This was upon a Sunday; and although we met with many hundreds of people on the road, yet we travelled on to Glasgow without any opposition. I must here inform the reader, that although I had once before taken this very man, who wore the white hat, yet I did not know him to be Mas John King, already mentioned, until I was told so by the man of the house where I found him. I likewise forgot to mention, that King, who knew me well enough, as soon as he was taken in the house entreated me to shew him some favour, because he had married a woman of my name: I answered, "That is true, but first you got her with bairn, and shall therefore now pay for disgracing one of my name."

When we arrived near Glasgow, I sent a dragoon to inform the general, that Mas John King was coming to kiss his hand: whereupon his excellency, accompanied with all the noblemen and officers, advanced as far as the bridge, to welcome me and my prisoners; where, it is very observable, that Graham, Laird of Clavers, who came among the rest, made not the least reproach to Mas John, in return of his insolent behaviour when that commander fled from Drumclog. Mas John was sent to Edinburgh next morning under a guard,* and

to Glasgow, who willingly consented. They pressed a horse for him to ride upon but they had not gone far, when the horse ran stark mad, and jumping and striking all around him with such violence as affrighted the beholders, they were obliged to let him go: but no sooner was he returned home, than he became as calm as ever. Cumming had to go on foot to Glasgow. From thence Mr. King was sent to Edinburgh. After which his servant was set at liberty."-Biographia Scoticana, Glasgow, 1797, p. 352. * Mr. Creichton takes no notice of the following circumstances, stoutly averred by Wodrow. A party of English dragoons being appointed to guard King to Edinburgh, one of them drank to the confusion of the Covenant; and being shortly

hanged soon after; from hence I went to my quarters in Lanark, sixteen miles from Glasgow; and about a month after (I hope the reader will pardon my weakness) I happened to dream that I found one Wilson, a captain among the rebels at Bothwell Bridge, in a bank of wood upon the river Clyde. This accident made so strong an impression on my mind, that as soon as I awoke, I took six-and-thirty dragoons, and got to the place by break of day; then I caused some of them to alight, and go into the wood, and set him up as hounds do a hare, while the rest were ordered to stand sentry to prevent his escape. It seems I dreamt fortunately, for Wilson was actually in the wood, with five more of his company, as we afterwards learned; who all seeing me and my party advancing, hid themselves in a little island on the river, among the broom that grew upon it. Wilson had not the good fortune to escape; for, as he was trying to get out of one copse into another, I met him, and guessing by his good clothes, and by the description I had received of him before, that he was the man I looked for, I seized and brought him to my quarters; and from thence immediately conveyed him to Edinburgh, where he was hanged; but might have preserved his life, if he would have condescended only to say, "God save the King." This he utterly refused to do, and thereby lost not only his life, but likewise an estate worth twenty-nine thousand marks Scots.*

afterwards asked where he was going, answered to carry King to hell. "The judgment of God," says Wodrow, "did not linger on this wretch; he had not proceeded many paces on his journey, when, his horse stumbling, his carabine went off and shot him dead."

* The testimony of John Wilson, writer in Lanark, occurs in the Cloud of Witnesses. He had been a captain at Bothwell Bridge, and at his trial vindicated his share in that insurrection.

For this service, the Duke of Queensberry, then high commissioner of Scotland, recommended me to the king, who rewarded me with the gift of Wilson's estate; but, although the grant passed the seals, and the sheriff put me in possession, yet I could neither sell nor let it; nobody daring, for fear of the rebels, who had escaped at Bothwell Bridge, either to purchase or farm it: by which means I never got a penny by the grant; and at the Revolution the land was taken from me and restored to Wilson's heirs.*

The winter following, General Dalziel, with a battalion of the Earl of Linlithgow's guards, the Earl of Airlie's troop of horse, and Captain Stuart's troop of dragoons, quartered at Kilmarnock, in the west, fifty miles from Edinburgh. Here the general, one day, happening to look on, while I was exercising the troop of dragoons, asked me, when I had done, whether I knew any one of my men, who was skilful in praying well in the style and tone of the Covenanters ? I immediately thought upon one James Gibb, who had been born in Ireland, and whom I made a dragoon. This man I brought to the general, assuring his excellency, that if I had raked hell, I could not find his match for his skill in mimicking the Covenanters. Whereupon the general gave him five pounds to buy him a great coat and a bonnet, and commanded him to find out the rebels, but to be sure to take care of himself among them.

them.

The

The king's advocate offered him his life before sentence, if he would take the test and renounce his opinions. This he steadily refused, and was executed at Edinburgh, May 16, 1683.

*The decreet and doom of forfeiture against John Wilson, is recalled by the Act of the Scottish Parliament, rescinding the fines and forfeitures, imposed during the tyrannical proceedings from 1665 to 1688, and recalling the grants which had followed thereupon.

dragoon went eight miles off that very night, and got admittance into the house of a notorious rebel, pretending he came from Ireland out of zeal for the cause, to assist at the fight of Bothwell Bridge, and could not find an opportunity since, of returning to Ireland with safety; he said he durst not be seen in the day time, and therefore, after bewitching the family with his gifts of praying, he was conveyed in the dusk of the evening, with a guide, to the house of the next adjoining rebel: and thus, in the same manner, from one to another, till in a month's time he got through the principal of them in the west; telling the general, at his return, that wherever he came, he made the old wives, in their devout fits, tear off their biggonets and mutches; he likewise gave the general a list of their names and places of their abodes, and into the bargain, brought back a good purse of money in his pocket. The general desired to know how he prayed among them; he answered, that it was his custom, in his prayers, to send the king, the ministers of state, the officers of the army, with all their soldiers, and the Episcopal clergy, all broadside to hell; but particularly the general himself. "What!" said the general, “did you send me to hell, sir?" "Yea," replied the dragoon, "you at the head of them, as their leader."

And here I do solemnly aver, upon my veracity and knowledge, that Bishop Burnet, in the History of his Own Times, hath, in a most false and scandalous manner, misrepresented the action at Bothwell Bridge, and the behaviour of the Episcopal clergy in Scotland; for, as to the former, I was

"The clergy were so delighted, that they used to speak of that time as the poets do of the golden age. They never interceded for any compassion to their people. They looked on the soldiery as their patrons; they were ever in their company, com

present in that engagement, which was performed in the manner as I have related; and as to the latter, having travelled through most parts of that kingdom, particularly the north and west, I was well acquainted with them, and will take it to my death, that the reverse of this character, which Burnet gives of both, is the truth. And because that author is so unjust to the Episcopal clergy, and so partial to the Covenanters and their teachers, I do affirm, that I have known several among the latter sort guilty of those very vices wherewith this bishop brands the Episcopal clergy. Among many others, I will produce one instance, rather to divert the reader than from any inclination to obloquy. One of these eight fanatic teachers who were permitted, at the Restoration, to keep their livings, came to Sir John Carmichael's house, within a mile of Lanark, where I was then upon a visit to Sir John. We drank hard till it was late, and all the company retired, except Sir John and myself. The teacher would needs give us prayers, but fell asleep before he had half done; whereupon Sir John and I, setting a bottle and a glass at his nose, left him upon his knees. The poor man sneaked of early the next morning, being, in all appearance, ashamed of his hypocrisy.

To return from this digression. The general sent out several parties, and me with a party among the rest; where, during the winter, and the following spring, I secured many of those whose names and abodes the canting dragoon had given a list of.

In July following, the general, by order of council,

plying with them in their excesses;—and, if they were not much wronged, they rather led them into them, than checked them for them. Things of so strange a pitch of vice were told of them, that they seemed scarce credible."-BURNET, vol. I. p. 334.