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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Catriona, by Robert Louis Stevenson

+(#25 in our series by Robert Louis Stevenson)

+

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+

+Title: Catriona

+

+Author: Robert Louis Stevenson

+

+Release Date: July, 1996  [EBook #589]

+[This file was first posted on May 15, 1996]

+[Most recently updated: May 20, 2002]

+

+Edition: 11

+

+Language: English

+

+Character set encoding: ASCII

+

+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, CATRIONA ***

+

+

+

+

+Transcribed from the 1904 Cassell and Company edition by David Price,

+email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk

+

+

+

+

+

+CATRIONA

+

+

+

+

+DEDICATION.

+

+

+TO CHARLES BAXTER, Writer to the Signet.

+

+

+My Dear Charles,

+

+

+It is the fate of sequels to disappoint those who have waited for

+them; and my David, having been left to kick his heels for more

+than a lustre in the British Linen Company's office, must expect

+his late re-appearance to be greeted with hoots, if not with

+missiles.  Yet, when I remember the days of our explorations, I am

+not without hope.  There should be left in our native city some

+seed of the elect; some long-legged, hot-headed youth must repeat

+to-day our dreams and wanderings of so many years ago; he will

+relish the pleasure, which should have been ours, to follow among

+named streets and numbered houses the country walks of David

+Balfour, to identify Dean, and Silvermills, and Broughton, and Hope

+Park, and Pilrig, and poor old Lochend--if it still be standing,

+and the Figgate Whins--if there be any of them left; or to push (on

+a long holiday) so far afield as Gillane or the Bass.  So, perhaps,

+his eye shall be opened to behold the series of the generations,

+and he shall weigh with surprise his momentous and nugatory gift of

+life.

+

+You are still--as when first I saw, as when I last addressed you--

+in the venerable city which I must always think of as my home.  And

+I have come so far; and the sights and thoughts of my youth pursue

+me; and I see like a vision the youth of my father, and of his

+father, and the whole stream of lives flowing down there far in the

+north, with the sound of laughter and tears, to cast me out in the

+end, as by a sudden freshet, on these ultimate islands.  And I

+admire and bow my head before the romance of destiny.

+

+R. L. S.

+Vailima, Upolu,

+Samoa, 1892.

+

+

+

+

+CATRIONA--Part I--THE LORD ADVOCATE

+

+

+

+

+CHAPTER I--A BEGGAR ON HORSEBACK

+

+

+

+The 25th day of August, 1751, about two in the afternoon, I, David

+Balfour, came forth of the British Linen Company, a porter

+attending me with a bag of money, and some of the chief of these

+merchants bowing me from their doors.  Two days before, and even so

+late as yestermorning, I was like a beggar-man by the wayside, clad

+in rags, brought down to my last shillings, my companion a

+condemned traitor, a price set on my own head for a crime with the

+news of which the country rang.  To-day I was served heir to my

+position in life, a landed laird, a bank porter by me carrying my

+gold, recommendations in my pocket, and (in the words of the

+saying) the ball directly at my foot.

+

+There were two circumstances that served me as ballast to so much

+sail.  The first was the very difficult and deadly business I had

+still to handle; the second, the place that I was in.  The tall,

+black city, and the numbers and movement and noise of so many folk,

+made a new world for me, after the moorland braes, the sea-sands

+and the still country-sides that I had frequented up to then.  The

+throng of the citizens in particular abashed me.  Rankeillor's son

+was short and small in the girth; his clothes scarce held on me;

+and it was plain I was ill qualified to strut in the front of a

+bank-porter.  It was plain, if I did so, I should but set folk

+laughing, and (what was worse in my case) set them asking

+questions.  So that I behooved to come by some clothes of my own,

+and in the meanwhile to walk by the porter's side, and put my hand

+on his arm as though we were a pair of friends.

+

+At a merchant's in the Luckenbooths I had myself fitted out:  none

+too fine, for I had no idea to appear like a beggar on horseback;

+but comely and responsible, so that servants should respect me.

+Thence to an armourer's, where I got a plain sword, to suit with my

+degree in life.  I felt safer with the weapon, though (for one so

+ignorant of defence) it might be called an added danger.  The

+porter, who was naturally a man of some experience, judged my

+accoutrement to be well chosen.

+

+"Naething kenspeckle," {1} said he; "plain, dacent claes.  As for

+the rapier, nae doubt it sits wi' your degree; but an I had been

+you, I would has waired my siller better-gates than that."  And he

+proposed I should buy winter-hosen from a wife in the Cowgate-back,

+that was a cousin of his own, and made them "extraordinar

+endurable."

+

+But I had other matters on my hand more pressing.  Here I was in

+this old, black city, which was for all the world like a rabbit-

+warren, not only by the number of its indwellers, but the

+complication of its passages and holes.  It was, indeed, a place

+where no stranger had a chance to find a friend, let be another

+stranger.  Suppose him even to hit on the right close, people dwelt

+so thronged in these tall houses, he might very well seek a day

+before he chanced on the right door.  The ordinary course was to

+hire a lad they called a caddie, who was like a guide or pilot, led

+you where you had occasion, and (your errands being done) brought

+you again where you were lodging.  But these caddies, being always

+employed in the same sort of services, and having it for obligation

+to be well informed of every house and person in the city, had

+grown to form a brotherhood of spies; and I knew from tales of Mr.

+Campbell's how they communicated one with another, what a rage of

+curiosity they conceived as to their employer's business, and how

+they were like eyes and fingers to the police.  It would be a piece

+of little wisdom, the way I was now placed, to take such a ferret

+to my tails.  I had three visits to make, all immediately needful:

+to my kinsman Mr. Balfour of Pilrig, to Stewart the Writer that was

+Appin's agent, and to William Grant Esquire of Prestongrange, Lord

+Advocate of Scotland.  Mr. Balfour's was a non-committal visit; and

+besides (Pilrig being in the country) I made bold to find the way

+to it myself, with the help of my two legs and a Scots tongue.  But

+the rest were in a different case.  Not only was the visit to

+Appin's agent, in the midst of the cry about the Appin murder,

+dangerous in itself, but it was highly inconsistent with the other.

+I was like to have a bad enough time of it with my Lord Advocate

+Grant, the best of ways; but to go to him hot-foot from Appin's

+agent, was little likely to mend my own affairs, and might prove

+the mere ruin of friend Alan's.  The whole thing, besides, gave me

+a look of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds that

+was little to my fancy.  I determined, therefore, to be done at

+once with Mr. Stewart and the whole Jacobitical side of my

+business, and to profit for that purpose by the guidance of the

+porter at my side.  But it chanced I had scarce given him the

+address, when there came a sprinkle of rain--nothing to hurt, only

+for my new clothes--and we took shelter under a pend at the head of

+a close or alley.

+

+Being strange to what I saw, I stepped a little farther in.  The

+narrow paved way descended swiftly.  Prodigious tall houses sprang

+upon each side and bulged out, one storey beyond another, as they

+rose.  At the top only a ribbon of sky showed in.  By what I could

+spy in the windows, and by the respectable persons that passed out

+and in, I saw the houses to be very well occupied; and the whole

+appearance of the place interested me like a tale.

+

+I was still gazing, when there came a sudden brisk tramp of feet in

+time and clash of steel behind me.  Turning quickly, I was aware of

+a party of armed soldiers, and, in their midst, a tall man in a

+great coat.  He walked with a stoop that was like a piece of

+courtesy, genteel and insinuating:  he waved his hands plausibly as

+he went, and his face was sly and handsome.  I thought his eye took

+me in, but could not meet it.  This procession went by to a door in

+the close, which a serving-man in a fine livery set open; and two

+of the soldier-lads carried the prisoner within, the rest lingering

+with their firelocks by the door.

+

+There can nothing pass in the streets of a city without some

+following of idle folk and children.  It was so now; but the more

+part melted away incontinent until but three were left.  One was a

+girl; she was dressed like a lady, and had a screen of the Drummond

+colours on her head; but her comrades or (I should say) followers

+were ragged gillies, such as I had seen the matches of by the dozen

+in my Highland journey.  They all spoke together earnestly in

+Gaelic, the sound of which was pleasant in my ears for the sake of

+Alan; and, though the rain was by again, and my porter plucked at

+me to be going, I even drew nearer where they were, to listen.  The

+lady scolded sharply, the others making apologies and cringeing

+before her, so that I made sure she was come of a chief's house.

+All the while the three of them sought in their pockets, and by

+what I could make out, they had the matter of half a farthing among

+the party; which made me smile a little to see all Highland folk

+alike for fine obeisances and empty sporrans.

+

+It chanced the girl turned suddenly about, so that I saw her face

+for the first time.  There is no greater wonder than the way the

+face of a young woman fits in a man's mind, and stays there, and he

+could never tell you why; it just seems it was the thing he wanted.

+She had wonderful bright eyes like stars, and I daresay the eyes

+had a part in it; but what I remember the most clearly was the way

+her lips were a trifle open as she turned.  And, whatever was the

+cause, I stood there staring like a fool.  On her side, as she had

+not known there was anyone so near, she looked at me a little

+longer, and perhaps with more surprise, than was entirely civil.

+

+It went through my country head she might be wondering at my new

+clothes; with that, I blushed to my hair, and at the sight of my

+colouring it is to be supposed she drew her own conclusions, for

+she moved her gillies farther down the close, and they fell again

+to this dispute, where I could hear no more of it.

+

+I had often admired a lassie before then, if scarce so sudden and

+strong; and it was rather my disposition to withdraw than to come

+forward, for I was much in fear of mockery from the womenkind.  You

+would have thought I had now all the more reason to pursue my

+common practice, since I had met this young lady in the city

+street, seemingly following a prisoner, and accompanied with two

+very ragged indecent-like Highlandmen.  But there was here a

+different ingredient; it was plain the girl thought I had been

+prying in her secrets; and with my new clothes and sword, and at

+the top of my new fortunes, this was more than I could swallow.

+The beggar on horseback could not bear to be thrust down so low,

+or, at least of it, not by this young lady.

+

+I followed, accordingly, and took off my new hat to her the best

+that I was able.

+

+"Madam," said I, "I think it only fair to myself to let you

+understand I have no Gaelic.  It is true I was listening, for I

+have friends of my own across the Highland line, and the sound of

+that tongue comes friendly; but for your private affairs, if you

+had spoken Greek, I might have had more guess at them."

+

+She made me a little, distant curtsey.  "There is no harm done,"

+said she, with a pretty accent, most like the English (but more

+agreeable).  "A cat may look at a king."

+

+"I do not mean to offend," said I.  "I have no skill of city

+manners; I never before this day set foot inside the doors of

+Edinburgh.  Take me for a country lad--it's what I am; and I would

+rather I told you than you found it out."

+

+"Indeed, it will be a very unusual thing for strangers to be

+speaking to each other on the causeway," she replied.  "But if you

+are landward {2} bred it will be different.  I am as landward as

+yourself; I am Highland, as you see, and think myself the farther

+from my home."

+

+"It is not yet a week since I passed the line," said I.  "Less than

+a week ago I was on the braes of Balwhidder."

+

+"Balwhither?" she cries.  "Come ye from Balwhither!  The name of it

+makes all there is of me rejoice.  You will not have been long

+there, and not known some of our friends or family?"

+

+"I lived with a very honest, kind man called Duncan Dhu Maclaren,"

+I replied.

+

+"Well, I know Duncan, and you give him the true name!" she said;

+"and if he is an honest man, his wife is honest indeed."

+

+"Ay," said I, "they are fine people, and the place is a bonny

+place."

+

+"Where in the great world is such another!" she cries; "I am loving

+the smell of that place and the roots that grow there."

+

+I was infinitely taken with the spirit of the maid.  "I could be

+wishing I had brought you a spray of that heather," says I.  "And,

+though I did ill to speak with you at the first, now it seems we

+have common acquaintance, I make it my petition you will not forget

+me.  David Balfour is the name I am known by.  This is my lucky

+day, when I have just come into a landed estate, and am not very

+long out of a deadly peril.  I wish you would keep my name in mind

+for the sake of Balwhidder," said I, "and I will yours for the sake

+of my lucky day."

+

+"My name is not spoken," she replied, with a great deal of

+haughtiness.  "More than a hundred years it has not gone upon men's

+tongues, save for a blink.  I am nameless, like the Folk of Peace.

+{3}  Catriona Drummond is the one I use."

+

+Now indeed I knew where I was standing.  In all broad Scotland

+there was but the one name proscribed, and that was the name of the

+Macgregors.  Yet so far from fleeing this undesirable acquaintancy,

+I plunged the deeper in.

+

+"I have been sitting with one who was in the same case with

+yourself," said I, "and I think he will be one of your friends.

+They called him Robin Oig."

+

+"Did ye so?" cries she.  "Ye met Rob?"

+

+"I passed the night with him," said I.

+

+"He is a fowl of the night," said she.

+

+"There was a set of pipes there," I went on, "so you may judge if

+the time passed."

+

+"You should be no enemy, at all events," said she.  "That was his

+brother there a moment since, with the red soldiers round him.  It

+is him that I call father."

+

+"Is it so?" cried I.  "Are you a daughter of James More's?"

+

+"All the daughter that he has," says she:  "the daughter of a

+prisoner; that I should forget it so, even for one hour, to talk

+with strangers!"

+

+Here one of the gillies addressed her in what he had of English, to

+know what "she" (meaning by that himself) was to do about "ta

+sneeshin."  I took some note of him for a short, bandy-legged, red-

+haired, big-headed man, that I was to know more of to my cost.

+

+"There can be none the day, Neil," she replied.  "How will you get

+'sneeshin,' wanting siller!  It will teach you another time to be

+more careful; and I think James More will not be very well pleased

+with Neil of the Tom."

+

+"Miss Drummond," I said, "I told you I was in my lucky day.  Here I

+am, and a bank-porter at my tail.  And remember I have had the

+hospitality of your own country of Balwhidder."

+

+"It was not one of my people gave it," said she.

+

+"Ah, well," said I, "but I am owing your uncle at least for some

+springs upon the pipes.  Besides which, I have offered myself to be

+your friend, and you have been so forgetful that you did not refuse

+me in the proper time."

+

+"If it had been a great sum, it might have done you honour," said

+she; "but I will tell you what this is.  James More lies shackled

+in prison; but this time past they will be bringing him down here

+daily to the Advocate's. . . ."

+

+"The Advocate's!" I cried.  "Is that . . . ?"

+

+"It is the house of the Lord Advocate Grant of Prestongrange," said

+she.  "There they bring my father one time and another, for what

+purpose I have no thought in my mind; but it seems there is some

+hope dawned for him.  All this same time they will not let me be

+seeing him, nor yet him write; and we wait upon the King's street

+to catch him; and now we give him his snuff as he goes by, and now

+something else.  And here is this son of trouble, Neil, son of

+Duncan, has lost my four-penny piece that was to buy that snuff,

+and James More must go wanting, and will think his daughter has

+forgotten him."

