Page:Letter from a gentleman in Glasgow to his friend in the country.pdf/8

Rh continued to fire, pointing their firelocks to the sides of the streets, the entries of closses, and to windows two or three stairs high: So that while the poor dying people, lay weltering in their blood upon the streets, it was dangerous for any person to draw near to give them any assistance. One woman was shot upon a fair; another beneath a stair; and a third, being a young gentlewoman, was shot looking throw a window into the streets two stairs high.

While this bloody tragedy was acting at the guard, the provost with a good number of the inhabitants was at the town house, from whence he dispatched a gentleman to captain Bushell, to expostulate with him how he came to fire without givin ghimgiving him [sic] advice thereof before hand, as he promised in the forenoon when he was put in possession of the guard; the captain's answer to the gentleman was, that he could not stand to be knocked down with his men: The gentleman replyed, that if he had given previous notice to the provost, he would have dispersed the inconsiderable mob that assaulted him, without shedding one drop of their blood. During this conference the firing ceased, upon which some people appearing from the houses and closses into which they had retired, the gentleman taking captain Bashell's cane out of his hand, run towards them and chased them away: And returning to the captain, observed to him what an easy matter it was to have prevented all this bloodshed, and intreated him to give over firing, till he returned to him from the provost. When the gentleman came to the provost, he found him beset by a more formidable mob than was at the guard, who being exasperated at the murder of so many of their fellow citizens, threatned revenge upon the soldiers, and destruction to the provost and his company if they opposed them; and forth with running up stairs to the town-house magazine, broke up the doors, carried out the arms, and rung the fire bell to alarm the whole city. The provost fearing that the soldiers would be cut in pieces, dispatched the same gentleman to the captain to acquaint him of all this, and to tell him it was his opinion, that the properest way to save himself and his soldiers, was to retire out of the city. The captain retired