190 Notes and Sketches. 



thigh ; a second shot in the shoulder was necessary 

 to drive him off finally, and in the meantime Gillespie 

 had saved himself from strangulation by getting 

 another assailant's thumb diverted from his windpipe 

 into his mouth, where he bit it so savagely and tena- 

 ciously that the smuggler, in his wild struggles to get 

 free, greatly aided him in once more regaining his feet. 

 One of the greatest fights recorded occurred on a 

 January night in 1824, near Inverurie, as he lay in 

 wait for a formidable gang of Highlanders who were 

 coming down with a large quantity of aqua, which 

 they had publicly declared their determination to 

 accompany to Aberdeen, despite the officers of excise, 

 of whom they were prepared to make short work. 

 He came suddenly on the cavalcade of ten carts, 

 with twenty-five to thirty men, while his party were 

 scattered, and only one assistant with him. " This 

 formidable group were very indifferent to his threats, 

 and looked upon him with his assistant in a scornful 

 way, and were proceeding onwards, when he imme- 

 diately fired and killed a horse. The next shot he had 

 occasion to discharge went through the shoulder of 

 a robust delinquent, while in the very act of bring- 

 ing down upon Mr. G.'s head a large bludgeon, which 

 would undoubtedly have felled him to the ground, if 

 the ball had not taken proper effect. The whole gang 

 were now upon Mr. G., but by this time the rest of his 

 party had assembled through the firing, when a terrible 

 conflict ensued. Bloody heads, hats rolling on the road, 

 the reports of alternate firing and other noise, resembled 

 more the battle of Waterloo than the interception of a 

 band of lawless desperadoes ; but in the end they 

 were obliged to lay down their arms, and submit to the 

 laws of their country. Mr. G. and his party were all 

 and each of them much debilitated by severe wounds 

 and bruises, and loss of blood ; but the greater part 

 of the smugglers were in a much worse situation. It 

 was fortunate," adds the narrator, " that no lives were 