+

+I took sixpence from my pocket, gave it to Neil, and bade him go

+about his errand.  Then to her, "That sixpence came with me by

+Balwhidder," said I.

+

+"Ah!" she said, "you are a friend to the Gregara!"

+

+"I would not like to deceive you, either," said I.  "I know very

+little of the Gregara and less of James More and his doings, but

+since the while I have been standing in this close, I seem to know

+something of yourself; and if you will just say 'a friend to Miss

+Catriona' I will see you are the less cheated."

+

+"The one cannot be without the other," said she.

+

+"I will even try," said I.

+

+"And what will you be thinking of myself!" she cried, "to be

+holding my hand to the first stranger!"

+

+"I am thinking nothing but that you are a good daughter," said I.

+

+"I must not be without repaying it," she said; "where is it you

+stop!"

+

+"To tell the truth, I am stopping nowhere yet," said I, "being not

+full three hours in the city; but if you will give me your

+direction, I will he no bold as come seeking my sixpence for

+myself."

+

+"Will I can trust you for that?" she asked.

+

+"You need have little fear," said I.

+

+"James More could not bear it else," said she.  "I stop beyond the

+village of Dean, on the north side of the water, with Mrs.

+Drummond-Ogilvy of Allardyce, who is my near friend and will be

+glad to thank you."

+

+"You are to see me, then, so soon as what I have to do permits,"

+said I; and, the remembrance of Alan rolling in again upon my mind,

+I made haste to say farewell.

+

+I could not but think, even as I did so, that we had made

+extraordinary free upon short acquaintance, and that a really wise

+young lady would have shown herself more backward.  I think it was

+the bank-porter that put me from this ungallant train of thought.

+

+"I thoucht ye had been a lad of some kind o' sense," he began,

+shooting out his lips.  "Ye're no likely to gang far this gate.  A

+fule and his siller's shune parted.  Eh, but ye're a green

+callant!" he cried, "an' a veecious, tae!  Cleikin' up wi'

+baubeejoes!"

+

+"If you dare to speak of the young lady. . . " I began.

+

+"Leddy!" he cried.  "Haud us and safe us, whatten leddy?  Ca' THON

+a leddy?  The toun's fu' o' them.  Leddies!  Man, its weel seen

+ye're no very acquant in Embro!"

+

+A clap of anger took me.

+

+"Here," said I, "lead me where I told you, and keep your foul mouth

+shut!"

+

+He did not wholly obey me, for, though he no more addressed me

+directly, he very impudent sang at me as he went in a manner of

+innuendo, and with an exceedingly ill voice and ear -

+

+

+"As Mally Lee cam doun the street, her capuchin did flee,

+She cuist a look ahint her to see her negligee.

+And we're a' gaun east and wast, we're a' gann ajee,

+We're a' gaun east and wast courtin' Mally Lee."

+

+

+

+CHAPTER II--THE HIGHLAND WRITER

+

+

+

+Mr. Charles Stewart the Writer dwelt at the top of the longest

+stair ever mason set a hand to; fifteen flights of it, no less; and

+when I had come to his door, and a clerk had opened it, and told me

+his master was within, I had scarce breath enough to send my porter

+packing.

+

+"Awa' east and west wi' ye!" said I, took the money bag out of his

+hands, and followed the clerk in.

+

+The outer room was an office with the clerk's chair at a table

+spread with law papers.  In the inner chamber, which opened from

+it, a little brisk man sat poring on a deed, from which he scarce

+raised his eyes on my entrance; indeed, he still kept his finger in

+the place, as though prepared to show me out and fall again to his

+studies.  This pleased me little enough; and what pleased me less,

+I thought the clerk was in a good posture to overhear what should

+pass between us.

+

+I asked if he was Mr. Charles Stewart the Writer.

+

+"The same," says he; "and, if the question is equally fair, who may

+you be yourself?"

+

+"You never heard tell of my name nor of me either," said I, "but I

+bring you a token from a friend that you know well.  That you know

+well," I repeated, lowering my voice, "but maybe are not just so

+keen to hear from at this present being.  And the bits of business

+that I have to propone to you are rather in the nature of being

+confidential.  In short, I would like to think we were quite

+private."

+

+He rose without more words, casting down his paper like a man ill-

+pleased, sent forth his clerk of an errand, and shut to the house-

+door behind him.

+

+"Now, sir," said he, returning, "speak out your mind and fear

+nothing; though before you begin," he cries out, "I tell you mine

+misgives me!  I tell you beforehand, ye're either a Stewart or a

+Stewart sent ye.  A good name it is, and one it would ill-become my

+father's son to lightly.  But I begin to grue at the sound of it."

+

+"My name is called Balfour," said I, "David Balfour of Shaws.  As

+for him that sent me, I will let his token speak."  And I showed

+the silver button.

+

+"Put it in your pocket, sir!" cries he.  "Ye need name no names.

+The deevil's buckie, I ken the button of him!  And de'il hae't!

+Where is he now!"

+

+I told him I knew not where Alan was, but he had some sure place

+(or thought he had) about the north side, where he was to lie until

+a ship was found for him; and how and where he had appointed to be

+spoken with.

+

+"It's been always my opinion that I would hang in a tow for this

+family of mine," he cried, "and, dod!  I believe the day's come

+now!  Get a ship for him, quot' he!  And who's to pay for it?  The

+man's daft!"

+

+"That is my part of the affair, Mr. Stewart," said I.  "Here is a

+bag of good money, and if more be wanted, more is to be had where

+it came from."

+

+"I needn't ask your politics," said he.

+

+"Ye need not," said I, smiling, "for I'm as big a Whig as grows."

+

+"Stop a bit, stop a bit," says Mr. Stewart.  "What's all this?  A

+Whig?  Then why are you here with Alan's button? and what kind of a

+black-foot traffic is this that I find ye out in, Mr. Whig?  Here

+is a forfeited rebel and an accused murderer, with two hundred

+pounds on his life, and ye ask me to meddle in his business, and

+then tell me ye're a Whig!  I have no mind of any such Whigs

+before, though I've kent plenty of them."

+

+"He's a forfeited rebel, the more's the pity," said I, "for the

+man's my friend.  I can only wish he had been better guided.  And

+an accused murderer, that he is too, for his misfortune; but

+wrongfully accused."

+

+"I hear you say so," said Stewart.

+

+"More than you are to hear me say so, before long," said I.  "Alan

+Breck is innocent, and so is James."

+

+"Oh!" says he, "the two cases hang together.  If Alan is out, James

+can never be in."

+

+Hereupon I told him briefly of my acquaintance with Alan, of the

+accident that brought me present at the Appin murder, and the

+various passages of our escape among the heather, and my recovery

+of my estate.  "So, sir, you have now the whole train of these

+events," I went on, "and can see for yourself how I come to be so

+much mingled up with the affairs of your family and friends, which

+(for all of our sakes) I wish had been plainer and less bloody.

+You can see for yourself, too, that I have certain pieces of

+business depending, which were scarcely fit to lay before a lawyer

+chosen at random.  No more remains, but to ask if you will

+undertake my service?"

+

+"I have no great mind to it; but coming as you do with Alan's

+button, the choice is scarcely left me," said he.  "What are your

+instructions?" he added, and took up his pen.

+

+"The first point is to smuggle Alan forth of this country," said I,

+"but I need not be repeating that."

+

+"I am little likely to forget it," said Stewart.

+

+"The next thing is the bit money I am owing to Cluny," I went on.

+"It would be ill for me to find a conveyance, but that should be no

+stick to you.  It was two pounds five shillings and three-halfpence

+farthing sterling."

+

+He noted it.

+

+"Then," said I, "there's a Mr. Henderland, a licensed preacher and

+missionary in Ardgour, that I would like well to get some snuff

+into the hands of; and, as I daresay you keep touch with your

+friends in Appin (so near by), it's a job you could doubtless

+overtake with the other."

+

+"How much snuff are we to say?" he asked.

+

+"I was thinking of two pounds," said I.

+

+"Two," said he.

+

+"Then there's the lass Alison Hastie, in Lime Kilns," said I.  "Her

+that helped Alan and me across the Forth.  I was thinking if I

+could get her a good Sunday gown, such as she could wear with

+decency in her degree, it would be an ease to my conscience; for

+the mere truth is, we owe her our two lives."

+

+"I am glad so see you are thrifty, Mr. Balfour," says he, making

+his notes.

+

+"I would think shame to be otherwise the first day of my fortune,"

+said I.  "And now, if you will compute the outlay and your own

+proper charges, I would be glad to know if I could get some

+spending-money back.  It's not that I grudge the whole of it to get

+Alan safe; it's not that I lack more; but having drawn so much the

+one day, I think it would have a very ill appearance if I was back

+again seeking, the next.  Only be sure you have enough," I added,

+"for I am very undesirous to meet with you again."

+

+"Well, and I'm pleased to see you're cautious, too," said the

+Writer.  "But I think ye take a risk to lay so considerable a sum

+at my discretion."

+

+He said this with a plain sneer.

+

+"I'll have to run the hazard," I replied.  "O, and there's another

+service I would ask, and that's to direct me to a lodging, for I

+have no roof to my head.  But it must be a lodging I may seem to

+have hit upon by accident, for it would never do if the Lord

+Advocate were to get any jealousy of our acquaintance."

+

+"Ye may set your weary spirit at rest," said he.  "I will never

+name your name, sir; and it's my belief the Advocate is still so

+much to be sympathised with that he doesnae ken of your existence."

+

+I saw I had got to the wrong side of the man.

+

+"There's a braw day coming for him, then," said I, "for he'll have

+to learn of it on the deaf side of his head no later than to-

+morrow, when I call on him."

+

+"When ye CALL on him!" repeated Mr. Stewart.  "Am I daft, or are

+you!  What takes ye near the Advocate!"

+

+"O, just to give myself up," said I.

+

+"Mr. Balfour," he cried, "are ye making a mock of me?"

+

+"No, sir," said I, "though I think you have allowed yourself some

+such freedom with myself.  But I give you to understand once and

+for all that I am in no jesting spirit."

+

+"Nor yet me," says Stewart.  "And I give yon to understand (if

+that's to be the word) that I like the looks of your behaviour less

+and less.  You come here to me with all sorts of propositions,

+which will put me in a train of very doubtful acts and bring me

+among very undesirable persons this many a day to come.  And then

+you tell me you're going straight out of my office to make your

+peace with the Advocate!  Alan's button here or Alan's button

+there, the four quarters of Alan wouldnae bribe me further in."

+

+"I would take it with a little more temper," said I, "and perhaps

+we can avoid what you object to.  I can see no way for it but to

+give myself up, but perhaps you can see another; and if you could,

+I could never deny but what I would be rather relieved.  For I

+think my traffic with his lordship is little likely to agree with

+my health.  There's just the one thing clear, that I have to give

+my evidence; for I hope it'll save Alan's character (what's left of

+it), and James's neck, which is the more immediate."

+

+He was silent for a breathing-space, and then, "My man," said he,

+"you'll never be allowed to give such evidence."

+

+"We'll have to see about that," said I; "I'm stiff-necked when I

+like."

+

+"Ye muckle ass!" cried Stewart, "it's James they want; James has

+got to hang--Alan, too, if they could catch him--but James

+whatever!  Go near the Advocate with any such business, and you'll

+see! he'll find a way to muzzle, ye."

+

+"I think better of the Advocate than that," said I.

+

+"The Advocate be dammed!" cries he.  "It's the Campbells, man!

+You'll have the whole clanjamfry of them on your back; and so will

+the Advocate too, poor body!  It's extraordinar ye cannot see where

+ye stand!  If there's no fair way to stop your gab, there's a foul

+one gaping.  They can put ye in the dock, do ye no see that?" he

+cried, and stabbed me with one finger in the leg.

+

+"Ay," said I, "I was told that same no further back than this

+morning by another lawyer."

+

+"And who was he?" asked Stewart, "He spoke sense at least."

+

+I told I must be excused from naming him, for he was a decent stout

+old Whig, and had little mind to be mixed up in such affairs.

+

+"I think all the world seems to be mixed up in it!" cries Stewart.

+"But what said you?"

+

+"I told him what had passed between Rankeillor and myself before

+the house of Shaws.

+

+"Well, and so ye will hang!" said he.  "Ye'll hang beside James

+Stewart.  There's your fortune told."

+

+"I hope better of it yet than that," said I; "but I could never

+deny there was a risk."

+

+"Risk!" says he, and then sat silent again.  "I ought to thank you

+for you staunchness to my friends, to whom you show a very good

+spirit," he says, "if you have the strength to stand by it.  But I

+warn you that you're wading deep.  I wouldn't put myself in your

+place (me that's a Stewart born!) for all the Stewarts that ever

+there were since Noah.  Risk? ay, I take over-many; but to be tried

+in court before a Campbell jury and a Campbell judge, and that in a

+Campbell country and upon a Campbell quarrel--think what you like

+of me, Balfour, it's beyond me."

+

+"It's a different way of thinking, I suppose," said I; "I was

+brought up to this one by my father before me."

+

+"Glory to his bones! he has left a decent son to his name," says

+he.  "Yet I would not have you judge me over-sorely.  My case is

+dooms hard.  See, sir, ye tell me ye're a Whig:  I wonder what I

+am.  No Whig to be sure; I couldnae be just that.  But--laigh in

+your ear, man--I'm maybe no very keen on the other side."

+

+"Is that a fact?" cried I.  "It's what I would think of a man of

+your intelligence."

+

+"Hut! none of your whillywhas!" {4} cries he.  "There's

+intelligence upon both sides.  But for my private part I have no

+particular desire to harm King George; and as for King James, God

+bless him! he does very well for me across the water.  I'm a

+lawyer, ye see:  fond of my books and my bottle, a good plea, a

+well-drawn deed, a crack in the Parliament House with other lawyer

+bodies, and perhaps a turn at the golf on a Saturday at e'en.

+Where do ye come in with your Hieland plaids and claymores?"

+

+"Well," said I, "it's a fact ye have little of the wild

+Highlandman."

+

+"Little?" quoth he.  "Nothing, man!  And yet I'm Hieland born, and

+when the clan pipes, who but me has to dance!  The clan and the

+name, that goes by all.  It's just what you said yourself; my

+father learned it to me, and a bonny trade I have of it.  Treason

+and traitors, and the smuggling of them out and in; and the French

+recruiting, weary fall it! and the smuggling through of the

+recruits; and their pleas--a sorrow of their pleas!  Here have I

+been moving one for young Ardsheil, my cousin; claimed the estate

+under the marriage contract--a forfeited estate!  I told them it

+was nonsense:  muckle they cared!  And there was I cocking behind a

+yadvocate that liked the business as little as myself, for it was

+fair ruin to the pair of us--a black mark, DISAFFECTED, branded on

+our hurdies, like folk's names upon their kye!  And what can I do?

