I had laid that son, my only son, whom I so loved, on the altar of the
Covenant, an offering unto the Lord; but still I did hope that maybe it
would be according to the mercy of wisdom that He would provide a lamb
in the bush for the sacrifice; and when the stripling had parted from
me, I often felt as the mother feels when the milk of love is in her
bosom, and her babe no longer there. I shall not, however, here relate
how my soul was wounded at yon sight, nor ask the courteous reader to
conceive with what agony I exclaimed, "Wherefore was it, Lord, that I
was commanded to do that unfruitful thing!" for in that very moment the
cry of my failing faith was rebuked, and the mystery of the required
sacrifice was brought into wonderful effect, manifesting that it was for
no light purpose I had been so tried.
My fellow-sufferer, who hung by the bars of the prison-window, was, like
the other witnesses, so shaken by the woful spectacle, that he suddenly
jerked himself aside to avoid the sight, and by that action the weight
of his body loosened the bar, so that when the pageantry of horrors had
passed by, he felt it move in his grip, and he told us that surely
Providence had an invisible hand in the bloody scene; for, by the
loosening of that stancher, a mean was given whereby we might all
escape. Accordingly it was agreed that as soon as the night closed over
the world, we should join our strengths together to bend the bar from
its socket in the lintel.
And then it was I told them that what they had seen was the last relic
of my martyred family; and we made ourselves wroth with the recital of
our several wrongs; for all there had endured the scourge of the
persecutors; and we took each other by the hand, and swore a dreadful
oath, never to desist in our endeavours till we had wrenched the sceptre
from the tyrannical grasp of the Stuarts, and broken it into pieces for
ever; and we burst into a wild strain of complaint and clamour, calling
on the blood of our murdered friends to mount, with our cries, to the
gates of Heaven; and we sang, as it were, with the voices of the angry
waters and the winds, the hundred and ninth psalm; and at the end of
every verse we joined our hands, crying, "Upon Charles and James Stuart,
and all their guilty line, O Lord, let it be done;" and a vast multitude
gathered around the prison, and the lamentations of many without was a
chorus in unison with the dismal song of our vengeance and despair.
At last the shadows of the twilight began to darken in the town, and the
lights of the windows were to us as the courses of the stars of that sky
which, from our prison chamber, could not be seen. We watched their
progress, from the earliest yellow glimmering of the lamp in the
darksome wynd, till the last little twinkling light in the dwelling of
the widow that sits and sighs companionless with her distaff in the
summits of the city. And we continued our vigil till they were all one
by one extinguished, save only the candles at the bedsides of the dying.
Then we twined a portion of our clothes into a rope, and, having
fastened it to the iron bar, soon drew it from its place in the stone;
but just as we were preparing to take it in, by some accident it fell
into the street.
The panic which this caused prevented us from attempting any thing more
at that time; for a sentinel walked his rounds on the outside of the
tolbooth, and we could not but think he must have heard the noise. A
sullen despair in consequence entered into many of our hearts, and we
continued for the remainder of the night silent.
But though others were then shaken in their faith, mine was now
confident. I saw, by what had happened in the moment of my
remonstrance, that there was some great deliverance in reservation; so I
sat apart by myself, and I spent the night in inward thanksgiving for
what had been already done. Nor was this confidence long without its
reward.
In the morning a brother of one of my fellow-sufferers coming to condole
with him, it being generally reported that we were all doomed to die, he
happened to see the bar lying on the street, and, taking it up, hid it
till he had gone into a shop and provided himself with a cord. He then
hastened to us, gave us the cord, and making what speed he could,
brought the iron in his plaid; and, we having lowered the string from
the window, he fastened the bar to it, and we drew it up undiscovered,
and reset it in its place, by which the defect could not be seen by any
one, not even from the street.
That morning, by the providence which was visible in this, became, in
our prison, a season indeed of light and gratulation; and the day passed
with us as a Sabbath to our spirits. The anvils of Fear were hushed, and
the shuttles in the looms of Anxiety were at rest, while Hope again
walked abroad in those sunny fields where, amidst vernal blossoms and
shining dews, she expatiates on the delights of the flowing cluster and
the ripened fruit.
The young man, who had been so guided to find the bar of iron, concerted
with another friend of his to be in readiness at night on a signal from
us, to master the sentinel. And at the time appointed they did so; and
it happened that the soldier was the same humane Englisher, Jack
Windsor, who had allowed me to escape at Kilmarnock, and he not only
remained silent, but even when relieved from his post, said nothing; so
that, to the number of more than twenty, we lowered ourselves into the
street and escaped.
But the city gates at that hour being shut, there was no egress from the
town, and many of us knew not where to hide ourselves till the morning.
Such was my condition; and wandering up and down for some time, at last
I turned into the Blackfriars-wynd, where I saw a light in a window: on
looking around I beheld, by that light, engraven on the lintel of an
opposite door, "IN THE LORD IS MY HOPE."
Heartened by the singular providence that was so manifest in that
cheering text, I went to the door and knocked, and a maiden answered to
the knocking.
I told her what I was, and whence I had come, and entreated her to have
compassion, and shelter me for the night.
"Alas!" said she, "what can hae sent you here, for this is a bishop's
house?"
I was astounded to hear that I had been so led into the lion's den; but
I saw pity in the countenance of the damsel, and I told her that I was
the father of the poor youth whose head had been carried by the
executioner through the town the day before, and that I could not but
believe Providence had sent me thither; for surely no one would ever
think of searching for me in a bishop's house.
Greatly moved by what I said, she bade me softly follow her, and she led
me to a solitary and ruinous chamber. She then retired, but presently
returned with some refreshment, which having placed on an old chest, she
bade God be with me, and went away.
With a spirit of inexpressible admiration and thanksgiving I partook of
that repast, and then laying myself down on the bare floor, was blessed
with the enjoyment of a downy sleep.