Not daring to look behind me, I crept on my way, and that night reached
this hamlet on the Scottish border; and being grown reckless of danger,
and hardened to scenes of horror, I took up my lodging with a poor
hind, who is a widower, and who could only accommodate me with a bed of
rushes at his fireside. At midnight I heard some strange sounds, too
much resembling those to which I had of late been inured; but they kept
at a distance, and I was soon persuaded that there was a power
protected that house superior to those that contended for or had the
mastery over me. Overjoyed at finding such an asylum, I remained in the
humble cot. This is the third day I have lived under the roof, freed of
my hellish assailants, spending my time in prayer, and writing out this
my journal, which I have fashioned to stick in with my printed work,
and to which I intend to add portions while I remain in this pilgrimage
state, which, I find too well, cannot be long.
August 3, 1712.--This morning the hind has brought me word from
Redesdale, whither he had been for coals, that a stranger gentleman had
been traversing that country, making the most earnest inquiries after
me, or one of the same appearance; and, from the description that he
brought of this stranger, I could easily perceive who it was. Rejoicing
that my tormentor has lost traces of me for once, I am making haste to
leave my asylum, on pretence of following this stranger, but in reality
to conceal myself still more completely from his search. Perhaps this
may be the last sentence ever I am destined to write. If so, farewell,
Christian reader! May God grant to thee a happier destiny than has been
allotted to me here on earth, and the same assurance of acceptance
above! Amen.
Ault-Righ, August 24, 1712.--Here am I, set down on the open moor to
add one sentence more to my woeful journal; and, then, farewell, all
beneath the sun!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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