bably made much after the same pattern as some of
the chosen vessels of the Covenanting tabernacle. He lived alone in his
manse, without even a servant, but took care always to have his firearms
handy. The accounts of the murder vary a little in detail. One says that
he was killed in a scuffle arising out of his furious and unprovoked
treatment of a deputation which waited on him at midnight, to request
him to come outside and speak with some friends who meant him no harm--a
request which in the circumstances he can hardly be blamed for having
received with some degree of suspicion. But the most authentic version
represents him as shot dead the instant he opened his door. Macmichael
fired the shot, and the man who called Peirson out was Robert Mitchell,
nephew to James Mitchell, who was hanged five years previously for an
attempt on Sharp's life.[63]

A week later, on December 18th, a party of Covenanters more than one
hundred strong burst into Kirkcudbright ("the most irregular place in
the kingdom," Claverhouse used to call it), killed the sentry who
challenged them, broke open the gaol, set all the prisoners free, and
then marched victoriously off, beating the town drum, with such of their
rescues as would go with them, and all the arms they could lay hands on.

It is clear, then, from a comparison of the dates and names, that the
men killed at Auchencloy were no innocent folk met together for prayer,
but certainly included Peirson's murderer, and probably some of those
concerned in the rescue at Kirkcudbright, as the place where they were
surprised was but a few miles from that town. Moreover, it appears from
another account that, so far from these men having been shot
unresistingly, they were part of a larger force which had only been
dispersed after a sharp skirmish.[64]

One more instance, and this part of my business will be done. Defoe
names Robert Auchinleck as shot by Claverhouse without examination for
not answering his challenge, the man, as was subsequently discovered,
being too deaf to hear what was said to him. There is no mention
elsewhere of Robert Auchinleck; but Shields includes in his list a man
called Auchinleck, of Christian name unknown, who was killed in similar
circumstances; and Wodrow gives a different version of the death of one
William Auchinleck, both assigning the act to one Captain Douglas, who
was marching from Kirkcudbright with a company of foot.[65]

These instances have been chos