rward gave him no small uneasiness when his bail's wife said to him,
Alas! why have you ruined our family? However, to prevent further
damage, he appeared on the 20th, when he was arraigned in common form
and examined, Whether he was at Bothwel, and if he approved of bishop
Sharp's death? with several other questions. To which he replied, That
he was not obliged to give an account of his thoughts, and that he came
there to answer to his indictment, and not to such questions as these.
Upon which he was taken to Newgate by a single officer without any
mittimus or any express order unto what prison he should be committed.
By the way (says he[245]) he could have escaped, had he not been led or
betrayed there by flattery. It was some days before his mittimus came,
by which he was ordered to be kept in custody till the next quarter
session, which was to be at Guildhall on the 23d of Feb. following.

But Charles II. in this interval dying, he was, with other seven who
were apprehended with him, March 5, put on board the Kitchen yacht for
Scotland, and landed at Leith on the 13th, and the next day Mr. Shields
was examined before the council, where he pled the liberty of his
thoughts, putting them to prove his accusation, and waving a direct
answer anent owning the king's authority; which gave way to his slip
afterwards, as he (in his own impartial account of his sufferings)
observes among other reflections "In this I cannot but adore the wisdom
of the Lord's conduct, but with blushing at the folly of mine. I was
indeed determined, I think, by a sovereign hand, and led upon this not
usually trodden path by truth's confessor beyond my ordinary genius or
inclination, to fence with these long weapons, declining direct answers
which is the most difficult road, and most liable to snares; and
wherein it is more hard to avoid wronging truth than in the plain and
open-hearted way." However, he was remanded back to prison till the 23d,
when he was brought before the justiciary, and interrogate, Whether he
would abjure the apologetical declaration, and own the authority of
James VII.? But being still on the reserve, he was sent back till the
25th, and from thence continued till the day following, which he calls
the day of his fatal fall, the just desert of his former blind and bold
approaches to the brink of these precipices over which he had looked,
and was now left to fall therein. Here he was again examined to the
effect aforesaid, and