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 honest Mr Poundtext, who sighed deeply, as he considered the dangers in which he was placed betwixt unreasonable adversaries amongst themselves and the common enemy from without. Morton exhorted him to patience, temper, and composure; informed him of the good hope he had of negotiating for peace and indemnity through means of Lord Evandale, and made out to him a very fair prospect that he should again return to his old parchment-bound Calvin, his evening pipe of tobacco, and his noggin of inspiring ale, providing always he would afford his strong support and concurrence to the measures which he, Morton, had taken for a general pacification. Thus backed and comforted, Poundtext resolved magnanimously to await the coming of the Cameronians.

Burley and his confederates had drawn together a considerable body of these sectaries, amounting to a hundred horse and about fifteen hundred foot, clouded and