+I'm a Stewart, ye see, and must fend for my clan and family.  Then

+no later by than yesterday there was one of our Stewart lads

+carried to the Castle.  What for?  I ken fine:  Act of 1736:

+recruiting for King Lewie.  And you'll see, he'll whistle me in to

+be his lawyer, and there'll be another black mark on my chara'ter!

+I tell you fair:  if I but kent the heid of a Hebrew word from the

+hurdies of it, be dammed but I would fling the whole thing up and

+turn minister!"

+

+"It's rather a hard position," said I.

+

+"Dooms hard!" cries he.  "And that's what makes me think so much of

+ye--you that's no Stewart--to stick your head so deep in Stewart

+business.  And for what, I do not know:  unless it was the sense of

+duty."

+

+"I hope it will be that," said I.

+

+"Well," says he, "it's a grand quality.  But here is my clerk back;

+and, by your leave, we'll pick a bit of dinner, all the three of

+us.  When that's done, I'll give you the direction of a very decent

+man, that'll be very fain to have you for a lodger.  And I'll fill

+your pockets to ye, forbye, out of your ain bag.  For this

+business'll not be near as dear as ye suppose--not even the ship

+part of it."

+

+I made him a sign that his clerk was within hearing.

+

+"Hoot, ye neednae mind for Robbie," cries he.  "A Stewart, too,

+puir deevil! and has smuggled out more French recruits and

+trafficking Papists than what he has hairs upon his face.  Why,

+it's Robin that manages that branch of my affairs.  Who will we

+have now, Rob, for across the water!"

+

+"There'll be Andie Scougal, in the Thristle," replied Rob.  "I saw

+Hoseason the other day, but it seems he's wanting the ship.  Then

+there'll be Tam Stobo; but I'm none so sure of Tam.  I've seen him

+colloguing with some gey queer acquaintances; and if was anybody

+important, I would give Tam the go-by."

+

+"The head's worth two hundred pounds, Robin," said Stewart.

+

+"Gosh, that'll no be Alan Breck!" cried the clerk.

+

+"Just Alan," said his master.

+

+"Weary winds! that's sayrious," cried Robin.  "I'll try Andie,

+then; Andie'll be the best."

+

+"It seems it's quite a big business," I observed.

+

+"Mr. Balfour, there's no end to it," said Stewart.

+

+"There was a name your clerk mentioned," I went on:  "Hoseason.

+That must be my man, I think:  Hoseason, of the brig Covenant.

+Would you set your trust on him?"

+

+"He didnae behave very well to you and Alan," said Mr. Stewart;

+"but my mind of the man in general is rather otherwise.  If he had

+taken Alan on board his ship on an agreement, it's my notion he

+would have proved a just dealer.  How say ye, Rob?"

+

+"No more honest skipper in the trade than Eli," said the clerk.  "I

+would lippen to {5} Eli's word--ay, if it was the Chevalier, or

+Appin himsel'," he added.

+

+"And it was him that brought the doctor, wasnae't?" asked the

+master.

+

+"He was the very man," said the clerk.

+

+"And I think he took the doctor back?" says Stewart.

+

+"Ay, with his sporran full!" cried Robin.  "And Eli kent of that!"

+{6}

+

+"Well, it seems it's hard to ken folk rightly," said I.

+

+"That was just what I forgot when ye came in, Mr. Balfour!" says

+the Writer.

+

+

+

+CHAPTER III--I GO TO PILRIG

+

+

+

+The next morning, I was no sooner awake in my new lodging than I

+was up and into my new clothes; and no sooner the breakfast

+swallowed, than I was forth on my adventurers.  Alan, I could hope,

+was fended for; James was like to be a more difficult affair, and I

+could not but think that enterprise might cost me dear, even as

+everybody said to whom I had opened my opinion.  It seemed I was

+come to the top of the mountain only to cast myself down; that I

+had clambered up, through so many and hard trials, to be rich, to

+be recognised, to wear city clothes and a sword to my side, all to

+commit mere suicide at the last end of it, and the worst kind of

+suicide, besides, which is to get hanged at the King's charges.

+

+What was I doing it for? I asked, as I went down the high Street

+and out north by Leith Wynd.  First I said it was to save James

+Stewart; and no doubt the memory of his distress, and his wife's

+cries, and a word or so I had let drop on that occasion worked upon

+me strongly.  At the same time I reflected that it was (or ought to

+be) the most indifferent matter to my father's son, whether James

+died in his bed or from a scaffold.  He was Alan's cousin, to be

+sure; but so far as regarded Alan, the best thing would be to lie

+low, and let the King, and his Grace of Argyll, and the corbie

+crows, pick the bones of his kinsman their own way.  Nor could I

+forget that, while we were all in the pot together, James had shown

+no such particular anxiety whether for Alan or me.

+

+Next it came upon me I was acting for the sake of justice:  and I

+thought that a fine word, and reasoned it out that (since we dwelt

+in polities, at some discomfort to each one of us) the main thing

+of all must still be justice, and the death of any innocent man a

+wound upon the whole community.  Next, again, it was the Accuser of

+the Brethren that gave me a turn of his argument; bade me think

+shame for pretending myself concerned in these high matters, and

+told me I was but a prating vain child, who had spoken big words to

+Rankeillor and to Stewart, and held myself bound upon my vanity to

+make good that boastfulness.  Nay, and he hit me with the other end

+of the stick; for he accused me of a kind of artful cowardice,

+going about at the expense of a little risk to purchase greater

+safety.  No doubt, until I had declared and cleared myself, I might

+any day encounter Mungo Campbell or the sheriff's officer, and be

+recognised, and dragged into the Appin murder by the heels; and, no

+doubt, in case I could manage my declaration with success, I should

+breathe more free for ever after.  But when I looked this argument

+full in the face I could see nothing to be ashamed of.  As for the

+rest, "Here are the two roads," I thought, "and both go to the same

+place.  It's unjust that James should hang if I can save him; and

+it would be ridiculous in me to have talked so much and then do

+nothing.  It's lucky for James of the Glens that I have boasted

+beforehand; and none so unlucky for myself, because now I'm

+committed to do right.  I have the name of a gentleman and the

+means of one; it would be a poor duty that I was wanting in the

+essence."  And then I thought this was a Pagan spirit, and said a

+prayer in to myself, asking for what courage I might lack, and that

+I might go straight to my duty like a soldier to battle, and come

+off again scatheless, as so many do.

+

+This train of reasoning brought me to a more resolved complexion;

+though it was far from closing up my sense of the dangers that

+surrounded me, nor of how very apt I was (if I went on) to stumble

+on the ladder of the gallows.  It was a plain, fair morning, but

+the wind in the east.  The little chill of it sang in my blood, and

+gave me a feeling of the autumn, and the dead leaves, and dead

+folks' bodies in their graves.  It seemed the devil was in it, if I

+was to die in that tide of my fortunes and for other folks'

+affairs.  On the top of the Calton Hill, though it was not the

+customary time of year for that diversion, some children were

+crying and running with their kites.  These toys appeared very

+plain against the sky; I remarked a great one soar on the wind to a

+high altitude and then plump among the whins; and I thought to

+myself at sight of it, "There goes Davie."

+

+My way lay over Mouter's Hill, and through an end of a clachan on

+the braeside among fields.  There was a whirr of looms in it went

+from house to house; bees bummed in the gardens; the neighbours

+that I saw at the doorsteps talked in a strange tongue; and I found

+out later that this was Picardy, a village where the French weavers

+wrought for the Linen Company.  Here I got a fresh direction for

+Pilrig, my destination; and a little beyond, on the wayside, came

+by a gibbet and two men hanged in chains.  They were dipped in tar,

+as the manner is; the wind span them, the chains clattered, and the

+birds hung about the uncanny jumping-jacks and cried.  The sight

+coming on me suddenly, like an illustration of my fears, I could

+scarce be done with examining it and drinking in discomfort.  And,

+as I thus turned and turned about the gibbet, what should I strike

+on, but a weird old wife, that sat behind a leg of it, and nodded,

+and talked aloud to herself with becks and courtesies.

+

+"Who are these two, mother?" I asked, and pointed to the corpses.

+

+"A blessing on your precious face!" she cried.  "Twa joes {7}

+o'mine:  just two o' my old joes, my hinny dear."

+

+"What did they suffer for?" I asked.

+

+"Ou, just for the guid cause," said she.  "Aften I spaed to them

+the way that it would end.  Twa shillin' Scots:  no pickle mair;

+and there are twa bonny callants hingin' for 't!  They took it frae

+a wean {8} belanged to Brouchton."

+

+"Ay!" said I to myself, and not to the daft limmer, "and did they

+come to such a figure for so poor a business?  This is to lose all

+indeed."

+

+"Gie's your loof, {9} hinny," says she, "and let me spae your weird

+to ye."

+

+"No, mother," said I, "I see far enough the way I am.  It's an unco

+thing to see too far in front."

+

+"I read it in your bree," she said.  "There's a bonnie lassie that

+has bricht een, and there's a wee man in a braw coat, and a big man

+in a pouthered wig, and there's the shadow of the wuddy, {10} joe,

+that lies braid across your path.  Gie's your loof, hinny, and let

+Auld Merren spae it to ye bonny."

+

+The two chance shots that seemed to point at Alan and the daughter

+of James More struck me hard; and I fled from the eldritch

+creature, casting her a baubee, which she continued to sit and play

+with under the moving shadows of the hanged.

+

+My way down the causeway of Leith Walk would have been more

+pleasant to me but for this encounter.  The old rampart ran among

+fields, the like of them I had never seen for artfulness of

+agriculture; I was pleased, besides, to be so far in the still

+countryside; but the shackles of the gibbet clattered in my head;

+and the mope and mows of the old witch, and the thought of the dead

+men, hag-rode my spirits.  To hang on a gallows, that seemed a hard

+case; and whether a man came to hang there for two shillings Scots,

+or (as Mr. Stewart had it) from the sense of duty, once he was

+tarred and shackled and hung up, the difference seemed small.

+There might David Balfour hang, and other lads pass on their

+errands and think light of him; and old daft limmers sit at a leg-

+foot and spae their fortunes; and the clean genty maids go by, and

+look to the other aide, and hold a nose.  I saw them plain, and

+they had grey eyes, and their screens upon their heads were of the

+Drummed colours.

+

+I was thus in the poorest of spirits, though still pretty resolved,

+when I came in view of Pilrig, a pleasant gabled house set by the

+walkside among some brave young woods.  The laird's horse was

+standing saddled at the door as I came up, but himself was in the

+study, where he received me in the midst of learned works and

+musical instruments, for he was not only a deep philosopher but

+much of a musician.  He greeted me at first pretty well, and when

+he had read Rankeillor's letter, placed himself obligingly at my

+disposal.

+

+"And what is it, cousin David!" said he--"since it appears that we

+are cousins--what is this that I can do for you!  A word to

+Prestongrange!  Doubtless that is easily given.  But what should be

+the word?"

+

+"Mr. Balfour," said I, "if I were to tell you my whole story the

+way it fell out, it's my opinion (and it was Rankeillor's before

+me) that you would be very little made up with it."

+

+"I am sorry to hear this of you, kinsman," says he.

+

+"I must not take that at your hands, Mr. Balfour," said I; "I have

+nothing to my charge to make me sorry, or you for me, but just the

+common infirmities of mankind.  'The guilt of Adam's first sin, the

+want of original righteousness, and the corruption of my whole

+nature,' so much I must answer for, and I hope I have been taught

+where to look for help," I said; for I judged from the look of the

+man he would think the better of me if I knew my questions. {11}

+"But in the way of worldly honour I have no great stumble to

+reproach myself with; and my difficulties have befallen me very

+much against my will and (by all that I can see) without my fault.

+My trouble is to have become dipped in a political complication,

+which it is judged you would be blythe to avoid a knowledge of."

+

+"Why, very well, Mr. David," he replied, "I am pleased to see you

+are all that Rankeillor represented.  And for what you say of

+political complications, you do me no more than justice.  It is my

+study to be beyond suspicion, and indeed outside the field of it.

+The question is," says he, "how, if I am to know nothing of the

+matter, I can very well assist you?"

+

+"Why sir," said I, "I propose you should write to his lordship,

+that I am a young man of reasonable good family and of good means:

+both of which I believe to be the case."

+

+"I have Rankeillor's word for it," said Mr. Balfour, "and I count

+that a warran-dice against all deadly."

+

+"To which you might add (if you will take my word for so much) that

+I am a good churchman, loyal to King George, and so brought up," I

+went on.

+

+"None of which will do you any harm," said Mr. Balfour.

+

+"Then you might go on to say that I sought his lordship on a matter

+of great moment, connected with His Majesty's service and the

+administration of justice," I suggested.

+

+"As I am not to hear the matter," says the laird, "I will not take

+upon myself to qualify its weight.  'Great moment' therefore falls,

+and 'moment' along with it.  For the rest I might express myself

+much as you propose."

+

+"And then, sir," said I, and rubbed my neck a little with my thumb,

+"then I would be very desirous if you could slip in a word that

+might perhaps tell for my protection."

+

+"Protection?" says he, "for your protection!  Here is a phrase that

+somewhat dampens me.  If the matter be so dangerous, I own I would

+be a little loath to move in it blindfold."

+

+"I believe I could indicate in two words where the thing sticks,"

+said I.

+

+"Perhaps that would be the best," said he.

+

+"Well, it's the Appin murder," said I.

+

+He held up both his hands.  "Sirs! sirs!" cried he.

+

+I thought by the expression of his face and voice that I had lost

+my helper.

+

+"Let me explain. . ." I began.

+

+"I thank you kindly, I will hear no more of it," says he.  "I

+decline in toto to hear more of it.  For your name's sake and

+Rankeillor's, and perhaps a little for your own, I will do what I

+can to help you; but I will hear no more upon the facts.  And it is

+my first clear duty to warn you.  These are deep waters, Mr. David,

+and you are a young man.  Be cautious and think twice."

+

+"It is to be supposed I will have thought oftener than that, Mr.

+Balfour," said I, "and I will direct your attention again to

+Rankeillor's letter, where (I hope and believe) he has registered

+his approval of that which I design."

+

+"Well, well," said he; and then again, "Well, well!  I will do what

+I can for you."  There with he took a pen and paper, sat a while in

+thought, and began to write with much consideration.  "I understand

+that Rankeillor approved of what you have in mind?" he asked

+presently.

+

+"After some discussion, sir, he bade me to go forward in God's

+name," said I.

+

+"That is the name to go in," said Mr. Balfour, and resumed his

+writing.  Presently, he signed, re-read what he had written, and

+addressed me again.  "Now here, Mr. David," said he, "is a letter

+of introduction, which I will seal without closing, and give into

+your hands open, as the form requires.  But, since I am acting in

+the dark, I will just read it to you, so that you may see if it

+will secure your end -

+

+

+"PILRIG, August 26th, 1751.

