Everything went very quietly with me
for three years, and I sometimes fancied
that I had been forgotten by my foes. But
their anger was not dead, and broke out very
heavily against me and many thousands
more in the early summer of 1684. The
English government had heard rumours of a
conspiracy to excite an insurrection in the
country, to raise an army of the Covenant
in Scotland under the Earl of Argyll, who
was then in Holland. If victory rewarded
the movement, the plan was to dethrone
the king, and exclude the papist Duke of
York from the succession. Charles Stuart
and his brother, and all the malignants who
supported them, believed that these things
would be attempted, and in their fright and
fury resolved to make short work of their
enemies in Scotland. None was too high
and none was too low for their vengeance.
Suspicion of enmity to the king's government,
unsupported by the slightest proof,
brought many an innocent head to the
scaffold. Russell and Sydney died upon
the block in London; and for some short
while before their execution, and for a
whole year afterwards, it appeared that
the realm of Britain had been handed
over to the dominion of devils. After
the martyrdom of Donald Cargill and
Richard Cameron, I, with many more
friends of the cause, had given what aid
was in our power towards the sustenance
of other preachers, as brave and zealous as
they, and I had notably taken to my heart
a young man, James Renwick, a true
servant of the Lord Jesus. I attended
his ministrations with edification. The
three years of quiet which I had enjoyed
since my escape from Gravesend had
doubtless emboldened me to walk less
cautiously than I should have done, although I
ought to have been warned by the events
in England, as well as at home, to take
heed of my doings. But to remain calm
and contented under oppression is not in
my nature, and never was. I ought not
to have been a trader, but a preacher and
a fighter; yet though a trader, and bound
to remain so, in obedience to the will of my
father, and to provide for the wants of
those he had left under my charge, I
could help the cause by my worldly
substance in the quiet days, and, if need were,
by the sword in my strong right hand in
the days of danger.

On the 29th of July, after a frugal supper
with my family, and after I had read, as
was my custom, a chapter from the Word
of God, and pronounced a benediction on
my little flock, I went quietly to my bed,
unsuspicious of evil. At one hour after
midnight, a party of soldiers broke violently
into my house, and rushed up to my sleeping
chamber. The officer in command
presented a pistol at my head, threatening
to shoot me dead if I offered the least
resistance, and ordered me to follow.
Without allowing me to say farewell to my
children, and brutally pushing away my
wife, who clung despairingly to me, they
marched me through the streets, to the
Tolbooth of Glasgow. I was informed
that the charge against me was that I was
present at the brae side in Kelvin Grove,
on the previous Sabbath, when Mr.
Renwick preached. Though I had often
attended the godly ministrations of Mr.
Renwick, it so happened that on that particular
Sabbath I had been in Campsie Glen to
hear Mr. Peden preach. I did not tell the
persecutors where I had been, lest they
should have been incited thereby to search
for Mr. Peden; but simply denied that I
had been in Kelvin on the day named.
After I had lain three weeks in prison along
with thieves and malefactors, I and many
other citizens of Glasgow, fellow-sufferers
with me in this cause, were offered our
liberty, if we would take the oath of
allegiance and renounce the Covenant. This
I refused to do, as did seven others. On
the following morning we eight were
marched to Edinburgh, chained together
two and two, preceded and followed by a
troop of soldiers, who often struck us over
our shoulders, and even on our heads, with
the flat of their sabres, to compel us to
walk faster than our strength enabled us.
We were two days and a half upon the
road, and, on our arrival at Edinburgh, were
thrust into the Tolbooth. We slept upon
the damp floor, and were fed with mouldy
bread, having no water to drink, but such
as was putrid. In this miserable state I
and my companions in suffering remained
for eleven weeks. At length, on a cold and
dark day of November, I was brought alone
before the council, and arraigned for having
been concerned with Sir James Maxwell of
Pollock, and other gentlemen, in fixing the
"Apologetic Declaration" on the door of
the Barony church of Glasgow. The truth
in this case was that I was not acquainted
with Sir James Maxwell; had never spoken
to, or acted with him; and that alone and
unaided, and without concert with any one,
I had myself affixed the paper on the door
of the church, and had on the following day
the great satisfaction of seeing crowds of
people gathered around to read it. I was
not obliged to confess what I had done,