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SIR,
I Am very sorry I have so sad a Subject to ••reat of; and cannot but know, in part, the trouble it will lay you under when you read it. The Crimes perpetrated here are so great and foul in their own nature, that they admit not of aggravation; and therefore I shall not spend time in Prefacing, but give you the
matter of fact, and leave the comment to your self.
When these Rebels had taken Glascough, they publickly made Proclamation. That they fought against Supremacy, Prelacy and Popery. At the end of which Proclamation, one called Belfour of Kinloch held up his hand and cried with a loud voice, This is the hand that killed Sharp, (to wit, the Lord Archbishop of St. Andrews; and no wonder the Miscreant rob'd him of his Title, having before bereaved him of his Life) This done, away they went to my Lord Arch∣bishop of Glascough's House, and having for∣cibly entred it, tore down all his Hangings, and then tore them all to pieces. They broke open all his Trunks, tore his Clothes, drained his Cellars; and in a word, made a miserable havock of all they found. No∣thing escaped them save some few of the best of his Books, which were before they could get to his House secured by some of the honest Neighbours. And it may reason∣ably be presumed this Reverend Prelate had fell a Sacrifice to their Devilish fury, had he been in their way.
But as if all this were not enough to make them eternally odious and loathsome to all good and sober men; they added another piece of Villany which is scarce to be paral∣leld in any story; which is this: They en∣tred into, and rifled the Bishop of Argyle's House, destroying all they could find there; and that done, went to the Grave where some time since two of the foresaid Bishop's Children were buried; took up the Coffins, broke them open, and run their Swords through them several times, and left the Bo∣dies of the poor Infants above ground, as Monuments of their Inhuman Villany and Cruelty.
And as if they could not be satisfied un∣less to the sin of Rebellion, Murder, and Rapine, they likewise added that of Sacriledg; they went to the High Cathedral Church, and rifled that, took away the Linnen used at the Administration of the Blessed Sacrament; and had seized the Communion-Plate too, had it not before their coming been conveyed away.
Thus far went these Rebels, and loth to stop
here, Crowned all their Villanies with one more, viz. They pulled down his Majesty's Picture, which was in the great Hall of the Merchants Hospital, and then tore it to pieces, uttering those treasonable and horrid speeches against His Sacred Majesty that are not fit to be heard by any Christian man. One of them Preach∣ing in Ruglin-Green, a Village near Glascough, had this passage, viz. That the King had set up his Banner; but told them, they had a Com∣mission from Christ to set up his Banner, and they might easily judg which would prevail.
The Magistrates of the foresaid Town, the Masters of the Colledg, and Minister of the place, all fled, some to Dunbertin Castle, some to Edenburgh, and some to other places.
HAving given you this brief Account of their Barbarities, I shall now give you in a few words the state of Affairs here in relation to them.
There were some of them got together in Fife, who begun to Plunder, and steal Horses and Arms, with a resolution to reinforce the Rebels. But upon my Lord Chancellors com∣ing over to Fife to suppress these disorders, and to hasten out the Militia and Heretors of that Shire, they vanished and fled towards Sterling; where my Lord Elfingstoun, and the Earl of Murray's Deputy-Steward for the Lord∣ship of Down, happily met with them near the Pass, killed and took almost the whole party, and brought in about a hundred Horsemen Priso∣ners to Sterling; where they are now secured. Among these Prisoners they say there are three (if not four) of my Lord St. Andrew's Mur∣therers.
The Militia and the Heritors from the three Lowdens, Tivedale, and the Merff, with those from Fife, are already come hither, who with the standing forces make a considerable body,
with which they intend to march towards the Enemy to morrow or next day; and the For∣ces from the Shire of Perth and Sterling, are to join them in their March. The Train of Ar∣tillery is ready, and all other Necessaries provi∣ded for them. And every thing else is done that may tend to the suppressing this Rebellion. All of them both Horse and Foot are brisk and resolute, being animated by a good Cause; and for a Gracious Prince, their Laws, Lives, and Liberties.