as coming from one who was in a contrary interest. And, indeed, I have so good an opinion of that prince, as to believe he would have acted much better than he did, with regard to the civil and ecclesiastical constitution in Scotland, if he had been permitted to govern by his own opinions.
But now to come to the conclusion of my story. The Hollantide[1] after I arrived in Ireland, my wife and two daughters followed me; and we settled in the county of Tyrone, with my father (who died two years afterward) on a small freehold; where I made a hard shift to maintain them, with industry and even manual labour, for about twelve years, till my wife died, and my daughters were married, which happened not very long after I became a widower.
I am at present in the eighty-third year of my age; still hated by those people who affirm the old covenanters to have been unjustly dealt with; and therefore believe a great number of improbable stories concerning me; as that I was a common murderer of them and their preachers, with many other false and improbable stories. But the reader I hope, from whom I have not concealed any one transaction or adventure that happened to me among those rebellious people, or misrepresented the least circumstance, as far as my memory could serve me; will judge whether he has reason to believe me to have been such a person as they represented me; and to hate me, as they do, upon that account. And my comfort is, that I can appeal from their unjust tribunal, to the mercy of God; before whom, by the course
- ↑ The feast of all saints.