+

+"My Lord,--This is to bring to your notice my namesake and cousin,

+David Balfour Esquire of Shaws, a young gentleman of unblemished

+descent and good estate.  He has enjoyed, besides, the more

+valuable advantages of a godly training, and his political

+principles are all that your lordship can desire.  I am not in Mr.

+Balfour's confidence, but I understand him to have a matter to

+declare, touching His Majesty's service and the administration of

+justice; purposes for which your Lordship's zeal is known.  I

+should add that the young gentleman's intention is known to and

+approved by some of his friends, who will watch with hopeful

+anxiety the event of his success or failure.

+

+

+"Whereupon," continued Mr. Balfour, "I have subscribed myself with

+the usual compliments.  You observe I have said 'some of your

+friends'; I hope you can justify my plural?"

+

+"Perfectly, sir; my purpose is known and approved by more than

+one," said I.  "And your letter, which I take a pleasure to thank

+you for, is all I could have hoped."

+

+"It was all I could squeeze out," said he; "and from what I know of

+the matter you design to meddle in, I can only pray God that it may

+prove sufficient."

+

+

+

+CHAPTER IV--LORD ADVOCATE PRESTONGRANGE

+

+

+

+My kinsman kept me to a meal, "for the honour of the roof," he

+said; and I believe I made the better speed on my return.  I had no

+thought but to be done with the next stage, and have myself fully

+committed; to a person circumstanced as I was, the appearance of

+closing a door on hesitation and temptation was itself extremely

+tempting; and I was the more disappointed, when I came to

+Prestongrange's house, to be informed he was abroad.  I believe it

+was true at the moment, and for some hours after; and then I have

+no doubt the Advocate came home again, and enjoyed himself in a

+neighbouring chamber among friends, while perhaps the very fact of

+my arrival was forgotten.  I would have gone away a dozen times,

+only for this strong drawing to have done with my declaration out

+of hand and be able to lay me down to sleep with a free conscience.

+At first I read, for the little cabinet where I was left contained

+a variety of books.  But I fear I read with little profit; and the

+weather falling cloudy, the dusk coming up earlier than usual, and

+my cabinet being lighted with but a loophole of a window, I was at

+last obliged to desist from this diversion (such as it was), and

+pass the rest of my time of waiting in a very burthensome vacuity.

+The sound of people talking in a near chamber, the pleasant note of

+a harpsichord, and once the voice of a lady singing, bore me a kind

+of company.

+

+I do not know the hour, but the darkness was long come, when the

+door of the cabinet opened, and I was aware, by the light behind

+him, of a tall figure of a man upon the threshold.  I rose at once.

+

+"Is anybody there?" he asked.  "Who in that?"

+

+"I am bearer of a letter from the laird of Pilrig to the Lord

+Advocate," said I.

+

+"Have you been here long?" he asked.

+

+"I would not like to hazard an estimate of how many hours," said I.

+

+"It is the first I hear of it," he replied, with a chuckle.  "The

+lads must have forgotten you.  But you are in the bit at last, for

+I am Prestongrange."

+

+So saying, he passed before me into the next room, whither (upon

+his sign) I followed him, and where he lit a candle and took his

+place before a business-table.  It was a long room, of a good

+proportion, wholly lined with books.  That small spark of light in

+a corner struck out the man's handsome person and strong face.  He

+was flushed, his eye watered and sparkled, and before he sat down I

+observed him to sway back and forth.  No doubt, he had been supping

+liberally; but his mind and tongue were under full control.

+

+"Well, sir, sit ye down," said he, "and let us see Pilrig's

+letter."

+

+He glanced it through in the beginning carelessly, looking up and

+bowing when he came to my name; but at the last words I thought I

+observed his attention to redouble, and I made sure he read them

+twice.  All this while you are to suppose my heart was beating, for

+I had now crossed my Rubicon and was come fairly on the field of

+battle.

+

+"I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Mr. Balfour," he said,

+when he had done.  "Let me offer you a glass of claret."

+

+"Under your favour, my lord, I think it would scarce be fair on

+me," said I.  "I have come here, as the letter will have mentioned,

+on a business of some gravity to myself; and, as I am little used

+with wine, I might be the sooner affected."

+

+"You shall be the judge," said he.  "But if you will permit, I

+believe I will even have the bottle in myself."

+

+He touched a bell, and a footman came, as at a signal, bringing

+wine and glasses.

+

+"You are sure you will not join me?" asked the Advocate.  "Well,

+here is to our better acquaintance!  In what way can I serve you?"

+

+"I should, perhaps, begin by telling you, my lord, that I am here

+at your own pressing invitation," said I.

+

+"You have the advantage of me somewhere," said he, "for I profess I

+think I never heard of you before this evening."

+

+"Right, my lord; the name is, indeed, new to you," said I.  "And

+yet you have been for some time extremely wishful to make my

+acquaintance, and have declared the same in public."

+

+"I wish you would afford me a clue," says he.  "I am no Daniel."

+

+"It will perhaps serve for such," said I, "that if I was in a

+jesting humour--which is far from the case--I believe I might lay a

+claim on your lordship for two hundred pounds."

+

+"In what sense?" he inquired.

+

+"In the sense of rewards offered for my person," said I.

+

+He thrust away his glass once and for all, and sat straight up in

+the chair where he had been previously lolling.  "What am I to

+understand?" said he.

+

+"A TALL STRONG LAD OF ABOUT EIGHTEEN," I quoted, "SPEAKS LIKE a

+LOWLANDER AND HAS NO BEARD."

+

+"I recognise those words," said he, "which, if you have come here

+with any ill-judged intention of amusing yourself, are like to

+prove extremely prejudicial to your safety."

+

+"My purpose in this," I replied, "is just entirely as serious as

+life and death, and you have understood me perfectly.  I am the boy

+who was speaking with Glenure when he was shot."

+

+"I can only suppose (seeing you here) that you claim to be

+innocent," said he.

+

+"The inference is clear," I said.  "I am a very loyal subject to

+King George, but if I had anything to reproach myself with, I would

+have had more discretion than to walk into your den."

+

+"I am glad of that," said he.  "This horrid crime, Mr. Balfour, is

+of a dye which cannot permit any clemency.  Blood has been

+barbarously shed.  It has been shed in direct opposition to his

+Majesty and our whole frame of laws, by those who are their known

+and public oppugnants.  I take a very high sense of this.  I will

+not deny that I consider the crime as directly personal to his

+Majesty."

+

+"And unfortunately, my lord," I added, a little drily, "directly

+personal to another great personage who may be nameless."

+

+"If you mean anything by those words, I must tell you I consider

+them unfit for a good subject; and were they spoke publicly I

+should make it my business to take note of them," said he.  "You do

+not appear to me to recognise the gravity of your situation, or you

+would be more careful not to pejorate the same by words which

+glance upon the purity of justice.  Justice, in this country, and

+in my poor hands, is no respecter of persons."

+

+"You give me too great a share in my own speech, my lord," said I.

+"I did but repeat the common talk of the country, which I have

+heard everywhere, and from men of all opinions as I came along."

+

+"When you are come to more discretion you will understand such talk

+in not to be listened to, how much less repeated," says the

+Advocate.  "But I acquit you of an ill intention.  That nobleman,

+whom we all honour, and who has indeed been wounded in a near place

+by the late barbarity, sits too high to be reached by these

+aspersions.  The Duke of Argyle--you see that I deal plainly with

+you--takes it to heart as I do, and as we are both bound to do by

+our judicial functions and the service of his Majesty; and I could

+wish that all hands, in this ill age, were equally clean of family

+rancour.  But from the accident that this is a Campbell who has

+fallen martyr to his duty--as who else but the Campbells have ever

+put themselves foremost on that path?--I may say it, who am no

+Campbell--and that the chief of that great house happens (for all

+our advantages) to be the present head of the College of Justice,

+small minds and disaffected tongues are set agog in every

+changehouse in the country; and I find a young gentleman like Mr.

+Balfour so ill-advised as to make himself their echo."  So much he

+spoke with a very oratorical delivery, as if in court, and then

+declined again upon the manner of a gentleman.  "All this apart,"

+said he.  "It now remains that I should learn what I am to do with

+you."

+

+"I had thought it was rather I that should learn the same from your

+lordship," said I.

+

+"Ay, true," says the Advocate.  "But, you see, you come to me well

+recommended.  There is a good honest Whig name to this letter,"

+says he, picking it up a moment from the table.  "And--extra-

+judicially, Mr, Balfour--there is always the possibility of some

+arrangement, I tell you, and I tell you beforehand that you may be

+the more upon your guard, your fate lies with me singly.  In such a

+matter (be it said with reverence) I am more powerful than the

+King's Majesty; and should you please me--and of course satisfy my

+conscience--in what remains to be held of our interview, I tell you

+it may remain between ourselves."

+

+"Meaning how?" I asked.

+

+"Why, I mean it thus, Mr. Balfour," said he, "that if you give

+satisfaction, no soul need know so much as that you visited my

+house; and you may observe that I do not even call my clerk."

+

+I saw what way he was driving.  "I suppose it is needless anyone

+should be informed upon my visit," said I, "though the precise

+nature of my gains by that I cannot see.  I am not at all ashamed

+of coming here."

+

+"And have no cause to be," says he, encouragingly.  "Nor yet (if

+you are careful) to fear the consequences."

+

+"My lord," said I, "speaking under your correction, I am not very

+easy to be frightened."

+

+"And I am sure I do not seek to frighten you," says he.  "But to

+the interrogation; and let me warn you to volunteer nothing beyond

+the questions I shall ask you.  It may consist very immediately

+with your safety.  I have a great discretion, it is true, but there

+are bounds to it."

+

+"I shall try to follow your lordship's advice," said I.

+

+He spread a sheet of paper on the table and wrote a heading.  "It

+appears you were present, by the way, in the wood of Lettermore at

+the moment of the fatal shot," he began.  "Was this by accident?"

+

+"By accident," said I.

+

+"How came you in speech with Colin Campbell?" he asked.

+

+"I was inquiring my way of him to Aucharn," I replied.

+

+I observed he did not write this answer down.

+

+"H'm, true," said he, "I had forgotten that.  And do you know, Mr.

+Balfour, I would dwell, if I were you, as little as might be on

+your relations with these Stewarts.  It might be found to

+complicate our business.  I am not yet inclined to regard these

+matters as essential."

+

+"I had thought, my lord, that all points of fact were equally

+material in such a case," said I.

+

+"You forget we are now trying these Stewarts," he replied, with

+great significance.  "If we should ever come to be trying you, it

+will be very different; and I shall press these very questions that

+I am now willing to glide upon.  But to resume:  I have it here in

+Mr. Mungo Campbell's precognition that you ran immediately up the

+brae.  How came that?"

+

+"Not immediately, my lord, and the cause was my seeing of the

+murderer."

+

+"You saw him, then?"

+

+"As plain as I see your lordship, though not so near hand."

+

+"You know him?"

+

+"I should know him again."

+

+"In your pursuit you were not so fortunate, then, as to overtake

+him?"

+

+"I was not."

+

+"Was he alone?"

+

+"He was alone."

+

+"There was no one else in that neighbourhood?"

+

+"Alan Breck Stewart was not far off, in a piece of a wood."

+

+The Advocate laid his pen down.  "I think we are playing at cross

+purposes," said he, "which you will find to prove a very ill

+amusement for yourself."

+

+"I content myself with following your lordship's advice, and

+answering what I am asked," said I.

+

+"Be so wise as to bethink yourself in time," said he, "I use you

+with the most anxious tenderness, which you scarce seem to

+appreciate, and which (unless you be more careful) may prove to be

+in vain."

+

+"I do appreciate your tenderness, but conceive it to be mistaken,"

+I replied, with something of a falter, for I saw we were come to

+grips at last.  "I am here to lay before you certain information,

+by which I shall convince you Alan had no hand whatever in the

+killing of Glenure."

+

+The Advocate appeared for a moment at a stick, sitting with pursed

+lips, and blinking his eyes upon me like an angry cat.  "Mr.

+Balfour," he said at last, "I tell you pointedly you go an ill way

+for your own interests."

+

+"My lord," I said, "I am as free of the charge of considering my

+own interests in this matter as your lordship.  As God judges me, I

+have but the one design, and that is to see justice executed and

+the innocent go clear.  If in pursuit of that I come to fall under

+your lordship's displeasure, I must bear it as I may."

+

+At this he rose from his chair, lit a second candle, and for a

+while gazed upon me steadily.  I was surprised to see a great

+change of gravity fallen upon his face, and I could have almost

+thought he was a little pale.

+

+"You are either very simple, or extremely the reverse, and I see

+that I must deal with you more confidentially," says he.  "This is

+a political case--ah, yes, Mr. Balfour! whether we like it or no,

+the case is political--and I tremble when I think what issues may

+depend from it.  To a political case, I need scarce tell a young

+man of your education, we approach with very different thoughts

+from one which is criminal only.  Salus populi suprema lex is a

+maxim susceptible of great abuse, but it has that force which we

+find elsewhere only in the laws of nature:  I mean it has the force

+of necessity.  I will open this out to you, if you will allow me,

+at more length.  You would have me believe--"

+

+"Under your pardon, my lord, I would have you to believe nothing

+but that which I can prove," said I.

+

+"Tut! tut; young gentleman," says he, "be not so pragmatical, and

+suffer a man who might be your father (if it was nothing more) to

+employ his own imperfect language, and express his own poor

+thoughts, even when they have the misfortune not to coincide with

+Mr. Balfour's.  You would have me to believe Breck innocent.  I

+would think this of little account, the more so as we cannot catch

+our man.  But the matter of Breck's innocence shoots beyond itself.

+Once admitted, it would destroy the whole presumptions of our case

+against another and a very different criminal; a man grown old in

+treason, already twice in arms against his king and already twice

+forgiven; a fomentor of discontent, and (whoever may have fired the

+shot) the unmistakable original of the deed in question.  I need

+not tell you that I mean James Stewart."

+

+"And I can just say plainly that the innocence of Alan and of James

+is what I am here to declare in private to your lordship, and what

+I am prepared to establish at the trial by my testimony," said I.

+

+"To which I can only answer by an equal plainness, Mr. Balfour,"

+said he, "that (in that case) your testimony will not be called by

+me, and I desire you to withhold it altogether."

+

+"You are at the head of Justice in this country," I cried, "and you

+propose to me a crime!"

+

+"I am a man nursing with both hands the interests of this country,"

+he replied, "and I press on you a political necessity.  Patriotism

+is not always moral in the formal sense.  You might be glad of it,

+I think:  it is your own protection; the facts are heavy against

+you; and if I am still trying to except you from a very dangerous

+place, it is in part of course because I am not insensible to your

+honesty in coming here; in part because of Pilrig's letter; but in

+part, and in chief part, because I regard in this matter my

+political duty first and my judicial duty only second.  For the

+same reason--I repeat it to you in the same frank words--I do not

+want your testimony."

