At this sarcastic fling, Lord Cowper exclaimed to the Peers, ‘_Did you hear?_’――and then begged Lord Wintoun he ‘would be pleased to speak it again.’ Wintoun only reiterated his demand for more time,――leaving Cameron to go away without any cross-examination. Then was summoned the supreme villain among those who had turned king’s evidence, namely, the Rev. Robert Patten. All eyes were bent on him, all ears eagerly listening for ‘the parson’s’ revelations. The hearers were disappointed. Patten, in his replies which affected the earl, merely stated that he himself joined the rebels at Wooler, and that he first saw Lord Wintoun at Kelsoe carrying a sword and taking part in the proclaiming of the Pretender. At Jedburgh, Patten saw my lord at the head of his men awaiting an attack, which turned out to be a false alarm. A similar case occurred at Hawick. At Langholme, when some of the rebel horse went to Dumfries, and part of the Highlanders withdrew from the English Border, Wintoun went after them, but he voluntarily returned to the rebel force about to invade England. At Penrith, he was among the armed men at whose appearance the valiant _posse comitatus_ suddenly evaporated. At Kirby, Patten stated that he dined with _all_ the lords, and that, after dinner, they drank to the Pretender, and success to the cause in hand. To this, the approver added that he was present when the rebels carried off the guns which they employed against the king’s forces at Preston, where he saw the lord at the bar actively engaged. This was the sum of this witness’s deposition, which was made in a few minutes. ◆[Sidenote: _PATTEN’S CHARACTER OF WINTOUN._]◆ In one part of it, he expressed ignorance of Wintoun’s opinions with regard to the march into England. After the trial, however, in a book which he published, Patten spoke of Lord Wintoun as follows: ‘This Earl wants no courage, nor so much capacity as his friends find it for his interest to suggest, especially, if we may judge by the counsel he gave. He was always forward for action but never for the march into England, and he ceased not to thwart the schemes which the Northumberland gentlemen laid down for marching into England, not so much from the certainty, as he said there was, of their being overpowered, as from the greater opportunity, which he insisted there was, of doing service to their cause in Scotland, in order to which he argued with and pressed them back into Scotland, and, leaving Edinburgh and Stirling to their fate, to go and join the Western Clans, attacking in their way the town of Dumfries and Glasgow, and other places, and then open a communication with the Earl of Mar and his forces. Which advice, if followed, in all probability would have tended to their great advantage, the king’s forces being then so small. However, therefore, some people have represented that Lord, all his actions, both before a prisoner and whilst such, till he made his