and when in towns shops were far from being regularly open, gave the inhabitants an opportunity of buying articles of luxury or domestic use. With many, however, the occupation of a soldier was more popular than that of a travelling merchant. Hence Scotsmen were found in all the armies of Europe. Sometimes they discovered themselves fighting against each other, and when a detachment would be scaling a breach, it is said, it was not unusual to hear some of the defenders address them in their own tongue, come on, gentlemen!

this is not like gallanting it at the Cross of Edinburgh."

...

When Gustavus Adolphus, as the champion of Protestantism, declared war in 1630 against Austria, he had quite an army of Scotsmen under him. His Scotch brigade was so large, that its superior officers amounted to 34 colonels, and 50 lieutenant-colonels. One of the most curious and most interesting folios of that age, is Colonel Robert Munro's expedition with the worthy Scots regiment, called Mackay's Regiment, . . . discharged in several duties and observations of service, first, under the magnanimous King of Denmark, during his wars against the empire, afterwards under the invincible King of Sweden, during his majesty's lifetime, etc. At Lutzen, the reserve of Gustavus was commanded by a Scotsman named Henderson, and the Scotch regiments, by their adoption of platoon firing, are said to have contributed largely to achieve the victory that did so much for the liberties of Protestant Europe.

Whether Paton was at Lutzen we are not told, but "it was for some heroic achievment," says John Howie, " at the taking of a certain city, probably by Gustavus Adolphus, that he was advanced to a captain's post." What age he was when he went abroad is not recorded, further than that, "when he returned home, he was so far changed, that his parents scarcely knew him," which may be taken to signify that he went away a lad of eighteen or nineteen, and came back a bearded and bronzed soldier, of six or eight and twenty.

It is not said when Captain Paton returned from Germany, but he joined the army which the Scots sent to the aid of the English Parliamentary forces, and was present at the battle of Marston Moor, July 1644, when the combined Scots and Parliamentary troops gained the victory, which both gave a fatal blow to the royal cause, and laid the foundation of Oliver Cromwell's future greatness. After Marston Moor, he must soon have returned home, for he was called out, with the militia of his native parish, to resist the raid made by Montrose in favour of the king, and was present at the battle of Kilsyth,

August 15, 1645. Here the daring purpose and quick execution of Montrose carried the day, and the army of the Covenanters was totally defeated. Wishart, Montrose's chaplain, a divine evidently of the school of Baron Munchausen, affirms that the Covenanters lost from 4000 to 5000, while the loss of his master was no more than six men. But the statement carries with it its own refutation, for it is impossible that four or five thousand of the vanquished can have been slain, with a loss of six only to the victor. In the rout that followed the defeat, Captain Paton with difficulty escaped. John Howie tells the following story of what he and two associates did in the retreat :

"The Captain, as soon as he got free of the bog, into which the Covenanters had been driven, with sword in hand, made the best of his way through the enemy, till he got safe to the two Colonels, Hacket and Strahan, who all three rode off together, but had not gone far till they were encountered by about fifteen of the enemy, all of whom they killed except two who escaped. When they had gone a little further, they were again attacked by about thirteen more, and of these they killed ten, so that only three of them could make their escape. But, upon the approach of about eleven Highlanders more, one of the colonels said, in a familiar dialect, 'Johnny, if thou dost not somewhat now, we are all dead men.' To whom the captain answered, 'Fear not, for we will do what we can before we either yield or flee before them.' They killed nine of them, and put the rest to flight."

This is plainly a soldier's story, much the better of the excitement that three hand-to-hand conflicts might well cause. But it is much more likely to be true than Wishart's fiction; especially if we remem ber what a weapon a sword in the hands of a soldier, skilled to use it, becomes, when his antagonists are of the character of Montrose's army, accustomed more to a whoop, a halloo, and a dash, than to fight in a regular manner.

Howie tells a similar story of his doings, when some soldiers of the Duke of Hamilton's army, under the command of Middleton, attacked a considerable party of the Covenanters at Mauchline, where they had been celebrating the communion. Paton and his friends from Fenwick, who, at his advice, had taken arms with them, made a spirited resistance. The captain himself killed eighteen with his own hand. In the unhappy dispute, which ended in the Covenanters breaking up into two parties, Captain Paton took the side of the Protestors. He was present at the battle of Worcester, September 3, 1651, where he fought for King Charles II. with his usual ardour;

but the genius of Cromwell carried the day, and soon ended the war. Paton returned home to Scotland, and resumed the pursuits of his youth, by taking the farm of Meadowhead, and soon after married Janet Lindsay, but she died in a few months.

At Meadowhead, Paton continued to reside for the rest of his days. He sat under the ministry of William Guthrie, the well-known author of the "Christian's Great Interest," and was chosen to be one of his elders.

