The Heart of Mid-Lothian - Penn State University

nation commenced, which it is a painful task even for
the most candid witness to undergo, since a story, especially
if connected with agitating and alarming incidents,
can scarce be so clearly and distinctly told, but
that some ambiguity and doubt may be thrown upon it
by a string of successive and minute interrogatories.
The magistrate commenced by observing, that Butler
had said his object was to return to the village of
Libberton, but that he was interrupted by the mob at
the West Port. “Is the West Port your usual way of leaving
town when you go to Libberton?” said the magistrate,
with a sneer.
“No, certainly,” answered Butler, with the haste of a
man anxious to vindicate the accuracy of his evidence;
“but I chanced to be nearer that port than any other,
and the hour of shutting the gates was on the point of
striking.”
“That was unlucky,” said the magistrate, drily. “Pray,
being, as you say, under coercion and fear of the lawless
multitude, and compelled to accompany them through
scenes disagreeable to all men of humanity, and more
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182
especially irreconcilable to the profession of a minister,
did you not attempt to struggle, resist, or escape from
their violence?”
Butler replied, “that their numbers prevented him
from attempting resistance, and their vigilance from effecting
his escape.”
“That was unlucky,” again repeated the magistrate, in
the same dry inacquiescent tone of voice and manner.
He proceeded with decency and politeness, but with a
stiffness which argued his continued suspicion, to ask
many questions concerning the behaviour of the mob,
the manners and dress of the ringleaders; and when he
conceived that the caution of Butler, if he was deceiving
him, must be lulled asleep, the magistrate suddenly and
artfully returned to former parts of his declaration, and
required a new recapitulation of the circumstances, to
the minutest and most trivial point, which attended each
part of the melancholy scene. No confusion or contradiction,
however, occurred, that could countenance the suspicion
which he seemed to have adopted against Butler.
At length the train of his interrogatories reached Madge