190 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [leQS ' Taking the six deputies with me, I went to their camp

Passages from the diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries : A.D. 1635-A.D. 1699"

190 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [leQS

' Taking the six deputies with me, I went to their camp, where I communicated the orders to
assemble and hear the gracious concessions of his Majesty. When about two hundred had come
together, I let the deputies communicate the orders given, and then employed all the rhetoric I
was master of to induce them to return to obedience, and give in a petition, confessing their
guilt in having transgressed his Majesty's orders. But they answered that they were all determined
to die or else go to Moscow, though it were only for eight or three days ; after that they would
go wherever his Majesty should order. When I told them that they would not be permitted to
go to Moscow, and that they must not think of it, they replied that they would rather die than
not get to Moscow. With that began two old fellows among them to aggravate their privations,
and half a dozen confirmed what they said, and kept up the disturbance. I advised that each
regiment should hold a consultation apart, and that they should consider well what they did,
and what they were refusing. But they rejected all advice, and declared that they were all of
one mind. I then intimated that I would withdraw from the camp and wait an answer outside,
adding the threat, that if they did not embrace the gracious offers of his Miijesty now, they
needed not expect such conditions again, when once we should be obliged to use compulsion to
bring them to obedience. But to all this they paid no heed. I then rode out of their camp, and
waited at some distance for a quarter of an hour ; after which I sent to ask their final answer.
Finding no alteration of their mind, I took my departure with an indication of sorrow. After
inspecting the best approaches to the rebels, and holding a consultation with the Generalissimo
and others, it was resolved to draw up the army, and plant the cannon, and use force. I brought
up the infantry and twenty-five cannon to a fit position, surrounded their camp on the other
side with cavalry, and then sent an officer to summon and exhort them once more to submit.
As they again declined, I sent yet another to demand a categorical decision. But they rejected
all proposals of compromise, and boasted that they were as ready to defend themselves by force
as we were to attack. Seeing that all hope of their submission was vain, I made a round of the
cannon be fired. But as we fired over their heads, this only emboldened them more, so that
they began to wave their colours and throw up their caps, and prepare for resistance. At the
next discharge of the cannon, however, seeing their comrades fall on all sides, they began to
waver. Out of despair, or to protect themselves from the cannon, they made a sally by a lane,
which, however, we had occupied with a strong body. To make yet surer, I brought up several
detachments to the spot, so as to command the hollow way along which they were issuing.
Seeing this, they returned to their camp, and some of them betook themselves to the barns and
outhouses of the adjoining Tillage. At the third discharge of the guns, many of them rushed
out of the camp towards the infantry and cavalry. After the fourth round of fire, very few of
them remained in their waggon rampart; and I moved down with two battalions to their camp,
and posted guards round it. During this affair, which lasted about an hour, a few of our men
were wounded. The rebels had twenty-two killed on the spot, and about forty wounded, mostly
mortally. We had all the prisoners brought to tLe convent, and shut up in vaulted houses and
other places. A list of their horses was then made, and orders given not to touch their pro-
perty ; only the ammunition and the regimental waggons were brought to head quarters, and