e top of the bank as if
I had been another man brought in view by hearing the shots in such a
place. I had a full view of a part of what passed, though not of all. I
saw my companion going straight to meet the men, apparently with a
pistol in every hand, waving in a careless manner. They seemed not
quite clear of meeting with him, and so he went straight on, and passed
between them. They looked after him, and came onwards; but, when they
came to the old man lying stretched in his blood, then they turned and
pursued my companion, though not so quickly as they might have done;
and I understand that from the first they saw no more of him.

Great was the confusion that day in Glasgow. The most popular of all
their preachers of morality was (what they called) murdered in cold
blood, and a strict and extensive search was made for the assassin.
Neither of the accomplices was found, however, that is certain, nor was
either of them so much as suspected; but another man was apprehended
under circumstances that warranted suspicion. This was one of the
things that I witnessed in my life, which I never understood, and it
surely was one of my patron's most dexterous tricks, for I must still
say, what I have thought from the beginning, that like him there never
was a man created. The young man who was taken up was a preacher; and
it was proved that he had purchased fire-arms in town, and gone out
with them that morning. But the far greatest mystery of the whole was
that two of the men, out of the three who met my companion, swore that
that unfortunate preacher was the man whom they met with a pistol in
each hand, fresh from the death of the old divine. The poor fellow made
a confused speech himself, which there is not the least doubt was quite
true; but it was laughed to scorn, and an expression of horror ran
through both the hearers and jury. I heard the whole trial, and so did
Gil-Martin; but we left the journeyman preacher to his fate, and from
that time forth I have had no faith in the justice of criminal trials.
If once a man is prejudiced on one side, he will swear anything in
support of such prejudice. I tried to expostulate with my mysterious
friend on the horrid injustice of suffering this young man to die for
our act, but the prince exulted in it more than the other, and said the
latter was the most dangerous man of the two.

The alarm in and about Glasgow was prodigious. The country being
divided into two political parties