser among those in authority. But he signified by winking
to them that they should not know him; to which they comported
themselves so, that it passed as he could have wished.
"Provost," said he to the chief magistrate, who was then present with
them, "though thir honest men be concerned in a fret against the King's
government, they're no just iniquitous malefactors, and therefore it
behoves us, for the little time they are to bide here, to deal
compassionately with them. This is a damp and cauld place. I'm sure we
might 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 in
our aught; and their crime, ye ken, provost, was mair o' the judgment
than the heart, and therefore we should think how we are a' prone to do
evil."
By this sort of petitionary exhorting that worthy man carried his point,
and the provost consented that the prisoners should be removed to the
council-chamber, where he directed a fire to be lighted for their
solace.
"Noo, honest men," said their friend the deacon, when he was taking
leave of them, after seeing them in the council-room, "I hope you'll
make 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 the
smoke no vent sae weel as ye could wis, which is sometimes the case in
blowy weather when the door's shut, just open a wee bit jinkie o' this
window," 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 this
couthiness anent the reeking o' the chamber; and my brother and Esau,
when the door was locket on them for the night, soon found it expedient
to open the window, and next morning the kind counsellor had more
occasion than ever to get the bar o' his back-yett repaired; for it had
yielded to the grip of the prisoners, who, long afore day, were far
beyond the eye and jurisdiction of the magistrates of Paisley.
They took the straight road to Kilmarnock, intending, if possible, to
hide themselves among some of my brother Jacob's wife's friends in that
town. He had himself been dead some short time before; but in the course
of their journey, in eschewing the high-road as much as possible, they
found a good friend in a cottar who lived on the edge of the Mearns
moor, and with him they were persuaded to bide till the day of that
night 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 to
which he had yet been exposed, as I shall now rehearse.
James Greig, the kind cottar who sheltered them for the better part of
three weeks, was but a poor man, and two additional inmates consumed the
meal which he had laid in for himself and his wife, so that he was
obligated to apply twice for the loan of some from a neighbour, which
caused a suspicion to arise in that neighbour's mind; and he being
loose-tongued, and a talking man, let out what he thought in a public at
Kilmarnock, in presence of some one connected with the soldiers then
quartered in the Dean-castle. A party, in consequence, had that morning
been sent out to search for them; but the thoughtless man who had done
the ill was seized with a remorse of conscience for his folly, and came
in time to advise them to flee; but not so much in time as to prevent
them from being seen by the soldiers, who no sooner discovered them than
they pursued them. What became of Esau Wardrop was never known; he was
no doubt shot in his flight; but my brother was more fortunate, for he
kept so far before those who in particular pursued him, that, although
they kept him in view, they could not overtake him.
Running in this way for life and liberty, he came to a house on the
road-side, inhabited by a lanerly woman, and the door being open he
darted in, passing through to the yard behind, where he found himself in
an enclosed place, out of which he saw no other means of escape but
through a ditch full of water. The depth of it at the time he did not
think of, but plunging in, he found himself up to the chin; at that
moment he heard the soldiers at hand; so the thought struck him to
remain where he was, and to go under a bramble-bush that overhung the
water. By this means he was so effectually concealed, that the soldiers,
losing sight of him, wreaked their anger and disappointment on the poor
woman, dragging her with them to the Dean-castle, where they threw her
into the dungeon, in the darkness of which she perished, as was
afterwards well known through all that country-side.
After escaping from the ditch, my brother turned his course more
northerly, 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 that
night; and coming along with the shower on his back, which blew so
strong in our faces, he saw us by the glimpses of the tempestuous
moonlight as we were approaching, and had denned himself on the
road-side till we should pass, being fearful we might prove enemies.
Some accidental lament or complaint, uttered unconsciously by me, made
him, 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; and
having heard from me all that he could reasonably hope for, regarding
the most valued casket of his affections, he came along with Mr
Witherspoon; and we were next morning safely ferried over into the wee
Cumbrae, 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 no
truer or kinder Christians than the herd and his wife. We staid with
them till far in the year, hearing often, through James Plowter, of our
friends; and above all the joyous news, in little more than a week after
our landing, of Sarah Lochrig having been permitted to leave the
tolbooth of Irvine, without further dule than a reproof from Provost
Reid, that had more in it of commendation than reproach.