[181] See more of Murray in the Appendix.
[182] It would appear, he was retaken about the end of that year, by the acts of council; and liberate without any conditions: which was a thing uncommon at this time. Vid. Wodrow's history, Vol. {illegible}, page 146.
N. B. It has been thought somewhat strange, that the posterity of such ancient and religious families as this and Earlstoun should be now extinct in their houses and estates. But this needs be no paradox; for the condition of the covenant or promise of property and dignity is,—if thy children will keep my covenant and testimony, their children shall also sit upon thy throne for ever, and shall return unto the Lord thy God, and obey his voice; thy God will bring them unto the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shall possess it. Now the contrary practices must produce the contrary effects: and upon none more remarkable than those who apostatize from the profession, principles and piety of their ancestors. It is said, that Sir Thomas Gordon of Earlstoun fell into a profligate and irreligious life. And for Donald Ker, he fell in with king William, and was killed at the battle of Steinkirk in Flanders, 1692. And for John Crawford (alias Ker) who married his sister, and with her the estate of Kersland, he got a patent to be a rogue, patrem sequitur sua proles, from Queen Ann and her ministry, by virtue of which, he feigned himself sometimes a Jacobite, and sometimes an old dissenter, or Cameronian, (as he calls them) unto whom he gives high encomiums. What correspondences he might have with some of these who had been officers in the Angus regiment I know not; but it is evident from the minute of the general meeting that he was never admitted into the community, or secrets of the genuine old dissenters: for, though he attended one or more of their meetings, yet he was refused, and so could never influence them to publish any of their declarations. But more of this, if the Lord will, elsewhere on another occasion.
The reader will find the above mentioned patent on the frontispiece of his memoirs: And what satisfaction he himself had in this dirty work and wicked courses in the courts interest, as he himself calls it, and how he was by them repaid as he deserved, in these memoirs, from page 31 to 81, &c.
[183] It appears that it was about this time, that he resolved to go over to Holland, but we have no certain account where or what time he stayed there; but from the sequel of the following account it could not be long.
[184] See Walker's remarkable passages of the life of Mr. Cargil, &c. page 8.
[185] The first of these was clearly verified in the case of lord Rothes, and the second was verified in the remembrance of many yet alive. (1.) Every person knoweth that Charles II. was poisoned. (2.) His brother the duke of York died at St Germains in France. (3.) The duke of Monmouth was executed at London. (4.) The duke of Lauderdale turned a belly god, and died on the chamber-box. (5.) The duke of Rothes died raving under the dreadful terror of that sentence, &c. (6.) Bloody Sir George MacKenzie died at London, and all the passages of his body running blood. (7.) General Dalziel died with a glass of wine at his mouth in perfect health. See Walker's remarks, page 10.
[186] About this time the Gibbites were all taken and imprisoned in the tolbooth and correction house of Edinburgh, but, by the duke of York and his faction, were soon liberated; after which the four men and two women went west to the Frost moss, betwixt Airth and Stirling, where they burnt the Holy Bible, every one of them using expressions at that horrid action which are fearful to utter.
[187] To these two men he said, If I be not under a delusion, (for that was his ordinary way of speaking of things to come) the French and other foreigners with some unhappy men in this land, will be your stroke: it will come at such a nick of time when one of these nations will not be in a capacity to help another. For me, I am to die shortly by the hand of those murderers, and shall not see it, I know not how the Lord's people will endure it that have to meet with it; but the foresight and forethought of it make me tremble. And then, as if it had been to himself, he said, Short but very sharp.
[188] Sometimes he ran on foot, having lost several horses in his remarkable escapes, one of which was shot under him at Linlithgow-bridge.