Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 10.djvu/341

Rh readily complied, and so the matter was made up. However, the laird her husband assured me that no horse in Scotland should be better paid for; and being a leading man in the country, and his lady discovering the names of those who had been at the conventicle, he sent for them, and persuaded them, as they valued their quiet, to make up a purse for me and my friend, which they accordingly did; and we both lived plentifully a twelvemonth after, on the price of that horse.

This adventure, making much noise at Edinburgh, was the occasion of my being sent for up thither by the marquis of Atholl my colonel, who in a very friendly manner expostulated with me upon my rashness; as indeed he had too much reason to do; neither was I able to say any thing in my own justification. However, since what I had done discovered my loyalty for my prince, my zeal for the church, and my detestation of all rebellious principles; his lordship ever after gave me many marks of his friendship.

Accordingly, these services gave me so much credit with the general, that he promised to apply to the government, in my favour, for some preferment in the army, upon the first opportunity, which happened about a year afterward. For the seditious humours in the west still increasing, it was thought proper, that three independent troops of horse, and as many of dragoons, should be raised to suppress the rebels. Whereupon Mr. Francis Stuart, grandson to the earl of Bothwell, a private gentleman in the horse-guards like myself, and my intimate acquaintance, was sent for, in haste, by the general; because the council of Scotland was then writing to the king, that his jesty