+

+"I desire not to be thought to make a repartee, when I express only

+the plain sense of our position," said I.  "But if your lordship

+has no need of my testimony, I believe the other side would be

+extremely blythe to get it."

+

+Prestongrange arose and began to pace to and fro in the room.  "You

+are not so young," he said, "but what you must remember very

+clearly the year '45 and the shock that went about the country.  I

+read in Pilrig's letter that you are sound in Kirk and State.  Who

+saved them in that fatal year?  I do not refer to His Royal

+Highness and his ramrods, which were extremely useful in their day;

+but the country had been saved and the field won before ever

+Cumberland came upon Drummossie.  Who saved it?  I repeat; who

+saved the Protestant religion and the whole frame of our civil

+institutions?  The late Lord President Culloden, for one; he played

+a man's part, and small thanks he got for it--even as I, whom you

+see before you, straining every nerve in the same service, look for

+no reward beyond the conscience of my duties done.  After the

+President, who else?  You know the answer as well as I do; 'tis

+partly a scandal, and you glanced at it yourself, and I reproved

+you for it, when you first came in.  It was the Duke and the great

+clan of Campbell.  Now here is a Campbell foully murdered, and that

+in the King's service.  The Duke and I are Highlanders.  But we are

+Highlanders civilised, and it is not so with the great mass of our

+clans and families.  They have still savage virtues and defects.

+They are still barbarians, like these Stewarts; only the Campbells

+were barbarians on the right side, and the Stewarts were barbarians

+on the wrong.  Now be you the judge.  The Campbells expect

+vengeance.  If they do not get it--if this man James escape--there

+will be trouble with the Campbells.  That means disturbance in the

+Highlands, which are uneasy and very far from being disarmed:  the

+disarming is a farce. . ."

+

+"I can bear you out in that," said I.

+

+"Disturbance in the Highlands makes the hour of our old watchful

+enemy," pursued his lordship, holding out a finger as he paced;

+"and I give you my word we may have a '45 again with the Campbells

+on the other side.  To protect the life of this man Stewart--which

+is forfeit already on half-a-dozen different counts if not on this-

+-do you propose to plunge your country in war, to jeopardise the

+faith of your fathers, and to expose the lives and fortunes of how

+many thousand innocent persons? . . .  These are considerations

+that weigh with me, and that I hope will weigh no less with

+yourself, Mr. Balfour, as a lover of your country, good government,

+and religious truth."

+

+"You deal with me very frankly, and I thank you for it," said I.

+"I will try on my side to be no less honest.  I believe your policy

+to be sound.  I believe these deep duties may lie upon your

+lordship; I believe you may have laid them on your conscience when

+you took the oath of the high office which you hold.  But for me,

+who am just a plain man--or scarce a man yet--the plain duties must

+suffice.  I can think but of two things, of a poor soul in the

+immediate and unjust danger of a shameful death, and of the cries

+and tears of his wife that still tingle in my head.  I cannot see

+beyond, my lord.  It's the way that I am made.  If the country has

+to fall, it has to fall.  And I pray God, if this be wilful

+blindness, that He may enlighten me before too late."

+

+He had heard me motionless, and stood so a while longer.

+

+"This is an unexpected obstacle," says he, aloud, but to himself.

+

+"And how is your lordship to dispose of me?" I asked.

+

+"If I wished," said he, "you know that you might sleep in gaol?"

+

+"My lord," said I, "I have slept in worse places."

+

+"Well, my boy," said he, "there is one thing appears very plainly

+from our interview, that I may rely on your pledged word.  Give me

+your honour that you will be wholly secret, not only on what has

+passed to-night, but in the matter of the Appin case, and I let you

+go free."

+

+"I will give it till to-morrow or any other near day that you may

+please to set," said I.  "I would not be thought too wily; but if I

+gave the promise without qualification your lordship would have

+attained his end."

+

+"I had no thought to entrap you," said he.

+

+"I am sure of that," said I.

+

+"Let me see," he continued.  "To-morrow is the Sabbath.  Come to me

+on Monday by eight in the morning, and give me our promise until

+then."

+

+"Freely given, my lord," said I.  "And with regard to what has

+fallen from yourself, I will give it for an long as it shall please

+God to spare your days."

+

+"You will observe," he said next, "that I have made no employment

+of menaces."

+

+"It was like your lordship's nobility," said I.  "Yet I am not

+altogether so dull but what I can perceive the nature of those you

+have not uttered."

+

+"Well," said he, "good-night to you.  May you sleep well, for I

+think it is more than I am like to do."

+

+With that he sighed, took up a candle, and gave me his conveyance

+as far as the street door.

+

+

+

+CHAPTER V--IN THE ADVOCATE'S HOUSE

+

+

+

+The next day, Sabbath, August 27th, I had the occasion I had long

+looked forward to, to hear some of the famous Edinburgh preachers,

+all well known to me already by the report of Mr Campbell.  Alas!

+and I might just as well have been at Essendean, and sitting under

+Mr. Campbell's worthy self! the turmoil of my thoughts, which dwelt

+continually on the interview with Prestongrange, inhibiting me from

+all attention.  I was indeed much less impressed by the reasoning

+of the divines than by the spectacle of the thronged congregation

+in the churches, like what I imagined of a theatre or (in my then

+disposition) of an assize of trial; above all at the West Kirk,

+with its three tiers of galleries, where I went in the vain hope

+that I might see Miss Drummond.

+

+On the Monday I betook me for the first time to a barber's, and was

+very well pleased with the result.  Thence to the Advocate's, where

+the red coats of the soldiers showed again about his door, making a

+bright place in the close.  I looked about for the young lady and

+her gillies:  there was never a sign of them.  But I was no sooner

+shown into the cabinet or antechamber where I had spent so wearyful

+a time upon the Saturday, than I was aware of the tall figure of

+James More in a corner.  He seemed a prey to a painful uneasiness,

+reaching forth his feet and hands, and his eyes speeding here and

+there without rest about the walls of the small chamber, which

+recalled to me with a sense of pity the man's wretched situation.

+I suppose it was partly this, and partly my strong continuing

+interest in his daughter, that moved me to accost him.

+

+"Give you a good-morning, sir," said I.

+

+"And a good-morning to you, sir," said he.

+

+"You bide tryst with Prestongrange?" I asked.

+

+"I do, sir, and I pray your business with that gentleman be more

+agreeable than mine," was his reply.

+

+"I hope at least that yours will be brief, for I suppose you pass

+before me," said I.

+

+"All pass before me," he said, with a shrug and a gesture upward of

+the open hands.  "It was not always so, sir, but times change.  It

+was not so when the sword was in the scale, young gentleman, and

+the virtues of the soldier might sustain themselves."

+

+There came a kind of Highland snuffle out of the man that raised my

+dander strangely.

+

+"Well, Mr. Macgregor," said I, "I understand the main thing for a

+soldier is to be silent, and the first of his virtues never to

+complain."

+

+"You have my name, I perceive"--he bowed to me with his arms

+crossed--"though it's one I must not use myself.  Well, there is a

+publicity--I have shown my face and told my name too often in the

+beards of my enemies.  I must not wonder if both should be known to

+many that I know not."

+

+"That you know not in the least, sir," said I, "nor yet anybody

+else; but the name I am called, if you care to hear it, is

+Balfour."

+

+"It is a good name," he replied, civilly; "there are many decent

+folk that use it.  And now that I call to mind, there was a young

+gentleman, your namesake, that marched surgeon in the year '45 with

+my battalion."

+

+"I believe that would be a brother to Balfour of Baith," said I,

+for I was ready for the surgeon now.

+

+"The same, sir," said James More.  "And since I have been fellow-

+soldier with your kinsman, you must suffer me to grasp your hand."

+

+He shook hands with me long and tenderly, beaming on me the while

+as though he had found a brother.

+

+"Ah!" says he, "these are changed days since your cousin and I

+heard the balls whistle in our lugs."

+

+"I think he was a very far-away cousin," said I, drily, "and I

+ought to tell you that I never clapped eyes upon the man."

+

+"Well, well," said he, "it makes no change.  And you--I do not

+think you were out yourself, sir--I have no clear mind of your

+face, which is one not probable to be forgotten."

+

+"In the year you refer to, Mr. Macgregor, I was getting skelped in

+the parish school," said I.

+

+"So young!" cries he.  "Ah, then, you will never be able to think

+what this meeting is to me.  In the hour of my adversity, and here

+in the house of my enemy, to meet in with the blood of an old

+brother-in-arms--it heartens me, Mr. Balfour, like the skirting of

+the highland pipes!  Sir, this is a sad look back that many of us

+have to make:  some with falling tears.  I have lived in my own

+country like a king; my sword, my mountains, and the faith of my

+friends and kinsmen sufficed for me.  Now I lie in a stinking

+dungeon; and do you know, Mr. Balfour," he went on, taking my arm

+and beginning to lead me about, "do you know, sir, that I lack mere

+neCESSaries?  The malice of my foes has quite sequestered my

+resources.  I lie, as you know, sir, on a trumped-up charge, of

+which I am as innocent as yourself.  They dare not bring me to my

+trial, and in the meanwhile I am held naked in my prison.  I could

+have wished it was your cousin I had met, or his brother Baith

+himself.  Either would, I know, have been rejoiced to help me;

+while a comparative stranger like yourself--"

+

+I would be ashamed to set down all he poured out to me in this

+beggarly vein, or the very short and grudging answers that I made

+to him.  There were times when I was tempted to stop his mouth with

+some small change; but whether it was from shame or pride--whether

+it was for my own sake or Catriona's--whether it was because I

+thought him no fit father for his daughter, or because I resented

+that grossness of immediate falsity that clung about the man

+himself--the thing was clean beyond me.  And I was still being

+wheedled and preached to, and still being marched to and fro, three

+steps and a turn, in that small chamber, and had already, by some

+very short replies, highly incensed, although not finally

+discouraged, my beggar, when Prestongrange appeared in the doorway

+and bade me eagerly into his big chamber.

+

+"I have a moment's engagements," said he; "and that you may not sit

+empty-handed I am going to present you to my three braw daughters,

+of whom perhaps you may have heard, for I think they are more

+famous than papa.  This way."

+

+He led me into another long room above, where a dry old lady sat at

+a frame of embroidery, and the three handsomest young women (I

+suppose) in Scotland stood together by a window.

+

+"This is my new friend, Mr Balfour," said he, presenting me by the

+arm, "David, here is my sister, Miss Grant, who is so good as keep

+my house for me, and will be very pleased if she can help you.  And

+here," says he, turning to the three younger ladies, "here are my

+THREE BRAW DAUCHTERS.  A fair question to ye, Mr. Davie:  which of

+the three is the best favoured?  And I wager he will never have the

+impudence to propound honest Alan Ramsay's answer!"

+

+Hereupon all three, and the old Miss Grant as well, cried out

+against this sally, which (as I was acquainted with the verses he

+referred to) brought shame into my own check.  It seemed to me a

+citation unpardonable in a father, and I was amazed that these

+ladies could laugh even while they reproved, or made believe to.

+

+Under cover of this mirth, Prestongrange got forth of the chamber,

+and I was left, like a fish upon dry land, in that very unsuitable

+society.  I could never deny, in looking back upon what followed,

+that I was eminently stockish; and I must say the ladies were well

+drilled to have so long a patience with me.  The aunt indeed sat

+close at her embroidery, only looking now and again and smiling;

+but the misses, and especially the eldest, who was besides the most

+handsome, paid me a score of attentions which I was very ill able

+to repay.  It was all in vain to tell myself I was a young follow

+of some worth as well as a good estate, and had no call to feel

+abashed before these lasses, the eldest not so much older than

+myself, and no one of them by any probability half as learned.

+Reasoning would not change the fact; and there were times when the

+colour came into my face to think I was shaved that day for the

+first time.

+

+The talk going, with all their endeavours, very heavily, the eldest

+took pity on my awkwardness, sat down to her instrument, of which

+she was a passed mistress, and entertained me for a while with

+playing and singing, both in the Scots and in the Italian manners;

+this put me more at my ease, and being reminded of Alan's air that

+he had taught me in the hole near Carriden, I made so bold as to

+whistle a bar or two, and ask if she knew that.

+

+She shook her head.  "I never heard a note of it," said she.

+"Whistle it all through.  And now once again," she added, after I

+had done so.

+

+Then she picked it out upon the keyboard, and (to my surprise)

+instantly enriched the same with well-sounding chords, and sang, as

+she played, with a very droll expression and broad accent -

+

+

+"Haenae I got just the lilt of it?

+Isnae this the tune that ye whustled?"

+

+

+"You see," she says, "I can do the poetry too, only it won't rhyme.

+And then again:

+

+

+"I am Miss Grant, sib to the Advocate:

+You, I believe, are Dauvit Balfour."

+

+

+I told her how much astonished I was by her genius.

+

+"And what do you call the name of it?" she asked.

+

+"I do not know the real name," said I.  "I just call it Alan's

+air."

+

+She looked at me directly in the face.  "I shall call it David's

+air," said she; "though if it's the least like what your namesake

+of Israel played to Saul I would never wonder that the king got

+little good by it, for it's but melancholy music.  Your other name

+I do not like; so if you was ever wishing to hear your tune again

+you are to ask for it by mine."

+

+This was said with a significance that gave my heart a jog.  "Why

+that, Miss Grant?" I asked.

+

+"Why," says she, "if ever you should come to get hanged, I will set

+your last dying speech and confession to that tune and sing it."

+

+This put it beyond a doubt that she was partly informed of my story

+and peril.  How, or just how much, it was more difficult to guess.

+It was plain she knew there was something of danger in the name of

+Alan, and thus warned me to leave it out of reference; and plain

+she knew that I stood under some criminal suspicion.  I judged

+besides that the harshness of her last speech (which besides she

+had followed up immediately with a very noisy piece of music) was

+to put an end to the present conversation.  I stood beside her,

+affecting to listen and admire, but truly whirled away by my own

+thoughts.  I have always found this young lady to be a lover of the

+mysterious; and certainly this first interview made a mystery that

+was beyond my plummet.  One thing I learned long after, the hours

+of the Sunday had been well employed, the bank porter had been

+found and examined, my visit to Charles Stewart was discovered, and

+the deduction made that I was pretty deep with James and Alan, and

+most likely in a continued correspondence with the last.  Hence

+this broad hint that was given me across the harpsichord.

+

+In the midst of the piece of music, one of the younger misses, who

+was at a window over the close, cried on her sisters to come quick,

+for there was "Grey eyes again."  The whole family trooped there at

+once, and crowded one another for a look.  The window whither they

+ran was in an odd corner of that room, gave above the entrance

+door, and flanked up the close.

+

+"Come, Mr. Balfour," they cried, "come and see.  She is the most

+beautiful creature!  She hangs round the close-head these last

+days, always with some wretched-like gillies, and yet seems quite a

+lady."

