sad proof of how chaff is mixed with
wheat, and how ignorant, almost impious, persons were engaged in this
movement; nevertheless we give it, for we wish to present with
impartiality all the alleged facts to the reader:

"Towards the evening Mr. Robinsone and Mr. Crukshank gaue me a visite; I
called for some ale purposelie to heare one of them blesse it. It fell
Mr. Robinsone to seeke the blessing, who said one of the most bombastick
graces that ever I heard in my life. He summoned God Almightie very
imperiouslie to be their secondarie (for that was his language). 'And
if,' said he, 'thou wilt not be our Secondarie, we will not fight for
thee at all, for it is not our cause bot thy cause; and if thou wilt
not fight for our cause and thy oune cause, then we are not obliged to
fight for it. They say,' said he, 'that Dukes, Earles, and Lords are
coming with the King's General against us, bot they shall be nothing bot
a threshing to us.' This grace did more fullie satisfie me of the folly
and injustice of their cause, then the ale did quench my thirst."[13]

Frequently the rebels made a halt near some roadside alehouse, or in
some convenient park, where Colonel Wallace, who had now taken the
command, would review the horse and foot, during which time Turner was
sent either into the alehouse or round the shoulder of the hill, to
prevent him from seeing the disorders which were likely to arise. He
was, at last, on the 25th day of the month, between Douglas and Lanark,
permitted to behold their evolutions. "I found their horse did consist
of four hundreth and fortie, and the foot of five hundreth and
upwards.... The horsemen were armed for most part with suord and
pistoll, some onlie with suord. The foot with musket, pike, sith
(scythe), forke, and suord; and some with suords great and long." He
admired much the proficiency of their cavalry, and marvelled how they
had attained to it in so short a time.[14]

At Douglas, which they had just left on the morning of this great
wapinshaw, they were charged--awful picture of depravity!--with the
theft of a silver spoon and a nightgown. Could it be expected that while
the whole country swarmed with robbers of every description, such a rare
opportunity for plunder should be lost by rogues--that among a thousand
men, even though fighting for religion, there should not be one Achan in
the camp? At Lanark a declaration was drawn up and signed by the chief
rebels. In it occurs the follo