Note 159 — BOOK XX.
Reading edition
How low the clergy could descend in their malice, may be judged from the case of a cripple but pious beggar, John Watson, in the parish of Cathcart. Mr Robert Fennie, curate of the parish, enraged at the poor man, because he would not come to hear him, gave information against him as a disloyal and dangerous person, and procured a party of soldiers to be sent to seize him. John could neither get from them nor go with them; nor would he swear the abjuration-oath. The soldiers, ashamed of their errand, were at a loss what to do, when some of his neighbours offered to send him to Hawk-head, Lord Ross’s residence, in a sledge; and they were proceeding accordingly, when his lordship hearing of the cavalcade, and being informed of the circumstances, sent his servant with an alms, and ordered them to carry the cripple home again.—Wodrow, vol. ii. p. 457.