o a
fiery furnace and a lion's den.

"In truth, friends, Mr Renwick is quite right. This feeling of
indignation against our oppressors is a most imprudent thing. If we
desire to enjoy our own contempt, and to deserve the derision of men,
and to merit the abhorrence of Heaven, let us yield ourselves to all
that Charles Stuart and his sect require. We can do nothing better,
nothing so meritorious, nothing by which we can so reasonably hope for
punishment here and condemnation hereafter. But if there is one man at
this meeting,--I am speaking not of shapes and forms, but of
feelings,--if there is one here that feels as men were wont to feel, he
will draw his sword, and say with me, Woe to the house of Stuart! Woe to
the oppressors! Blood for blood! Judge and avenge our cause, O Lord!"

CHAPTER LXXXV

The meeting, with one accord, agreed that the declaration should go
forth; and certain of those who were ready writers, being provided with
implements, retired apart to make copies, while Mr Renwick, with the
remainder, joined together in prayer.

By the time he had made an end, the task of the writers was finished,
and then lots were cast to see whom the Lord would appoint to affix the
declaration on the trones and kirk doors of the towns where the rage of
the persecutors burnt the fiercest, and He being pleased to choose me
for one to do the duty at Edinburgh, I returned in the gloaming back to
the house of Mrs Brownlee, to abide the convenient season which I knew
in the fit time would be prepared. Nor was it long till the same was
brought to pass, as I shall now briefly proceed to set down.

Heron Brownlee, who, as I have narrated, brought me to his mother's
house, was by trade a tailor, and kept his cloth shop in the Canongate,
some six doors lower down than St Mary's Wynd, just after passing the
flesher's stocks below the Netherbow; for in those days, when the court
was at Holyrood, that part of the town was a place of great resort to
the gallants, and all such as affected a courtly carriage. And it
happened that, on the morning after the meeting, a proclamation was sent
forth, describing the persons and clothing of the prisoners who had
escaped from the tolbooth with me, threatening grievous penalties to all
who dared to harbour them. This Heron Brownlee seeing affixed on the
cheek of the Netherbow, came and told me; whereupon, after conferring
with him, it was agreed that he should provide for me a suit of