SIR ROBERT SIBIiALD. 
43 
About xi a clock, he called me up to his studie, 
and there he read to me a paper that the 
Duchess of York had writt upon her embracing 
that religion, and discoursed very pathetically 
upon it. I knew not how it came about, I felt a 
great warmness of my affections while he was 
reading and discoursing, and thereupon, as I 
thought, oestro quodarn pietatis motus, I said, I 
would embrace that religion, upon which he took 
me in his arms and thanked God for it. This 
was the way, without any furder consideration, 
that I joined with them, and signified my willing- 
ness to join to the priest when he came. After 
that, I frequented their service, and became 
seriously enamoured with ther way ; and notwith- 
standing the great opposition I mett with, from 
all my relations and acquaintances, I continued 
more and more resolute, and professed I had 
joined with them.* Ther Churchmen were not of 
* This account of Sibbald’s conversion is very inte- 
resting, and although he turned Papist at a period when his 
motives were naturally ascribed rather to a desire to find 
favour in the eyes of a bigoted monarch, than to any 
internal conviction of the truth of the Catholic religion, 
6tiU his narrative has such an air of truth, that it is 
difficult to disbelieve the writer. Besides, in forming an 
opinion on the subject, it ought not to be overlooked, 
that Sir Robert publicly abjured the errors of Popery 
prior to the abdication of James. In the Scottish Pas- 
quels, vol. iii. p. 62, Edin. 1828, 12mo. will be found a 
severe satire upon Sibbald, written by Dr Pitcairne 
Note by Mr Maidment in the Analecta. 
