Who Was That Masked Prophet? VIII

The Last Prophecy

In his latter years Peden became more and more isolated, as his friends were murdered one by one by the government. After the death of Richard Cameron, the best known of the Covenanter leaders, Peden regularly visited the grave of Cameron often, being heard to say, "O to be wi' Ritchie.
There came a worn and weary man to Cameron's place of rest;
He cast him down upon the sod - he smote upon his breast -
He wept as only strong men weep, when they must weep or die,
And 'O to be wi' thee, Ritchie!' was still his bitter cry.

Upon wild and lone Airsmoss down sank the twilight grey,
In storn and cloud the evening closed upon that cheerless day;
But Peden went his way refreshed, for peace and joy were given,
And Cameron's grave had proved to him the very gate of heaven.
(Mrs. Menteath)

Late in 1685, Alexander Peden's health began to fail. "Take my corpse to Airsmoss and lay it beside Ritchie," he said. But he knew that they would be unable to do so. "I shall be decently buried by you, and if my body be suffered to rest in the grave where you shall lay it, then I have been a deciever, and the Lord hath not spoken by me; but if the enemy come a little afterwards to take it up, and carry it away to bury it in an ignominious place, then I hope you will believe that God almighty has spoken by me, and consequently not one word fall to the ground."

Peden died in his brother's house on 26th January 1686. He was buried in the family vault of the Boswells of Auchinleck. Six weeks later, however, government troops came and took the body from the vault. They carried the body to Cumnock, where they were going to hang the body on the gibbet in chains. They were ordered by the local laird, the Earl of Dumfries, that the gibbet was for murderers, not for such men as Peden. The soldiers buried Peden's corpse at that foor of the gallows, 'an ignominious place.' There he still lies, with a monument raised over his now honoured corpse.

The next post will, God willing, be an attempt to examine the story of the Masked Prophet.