his way to the house of
his cousin, Mrs. Spence, who, herself a suspected person, was much taken
aback by the sight of him, and hastily sent a letter to a tenant farmer
living near the town, to provide the fugitive with a horse which would
carry him to Wemyss, a seaport town on the way to Edinburgh. The old
University city does not appear to have made a favourable impression on
the Chevalier. He declares that no town 'ever deserved so much the fate
of Sodom and Gomorrah,'[20] and this, not from any particular wickedness
on the part of the inhabitants, but because they were supposed to be
Calvinists. However, his sentiments must have been confirmed when the
farmer declined to take his horses out on a Sunday, and, lame as he was,
Johnstone had no choice but to set out on foot for Wemyss. Halfway, he
suddenly remembered that close by lived an old servant of his family,
married to the gardener of Mr. Beaton, of Balfour. Here he was housed
and fed for twenty hours, and then conducted by his host, a rigid
Presbyterian, to a tavern at Wemyss, kept by the mother-in-law of the
gardener. By her advice they applied to a man named Salmon, who, though
a rabid Hanoverian, could be trusted not to betray those who had faith
in him. It was hard work to gain over Salmon, who was proof against
bribery, but at last it was done. By his recommendation Johnstone was to
lie till dawn in a cave near Wemyss (a place whose name means 'caves'),
and with the first ray of light was to beg a passage to Leith from some
men who were with Salmon part owners of a boat. In this cave, which,
notwithstanding its narrow entrance, was deep and spacious, the
Chevalier was glad to repose his weary bones. But, after dozing about an
hour, he was 'awakened by the most horrible and alarming cries that ever
were heard.'[21] His first thought was that Salmon had betrayed him, and
he retreated to the interior of the cavern, cocked his pistol, and
prepared to sell his life dearly. Soon, however, the swift movements
accompanying the noise convinced him that it did not proceed from men,
for 'sometimes the object was about my ears, and nearly stunned me, and,
in an instant, at a considerable distance. At length I ceased to examine
any more this horrible and incomprehensible phenomenon, which made a
noise in confusion like that of a number of trumpets and drums, with a
mixture of different sounds, altogether unknown to me.'

Effectually aroused by the whining of the owls an