Besides Mr Warner, many other ministers, who had taken refuge in foreign
countries, were called home, and it began openly to be talked that King
James would to a surety be set aside, on account of his malversations in
the kingly office in England, and the even-down course he was pursuing
there, as in Scotland, to abolish all property that the subjects had in
the ancient laws and charters of the realm. But the thing came to no
definite head till that jesuit-contrived device for cutting out the
protestant heirs to the crown was brought to maturity, by palming a
man-child upon the nation as the lawful son of the Tyrant and his
papistical wife.
In the meantime, I had not been idle in disseminating throughout the
land, by the means of the Cameronians, a faithful account of what Mr
Warner had related of the pious character and presbyterian dispositions
of the Prince of Orange; and through a correspondence that I opened with
Thomas Ardmillan, Mynheer Bentinck was kept so informed of the growing
affection for his master in Scotland, as soon emboldened the Prince,
with what he heard of the inclinations of the English people, to prepare
a great host and navy for the deliverance of the kingdoms. In the midst
of these human means and stratagems, the bright right hand of Providence
was shiningly visible; for, by the news of the Prince's preparations, it
smote the councils of King James with confusion and a fatal distraction.
Though he had so alienated the Scottish lieges, that none but the basest
of men among us acknowledged his authority, yet he summoned all his
forces into England, leaving his power to be upheld here by those only
who were vile enough to wish for the continuance of slavery. Thus was
the way cleared for the advent of the deliverer; and the faithful nobles
and gentry of Scotland, as the army was removed, came flocking into
Edinburgh, and the Privy Council, which had been so little slack in any
crime, durst not molest them, though the purpose of their being there
was a treason which the members could not but all well know. Every
thing, in a word, was now moving onward to a great event; all in the
land was as when the thaw comes, and the ice is breaking, and the snows
melting, and the waters flowing, and the rivers are bursting their
frozen fetters, and the sceptre of winter is broken, and the wreck of
his domination is drifting and perishing away.
To keep the Privy Council in the confusion of the darkness of ignorance,
I concerted with many of the Cameronians that they should spread
themselves along the highways, and intercept the government expresses
and emissaries, to the end that neither the King's faction in England
nor in Scotland might know aught of the undertakings of each other; and
when Thomas Ardmillan sent me, from Mynheer Bentinck, the Prince's
declaration for Scotland, I hastened into the West Country, that I might
exhort the covenanted there to be in readiness, and from the tolbooth
stair of Irvine, yea, on the very step where my heart was so pierced by
the cries of my son, I was the first in Scotland to publish that
glorious pledge of our deliverance. On the same day, at the same hour,
the like was done by others of our friends at Glasgow and at Ayr; and
there was shouting, and joy, and thanksgiving, and the magnificent voice
of freedom resounded throughout the land, and ennobled all hearts again
with bravery.
When the news of the Prince's landing at Torbay arrived, we felt that
liberty was come; but long oppression had made many distrustful, and
from day to day rumours were spread by the despairing members of the
prelatic sect, the breathings of their wishes, that made us doubt
whether we ought to band ourselves into any array for warfare. In this
state of swithering and incertitude we continued for some time, till I
began to grow fearful lest the zeal which had been so rekindled would
sink and go out if not stirred again in some effectual manner; so I
conferred with Quintin Fullarton, who in all these providences had been
art and part with me, from the day of the meeting with Mr Renwick near
Laswade; and as the Privy Council, when it was known the Prince had been
invited over, had directed beacons to be raised on the tops of many
mountains, to be fired as signals of alarm for the King's party when the
Dutch fleet should be seen approaching the coast, we devised, as a mean
for calling forth the strength and spirit of the Covenanters, that we
should avail ourselves of their preparations.
Accordingly we instructed four alert young men, of the Cameronian
societies, severally and unknown to each other, to be in attendance on
the night of the tenth of December, at the beacons on the hills of
Knockdolian, Lowthers, Blacklarg, and Bencairn, that they might fire the
same if need or signal should so require, Quintin Fullarton having
undertaken to kindle the one on Mistylaw himself.
The night was dark, but it was ordained that the air should be moist and
heavy, and in that state when the light of flame spreads farthest.
Meanwhile fearful reports from Ireland of papistical intents to maintain
the cause of King James made the fancies of men awake and full of
anxieties. The prelatic curates were also so heartened by those rumours
and tidings, that they began to recover from the dismay with which the
news of the Prince's landing had overwhelmed them, and to shoot out
again the horns of antichristian arrogance. But when, about three hours
after sunset, the beacon on the Mistylaw was fired, and when hill after
hill was lighted up, the whole country was filled with such
consternation and panic, that I was myself smitten with the dread of
some terrible consequences. Horsemen passed furiously in all
directions--bells were rung, and drums beat--mothers were seen flying
with their children they knew not whither--cries and lamentations echoed
on every side. The skies were kindled with a red glare, and none could
tell where the signal was first shown. Some said the Irish had landed
and were burning the towns in the south, and no one knew where to flee
from the unknown and invisible enemy.
In the meantime, our Covenanters of the West assembled at their
trysting-place, to the number of more than six thousand armed men, ready
and girded for battle; and this appearance was an assurance that no
power was then in all the Lowlands able to gainsay such a force; and
next day, when it was discovered that the alarm had no real cause, it
was determined that the prelatic priests should be openly discarded from
their parishes. Our vengeance, however, was not meted upon them by the
measure of our sufferings, but by the treatment which our own pastors
had borne; and, considering how many of them had acted as spies and
accusers against us, it is surprising, that of two hundred, who were
banished from the parishes, few received any cause of complaint; even
the poor feckless thing, Andrew Dornock, was decently expelled from the
manse of Quharist, on promising he would never return.
This riddance of the malignants was the first fruit of the expulsion of
James Stuart from the throne; but it was not long till we were menaced
with new and even greater sufferings than we had yet endured. For though
the tyrant had fled, he had left Claverhouse, under the title of
Viscount Dundee, behind him; and in the fearless activity of that proud
and cruel warrior, there was an engine sufficient to have restored him
to his absolute throne, as I shall now proceed to rehearse.