394 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [Sess. lxxix. 



from the top of Bellswynd to the P[otterrow] Port, which 

 we finding shut and the keye gone we return'd by the 

 Cowgate to the gate of Bristow which was lockt likewise. 

 But finding the old Porter as he was going away with the 

 keye that knew I had several patients without, made the 

 best despatch he cou'd to let us thro' a little wicket and 

 returning by the wall at the old rate I gave my halfe dead 

 Companion leave to draw his breath being sufficiently 

 reveng'd, while I call'd for Aphosk's men. But neither he 

 nor they had been there tho' I was told since that 

 they went to the place. I got Wilson's Pistolls from 

 Barns who came out with me in order to give my Brother 

 ane account of my arriveall and fortune who was hard by 

 Mr. M., 1 Mr. Porteous of Glenkirk 2 and severall other 

 friends and with a design to be a distant spectator only 

 for affairs without beeing committed to his Conduct, and 

 having delivered you and beeing heartily glad that I had 

 overtaken my business. I charg'd my piece weel with 

 three ball and hanging her on for the first time with 

 the greatest pride in the world, tho with little skill, and 

 went off with the first man that offered to goe with me. 

 I found the Gentleman cunningly plac'd amongst the Stacks 

 of pease to whom I gave the parole as I went along and 

 was glad to find that as I had left the town in profound 

 Quiet that all things were so abroad. I traverst all the 

 grownd where the deserters were to be with all the Speed 

 I was able, but in vain and went into the Churchyaird on 

 my tiptoes and left not a monument nor a gate untryd, 

 likewise to no purpose. On which I set myself directly, 

 to my business. There was a good number of our people 

 on the grassy part of the ascent so weel conceald by the 

 thistles that I was treading on their limbs before I was 

 aware Alexander Stewart 3 was there and spoke to me 

 whom I was glad to see in y[ou]r Grace's service in Perth 



1 Mr. M. Perhaps Montgomery ? 



2 Porteous of Glenkirk. From Dr. Walter B. Blaikie I have the 

 following note : — 



" Porteous of Burnbank. There was a Porteous of Craiglockhart who 

 had a brother a friend of Sir Hugh Paterson of Bannockburn who was 

 a Jacobite refugee in Paris in 1716 (Stuart Papers, ii, 345, and iii, 7), 

 but there is no evidence that this is the same." 



3 Alexander Stewart, "Who was this ? 



