By some of these the apartment of Porteous was pointed out to his enemies.

The obstacle of the lock and bolts was soon overcome, and from his hiding place the unfortunate man heard his enemies search every corner of the apartment, with oaths and maledictions, which would but shock the reader if we recorded them, but which served to prove, could it have admitted of doubt, the settled purpose of soul with which they sought his destruction.
A place of concealment so obvious to suspicion and scrutiny as that which Porteous had chosen, could not long screen him from detection.

He was dragged from his lurking-place, with a violence which seemed to argue an intention to put him to death on the spot.

More than one weapon was directed towards him, when one of the rioters, the same whose female disguise had been particularly noticed by Butler, interfered in an authoritative tone.

"Are ye mad ?" he said, "or would ye execute an act of justice as if it were a crime and a cruelty?
This sacrifice will lose half its savour if we do not offer it at the very horns of the altar.