+

+I had no need to look; neither did I look twice, or long.  I was

+afraid she might have seen me there, looking down upon her from

+that chamber of music, and she without, and her father in the same

+house, perhaps begging for his life with tears, and myself come but

+newly from rejecting his petitions.  But even that glance set me in

+a better conceit of myself and much less awe of the young ladies.

+They were beautiful, that was beyond question, but Catriona was

+beautiful too, and had a kind of brightness in her like a coal of

+fire.  As much as the others cast me down, she lifted me up.  I

+remembered I had talked easily with her.  If I could make no hand

+of it with these fine maids, it was perhaps something their own

+fault.  My embarrassment began to be a little mingled and lightened

+with a sense of fun; and when the aunt smiled at me from her

+embroidery, and the three daughters unbent to me like a baby, all

+with "papa's orders" written on their faces, there were times when

+I could have found it in my heart to smile myself.

+

+Presently papa returned, the same kind, happy-like, pleasant-spoken

+man.

+

+"Now, girls," said he, "I must take Mr. Balfour away again; but I

+hope you have been able to persuade him to return where I shall be

+always gratified to find him."

+

+So they each made me a little farthing compliment, and I was led

+away.

+

+If this visit to the family had been meant to soften my resistance,

+it was the worst of failures.  I was no such ass but what I

+understood how poor a figure I had made, and that the girls would

+be yawning their jaws off as soon as my stiff back was turned.  I

+felt I had shown how little I had in me of what was soft and

+graceful; and I longed for a chance to prove that I had something

+of the other stuff, the stern and dangerous.

+

+Well, I was to be served to my desire, for the scene to which he

+was conducting me was of a different character.

+

+

+

+CHAPTER VI--UMQUILE THE MASTER OF LOVAT

+

+

+

+There was a man waiting us in Prestongrange's study, whom I

+distasted at the first look, as we distaste a ferret or an earwig.

+He was bitter ugly, but seemed very much of a gentleman; had still

+manners, but capable of sudden leaps and violences; and a small

+voice, which could ring out shrill and dangerous when he so

+desired.

+

+The Advocate presented us in a familiar, friendly way.

+

+"Here, Fraser," said he, "here is Mr. Balfour whom we talked about.

+Mr. David, this is Mr. Simon Fraser, whom we used to call by

+another title, but that is an old song.  Mr. Fraser has an errand

+to you."

+

+With that he stepped aside to his book-shelves, and made believe to

+consult a quarto volume in the far end.

+

+I was thus left (in a sense) alone with perhaps the last person in

+the world I had expected.  There was no doubt upon the terms of

+introduction; this could be no other than the forfeited Master of

+Lovat and chief of the great clan Fraser.  I knew he had led his

+men in the Rebellion; I knew his father's head--my old lord's, that

+grey fox of the mountains--to have fallen on the block for that

+offence, the lands of the family to have been seized, and their

+nobility attainted.  I could not conceive what he should be doing

+in Grant's house; I could not conceive that he had been called to

+the bar, had eaten all his principles, and was now currying favour

+with the Government even to the extent of acting Advocate-Depute in

+the Appin murder.

+

+"Well, Mr. Balfour," said he, "what is all this I hear of ye?"

+

+"It would not become me to prejudge," said I, "but if the Advocate

+was your authority he is fully possessed of my opinions."

+

+"I may tell you I am engaged in the Appin case," he went on; "I am

+to appear under Prestongrange; and from my study of the

+precognitions I can assure you your opinions are erroneous.  The

+guilt of Breck is manifest; and your testimony, in which you admit

+you saw him on the hill at the very moment, will certify his

+hanging."

+

+"It will be rather ill to hang him till you catch him," I observed.

+"And for other matters I very willingly leave you to your own

+impressions."

+

+"The Duke has been informed," he went on.  "I have just come from

+his Grace, and he expressed himself before me with an honest

+freedom like the great nobleman he is.  He spoke of you by name,

+Mr. Balfour, and declared his gratitude beforehand in case you

+would be led by those who understand your own interests and those

+of the country so much better than yourself.  Gratitude is no empty

+expression in that mouth:  experto-crede.  I daresay you know

+something of my name and clan, and the damnable example and

+lamented end of my late father, to say nothing of my own errata.

+Well, I have made my peace with that good Duke; he has intervened

+for me with our friend Prestongrange; and here I am with my foot in

+the stirrup again and some of the responsibility shared into my

+hand of prosecuting King George's enemies and avenging the late

+daring and barefaced insult to his Majesty."

+

+"Doubtless a proud position for your father's son," says I.

+

+He wagged his bald eyebrows at me.  "You are pleased to make

+experiments in the ironical, I think," said he.  "But I am here

+upon duty, I am here to discharge my errand in good faith, it is in

+vain you think to divert me.  And let me tell you, for a young

+fellow of spirit and ambition like yourself, a good shove in the

+beginning will do more than ten years' drudgery.  The shove is now

+at your command; choose what you will to be advanced in, the Duke

+will watch upon you with the affectionate disposition of a father."

+

+"I am thinking that I lack the docility of the son," says I.

+

+"And do you really suppose, sir, that the whole policy of this

+country is to be suffered to trip up and tumble down for an ill-

+mannered colt of a boy?" he cried.  "This has been made a test

+case, all who would prosper in the future must put a shoulder to

+the wheel.  Look at me!  Do you suppose it is for my pleasure that

+I put myself in the highly invidious position of persecuting a man

+that I have drawn the sword alongside of?  The choice is not left

+me."

+

+"But I think, sir, that you forfeited your choice when you mixed in

+with that unnatural rebellion," I remarked.  "My case is happily

+otherwise; I am a true man, and can look either the Duke or King

+George in the face without concern."

+

+"Is it so the wind sits?" says he.  "I protest you are fallen in

+the worst sort of error.  Prestongrange has been hitherto so civil

+(he tells me) as not to combat your allegations; but you must not

+think they are not looked upon with strong suspicion.  You say you

+are innocent.  My dear sir, the facts declare you guilty."

+

+"I was waiting for you there," said I.

+

+"The evidence of Mungo Campbell; your flight after the completion

+of the murder; your long course of secresy--my good young man!"

+said Mr. Simon, "here is enough evidence to hang a bullock, let be

+a David Balfour!  I shall be upon that trial; my voice shall be

+raised; I shall then speak much otherwise from what I do to-day,

+and far less to your gratification, little as you like it now!  Ah,

+you look white!" cries he.  "I have found the key of your impudent

+heart.  You look pale, your eyes waver, Mr. David!  You see the

+grave and the gallows nearer by than you had fancied."

+

+"I own to a natural weakness," said I.  "I think no shame for that.

+Shame. . ."  I was going on.

+

+"Shame waits for you on the gibbet," he broke in.

+

+"Where I shall but be even'd with my lord your father," said I.

+

+"Aha, but not so!" he cried, "and you do not yet see to the bottom

+of this business.  My father suffered in a great cause, and for

+dealing in the affairs of kings.  You are to hang for a dirty

+murder about boddle-pieces.  Your personal part in it, the

+treacherous one of holding the poor wretch in talk, your

+accomplices a pack of ragged Highland gillies.  And it can be

+shown, my great Mr. Balfour--it can be shown, and it WILL be shown,

+trust ME that has a finger in the pie--it can be shown, and shall

+be shown, that you were paid to do it.  I think I can see the looks

+go round the court when I adduce my evidence, and it shall appear

+that you, a young man of education, let yourself be corrupted to

+this shocking act for a suit of cast clothes, a bottle of Highland

+spirits, and three-and-fivepence-halfpenny in copper money."

+

+There was a touch of the truth in these words that knocked me like

+a blow:  clothes, a bottle of usquebaugh, and three-and-fivepence-

+halfpenny in change made up, indeed, the most of what Alan and I

+had carried from Auchurn; and I saw that some of James's people had

+been blabbing in their dungeons.

+

+"You see I know more than you fancied," he resumed in triumph.

+"And as for giving it this turn, great Mr. David, you must not

+suppose the Government of Great Britain and Ireland will ever be

+stuck for want of evidence.  We have men here in prison who will

+swear out their lives as we direct them; as I direct, if you prefer

+the phrase.  So now you are to guess your part of glory if you

+choose to die.  On the one hand, life, wine, women, and a duke to

+be your handgun:  on the other, a rope to your craig, and a gibbet

+to clatter your bones on, and the lousiest, lowest story to hand

+down to your namesakes in the future that was ever told about a

+hired assassin.  And see here!" he cried, with a formidable shrill

+voice, "see this paper that I pull out of my pocket.  Look at the

+name there:  it is the name of the great David, I believe, the ink

+scarce dry yet.  Can you guess its nature?  It is the warrant for

+your arrest, which I have but to touch this bell beside me to have

+executed on the spot.  Once in the Tolbooth upon this paper, may

+God help you, for the die is cast!"

+

+I must never deny that I was greatly horrified by so much baseness,

+and much unmanned by the immediacy and ugliness of my danger.  Mr.

+Simon had already gloried in the changes of my hue; I make no doubt

+I was now no ruddier than my shirt; my speech besides trembled.

+

+"There is a gentleman in this room," cried I.  "I appeal to him.  I

+put my life and credit in his hands."

+

+Prestongrange shut his book with a snap.  "I told you so, Simon,"

+said he; "you have played your hand for all it was worth, and you

+have lost.  Mr. David," he went on, "I wish you to believe it was

+by no choice of mine you were subjected to this proof.  I wish you

+could understand how glad I am you should come forth from it with

+so much credit.  You may not quite see how, but it is a little of a

+service to myself.  For had our friend here been more successful

+than I was last night, it might have appeared that he was a better

+judge of men than I; it might have appeared we were altogether in

+the wrong situations, Mr. Simon and myself.  And I know our friend

+Simon to be ambitious," says he, striking lightly on Fraser's

+shoulder.  "As for this stage play, it is over; my sentiments are

+very much engaged in your behalf; and whatever issue we can find to

+this unfortunate affair, I shall make it my business to see it is

+adopted with tenderness to you."

+

+These were very good words, and I could see besides that there was

+little love, and perhaps a spice of genuine ill-will, between these

+two who were opposed to me.  For all that, it was unmistakable this

+interview had been designed, perhaps rehearsed, with the consent of

+both; it was plain my adversaries were in earnest to try me by all

+methods; and now (persuasion, flattery, and menaces having been

+tried in vain) I could not but wonder what would be their next

+expedient.  My eyes besides were still troubled, and my knees loose

+under me, with the distress of the late ordeal; and I could do no

+more than stammer the same form of words:  "I put my life and

+credit in your hands."

+

+"Well, well," said he, "we must try to save them.  And in the

+meanwhile let us return to gentler methods.  You must not bear any

+grudge upon my friend, Mr. Simon, who did but speak by his brief.

+And even if you did conceive some malice against myself, who stood

+by and seemed rather to hold a candle, I must not let that extend

+to innocent members of my family.  These are greatly engaged to see

+more of you, and I cannot consent to have my young womenfolk

+disappointed.  To-morrow they will be going to Hope Park, where I

+think it very proper you should make your bow.  Call for me first,

+when I may possibly have something for your private hearing; then

+you shall be turned abroad again under the conduct of my misses;

+and until that time repeat to me your promise of secrecy."

+

+I had done better to have instantly refused, but in truth I was

+beside the power of reasoning; did as I was bid; took my leave I

+know not how; and when I was forth again in the close, and the door

+had shut behind me, was glad to lean on a house wall and wipe my

+face.  That horrid apparition (as I may call it) of Mr. Simon rang

+in my memory, as a sudden noise rings after it is over in the ear.

+Tales of the man's father, of his falseness, of his manifold

+perpetual treacheries, rose before me from all that I had heard and

+read, and joined on with what I had just experienced of himself.

+Each time it occurred to me, the ingenious foulness of that calumny

+he had proposed to nail upon my character startled me afresh.  The

+case of the man upon the gibbet by Leith Walk appeared scarce

+distinguishable from that I was now to consider as my own.  To rob

+a child of so little more than nothing was certainly a paltry

+enterprise for two grown men; but my own tale, as it was to be

+represented in a court by Simon Fraser, appeared a fair second in

+every possible point of view of sordidness and cowardice.

+

+The voices of two of Prestongrange's liveried men upon his doorstep

+recalled me to myself.

+

+"Ha'e," said the one, "this billet as fast as ye can link to the

+captain."

+

+"Is that for the cateran back again?" asked the other.

+

+"It would seem sae," returned the first.  "Him and Simon are

+seeking him."

+

+"I think Prestongrange is gane gyte," says the second.  "He'll have

+James More in bed with him next."

+

+"Weel, it's neither your affair nor mine's," said the first.

+

+And they parted, the one upon his errand, and the other back into

+the house.

+

+This looked as ill as possible.  I was scarce gone and they were

+sending already for James More, to whom I thought Mr. Simon must

+have pointed when he spoke of men in prison and ready to redeem

+their lives by all extremities.  My scalp curdled among my hair,

+and the next moment the blood leaped in me to remember Catriona.

+Poor lass! her father stood to be hanged for pretty indefensible

+misconduct.  What was yet more unpalatable, it now seemed he was

+prepared to save his four quarters by the worst of shame and the

+most foul of cowardly murders--murder by the false oath; and to

+complete our misfortunes, it seemed myself was picked out to be the

+victim.

+

+I began to walk swiftly and at random, conscious only of a desire

+for movement, air, and the open country.

+

+

+

+CHAPTER VII--I MAKE A FAULT IN HONOUR

+

+

+

+I came forth, I vow I know not how, on the Lang Dykes {12}.  This

+is a rural road which runs on the north side over against the city.

+Thence I could see the whole black length of it tail down, from

+where the castle stands upon its crags above the loch in a long

+line of spires and gable ends, and smoking chimneys, and at the

+sight my heart swelled in my bosom.  My youth, as I have told, was

+already inured to dangers; but such danger as I had seen the face

+of but that morning, in the midst of what they call the safety of a

+town, shook me beyond experience.  Peril of slavery, peril of

+shipwreck, peril of sword and shot, I had stood all of these

+without discredit; but the peril there was in the sharp voice and

+the fat face of Simon, property Lord Lovat, daunted me wholly.

+

+I sat by the lake side in a place where the rushes went down into

+the water, and there steeped my wrists and laved my temples.  If I

+could have done so with any remains of self-esteem, I would now

+have fled from my foolhardy enterprise.  But (call it courage or

+cowardice, and I believe it was both the one and the other) I

+decided I was ventured out beyond the possibility of a retreat.  I

+had out-faced these men, I would continue to out-face them; come

+what might, I would stand by the word spoken.

