They looked after him, and came onwards; but,
when they came to the old man lying stretched in his blood, then
they turned and pursued my companion, though not so quickly as
they might have done; and I understand that from the first they
saw no more of him.
Great was the confusion that day in Glasgow. The most popular
of all their preachers of morality was (what they called) murdered
in cold blood, and a strict and extensive search was made for the
assassin. Neither of the accomplices was found, however, that is
certain, nor was either of them so much as suspected; but another
man was apprehended under circumstances that warranted
suspicion. This was one of the things that I witnessed in my life,
which I never understood, and it surely was one of my patron's
most dexterous tricks, for I must still say, what I have thought
from the beginning, that like him there never was a man created.
The young man who was taken up was a preacher; and it was
proved that he had purchased fire-arms in town, and gone out
with them that morning. But the far greatest mystery of the whole
was that two of the men, out of the three who met my companion,
swore that that unfortunate preacher was the man whom they met
with a pistol in each hand, fresh from the death of the old divine.
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