Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 10.djvu/397

Rh plundered by the rabble, of the little substance they had left: however, they and myself were still providentially relieved by some friend or other; and particularly once by the lady Carnwath (mother of the present earl) who, when we had not one penny left to buy bread, sent us up a sack of meal, and a basket of fowl, sixty miles from Edinburgh.

My fellow prisoners and I, after the time of our examination by the council, were allowed, for four or five hours every day, to converse with each other, and with our friends: and when we had been three years in the Tolbooth, my companions being related to the best families in the kingdom, were at last permitted, on bail, to lodge in the city, with a sentry at each of their doors. But I was not allowed the same favour, till two months after; when duke Hamilton, still my friend, with much difficulty and strong application to the council, obtained it for me: and when the order was at last granted, I was at a great loss to find such a person for my bail whom the council would approve of; till the laird of Pettencrife, a gentleman whom I had never seen before, sent up his name (without any application from me) to the clerk, and was accordingly accepted.

I had not been two months discharged out of the Tolbooth, and removed to a private lodging in the town, with a sentry upon me, when the government, upon some pretence or other, filled the castle with a great number of persons of quality; among whom were the lords Kilsyth, Hume, and several others; and the Tolbooth again, with as many of inferiour note as it could hold.

In a week after I had been permitted to live in the city with my family, I found the sentry had Rh