Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 21, 1896 - Miscellanies, Volume IV

THE MARCH OF THE REBELS
the guards round the city were doubled, officers and
soldiers were forced to take the oath of allegiance,
and all lodgers were commanded to give in their
names. Sharpe, surrounded with all these guards
and precautions, trembled — trembled as he trembled
when the avengers of blood drew him from his
chariot on Magus Muir, — for he knew how he had
sold his trust, how he had betrayed his charge, and
he felt that against him must their chiefest hatred
be directed, against him their direst thunderbolts
be forged. But even in his fear the apostate Pres-
byterian was unrelenting, unpityingly harsh ; he
published in his manifesto no promise of pardon,
no inducement to submission. He said, 'If you
submit not you must die,' but never added, 'If
you submit you may live ! ' 1
Meantime the insurgents proceeded on their way.
At Carsphairn they were deserted by Captain Gray,
who, doubtless in a fit of oblivion, neglected to leave
behind him the coffer containing Sir James's money.
Who he was is a mystery, unsolved by any his-
torian ; his papers were evidently forgeries — that,
and his final flight, appear to indicate that he was
an agent of the Royalists, for either the King or the
Duke of York was heard to say, ' That, if he might
have his wish, he would have them all turn rebels
and go to arms.' 2
Upon the 18th day of the month they left Cars-
phairn and marched onwards.
Turner was always lodged by his captors at a
1 Wodrow, pp. 19, 20. 2 A Hind Let Loose, p. 123.
II