+

+The sense of my own constancy somewhat uplifted my spirits, but not

+much.  At the best of it there was an icy place about my heart, and

+life seemed a black business to be at all engaged in.  For two

+souls in particular my pity flowed.  The one was myself, to be so

+friendless and lost among dangers.  The other was the girl, the

+daughter of James More.  I had seen but little of her; yet my view

+was taken and my judgment made.  I thought her a lass of a clean

+honour, like a man's; I thought her one to die of a disgrace; and

+now I believed her father to be at that moment bargaining his vile

+life for mine.  It made a bond in my thoughts betwixt the girl and

+me.  I had seen her before only as a wayside appearance, though one

+that pleased me strangely; I saw her now in a sudden nearness of

+relation, as the daughter of my blood foe, and I might say, my

+murderer.  I reflected it was hard I should be so plagued and

+persecuted all my days for other folks' affairs, and have no manner

+of pleasure myself.  I got meals and a bed to sleep in when my

+concerns would suffer it; beyond that my wealth was of no help to

+me.  If I was to hang, my days were like to be short; if I was not

+to hang but to escape out of this trouble, they might yet seem long

+to me ere I was done with them.  Of a sudden her face appeared in

+my memory, the way I had first seen it, with the parted lips; at

+that, weakness came in my bosom and strength into my legs; and I

+set resolutely forward on the way to Dean.  If I was to hang to-

+morrow, and it was sure enough I might very likely sleep that night

+in a dungeon, I determined I should hear and speak once more with

+Catriona.

+

+The exercise of walking and the thought of my destination braced me

+yet more, so that I began to pluck up a kind of spirit.  In the

+village of Dean, where it sits in the bottom of a glen beside the

+river, I inquired my way of a miller's man, who sent me up the hill

+upon the farther side by a plain path, and so to a decent-like

+small house in a garden of lawns and apple-trees.  My heart beat

+high as I stepped inside the garden hedge, but it fell low indeed

+when I came face to face with a grim and fierce old lady, walking

+there in a white mutch with a man's hat strapped upon the top of

+it.

+

+"What do ye come seeking here?" she asked.

+

+I told her I was after Miss Drummond.

+

+"And what may be your business with Miss Drummond?" says she.

+

+I told her I had met her on Saturday last, had been so fortunate as

+to render her a trifling service, and was come now on the young

+lady's invitation.

+

+"O, so you're Saxpence!" she cried, with a very sneering manner.

+"A braw gift, a bonny gentleman.  And hae ye ony ither name and

+designation, or were ye bapteesed Saxpence?" she asked.

+

+I told my name.

+

+"Preserve me!" she cried.  "Has Ebenezer gotten a son?"

+

+"No, ma'am," said I.  "I am a son of Alexander's.  It's I that am

+the Laird of Shaws."

+

+"Ye'll find your work cut out for ye to establish that," quoth she.

+

+"I perceive you know my uncle," said I; "and I daresay you may be

+the better pleased to hear that business is arranged."

+

+"And what brings ye here after Miss Drummond?" she pursued.

+

+"I'm come after my saxpence, mem," said I.  "It's to be thought,

+being my uncle's nephew, I would be found a careful lad."

+

+"So ye have a spark of sleeness in ye?" observed the old lady, with

+some approval.  "I thought ye had just been a cuif--you and your

+saxpence, and your LUCKY DAY and your SAKE OF BALWHIDDER"--from

+which I was gratified to learn that Catriona had not forgotten some

+of our talk.  "But all this is by the purpose," she resumed.  "Am I

+to understand that ye come here keeping company?"

+

+"This is surely rather an early question," said I.  "The maid is

+young, so am I, worse fortune.  I have but seen her the once.  I'll

+not deny," I added, making up my mind to try her with some

+frankness, "I'll not deny but she has run in my head a good deal

+since I met in with her.  That is one thing; but it would be quite

+another, and I think I would look very like a fool, to commit

+myself."

+

+"You can speak out of your mouth, I see," said the old lady.

+"Praise God, and so can I!  I was fool enough to take charge of

+this rogue's daughter:  a fine charge I have gotten; but it's mine,

+and I'll carry it the way I want to.  Do ye mean to tell me, Mr.

+Balfour of Shaws, that you would marry James More's daughter, and

+him hanged!  Well, then, where there's no possible marriage there

+shall be no manner of carryings on, and take that for said.  Lasses

+are bruckle things," she added, with a nod; "and though ye would

+never think it by my wrunkled chafts, I was a lassie mysel', and a

+bonny one."

+

+"Lady Allardyce," said I, "for that I suppose to be your name, you

+seem to do the two sides of the talking, which is a very poor

+manner to come to an agreement.  You give me rather a home thrust

+when you ask if I would marry, at the gallow's foot, a young lady

+whom I have seen but once.  I have told you already I would never

+be so untenty as to commit myself.  And yet I'll go some way with

+you.  If I continue to like the lass as well as I have reason to

+expect, it will be something more than her father, or the gallows

+either, that keeps the two of us apart.  As for my family, I found

+it by the wayside like a lost bawbee!  I owe less than nothing to

+my uncle and if ever I marry, it will be to please one person:

+that's myself."

+

+"I have heard this kind of talk before ye were born," said Mrs.

+Ogilvy, "which is perhaps the reason that I think of it so little.

+There's much to be considered.  This James More is a kinsman of

+mine, to my shame be it spoken.  But the better the family, the

+mair men hanged or headed, that's always been poor Scotland's

+story.  And if it was just the hanging!  For my part I think I

+would be best pleased with James upon the gallows, which would be

+at least an end to him.  Catrine's a good lass enough, and a good-

+hearted, and lets herself be deaved all day with a runt of an auld

+wife like me.  But, ye see, there's the weak bit.  She's daft about

+that long, false, fleeching beggar of a father of hers, and red-mad

+about the Gregara, and proscribed names, and King James, and a

+wheen blethers.  And you might think ye could guide her, ye would

+find yourself sore mista'en.  Ye say ye've seen her but the once. .

+."

+

+"Spoke with her but the once, I should have said," I interrupted.

+"I saw her again this morning from a window at Prestongrange's."

+

+This I daresay I put in because it sounded well; but I was properly

+paid for my ostentation on the return.

+

+"What's this of it?" cries the old lady, with a sudden pucker of

+her face.  "I think it was at the Advocate's door-cheek that ye met

+her first."

+

+I told her that was so.

+

+"H'm," she said; and then suddenly, upon rather a scolding tone, "I

+have your bare word for it," she cries, "as to who and what you

+are.  By your way of it, you're Balfour of the Shaws; but for what

+I ken you may be Balfour of the Deevil's oxter.  It's possible ye

+may come here for what ye say, and it's equally possible ye may

+come here for deil care what!  I'm good enough Whig to sit quiet,

+and to have keepit all my men-folk's heads upon their shoulders.

+But I'm not just a good enough Whig to be made a fool of neither.

+And I tell you fairly, there's too much Advocate's door and

+Advocate's window here for a man that comes taigling after a

+Macgregor's daughter.  Ye can tell that to the Advocate that sent

+ye, with my fond love.  And I kiss my loof to ye, Mr. Balfour,"

+says she, suiting the action to the word; "and a braw journey to ye

+back to where ye cam frae."

+

+"If you think me a spy," I broke out, and speech stuck in my

+throat.  I stood and looked murder at the old lady for a space,

+then bowed and turned away.

+

+"Here!  Hoots!  The callant's in a creel!" she cried.  "Think ye a

+spy? what else would I think ye--me that kens naething by ye?  But

+I see that I was wrong; and as I cannot fight, I'll have to

+apologise.  A bonny figure I would be with a broadsword.  Ay! ay!"

+she went on, "you're none such a bad lad in your way; I think ye'll

+have some redeeming vices.  But, O! Davit Balfour, ye're damned

+countryfeed.  Ye'll have to win over that, lad; ye'll have to

+soople your back-bone, and think a wee pickle less of your dainty

+self; and ye'll have to try to find out that women-folk are nae

+grenadiers.  But that can never be.  To your last day you'll ken no

+more of women-folk than what I do of sow-gelding."

+

+I had never been used with such expressions from a lady's tongue,

+the only two ladies I had known, Mrs. Campbell and my mother, being

+most devout and most particular women; and I suppose my amazement

+must have been depicted in my countenance, for Mrs. Ogilvy burst

+forth suddenly in a fit of laughter.

+

+"Keep me!" she cried, struggling with her mirth, "you have the

+finest timber face--and you to marry the daughter of a Hieland

+cateran!  Davie, my dear, I think we'll have to make a match of it-

+-if it was just to see the weans.  And now," she went on, "there's

+no manner of service in your daidling here, for the young woman is

+from home, and it's my fear that the old woman is no suitable

+companion for your father's son.  Forbye that I have nobody but

+myself to look after my reputation, and have been long enough alone

+with a sedooctive youth.  And come back another day for your

+saxpence!" she cried after me as I left.

+

+My skirmish with this disconcerting lady gave my thoughts a

+boldness they had otherwise wanted.  For two days the image of

+Catriona had mixed in all my meditations; she made their

+background, so that I scarce enjoyed my own company without a glint

+of her in a corner of my mind.  But now she came immediately near;

+I seemed to touch her, whom I had never touched but the once; I let

+myself flow out to her in a happy weakness, and looking all about,

+and before and behind, saw the world like an undesirable desert,

+where men go as soldiers on a march, following their duty with what

+constancy they have, and Catriona alone there to offer me some

+pleasure of my days.  I wondered at myself that I could dwell on

+such considerations in that time of my peril and disgrace; and when

+I remembered my youth I was ashamed.  I had my studies to complete:

+I had to be called into some useful business; I had yet to take my

+part of service in a place where all must serve; I had yet to

+learn, and know, and prove myself a man; and I had so much sense as

+blush that I should be already tempted with these further-on and

+holier delights and duties.  My education spoke home to me sharply;

+I was never brought up on sugar biscuits but on the hard food of

+the truth.  I knew that he was quite unfit to be a husband who was

+not prepared to be a father also; and for a boy like me to play the

+father was a mere derision.

+

+When I was in the midst of these thoughts and about half-way back

+to town I saw a figure coming to meet me, and the trouble of my

+heart was heightened.  It seemed I had everything in the world to

+say to her, but nothing to say first; and remembering how tongue-

+tied I had been that morning at the Advocate's I made sure that I

+would find myself struck dumb.  But when she came up my fears fled

+away; not even the consciousness of what I had been privately

+thinking disconcerted me the least; and I found I could talk with

+her as easily and rationally as I might with Alan.

+

+"O!" she cried, "you have been seeking your sixpence; did you get

+it?"

+

+I told her no; but now I had met with her my walk was not in vain.

+"Though I have seen you to-day already," said I, and told her where

+and when.

+

+"I did not see you," she said.  "My eyes are big, but there are

+better than mine at seeing far.  Only I heard singing in the

+house."

+

+"That was Miss Grant," said I, "the eldest and the bonniest."

+

+"They say they are all beautiful," said she.

+

+"They think the same of you, Miss Drummond," I replied, "and were

+all crowding to the window to observe you."

+

+"It is a pity about my being so blind," said she, "or I might have

+seen them too.  And you were in the house?  You must have been

+having the fine time with the fine music and the pretty ladies."

+

+"There is just where you are wrong," said I; "for I was as uncouth

+as a sea-fish upon the brae of a mountain.  The truth is that I am

+better fitted to go about with rudas men than pretty ladies."

+

+"Well, I would think so too, at all events!" said she, at which we

+both of us laughed.

+

+"It is a strange thing, now," said I.  "I am not the least afraid

+with you, yet I could have run from the Miss Grants.  And I was

+afraid of your cousin too."

+

+"O, I think any man will be afraid of her," she cried.  "My father

+is afraid of her himself."

+

+The name of her father brought me to a stop.  I looked at her as

+she walked by my side; I recalled the man, and the little I knew

+and the much I guessed of him; and comparing the one with the

+other, felt like a traitor to be silent.

+

+"Speaking of which," said I, "I met your father no later than this

+morning."

+

+"Did you?" she cried, with a voice of joy that seemed to mock at

+me.  "You saw James More?  You will have spoken with him then?"

+

+"I did even that," said I.

+

+Then I think things went the worst way for me that was humanly

+possible.  She gave me a look of mere gratitude.  "Ah, thank you

+for that!" says she.

+

+"You thank me for very little," said I, and then stopped.  But it

+seemed when I was holding back so much, something at least had to

+come out.  "I spoke rather ill to him," said I; "I did no like him

+very much; I spoke him rather ill, and he was angry."

+

+"I think you had little to do then, and less to tell it to his

+daughter!" she cried out.  "But those that do not love and cherish

+him I will not know."

+

+"I will take the freedom of a word yet," said I, beginning to

+tremble.  "Perhaps neither your father nor I are in the best of

+spirits at Prestongrange's.  I daresay we both have anxious

+business there, for it's a dangerous house.  I was sorry for him

+too, and spoke to him the first, if I could but have spoken the

+wiser.  And for one thing, in my opinion, you will soon find that

+his affairs are mending."

+

+"It will not be through your friendship, I am thinking," said she;

+"and he is much made up to you for your sorrow."

+

+"Miss Drummond," cried I, "I am alone in this world."

+

+"And I am not wondering at that," said she.

+

+"O, let me speak!" said I.  "I will speak but the once, and then

+leave you, if you will, for ever.  I came this day in the hopes of

+a kind word that I am sore in want of.  I know that what I said

+must hurt you, and I knew it then.  It would have been easy to have

+spoken smooth, easy to lie to you; can you not think how I was

+tempted to the same?  Cannot you see the truth of my heart shine

+out?"

+

+"I think here is a great deal of work, Mr. Balfour," said she.  "I

+think we will have met but the once, and will can part like gentle

+folk."

+

+"O, let me have one to believe in me!" I pleaded, "I cannae bear it

+else.  The whole world is clanned against me.  How am I to go

+through with my dreadful fate?  If there's to be none to believe in

+me I cannot do it.  The man must just die, for I cannot do it."

+

+She had still looked straight in front of her, head in air; but at

+my words or the tone of my voice she came to a stop.  "What is this

+you say?" she asked.  "What are you talking of?"

+

+"It is my testimony which may save an innocent life," said I, "and

+they will not suffer me to bear it.  What would you do yourself?

+You know what this is, whose father lies in danger.  Would you

+desert the poor soul?  They have tried all ways with me.  They have

+sought to bribe me; they offered me hills and valleys.  And to-day

+that sleuth-hound told me how I stood, and to what a length he

+would go to butcher and disgrace me.  I am to be brought in a party

+to the murder; I am to have held Glenure in talk for money and old

+clothes; I am to be killed and shamed.  If this is the way I am to

+fall, and me scarce a man--if this is the story to be told of me in

+all Scotland--if you are to believe it too, and my name is to be

+nothing but a by-word--Catriona, how can I go through with it?  The

+thing's not possible; it's more than a man has in his heart."

+

+I poured my words out in a whirl, one upon the other; and when I

+stopped I found her gazing on me with a startled face.

+

+"Glenure!  It is the Appin murder," she said softly, but with a

+very deep surprise.

