ten o'clock at night
But my Bible has instructed me , that I ought not to execute any save such as deserve to die ; so that , if ye should be condemned , as like is you will be , my conscience will ne'er allow me to execute you , for I see you are a Christian man . '' I was moved with a tender pity by the tale of the simple creature ; but a strong necessity was upon me , and it was needful that I should make use of his honesty to help me out of prison . So I spoke still more kindly to him , lamenting my sad estate , and that in the little time I had in all likelihood to live , the rigour of the jailor would allow but little intercourse with my family , wishing some compassionate Christian friend would intercede with him in order that my wife and children , if not permitted to bide all night , might be allowed to remain with me as long and as late as possible . The pious creature said that he would do for me in that respect all in his power , and that , as Mungo Robeson was a sober man , and aye wanted to go home early to his family , he would bide in the tolbooth to let out my wife , though it should be till ten o'clock at night -- `` for , '' said he , piteously , `` I hae nae family to care about . '' Accordingly , he so set himself , that Mungo Robeson consented to leave the keys of the tolbooth with him ; and for several nights everything was so managed that he had no reason to suspect what my wife and I were plotting ; for he being of a modest and retiring nature , never spoke to her when she parted from me , save when she thanked him as he let her out ; and that she did not do every night lest it should grow into a habit of expectation with him , and cause him to remark when the civility was omitted . In the meantime all things being concerted between us , through the mean of a friend a cart was got in readiness , loaded with seemingly a hogget of tobacco and grocery wares , but the hogget was empty and loose in the head . This was all settled by the nineteenth of December ; on the twenty-fourth of the month the Commissioners appointed to try the Covenanters in the prisons throughout the shire of Ayr were to open their court at Ayr , and I was , by all who knew of me , regarded in a manner as a dead man .