the cause of that cold back-turning which had distressed me so much,
I made such an effort to remove the error that was entertained

against me, that some of the heritors, before we separated, shook me
by the hands with the cordiality of renewed friendship; and, as if

to make amends for past neglect, there was no end to their
invitations to dinner which had the effect of putting me again on my

mettle, and removing the thick and muddy melancholious humour out of
my blood.

But what confirmed my cure was the coming home of my daughter Janet
from the Ayr boarding-school, where she had learnt to play on the

spinnet, and was become a conversible lassie, with a competent
knowledge, for a woman of geography and history; so that when her

mother was busy with the weariful booming wheel, she entertained me
sometimes with a tune, and sometimes with her tongue, which made the

winter nights fly cantily by.
Whether it was owing to the malady of my imagination throughout the

greatest part of this year, or that really nothing particular did
happen to interest me, I cannot say; but it is very remarkable that

I have nothing remarkable to record--further, than I was at the
expense myself of getting the manse rough-case, and the window

cheeks painted, with roans put up, rather than apply to the
heritors; for they were always sorely fashed when called upon for

outlay.
CHAPTER XXXIV YEAR 1793

On the first night of this year I dreamt a very remarkable dream,
which, when I now recall to mind at this distance of time, I cannot

but think that there was a case of prophecy in it. I thought that I
stood on the tower of an old popish kirk, looking out at the window

upon the kirkyard, where I beheld ancient tombs, with effigies and
coats-of-arms on the wall thereof, and a great gate at the one side,

and a door that led into a dark and dismal vault at the other. I
thought all the dead that were lying in the common graves, rose out

of their coffins; at the same time, from the old and grand
monuments, with the effigies and coats-of-arms, came the great men,

and the kings of the earth with crowns on their heads, and globes
and sceptres in their hands.

I stood wondering what was to ensue, when presently I heard the
noise of drums and trumpets, and anon I beheld an army with banners

entering in at the gate; upon which the kings and the great men came
also forth in their power and array, and a dreadful battle was

foughten; but the multitude that had risen from the common graves,
stood afar off, and were but lookers-on.

The kings and their host were utterly discomfited. They were driven
within the doors of their monuments, their coats-of-arms were broken

off, and their effigies cast down, and the victors triumphed over
them with the flourishes of trumpets and the waving of banners. But

while I looked, the vision was changed, and I then beheld a wide and
a dreary waste, and afar off the steeples of a great city, and a

tower in the midst, like the tower of Babel, and on it I could
discern, written in characters of fire, "Public Opinion." While I

was pondering at the same, I heard a great shout, and presently the
conquerors made their appearance, coming over the desolate moor.

They were going in great pride and might towards the city; but an
awful burning rose, afar as it were in the darkness, and the flames

stood like a tower of fire that reached unto the heavens. And I saw
a dreadful hand and an arm stretched from out of the cloud, and in

its hold was a besom made of the hail and the storm, and it swept
the fugitives like dust; and in their place I saw the churchyard, as

it were, cleared and spread around, the graves closed, and the
ancient tombs, with their coats-of-arms and their effigies of stone,

all as they were in the beginning. I then awoke, and behold it was
a dream.

This vision perplexed me for many days, and when the news came that
the King of France was beheaded by the hands of his people, I

received, as it were, a token in confirmation of the vision that had
been disclosed to me in my sleep, and I preached a discourse on the

same, and against the French Revolution, that was thought one of the
greatest and soundest sermons that I had ever delivered in my

pulpit.
On the Monday following, Mr Cayenne, who had been some time before

appointed a justice of the peace, came over from Wheatrig House to
the Cross-Keys, where he sent for me and divers other respectable

inhabitants of the clachan, and told us that he was to have a sad
business, for a warrant was out to bring before him two democratical

weaver lads, on a suspicion of high treason. Scarcely were the
words uttered when they were brought in, and he began to ask them

how they dared to think of dividing, with their liberty and equality
of principles, his and every other man's property in the country.

The men answered him in a calm manner, and told him they sought no
man's property, but only their own natural rights; upon which he

called them traitors and reformers. They denied they were traitors,
but confessed they were reformers, and said they knew not how that

should be imputed to them as a fault, for that the greatest men of
all times had been reformers,--"Was not," they said, "our Lord Jesus

Christ a reformer?"--"And what the devil did he make of it?" cried
Mr Cayenne, bursting with passion; "Was he not crucified?"

I thought, when I heard these words, that the pillars of the earth
sank beneath me, and that the roof of the house was carried away in

a whirlwind. The drums of my ears crackit, blue starns danced
before my sight, and I was fain to leave the house and hie me home

to the manse, where I sat down in my study, like a stupified
creature, awaiting what would betide. Nothing, however, was found

against the weaver lads; but I never from that day could look on Mr
Cayenne as a Christian, though surely he was a true government-man.

Soon after this affair, there was a pleasant re-edification of a
gospel-spirit among the heritors, especially when they heard how I

had handled the regicides in France; and on the following Sunday, I
had the comfortable satisfaction to see many a gentleman in their

pews, that had not been for years within a kirk-door. The
democrats, who took a world of trouble to misrepresent the actions

of the gentry, insinuated that all this was not from any new sense
of grace, but in fear of their being reported as suspected persons

to the king's government. But I could not think so, and considered
their renewal of communion with the church as a swearing of

allegiance to the King of kings, against that host of French
atheists, who had torn the mortcloth from the coffin, and made it a

banner, with which they were gone forth to war against the Lamb.
The whole year was, however, spent in great uneasiness, and the

proclamation of the war was followed by an appalling stop in trade.
We heard of nothing but failures on all hands; and among others that

grieved me, was that of Mr Maitland of Glasgow, who had befriended
Mrs Malcolm in the days of her affliction, and gave her son Robert

his fine ship. It was a sore thing to hear of so many breakings,
especially of old respected merchants like him, who had been a Lord

Provost, and was far declined into the afternoon of life. He did
not, however, long survive the mutation of his fortune; but bending

his aged head in sorrow, sank down beneath the stroke, to rise no
more.

CHAPTER XXXV YEAR 1794
This year had opened into all the leafiness of midsummer before

anything memorable happened in the parish, further than that the sad
division of my people into government-men and jacobins was

perfected. This calamity, for I never could consider such
heartburning among neighbours as any thing less than a very heavy

calamity, was assuredly occasioned by faults on both sides; but it
must be confessed that the gentry did nothing to win the commonality

from the errors of their way. A little more condescension on their
part would not have made things worse, and might have made them