an opportunity of making a London journey just at that crisis; which, the reader will remember, was before the rebellion broke out. But as Providence determined it otherwise, he acquiesced: and I am well satisfied that could he have distinctly foreseen the approaching event, so far as it concerned his own person, he would have esteemed it the happiest summons he ever received. While he was at Scarborough, I find by a letter dated from thence, July 26, 1745, that he had been informed of the gaiety which so unseasonably prevailed at Edinburgh, where great multitudes were then spending their time in balls, assemblies, and other gay amusements; little mindful of the rod of God which was then hanging over them; on which occasion he has this expression: "I am greatly surprised that the people of Edinburgh should be employed in such foolish diversions, when our situation is at present more melancholy than ever I saw it in my life. But there is one thing which I am very sure of, that comforts me, namely, that it shall go well with the righteous, come what will."

Quickly after his return home, the flame burst out, and his regiment was ordered to Stirling. It was in the castle there that his lady and eldest daughter enjoyed the last happy hours of his company; and I think it was about eight or ten days before his death that he parted from them there. A remarkable circumstance attended that parting, which has been touched upon by surviving friends in more than one of their letters to me. His lady was so affected when she took her last leave of him, that she could not forbear bursting out into a flood of tears, with other marks of unusual emotion. And when he asked her the reason, she urged the apprehension she had of

K

losing such an invaluable friend, amidst the dangers to which he was then called out, as a very sufficient apology. Upon which she took particular notice, that whereas he had generally comforted her on such occasions, by pleading with her that remarkable hand of Providence, which had so frequently in former instances been exerted for his preservation, and that in the greatest extremity, now he said nothing of it, but only replied in his sententious manner, "We have an eternity to spend together."

That heroic contempt of death, which had often discovered itself in the midst of former dangers, was manifested now in his discourse with several of his most intimate friends. I have reserved for this place one genuine expression of it many years before, which I thought might be mentioned with some advantage here. In July, 1725, he had been sent to some place not far from Hamilton, to quell a mutiny among some of our troops. I know not the particular occasion; but I remember to have heard him mention it as so fierce a one, that he scarcely ever apprehended himself in a more hazardous circumstance. Yet he quelled it by his presence alone, and the expostulations he used, evidently putting his life into his hand to do it. The particulars of the story struck me much; but I do not so exactly remember them, as to venture to relate them here. I only observe, that in a letter, dated July 16, that year, which I have now before me, and which evidently refers to this event, he writes thus:- -"I have been very busy, hurried about from place to place; but, blessed be God, all is over without bloodshed. And pray let me ask, What made you show so much concern for me in your last? Were you afraid I should get to heaven before you?

Or can any evil befall those who are followers of that which is good?”*

And as these were his sentiments in the vigour of his days, so neither did declining years and the infirmities of a broken constitution on the one hand, nor any desires of enjoying the honours and profits of so high a station, or what was much more to him, the converse of the most affectionate of wives and so many amiable children and friends on the other, enervate his spirits in the least: but as he had in former years often expressed it to me and several others as his desire, "that if it were the will of God, he might have some honourable call to sacrifice his life in defence of religion and the liberties of his country;" so when it appeared to him most probable that he might be called to it immediately, he met the summons with the greatest readiness. This appears in part from a letter which he wrote to the reverend Mr. Adams, of Falkirk, just as he was about marching from Stirling, which was only eight days before his death. "The rebels," says he, "are advancing to cross the Firth; but I trust in the Almighty God,

66

* I doubt not but this will remind some of my readers of that noble speech of Zuinglius. When, according to the usage of that country, attending his flock to a battle in which their religion and liberties were all at stake, on his receiving a mortal wound by a bullet, of which he soon expired, while his friends were in all the first astonishment of grief, he bravely said as he was dying, Ecquid hoc infortunii? Is this to be reckoned a misfortune?" How many of our deists would have celebrated such a sentence, if it had come from the lips of an ancient Roman! Strange that the name of Christ should be so odious, that the brightest virtues of his followers should be despised for his sake! But so it is, and so our Master told us it would be ; and our faith is in this connection confirmed by those that strive most to overthrow it.

who doth whatsoever he pleases in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth.” And the same gentleman tells me, that a few days a_er the date of this he marched through Falkirk with his regiment, and though he was then in so languishing a state that he needed his assistance as a secretary to write for some reinforcement, which might put it in his power to make a stand, as he was very desirous to have done, he expressed a most genuine and noble contempt of life, when to be exposed in the defence of a worthy cause.

But he

These sentiments wrought in him to the last, in the most effectual manner; and he seemed for a while to have infused them into the regiment which he commanded: for they expressed such a spirit in their march from Stirling that I am assured the colonel was obliged to exert all his authority to prevent their making incursions on the rebel army, which then lay very near them; and had it been thought proper to send him the reinforcement he requested, none can say what the consequence might have been. was ordered to march as fast as possible, to meet sir John Cope's forces at Dunbar, which he did: and that hasty retreat, in concurrence with the news which they soon after received of the surrender of Edinburgh to the rebels, either by the treachery or weakness of a few, in opposition to the judgment of by far the greater and better part of the inhabitants, struck a panic into both the regiments of dragoons, which became visible in some very apparent and remarkable circumstances in their behaviour, which I forbear to relate. This affected colonel Gardiner so much, that on the Thursday before the fatal action at PrestonPans, he intimated to an officer of considerable rank and note, from whom I had it by a very sure channel

of conveyance, that he expected the event would be as in fact it was. In this view there is all imaginable reason to believe he had formed his resolution as to his own personal conduct, which was, " that he would not, in case of the flight of those under his command, retreat with them;" by which, as it seemed, he was reasonably apprehensive he might have stained the honour of his former services, and have given some occasion for the enemy to have spoken reproachfully. He much rather chose, if Providence gave him the call, to leave in his death an example of fidelity and bravery which might very probably be, as in fact it seems indeed to have been, of much greater importance to his country than any other service which in the few days of remaining life he could expect to render it. I conclude these to have been his views, not only from what I knew of his general character and temper, but likewise from some intimations which he gave to a very worthy person from Edinburgh, who visited him the day before the action, to whom he said, “I cannot influence the conduct of others as I could wish, but I have one life to sacrifice to my country's safety, and I shall not spare it;" or words to that effect.

I have heard such a multitude of inconsistent reports of the circumstances of colonel Gardiner's death, that I had almost despaired of being able to give my reader any particular satisfaction concerning so interesting a scene. But by a happy accident I have very lately had an opportunity of being exactly informed of the whole, by that brave man, Mr. John Foster, his faithful servant, and worthy of the honour of serving such a master, whom I had seen with him at my house some years before. He attended him in his last hours, and gave me the narration at large,