and the more so that he had
already conveyed them to John Stewart of Cardonah, by whose interest he
had been made Commendator. The complainant proceeds to state, that he
was, after many menaces, stript, bound, and his limbs exposed to fire
in the manner already described, till, compelled by excess of agony, he
subscribed the charter and leases presented to him, of the contents
of which he was totally ignorant. A few days afterwards, being again
required to execute a ratification of these deeds before a notary and
witnesses, and refusing to do so, he was once more subjected to the same
torture, until his agony was so excessive that he exclaimed, "Fye on
you, why do you not strike your whingers into me, or blow me up with a
barrel of powder, rather than torture me thus unmercifully?" upon which
the Earl commanded Alexander Richard, one of his attendants, to stop the
patient's mouth with a napkin, which was done accordingly. Thus he was
once more compelled to submit to their tyranny. The petition concluded
with stating, that the Earl, under pretence of the deeds thus
iniquitously obtained, had taken possession of the whole place and
living of Crossraguel, and enjoyed the profits thereof for three years.

The doom of the Regent and Council shows singularly the total
interruption of justice at this calamitous period, even in the most
clamant cases of oppression. The Council declined interference with
the course of the ordinary justice of the county, (which was completely
under the said Earl of Cassilis' control,) and only enacted, that he
should forbear molestation of the unfortunate Comendator, under the
surety of two thousand pounds Scots. The Earl was appointed also to keep
the peace towards the celebrated George Buchanan, who had a pension out
of the same Abbacy, to a similar extent, and under the like penalty.

The consequences are thus described by the Journalist already quoted.--

"The said Laird of Bargany perceiving that the ordiner justice could
neither help the oppressed, nor yet the afflicted, applied his mind
to the next remedy, and in the end, by his servants, took the house
of Denure, where the poor Abbot was kept prisoner. The bruit flew fra
Carrick to Galloway, and so suddenly assembled herd and hyre-man that
pertained to the band of the Kennedies; and so within a few hours was
the house of Denure environed again. The master of Cassilis was the
frackast [i.e. the readiest or boldest] and would not stay, but