These are particulars which cannot but tell in your
favour. He hinted that he had been employed to deliver and protect you,
and rewarded for doing so; but he would not confess by whom, alleging,
that, though he would not have minded breaking any ordinary oath to
satisfy the curiosity of Mr. Morton, to whose pious admonitions he owed
so much, yet in the present case he had been sworn to silence upon the
edge of his dirk, [See Note 33.] which, it seems, constituted, in his
opinion, an inviolable obligation.'
'And what has become of him?'
'Oh, he was hanged at Stirling after the rebels raised the siege, with
his lieutenant, and four plaids besides; he having the advantage of a
gallows more lofty than his friends.'
'Well, I have little cause either to regret or rejoice at his death; and
yet he has done me both good and harm to a very considerable extent.'
His confession, at least, will serve you materially, since it wipes from
your character all those suspicions which gave the accusation against
you a complexion of a nature different from that with which so many
unfortunate gentlemen, now or lately in arms against the Government, may
be justly charged.
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