cess
of the day depended. When he found that he could not carry either of
these points, nor some others which, out of regard to the common safety,
he insisted upon with unusual earnestness, he dropped some intimations
of the consequences he apprehended, and which did in fact follow; and
submitting to Providence, spent the remainder of the day in making as
good a disposition as circumstances would allow.[*]

[*Note: Several of these circumstances have since been confirmed by the
concurrent testimony of another very credible person, Mr. Robert Douglas,
(now a surgeon in the navy,) who was a volunteer at Edinburgh just before
the rebels entered the place, and who saw Colonel Gardiner come from
Haddington to the field of battle the day before the action in a chaise,
being (as from that circumstances he supposed) in so weak a state that he
could not well endure the fatigue of sitting on horseback. He observed
Colonel Gardiner in discourse with several officers on the evening before
the engagement, at which time, it was afterwards reported, he gave his
advice to attack the rebels; and when it was overruled, he afterwards saw
the colonel walk by himself in a very pensive manner.]

He continued all night under arms, wrapt up in his cloak, and generally
sheltered under a rick of barley which happened to be in the field. About
three in the morning he called his domestic servants to him, of which
there were four in waiting. He dismissed three of them with most
affectionate Christian advice, and such solemn charges relating to the
performance of their duty and the care of their souls, as plainly seemed
to intimate that he at least apprehended it very probable he was taking
his last farewell of them. There is great reason to believe that he spent
the little remainder of the time, which could not be much above an hour,
in those devout exercises of soul which had so long been habitual to him,
and to which so many circumstances then concurred to call him.

The army was alarmed at break of day by the noise of the rebels'
approach, and the attack was made before sunrise; yet it was light enough
to discern what passed. As soon as the enemy came within gunshot, they
made a furious fire; and it is said that the dragoons, which constituted
the left wing, immediately fled. The colonel, at the beginning of the
onset, which lasted but a few minutes, received a wound by a bullet in
his left breast, which made him give a sudden spring in his s