ause that brought him there was one of the severest trials to
which he had yet been exposed, as I shall now rehearse.

James Greig, the kind cottar who sheltered them for the better part of
three weeks, was but a poor man, and two additional inmates consumed the
meal which he had laid in for himself and his wife, so that he was
obligated to apply twice for the loan of some from a neighbour, which
caused a suspicion to arise in that neighbour's mind; and he being
loose-tongued, and a talking man, let out what he thought in a public at
Kilmarnock, in presence of some one connected with the soldiers then
quartered in the Dean-castle. A party, in consequence, had that morning
been sent out to search for them; but the thoughtless man who had done
the ill was seized with a remorse of conscience for his folly, and came
in time to advise them to flee; but not so much in time as to prevent
them from being seen by the soldiers, who no sooner discovered them than
they pursued them. What became of Esau Wardrop was never known; he was
no doubt shot in his flight; but my brother was more fortunate, for he
kept so far before those who in particular pursued him, that, although
they kept him in view, they could not overtake him.

Running in this way for life and liberty, he came to a house on the
road-side, inhabited by a lanerly woman, and the door being open he
darted in, passing through to the yard behind, where he found himself in
an enclosed place, out of which he saw no other means of escape but
through a ditch full of water. The depth of it at the time he did not
think of, but plunging in, he found himself up to the chin; at that
moment he heard the soldiers at hand; so the thought struck him to
remain where he was, and to go under a bramble-bush that overhung the
water. By this means he was so effectually concealed, that the soldiers,
losing sight of him, wreaked their anger and disappointment on the poor
woman, dragging her with them to the Dean-castle, where they threw her
into the dungeon, in the darkness of which she perished, as was
afterwards well known through all that country-side.

After escaping from the ditch, my brother turned his course more
northerly, and had closed his day of suffering on Kilbride-hill, where,
drawn by his affections to seek some knowledge of his wife and daughter,
he had resolved to risk himself as near as possible to Quharist that
night; and coming along with the shower on his back, which blew