of the Trinity, he had been the second person of the Trinity if the ministers had not put him in prison, and that he was no more obliged to God nor the Devil.—­And these aforesaid blasphemies are not rarely or seldom uttered by him, but frequently and ordinarily in several places where he resorted, to the entangling, deluding, and seducing of the common people.  Through the committing of which blasphemies, he hath contravened the tenor of the laws and acts of Parliament, and incurred the pain of death mentioned therein; which ought to be inflicted upon him with all rigour, in manner specified in the indictment.—­Which indictment being put to the knowledge of an assize, the said Alexander Agnew, called Jock of Broad Scotland, was by the said assize, all in one voice, by the mouth of William Carlyle, late bailie of Dumfries, their chancellor, found guilty of the said crimes of blasphemy mentioned in his indictment; for which the commissioners ordained him, upon Wednesday, 21 May, 1656, betwixt two and four hours in the afternoon, to be taken to the ordinary place of execution for the Burgh of Dumfries, and there to be hanged on a gibbet while [till] he be dead, and all his moveable goods to be escheat.”

The intercourse between Scotland and London, both by letters and by journeys to and fro, was now very brisk.[1] Not only were Lauderdale, Eglinton, Marischal, David Leslie, and a number of the other distinguished Scottish prisoners of 1651, still detained in London, in more or less strict custody, with their wives and retainers near them; but many Scots whose proper residence was in Scotland were coming to London, on visits of some length, for their own or for public business.  Among these, late in 1655, was Lockhart,—­to be converted, as we know, into the Protector’s ambassador to the Court of France.  The eccentric ex-Judge Scot of Scotstarvet had already been in London, petitioning for the remission or reduction of his fine of L1500 for former delinquency, and succeeding completely at last, “in consideration of the pains he hath taken and the service he hath done to the Commonwealth.”  The Earl of Lothian was in London, painfully prosecuting petitions for the recovery of certain lost family-properties.  But the most remarkable apparition was that of the Marquis of Argyle.  He came to London in September, 1655, and he seems to have remained there for a long while.  What had brought him up was also a suit with the Protector and the Council for reparation of some portions of his lost fortunes and for favour generally; but he seems to have gone about a good deal, visiting various people.  “Came to visit me.” says Evelyn, the naturalist and virtuoso of Sayes Court, in his diary, under date May 28, 1656, “the old Marquis of Argyle.  Lord Lothian, and some other Scotch noblemen, all strangers to me. Note:  The Marquis took the turtle-doves in the aviary for owls.”  It had been his characteristic mistake through life.[2]

[Footnote 1:  In the London Public Intelligencer for April 12-19, 1658, among other advertisements of stage-coaches starting from “the George Inn, without Aldersgate,” is one of a fortnightly stage-coach for Edinburgh, the fare L4.  Something of the sort may have been running already.]