And frequently they were forced to pay quartering money for more men than were in reality 'cessed on them.' At that time it was no strange thing to behold a strong man begging for money to pay his fines, and many others who were deep in arrears, or who had attracted attention in some other way, were forced to flee from their homes, and take refuge from arrest and imprisonment among the wild mosses of the uplands.

{87a} One example in particular we may cite: John Neilson, the Laird of Corsack, a worthy man, was, unfortunately for himself, a Nonconformist.

First he was fined in four hundred pounds Scots, and then through cessing he lost nineteen hundred and ninety-three pounds Scots.

He was next obliged to leave his house and flee from place to place, during which wanderings he lost his horse.

His wife and children were turned out of doors, and then his tenants were fined till they too were almost ruined.