r happened till the second week of November, when a
citation came from Irvine, commanding the attendance of Mr Swinton, on a
suffragan of Fairfoul's, under the penalties of the proclamation. In the
meantime we had been preparing for the event; and my father having been
some time no more, and my brother with his family in a house of their
own, it was settled between him and me, that I should take our mother
into mine, in order that the beild of Quharist might be given up to the
minister and his houseless little ones; which all our neighbours much
commended; and there was no slackness on their part in making a
provision to supply the want of his impounded stipend.

As all had foreseen, Mr Swinton, for not appearing to the citation, was
pronounced a non-conformist; and the same night, after dusk, a party of
the soldiers, that were marched from Ayr into Irvine on the day of the
proclamation, came to drive him out of the manse.

There was surely in this a needless and exasperating severity, for the
light of day might have served as well; but the men were not to blame,
and the officer who came with them, having himself been tried in the
battles of the Covenant, and being of a humane spirit, was as meek and
compassionate in his tyrannical duty as could reasonably be hoped for.
He allowed Mrs Swinton to take away her clothes, and the babies, that
were asleep in their beds, time to be awakened and dressed, nor did he
object to their old ploughman, Robin Harrow, taking sundry articles of
provision for their next morning's repast; so that, compared with the
lewd riots and rampageous insolence of the troopers in other places, we
had great reason to be thankful for the tenderness with which our
minister and his small family of seven children were treated on that
memorable night.

It was about eight o'clock when Martha, the eldest daughter, came flying
to me like a demented creature, crying the persecutors were come, with
naked swords and dreadful faces; and she wept and wrung her hands,
thinking they were then murdering her parents and brothers and sisters.
I did, however, all that was in my power to pacify her, saying our lots
were not yet laid in blood, and, leaving her to the consolatory
counsellings of my wife, I put on my bonnet and hastened over to the
manse.

The night was troubled and gusty. The moon was in her first quarter, and
wading dim and low through the clouds on the Arran hills. Afar off, the
bars of Ayr, in thei