about seven o'clock in the morning
James Stark , collector of excise , Kirkcaldy , aged forty-nine years or thereby , married , solemnly sworn , purged of malice partial , counsel examined and interrogated , depones time and place libelled -- the deponent being then upon his collection as collector of excise . He went to bed about ten o'clock , and about an hour and a-half thereafter , he was waked out of sleep by a noise and some chapping at the door of the room where he lay -- which door he had secured before he went to bed by screwing down the sneck of the door -- which noise the deponent at first imagined was occasioned by some drunken people in the house ; but afterwards , upon the strokes on the door being repeated with violence , the deponent jumped out of his bed , and heard the under part of the door of the bed-room giving way , upon which the deponent laid hold upon two bags of money , which , with the deponent 's breeches , in which were about L. 100 in gold , and bank notes and silver , the deponent had put below his head when he went to bed ; and the deponent did then , in the confusion in which he was , put the table and some chairs to the back of the door to stap the gap , and thereafter opened the window , and returning to find the bags of money and his breeches , he could only find one of the bags of money , and being in fear of his life , he jumped out at the window with one of the bags of money , and fell at the foot of the stair , the said window being just above the entry to the house , and recovering himself a little , he went towards the corn-yard , and hearing a person call out `` Hold him , '' the deponent apprehending the voice to be before him , he returned a few paces , and then perceiving a man standing or walking at the foot of the stair , the deponent returned again to the yard , where he hid the bag of money , and thereafter coming back towards the house to hear what was a-doing , the deponent heard a knocking in the room where he had been lodged , and thereupon retired to the yard again -- lay covered with some straw till about four in the morning -- and then returning to the house saw the panel , William Hall , in custody of some soldiers ; and the deponent having said to him that he had given him a cold bath that night , William Hall answered that he was not to blame , being only hired , and had no hand in it , but that Andrew Wilson and George Robertson had come there of a design to rob the deponent that night , and that this design had been formed several months before by Andrew Wilson , and particularly at the preceding collection at Elie ; and further depones that soon after the deponent got out of the window as aforesaid , he heard the clock strike twelve ; that when the deponent was first awakened out of his sleep as aforesaid , he heard Mrs Fowler , the landlady , call to the persons who were breaking open the deponent 's bed-room , `` What are ye doing ? '' or `` Why do ye this ? '' and the deponent heard them at the same time cursing and swearing and making a great noise ; and the deponent having only carried one bag of money along with him as aforesaid , he left in said bed-room the money and goods following , viz. , the deponent 's breeches , in which was a purse with fifty-two and a-half guineas , betwixt six and seven pounds in silver , and a pocket-book with one and forty pounds in bank notes , which purse and pocket-book the deponent exhibits in court ; that besides the bank notes , there were several bills and other papers in the pocket-book , and that there was likewise in the deponent 's breeches , a seal , a pair of silver shoe-buckles , and a penknife , which the deponent likewise exhibits ; the deponent likewise left in his room a cloak-bag with some linens in it , which cloak-bag the deponent likewise exhibits in court ; as also a bible , a pair of pistols , which the deponent likewise exhibits ; that upon the deponent returning to his room as aforesaid , he found the door of the room broken up , and saw a press in the room which had been broken up , and found his breeches empty and all the several particulars above enumerated amissing ; and thereafter , about seven o'clock in the morning , the deponent having gone to Anstruther-Easter , he soon thereafter saw the three panels in custody ; and the deponent did then see in the hands of the magistrates of Anstruther , the seal , the buckles , and penknife above mentioned ; depones that upon Monday following , being the 12th of January last , William Hall , panel , told the deponent that he had informed Alexander Clerk , supervisor of excise , where the purse of gold was to be found , whereupon the deponent desired the supervisor to go in quest of it , which he did , and having found it , he restored it to the deponent with the whole gold in it ; and that the bible was returned to the deponent by one of the soldiers who apprehended Hall ; that on Saturday night the 10th of January , the deponent got back his pocket-book and bank notes , with the other papers in the said pocket-book , from Bailie Robert Brown in Anstruther-Easter . _ Causa scientiæ patet . _ And this is truth , as he shall answer to God . -LRB- Signed -RRB- James Stark ; Andrew Fletcher .