About midnight
The reader , however gentle , will not hold himself obliged to rest satisfied with the mere fact that such and such occurrences took place , which is , generally speaking , all that in ordinary life he can know of what is passing around him ; but he is desirous , while reading for amusement , of knowing the interior movements occasioning the course of events . This is a legitimate and reasonable curiosity ; for every man hath a right to open and examine the mechanism of his own watch , put together for his proper use , although he is not permitted to pry into the interior of the timepiece which , for general information , is displayed on the town steeple . It would be , therefore , uncourteous to leave my readers under any doubt concerning the agency which removed the assassin Bonthron from the gallows -- an event which some of the Perth citizens ascribed to the foul fiend himself , while others were content to lay it upon the natural dislike of Bonthron 's countrymen of Fife to see him hanging on the river side , as a spectacle dishonourable to their province . About midnight succeeding the day when the execution had taken place , and while the inhabitants of Perth were deeply buried in slumber , three men muffled in their cloaks , and bearing a dark lantern , descended the alleys of a garden which led from the house occupied by Sir John Ramorny to the banks of the Tay , where a small boat lay moored to a landing place , or little projecting pier . The wind howled in a low and melancholy manner through the leafless shrubs and bushes ; and a pale moon `` waded , '' as it is termed in Scotland , amongst drifting clouds , which seemed to threaten rain . The three individuals entered the boat with great precaution to escape observation . One of them was a tall , powerful man ; another short and bent downwards ; the third middle sized , and apparently younger than his companions , well made , and active .