Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 10.djvu/399

Rh to style ourselves) to avoid being imprisoned in the Tolbooth.

When the message was delivered, the lady ordered three or four of her servants, to take the sentry up four pair of stairs, and to ply him well with drink. Accordingly they kept him drunk for twelve days and nights together, so that he neither saw me, nor I him, in all that time. Two days after we came to lady Lockhart's, I determined, against her and her friends advice, to return privately to Edinburgh, to discourse with the laird of Pettencrife, my bail: resolving at all adventures, that so generous a person should not be a sufferer on my account. I accordingly repaired, in the night, to the same alehouse, at the back of the town wall, and thence sent the footman, who attended me, to bring the laird thither. He presently came, with two other gentlemen in his company; and after drinking together for half an hour, he bid me "go whither I pleased, and God's "blessing along with me;" whereupon, thrusting me out at the door in a friendly manner, he added, that he would pay the hundred pounds, he was bound in, to the council, next morning, if demanded of him; which they accordingly did, and the money was paid.

I then returned to the company at my lady Lockhart's, and thence wrote to the two dukes before mentioned for their advice, what course to take? Their answer was, "That, in regard to my poor family, I should make my escape to my own country, and there set potatoes, till I saw better times." At the end of twelve days, captain Mair and his eleven friends got over seas to St. Germains; when I likewise took my leave of them and the lady, to Rh