The Rev. Robert Wringhim was now to send for, to release his
beloved ward. The messenger found him at table, with a number
of the leaders of the Whig faction, the Marquis of Annandale
being in the chair; and, the prisoner's note being produced,
Wringhim read it aloud, accompanying it with some explanatory
remarks. The circumstances of the case being thus magnified and
distorted, it excited the utmost abhorrence, both of the deed and
the perpetrators, among the assembled faction. They declaimed
against the act as an unnatural attempt on the character, and even
the life, of an unfortunate brother, who had been expelled from
his father's house. And, as party spirit was the order of the day, an
attempt was made to lay the burden of it to that account. In short,
the young culprit got some of the best blood of the land to enter
as his securities, and was set at liberty. But, when Wringhim
perceived the plight that he was in, he took him, as he was, and
presented him to his honourable patrons. This raised the
indignation against the young laird and his associates a thousand-
fold, which actually roused the party to temporary madness.
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