Then opening my vest and presenting my naked breast, I said:
“Now! Strike!”
But my God was there to protect me: they did not strike. I went through their ranks into the streets, where I found a carter, who drove me to Mr. Hall, the mayor of the city, for that day I showed him my bleeding breast, and said:
“I just escaped, almost miraculously, from the hands of men sworn to kill me, if I preach again the Gospel of Christ. I am, however, determined to preach again to-day, at noon, even if I have to die in the attempt.” I put myself under the protection of the British flag.
Soon after, more than 1,000 British soldiers were around me, with fixed bayonets. They formed themselves into two lines along the streets, through which the mayor took me, in his own sleigh, to the lecture room. I could then deliver my address on “The Bible,” to at least 10,000 people, who were crowded inside and outside the walls of the large building. After this, I had the joy of distributing between five and six hundred Bibles to that multitude, who received them as thirsty and hungry people receive fresh water and pure bread, after many days of starvation.
I have been stoned 20 times. The principal places in Canada where I was struck and wounded, and almost miraculously escaped, were: Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa, Charlotte Town, Halifax, Antigonish, etc. In the last mentioned, on the 10th of July, 1873, the pastor, the Rev. P. Goodfellow, standing by me when going out of his church, was also struck several times by stones which missed me. At last, his head was so badly cut, that he fell on the ground bathed in blood. I took him up in my arms, though wounded and bleeding myself. We would surely have been slaughtered there, had not a noble Scotchman, named Cameron, opened the door of his house, at the peril of his own life, to give us shelter against the assassins of the Pope. The mob, furious that we had escaped, broke the windows and beseiged the house from 10 a. m. till 3 next morning. Many times, they threatened to set fire to Mr. Cameron’s house, if he did not deliver me into their hands to be hung. They were prevented from doing so, only from fear of burning the whole town, composed in part, of their own dwellings. Several times, they put long ladders against the walls, with the hope of reaching the upper rooms, where they could find and kill their victim.
All this was done under the very eyes of five or six priests, who were only at a distance of a few rods.
At Montreal, in the winter of 1870, one evening, coming out of Cote Street Church, where I had preached, accompanied by Principal MacVicar, we fell into a kind of ambuscade, and received a volley of stones which would have seriously, if not fatally, injured the doctor, had he not been protected from head to foot by a thick fur cap and overcoat, worn in the cold days of winter in Canada.
After a lecture given at Paramenta, near Sydney, Australia, I was again attacked with stones by the Roman Catholics. One struck my left leg with such force that I thought it was broken, and was lame for several days.
In New South Wales, Australia, I was beaten with whips and sticks, which left marks upon my shoulders.