Page:History of the life & sufferings of the Rev. John Welch (2).pdf/16

 James, who was indeed a cadet, but not the line heir of the family.

While hohe [sic] was detained prisoner in castle, his wife used for the most part to stay  his company, but upon a time fell into a  to see her family in Ayr, to which with  difficulty he yielded; but when she was to take  journey, he strictly charged her not to take  ordinary way to her own house, when she came  Ayr, nor to pass by the bridge through the town,  to pass the river above the bridge, and so get  way to her own house, and not to come into  town, for, said he, before you come thither,  shall find the plague broken out in Ayr,  accordingly came to pass.

The plague was at that time very terrible, hohe [sic] being necessarily separate from his people,  was to him thothe [sic] more grievous; but when  people of Ayr came to him to bemoan themselves his answer was, that Hugh Kennedy, a  gentleman in their town, should pray for them,  God should hear him. This counsel they accepted and the gentleman convening a number of honest citizens, prayed fervently for the town,  he was a mighty wrestler with God, and accordingly after that the plague decreased.

Now the time is come he must leave Scotland and never to see it again, so upon the seventh November 1606 in the morning, he with neighbours took ship at Leith, and though it  but two o'clock in the morning, many werowere [sic]  on with their afflicted families, to bid them farewell. After prayer, they sung the xxiii psalm, and set sail for the south of France, and landed  the river of Bourdeaux. Within fourteen after his arrival such was the Lord's