When, in 1666, the Covenanters of Galloway, fired by the insolent oppressions of Sir James Turner, took up arms in self-defence, and invited their friends to join them, Captain Paton could not resist the invitation. He was called to command "a party of horse from Loudon, Fenwick, and other places." In the ill-judged march to the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, he had the charge of the rear-guard. He was at Pentland, and was among the last to quit the field, when the overwhelming numbers of the royal forces made defence no longer possible. In his retreat he was overtaken by Dalziel himself, who knew him, and thought to have taken him prisoner. Each fired at the other; Paton's ball struck Dalziel, but without effect, for according to the practice of superior officers in that age, he wore chain armour; and, when Paton proceeded to load the other pistol with silver, said to be more effective than lead in piercing steel, and which he had with him for an emergency, Dalziel retreated behind his attendant, who was slain. Paton and two other friends from Fenwick on horseback, were soon surrounded by Dalziel's soldiery, but they cut their way through, when there were almost no others fighting on their own side save themselves, and after they had kept their position for nearly an hour.

How much was secured by the continued resistance of such as Paton, and by the dispositions of the commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel James Wallace, Mr Dodds has been able to show from researches in the State Paper Office in his valuable volume, "The Fifty Years Struggle of the Scottish Covenanters." The great body of the Covenanters, very different from what happened in 1679 at Bothwell Bridge, escaped under the covert of night among the hills in their rear.

General Dalziel did not suffer Captain Paton to escape without at least another attempt to capture him. He sent three of his troopers in pursuit, after he had given them a description so as to recognise him. They overtook him, when he was about to leap a ditch, and out of which three terrified Galloway friends had just drawn

their horses. The captain, after encouraging his friends, cleared the ditch, and faced about, sword in hand, to receive his pursuers. The head of the first he cut in two with a single stroke of his sword. The trooper's horse, deprived of its rider, and stunned by the blow, fell into the ditch or hag, and in its fall, drew in the two others along with it, where Paton left them, with the message-" My compliments to your master, and tell him I shall not be with him to-night." Paton got safely back to Meadowhead; but he had become a marked man, and henceforward he had many a time to betake himself for safety to the wild moors in his neighbourhood. The winter following Pentland, he and twenty more had a narrow escape at Lochgoin, where they had gathered for prayer and pious conversation.

He was not with the brave company at Drumclog, but he soon after joined them with a number of horsemen from Fenwick and Galston, and was present at the fatal defeat at Bothwell Bridge. It is not said what part he took in the battle, but his presence there led to his being proclaimed a rebel, and to a sum being set upon his head.

Not long after Bothwell Bridge, he had another narrow escape at Lochgoin, the circumstances of which John Howie details at length. Although the soldiers surprised him in the house, he managed to escape. Two friends ran with him, and two others less quickly behind him, and now and then fired upon the enemy. One of the shots took effect, and wounded a sergeant in the thigh. This delayed the pursuit, and Paton and his four friends separated-they going together to attract the soldiers, and he by himself. He soon got hold of a horse in the moor, but he had scarcely mounted, when he came upon a party of dragoons, for Newmilns. However, as he was shoeless, the horse saddleless, and riding slowly, he escaped unobserved.

This second series of escapes was soon followed by a third. One of his children died. The time when it was to be buried came to the knowledge of the hireling of government, who drew the stipend of the parish, and he sent word to the soldiers stationed at Kilmarnock to come and seize him in the churchyard. Paton followed the corpse to the burial, but, when near the churchyard, he was persuaded by some friends to turn back, and thus he escaped.

But Captain Paton was now an old man, and the vicissitudes of a soldier's life, the efforts he had made to advance the good cause, as well as the privations he had suffered through persecution, had

added to his age. Hence, when his enemies at last came upon him, he was easily taken. In the beginning of August 1683, he was in the house of Robert Howie, in Floack, in the parish of Mearns, a house alongside of which now runs the new road from Kilmarnock to Glasgow, when a party of five soldiers claimed him as their prisoner. Contrary to his usual practice, he had no arms, but the inmates of the house offered him assistance--had it been ten years earlier, he had been able for the soldiers single-handed-but he declined their aid. He feared that it would bring them into trouble, and he was now well stricken in years, and worn out with fleeing from place to place; and moreover, he added, he was not afraid to die, for of his interest in Christ he was sure.

The soldiers, therefore, made an easy capture. They took him to Kilmarnock, under the supposition that he was some aged minister, for the inmates of Floack had not yet disclosed his name; but on the way, at a place still shown, called Moor Yett, a farmer, standing at his door, cried out—“ Dear me, Captain Paton, are you there!" and thus the soldiers first learned the value of the prize they had taken. From Kilmarnock he was conveyed to Ayr, and from Ayr to Glasgow, and thence to Edinburgh.

Here, John Howie relates, General Dalziel met him, when compassion for his old companion in arms got the better of him-they had fought side by side at Worcester-and he took him in his arms, and said--" John, I am both glad and sorry to see you. If I had met you on the way before you came hither, I should have set you at liberty, but now it is too late. But be not afraid, I will write to his majesty for your life."

His trial took place, April 16th. He was condemned on his own confession that he was at Bothwell, and was sentenced to be hanged at the Grassmarket, on Wednesday the 23d. He was prevailed on, as he laments in his last speech, to petition the Council, and they delayed his execution till the 30th. On the 30th, the Council records further reprieve him:

"John Paton, in Meadowhead, sentenced to die for rebellion, and thereafter remaining in mosses and moors, to the high contempt of authority, for which he hath given all satisfaction that law requires, reprieved till Friday come sen'night, and to have a room by himself, that he may prepare more conveniently for death."

Wodrow regards this entry so favourable to him, that he is persuaded the bishops had not been present when it was made, and that