meeting of the synod at Ayr, to my utter amazement the mother and
daughter made their appearance there in all their finery, and raised
a complaint against me and the session, for debarring them from
church privileges. No stage play could have produced such an
effect. I was perfectly dumfoundered; and every member of the synod
might have been tied with a straw, they were so overcome with this
new device of that endless woman, when bent on provocation--the Lady
Macadam; in whom the saying was verified, that old folk are twice
bairns; for in such plays, pranks, and projects, she was as playrife
as a very lassie at her sampler; and this is but a swatch to what
lengths she would go. The complaint was dismissed, by which the
session and me were assoilzied; but I'll never forget till the day
of my death what I suffered on that occasion, to be so put to the
wall by two born idiots.



CHAPTER XVII YEAR 1776



It belongs to the chroniclers of the realm to describe the damage
and detriment which fell on the power and prosperity of the kingdom,
by reason of the rebellion, that was fired into open war, against
the name and authority of the king in the plantations of America;
for my task is to describe what happened within the narrow bound of
the pasturage of the Lord's flock, of which, in his bounty and
mercy, he made me the humble, willing, but alas! the weak and
ineffectual shepherd.