( 22 )
John e'er we go; he stood up and said, Lord, we hear tell that thy enemies and ours are coming upon us, & thou hast laid thy hand of affliction upon old John; have pity upon him, for thy enemies will have none, his blood will run where he lies; spare him at this time, we know not if he be ready to die. And, as John told me with the tear in his eye, the pain of his head, and the indisposition of his body quite left him, and he started up & ran with the rest. The enemies seeing them, pursued them hard, sometimes the horse, and sometimes the foot being near them; mossy boggish ground did cast about the horses. After they had run some considerable way, they got some little height between the enemy & them; he stood still and said, Let us pray here; for if the Lord hear not our prayers, and save us, we are dead men, & our blood will run like water; if we die, let the enemy kill us, and let our blood fill up their cup, that the day of vengeance that is coming upon them may be hastned. Then he began and said, Lord, it is thy enemies day, hour and power; they may not be idle, but hast thou no other work for them, but to send them after us? Send them after them to whom thou wilt give strength to flee, for our strength is gone; twine them about the hill, Lord, and cast the lap of thy cloak over old Sandy, and thir poor things, and save us this one time, and we'll keep it in remembrance, and tell it to the commendation of thy goodness, pity, and compassion; what thou didst for us at such a time. In the mean time there was a dark cloud of mist came betwixt them. After prayer, he ordered two of them to give notice of the enemies motion, and the rest to go their alone, and to cry mightily to the Lord for deliverance. In the mean time that they were thus exercised, there came posts to the enemy, for them to go and pursue Mr. Renwick, and a great company with him. After the enemies were gone, he called them together, and said, Let us not forget to return thanks to the Lord, for hearing and answering us in the day of our distress; and charged the whole creation to praise the Lord,and idjured the clouds to praise him. Then he sat down at the side of a well, and enquired if they had any crumbs of bread; some of them had some few crumbs; when seeking a blessing, he said, Lord thou who blessed the few loaves & fishes, and made them sufficient for many, bless this water & these crumbs to us; for we thought we should never have needed any more of these creature comforts.
29. A few days after this, the foresaid John Muirheadwas
