Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 10.djvu/353

Rh four miles, till the dew was gone off; I then inquired of a cowherd on a hill, whether he saw any of our "poor fo'ke" travelling that way; he answered, that they had separated on that hill, and gone three several ways, six in a party; adding, that in one party there was "a braw, muckle kerl, with a white hat on him, and a great bob of ribands on the cock o't." Whereupon I sent four of my dragoons after one party, four more after another; and myself, with the remaining four, went in pursuit of him with the white hat. As I went forward, I met another cowherd, who told me that the fellow with the hat, and one more (for as the rogues advanced farther into the west, they still divided into smaller parties) were just gone down the hill, to his master's house. The good man of the house returning from putting the horses to grass in the garden, was going to shut the door: whereupon myself and two of the dragoons commanded him, with our pistols at his breast, to lead us to the room where the man lay who wore a white hat. We entered the room, and before he awaked, I took away his arms, and commanded him to dress immediately: then finding his companion asleep in the barn, I forced him likewise to arise, and mounting them both on their own horses, came at nine o'clock in the morning, with my two prisoners, to the other dragoons, at the place where we appointed to meet. From thence we rode straight to Glasgow, and arrived there about eight in the evening, after a journey of fifty miles, since we left the army at Bothwell the day before.

This was upon a Sunday, and although we met with many hundreds of people on the road, yet we travelled on to Glasgow without any opposition. I must here inform the reader, that although I had once before