Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 10.djvu/356

ers? I immediately thought upon one James Gibb, who had been born in Ireland, and whom I made a dragoon. This man I brought to the general, assuring his excellency, that if I had raked Hell, I could not find his match for his skill in mimicking the covenanters. Whereupon the general gave him five pounds to buy him a great coat and a bonnet, and commanded him to find out the rebels, but to be sure to take care of himself among them. The dragoon went eight miles off that very night, and got admittance into the house of a notorious rebel, pretending he came from Ireland out of zeal for the cause, to assist at the fight of Bothwell bridge, and could not find an opportunity since, of returning to Ireland with safety; he said he durst not be seen in the day time, and therefore, after bewitching the family with his gifts of praying, he was conveyed in the dusk of the evening, with a guide, to the house of the next adjoining rebel; and thus, in the same manner, from one to another, till in a month's time he got through the principal of them in the west; telling the general, at his return, that whereever he came, he made the old wives, in their devout fits, tear off their biggonets and mutches; he likewise gave the general a list of their names and places of their abode, and into the bargain, brought back a good purse of money in his pocket. The general desired to know how he had prayed among them; he answered, that it was his custom, in his prayers, to send the king, the ministers of state, the officers of the army, with all their soldiers, and the episcopal clergy, all broadside to Hell; but particularly the general himself. What, said the general, did you send me to Hell, sir? Yea, replied the dragoon, you at the head of them, as their leader.

And