第26章 THE PENTLAND RISING(3)

ON Friday the 16th,Bailie Irvine of Dumfries came to the Council at Edinburgh,and gave information concerning this 'horrid rebellion.'In the absence of Rothes,Sharpe presided -much to the wrath of some members;and as he imagined his own safety endangered,his measures were most energetic.Dalzell was ordered away to the West,the guards round the city were doubled,officers and soldiers were forced to take the oath of allegiance,and all lodgers were commanded to give in their names.Sharpe,surrounded with all these guards and precautions,trembled -trembled as he trembled when the avengers of blood drew him from his chariot on Magus Muir,-for he knew how he had sold his trust,how he had betrayed his charge,and he felt that against him must their chiefest hatred be directed,against him their direst thunder-bolts be forged.But even in his fear the apostate Presbyterian was unrelenting,unpityingly harsh;he published in his manifesto no promise of pardon,no inducement to submission.He said,'If you submit not you must die,'but never added,'If you submit you may live!'(10)Meantime the insurgents proceeded on their way.At Carsphairn they were deserted by Captain Gray,who,doubtless in a fit of oblivion,neglected to leave behind him the coffer containing Sir James's money.Who he was is a mystery,unsolved by any historian;his papers were evidently forgeries -that,and his final flight,appear to indicate that he was an agent of the Royalists,for either the King or the Duke of York was heard to say,'That,if he might have his wish,he would have them all turn rebels and go to arms.'(11)

Upon the 18th day of the month they left Carsphairn and marched onwards.

Turner was always lodged by his captors at a good inn,frequently at the best of which their halting-place could boast.Here many visits were paid to him by the ministers and officers of the insurgent force.In his deion of these interviews he displays a vein of satiric severity,admitting any kindness that was done to him with some qualifying souvenir of former harshness,and gloating over any injury,mistake,or folly,which it was his chance to suffer or to hear.He appears,notwithstanding all this,to have been on pretty good terms with his cruel 'phanaticks,'as the following extract sufficiently proves:

'Most of the foot were lodged about the church or churchyard,and order given to ring bells next morning for a sermon to be preached by Mr.Welch.Maxwell of Morith,and Major M'Cullough invited me to heare "that phanatick sermon"(for soe they merrilie called it).They said that preaching might prove an effectual meane to turne me,which they heartilie wished.I answered to them that I was under guards,and that if they intended to heare that sermon,it was probable Imight likewise,for it was not like my guards wold goe to church and leave me alone at my lodgeings.Bot to what they said of my conversion,I said it wold be hard to turne a Turner.Bot because I founde them in a merrie humour,Isaid,if I did not come to heare Mr.Welch preach,then they might fine me in fortie shillings Scots,which was double the suome of what I had exacted from the phanatics.'(12)This took place at Ochiltree,on the 22nd day of the month.

The following is recounted by this personage with malicious glee,and certainly,if authentic,it is a sad proof of how chaff is mixed with wheat,and how ignorant,almost impious,persons were engaged in this movement;nevertheless we give it,for we wish to present with impartiality all the alleged facts to the reader:

'Towards the evening Mr.Robinsone and Mr.Crukshank gaue me a visite;I called for some ale purposelie to heare one of them blesse it.It fell Mr.Robinsone to seeke the blessing,who said one of the most bombastick graces that ever I heard in my life.He summoned God Allmightie very imperiouslie to be their secondarie (for that was his language)."And if,"said he,"thou wilt not be our Secondarie,we will not fight for thee at all,for it is not our cause bot thy cause;and if thou wilt not fight for our cause and thy oune cause,then we are not obliged to fight for it.They say,"said he,"that Dukes,Earles,and Lords are coming with the King's General against us,bot they shall be nothing bot a threshing to us."This grace did more fullie satisfie me of the folly and injustice of their cause,then the ale did quench my thirst.'(13)Frequently the rebels made a halt near some roadside alehouse,or in some convenient park,where Colonel Wallace,who had now taken the command,would review the horse and foot,during which time Turner was sent either into the alehouse or round the shoulder of the hill,to prevent him from seeing the disorders which were likely to arise.He was,at last,on the 25th day of the month,between Douglas and Lanark,permitted to behold their evolutions.'I found their horse did consist of four hundreth and fortie,and the foot of five hundreth and upwards....The horsemen were armed for most part with suord and pistoll,some onlie with suord.The foot with musket,pike,sith (scythe),forke,and suord;and some with suords great and long.'He admired much the proficiency of their cavalry,and marvelled how they had attained to it in so short a time.(14)At Douglas,which they had just left on the morning of this great wapinshaw,they were charged -awful picture of depravity!-with the theft of a silver spoon and a nightgown.Could it be expected that while the whole country swarmed with robbers of every deion,such a rare opportunity for plunder should be lost by rogues -that among a thousand men,even though fighting for religion,there should not be one Achan in the camp?