Along with Skene were executed Archibald Stewart, who belonged to Borrowstounness, and John Potter, a farmer in the parish of Uphall. The former had been a follower of Cameron, and present at the skirmish at Airs-moss, though not apprehended till some time after, when, being examined by torture, he acknowledged the fact, as a necessary piece of self-defence when following the gospel preached in the fields—the only crime of which he could be accused; but he denied that either he or any of those with whom he associated had ever declared that they would have killed the king or any of the council, which he affirmed was “an untruth and forged calumny, to reproach the way of God, more like themselves and their own principles, who have killed so many of the people of God both on the fields and upon scaffolds.” The latter also had been equally guilty of attending the reproached preachings of Cameron and Cargill; and he exhorted his fellow-christians not to be troubled because of their death, but to “keep the word of his patience, and he would keep them in the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the face of the earth.” “O dear friends and followers of Christ, hold on your way; weary not; faint not; and you shall receive the crown of life. It is they that overcome by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony, that shall stand, being clothed in white robes before the throne; for these are they that have come out of great tribulation. Remember there is a book of remembrance written; and the names are written in it that speak often one to another. O! my friends, let it be your study to keep up private fellowship meetings, wherein so much of the power and life of religion is to be found.” They do not appear to have been attended by any minister. They sung the second Psalm and read the third chapter of Malachi; but when Stewart began to pray, and alluded to the bloody Charles Stuart, immediately the drums were beat.
These acts of severity, however, by no means produced the effects intended; and, as the youth of a country often announce prematurely the feelings of the maturer part of a community, the students at Edinburgh College, on Christmas-day, celebrated the highest festival of the Romish church by burning the Pope in effigy, arrayed in his pontifical paraphernalia—his triple crown, keys, and scarlet robes—after having paraded him through the streets in procession, and formally excommunicated him. Those at the College of Glasgow in a less tumultuous, but more lasting and impressive manner, testified their sentiments by reviving the blue riband—the badge of the covenant. When called before the archbishop for their offence, the young Marquis of Annandale showed his contempt for his authority by only styling him Sir, and, when reproved by his tutor for not respecting his superior, replied, “I know the king has been pleased to make him a spiritual lord; but I know likewise the piper’s son of Arbroath and my father’s son are not to be compared.”
BOOK XVI.
A.D. 1681.
Edinburgh College shut—Isobel Alison and Marion Harvey executed—Other executions—Search for covenanters—Thomas Kennoway’s exploits—Mock-courts held by Cornet Graham and Grierson of Lag—Mr Spreul tried—acquitted—sent to the Bass—John Blackadder, Gabriel Semple, and Donald Cargill seized—Walter Smith, William Cuthil, and others apprehended, tried, and executed.
This year was ushered in by the council ordering the College of Edinburgh to be shut up, January 4, and the students, several of whom were sent to prison, dispersed in consequence of the insult they had offered to the religion of his Grace the Duke of York, who had now openly avowed his being a papist. The youths expressed loudly their indignation at such treatment, and had threatened, it was said, to burn the provost’s house about his ears for his servility, when the house by some means or other actually took fire, and was burnt to the ground. How it happened was never discovered, and a report that it was done by some of the Duke of York’s emissaries, gained general credit, although various efforts had been made to affix the blame to the students; but they voluntarily came forward and offered to stand trial that their characters might be vindicated. The offer was refused.
A more grateful tribute, however, was paid to his Royal Highness’ faith, by the immolation of two virgin martyrs in the end of the same month—Isobel Alison, who was apprehended at Perth, where she quietly resided, and Marion Harvey, a maid-servant, a native of Borrowstounness, who was seized upon the road as she was walking from Edinburgh to hear sermon in the country. Atrocious as these times were, their annals do not afford many instances of more heartless, cold-blooded, entrapping levity, than the examination of these simple girls, both before the privy council and the court of justiciary, do, in the conduct of their examinators, on the one hand, nor more interesting exhibitions than their artless yet pointed replies, on the other.
When Isobel Alison was before the privy council, “they asked me,” says she, in an account of it which she left, “if I could read the Bible? I answered, Yes. They asked me if I knew the duty we owe to the civil magistrate? I answered, when the magistrate carrieth the sword for God, according to what the Scripture calls for, we owe him all due reverence; but when they overturn the work of God, and set themselves in opposition to him, it is the duty of his servants to execute his laws and ordinances on them. They asked, if I ever conversed with rebels? I answered, I never conversed with rebels. They asked if I conversed with David Hackston? I answered, I did converse with him, and I bless the Lord that ever I saw him; for I never saw ought in him but a godly pious youth. They asked, when saw ye John Balfour, that godly pious youth? I answered, I have seen him. They asked, when? I answered, these are frivolous questions; I am not bound to answer them. They said I thought not that a testimony.”
“They asked, what think ye of that in the Confession of Faith, that magistrates should be owned though they were heathens? I answered, it was another matter than when those who seemed to own the truth have now overturned it, and made themselves avowed enemies to it. They asked, who should be judge of these things? I answered, the Scriptures of truth and the Spirit of God, and not men who have overturned the work themselves.” She refused to call Sharpe’s death murder; and being asked if she would own all that she had said, as she would be put to own it in the Grassmarket, they expressed their regret that she should hazard her life in such a quarrel. “I think my life little enough in the quarrel of owning my Lord and Master’s sweet truths;—for he has freed me from everlasting wrath; and as for my body, it is at his disposal. They said I did not follow the Lord’s practice in that anent Pilate. I answered, Christ owned his kingly office when he was questioned on it, and told them he was a king, and for that end he was born; and it is for that we are called in question this day—the owning of his kingly government. The bishop said, we own it. I answered, we have found the sad consequences of the contrary. The bishop said he pitied me for the loss of my life. I told him that he had done me much more hurt than the loss of my life, or all the lives they had taken, for it had much more affected me that many souls were killed by their doctrine. The bishop said, wherein is our doctrine erroneous? I said, that was better debated already than a poor lass could debate it.”