s that she should gather together what money she
could procure, either by loan or by selling our corn and cattle, in
order to provide for the payment of the fine that we counted would be
laid upon us. I was then taken to the tolbooth of Ayr, where many other
covenanted brethren were lying to await the proceedings of the
circuit-court, which was to be opened by the Lord Kelburne from Glasgow,
on the second day after I had been carried thither.

Among the prisoners were several who knew me well, and who condoled as
Christians with me for the loss I had sustained at Bothwell; so, but for
the denial of the fresh and heavenly air, and the freedom of the fields,
the time of our captivity might have been a season of much solace: for
they were all devout men, and the tolbooth, instead of resounding with
the imprecations of malefactors, became melodious with the voice of
psalms and of holy communion, and the sweet intercourse of spirits that
delighted in one another for the constancy with which they had borne
their testimony.

When the Lord Kelburne arrived, on the first day that the court opened,
I was summoned to respond to the offences laid to my charge, if any
charge of offence it may be called, wherein the purpose of the court was
seemingly to search out opinions that might serve as matter to justify
the infliction of the fines,--the whole end and intent of those circuits
not being to award justice, but to find the means of extorting money. In
some respects, however, I was more mercifully dealt by than many of my
fellow-sufferers; but in order to show how, even in my case, the laws
were perverted, I will here set down a brief record of my examination or
trial, as it was called.

CHAPTER LXXIV

The council-room was full of people when I was taken thither, and the
Lord Kelburne, who sat at the head of the table, was abetted in the
proceedings by Murray, an advocate from Edinburgh. They were sitting at
a wide round table, within a fence which prevented the spectators from
pressing in upon them. There were many papers and letters folded up in
bundles lying before them, and a candle burning, and wax for
sigillation. Besides Lord Kelburne and his counsellor, there were divers
gentlemen seated at the table, and two clerks to make notations.

Lord Kelburne, in his appearance, was a mild-looking man, and for his
years his hair was very hoary; for though he was seemingly not passing
fifty, it was in a manner quite blanch