+

+I had turned back to bear her company, and we were now come near

+the head of the brae above Dean village.  At this word I stepped in

+front of her like one suddenly distracted.

+

+"For God's sake!" I cried, "for God's sake, what is this that I

+have done?" and carried my fists to my temples.  "What made me do

+it?  Sure, I am bewitched to say these things!"

+

+"In the name of heaven, what ails you now!" she cried.

+

+"I gave my honour," I groaned, "I gave my honour and now I have

+broke it.  O, Catriona!"

+

+"I am asking you what it is," she said; "was it these things you

+should not have spoken?  And do you think I have no honour, then?

+or that I am one that would betray a friend?  I hold up my right

+hand to you and swear."

+

+"O, I knew you would be true!" said I.  "It's me--it's here.  I

+that stood but this morning and out-faced them, that risked rather

+to die disgraced upon the gallows than do wrong--and a few hours

+after I throw my honour away by the roadside in common talk!

+'There is one thing clear upon our interview,' says he, 'that I can

+rely on your pledged word.'  Where is my word now?  Who could

+believe me now?  You could not believe me.  I am clean fallen down;

+I had best die!"  All this I said with a weeping voice, but I had

+no tears in my body.

+

+"My heart is sore for you," said she, "but be sure you are too

+nice.  I would not believe you, do you say?  I would trust you with

+anything.  And these men?  I would not be thinking of them!  Men

+who go about to entrap and to destroy you!  Fy! this is no time to

+crouch.  Look up!  Do you not think I will be admiring you like a

+great hero of the good--and you a boy not much older than myself?

+And because you said a word too much in a friend's ear, that would

+die ere she betrayed you--to make such a matter!  It is one thing

+that we must both forget."

+

+"Catriona," said I, looking at her, hang-dog, "is this true of it?

+Would ye trust me yet?"

+

+"Will you not believe the tears upon my face?" she cried.  "It is

+the world I am thinking of you, Mr. David Balfour.  Let them hang

+you; I will never forget, I will grow old and still remember you.

+I think it is great to die so:  I will envy you that gallows."

+

+"And maybe all this while I am but a child frighted with bogles,"

+said I.  "Maybe they but make a mock of me."

+

+"It is what I must know," she said.  "I must hear the whole.  The

+harm is done at all events, and I must hear the whole."

+

+I had sat down on the wayside, where she took a place beside me,

+and I told her all that matter much as I have written it, my

+thoughts about her father's dealings being alone omitted.

+

+"Well," she said, when I had finished, "you are a hero, surely, and

+I never would have thought that same!  And I think you are in

+peril, too.  O, Simon Fraser! to think upon that man!  For his life

+and the dirty money, to be dealing in such traffic!"  And just then

+she called out aloud with a queer word that was common with her,

+and belongs, I believe, to her own language.  "My torture!" says

+she, "look at the sun!"

+

+Indeed, it was already dipping towards the mountains.

+

+She bid me come again soon, gave me her hand, and left me in a

+turmoil of glad spirits.  I delayed to go home to my lodging, for I

+had a terror of immediate arrest; but got some supper at a change

+house, and the better part of that night walked by myself in the

+barley-fields, and had such a sense of Catriona's presence that I

+seemed to bear her in my arms.

+

+

+

+CHAPTER VIII--THE BRAVO

+

+

+

+The next day, August 29th, I kept my appointment at the Advocate's

+in a coat that I had made to my own measure, and was but newly

+ready,

+

+"Aha," says Prestongrange, "you are very fine to-day; my misses are

+to have a fine cavalier.  Come, I take that kind of you.  I take

+that kind of you, Mr. David.  O, we shall do very well yet, and I

+believe your troubles are nearly at an end."

+

+"You have news for me?" cried I.

+

+"Beyond anticipation," he replied.  "Your testimony is after all to

+be received; and you may go, if you will, in my company to the

+trial, which in to be held at Inverary, Thursday, 21st proximo."

+

+I was too much amazed to find words.

+

+"In the meanwhile," he continued, "though I will not ask you to

+renew your pledge, I must caution you strictly to be reticent.  To-

+morrow your precognition must be taken; and outside of that, do you

+know, I think least said will be soonest mended."

+

+"I shall try to go discreetly,' said I.  "I believe it is yourself

+that I must thank for this crowning mercy, and I do thank you

+gratefully.  After yesterday, my lord, this is like the doors of

+Heaven.  I cannot find it in my heart to get the thing believed."

+

+"Ah, but you must try and manage, you must try and manage to

+believe it," says he, soothing-like, "and I am very glad to hear

+your acknowledgment of obligation, for I think you may be able to

+repay me very shortly"--he coughed--"or even now.  The matter is

+much changed.  Your testimony, which I shall not trouble you for

+to-day, will doubtless alter the complexion of the case for all

+concerned, and this makes it less delicate for me to enter with you

+on a side issue."

+

+"My Lord," I interrupted, "excuse me for interrupting you, but how

+has this been brought about?  The obstacles you told me of on

+Saturday appeared even to me to be quite insurmountable; how has it

+been contrived?"

+

+"My dear Mr. David," said he, "it would never do for me to divulge

+(even to you, as you say) the councils of the Government; and you

+must content yourself, if you please, with the gross fact."

+

+He smiled upon me like a father as he spoke, playing the while with

+a new pen; methought it was impossible there could be any shadow of

+deception in the man:  yet when he drew to him a sheet of paper,

+dipped his pen among the ink, and began again to address me, I was

+somehow not so certain, and fell instinctively into an attitude of

+guard.

+

+"There is a point I wish to touch upon," he began.  "I purposely

+left it before upon one side, which need be now no longer

+necessary.  This is not, of course, a part of your examination,

+which is to follow by another hand; this is a private interest of

+my own.  You say you encountered Alan Breck upon the hill?"

+

+"I did, my lord," said I

+

+"This was immediately after the murder?"

+

+"It was."

+

+"Did you speak to him?"

+

+"I did."

+

+"You had known him before, I think?" says my lord, carelessly.

+

+"I cannot guess your reason for so thinking, my lord," I replied,

+"but such in the fact."

+

+"And when did you part with him again?" said he.

+

+"I reserve my answer," said I.  "The question will be put to me at

+the assize."

+

+"Mr. Balfour," said he, "will you not understand that all this is

+without prejudice to yourself?  I have promised you life and

+honour; and, believe me, I can keep my word.  You are therefore

+clear of all anxiety.  Alan, it appears, you suppose you can

+protect; and you talk to me of your gratitude, which I think (if

+you push me) is not ill-deserved.  There are a great many different

+considerations all pointing the same way; and I will never be

+persuaded that you could not help us (if you chose) to put salt on

+Alan's tail."

+

+"My lord," said I, "I give you my word I do not so much as guess

+where Alan is."

+

+He paused a breath.  "Nor how he might be found?" he asked.

+

+I sat before him like a log of wood.

+

+"And so much for your gratitude, Mr. David!" he observed.  Again

+there was a piece of silence.  "Well," said he, rising, "I am not

+fortunate, and we are a couple at cross purposes.  Let us speak of

+it no more; you will receive notice when, where, and by whom, we

+are to take your precognition.  And in the meantime, my misses must

+be waiting you.  They will never forgive me if I detain their

+cavalier."

+

+Into the hands of these Graces I was accordingly offered up, and

+found them dressed beyond what I had thought possible, and looking

+fair as a posy.

+

+As we went forth from the doors a small circumstance occurred which

+came afterwards to look extremely big.  I heard a whistle sound

+loud and brief like a signal, and looking all about, spied for one

+moment the red head of Neil of the Tom, the son of Duncan.  The

+next moment he was gone again, nor could I see so much as the

+skirt-tail of Catriona, upon whom I naturally supposed him to be

+then attending.

+

+My three keepers led me out by Bristo and the Bruntsfield Links;

+whence a path carried us to Hope Park, a beautiful pleasance, laid

+with gravel-walks, furnished with seats and summer-sheds, and

+warded by a keeper.  The way there was a little longsome; the two

+younger misses affected an air of genteel weariness that damped me

+cruelly, the eldest considered me with something that at times

+appeared like mirth; and though I thought I did myself more justice

+than the day before, it was not without some effort.  Upon our

+reaching the park I was launched on a bevy of eight or ten young

+gentlemen (some of them cockaded officers, the rest chiefly

+advocates) who crowded to attend upon these beauties; and though I

+was presented to all of them in very good words, it seemed I was by

+all immediately forgotten.  Young folk in a company are like to

+savage animals:  they fall upon or scorn a stranger without

+civility, or I may say, humanity; and I am sure, if I had been

+among baboons, they would have shown me quite as much of both.

+Some of the advocates set up to be wits, and some of the soldiers

+to be rattles; and I could not tell which of these extremes annoyed

+me most.  All had a manner of handling their swords and coat-

+skirts, for the which (in mere black envy) I could have kicked them

+from the park.  I daresay, upon their side, they grudged me

+extremely the fine company in which I had arrived; and altogether I

+had soon fallen behind, and stepped stiffly in the rear of all that

+merriment with my own thoughts.

+

+From these I was recalled by one of the officers, Lieutenant Hector

+Duncansby, a gawky, leering Highland boy, asking if my name was not

+"Palfour."

+

+I told him it was, not very kindly, for his manner was scant civil.

+

+"Ha, Palfour," says he, and then, repeating it, "Palfour, Palfour!"

+

+"I am afraid you do not like my name, sir," says I, annoyed with

+myself to be annoyed with such a rustical fellow.

+

+"No," says he, "but I wass thinking."

+

+"I would not advise you to make a practice of that, sir," says I.

+"I feel sure you would not find it to agree with you."

+

+"Tit you effer hear where Alan Grigor fand the tangs?" said he.

+

+I asked him what he could possibly mean, and he answered, with a

+heckling laugh, that he thought I must have found the poker in the

+same place and swallowed it.

+

+There could be no mistake about this, and my cheek burned.

+

+"Before I went about to put affronts on gentlemen," said I, "I

+think I would learn the English language first."

+

+He took me by the sleeve with a nod and a wink and led me quietly

+outside Hope Park.  But no sooner were we beyond the view of the

+promenaders, than the fashion of his countenance changed.  "You tam

+lowland scoon'rel!" cries he, and hit me a buffet on the jaw with

+his closed fist.

+

+I paid him as good or better on the return; whereupon he stepped a

+little back and took off his hat to me decorously.

+

+"Enough plows I think," says he.  "I will be the offended

+shentleman, for who effer heard of such suffeeciency as tell a

+shentlemans that is the king's officer he cannae speak Cot's

+English?  We have swords at our hurdles, and here is the King's

+Park at hand.  Will ye walk first, or let me show ye the way?"

+

+I returned his bow, told him to go first, and followed him.  As he

+went I heard him grumble to himself about COT'S ENGLISH and the

+KING'S COAT, so that I might have supposed him to be seriously

+offended.  But his manner at the beginning of our interview was

+there to belie him.  It was manifest he had come prepared to fasten

+a quarrel on me, right or wrong; manifest that I was taken in a

+fresh contrivance of my enemies; and to me (conscious as I was of

+my deficiencies) manifest enough that I should be the one to fall

+in our encounter.

+

+As we came into that rough rocky desert of the King's Park I was

+tempted half-a-dozen times to take to my heels and run for it, so

+loath was I to show my ignorance in fencing, and so much averse to

+die or even to be wounded.  But I considered if their malice went

+as far as this, it would likely stick at nothing; and that to fall

+by the sword, however ungracefully, was still an improvement on the

+gallows.  I considered besides that by the unguarded pertness of my

+words and the quickness of my blow I had put myself quite out of

+court; and that even if I ran, my adversary would probably pursue

+and catch me, which would add disgrace to my misfortune.  So that,

+taking all in all, I continued marching behind him, much as a man

+follows the hangman, and certainly with no more hope.

+

+We went about the end of the long craigs, and came into the

+Hunter's Bog.  Here, on a piece of fair turf, my adversary drew.

+There was nobody there to see us but some birds; and no resource

+for me but to follow his example, and stand on guard with the best

+face I could display.  It seems it was not good enough for Mr.

+Dancansby, who spied some flaw in my manoeuvres, paused, looked

+upon me sharply, and came off and on, and menaced me with his blade

+in the air.  As I had seen no such proceedings from Alan, and was

+besides a good deal affected with the proximity of death, I grew

+quite bewildered, stood helpless, and could have longed to run

+away.

+

+"Fat deil ails her?" cries the lieutenant.

+

+And suddenly engaging, he twitched the sword out of my grasp and

+sent it flying far among the rushes.

+

+Twice was this manoeuvre repeated; and the third time when I

+brought back my humiliated weapon, I found he had returned his own

+to the scabbard, and stood awaiting me with a face of some anger,

+and his hands clasped under his skirt.

+

+"Pe tamned if I touch you!" he cried, and asked me bitterly what

+right I had to stand up before "shentlemans" when I did not know

+the back of a sword from the front of it.

+

+I answered that was the fault of my upbringing; and would he do me

+the justice to say I had given him all the satisfaction it was

+unfortunately in my power to offer, and had stood up like a man?

+

+"And that is the truth," said he.  "I am fery prave myself, and

+pold as a lions.  But to stand up there--and you ken naething of

+fence!--the way that you did, I declare it was peyond me.  And I am

+sorry for the plow; though I declare I pelief your own was the

+elder brother, and my heid still sings with it.  And I declare if I

+had kent what way it wass, I would not put a hand to such a piece

+of pusiness."

+

+"That is handsomely said," I replied, "and I am sure you will not

+stand up a second time to be the actor for my private enemies."

+

+"Indeed, no, Palfour," said he; "and I think I was used extremely

+suffeeciently myself to be set up to fecht with an auld wife, or

+all the same as a bairn whateffer!  And I will tell the Master so,

+and fecht him, by Cot, himself!"

+

+"And if you knew the nature of Mr. Simon's quarrel with me," said

+I, "you would be yet the more affronted to be mingled up with such

+affairs."

+

+He swore he could well believe it; that all the Lovats were made of

+the same meal and the devil was the miller that ground that; then

+suddenly shaking me by the hand, he vowed I was a pretty enough

+fellow after all, that it was a thousand pities I had been

+neglected, and that if he could find the time, he would give an eye

+himself to have me educated.

+

+"You can do me a better service than even what you propose," said

+I; and when he had asked its nature--"Come with me to the house of

+one of my enemies, and testify how I have carried myself this day,"

+I told him.  "That will be the true service.  For though he has

+sent me a gallant adversary for the first, the thought in Mr.

+Simon's mind is merely murder.  There will be a second and then a

+third; and by what you have seen of my cleverness with the cold

+steel, you can judge for yourself what is like to be the upshot."

+

+"And I would not like it myself, if I was no more of a man than

+what you wass!" he cried.  "But I will do you right, Palfour.  Lead

+on!"

+

+If I had walked slowly on the way into that accursed park my heels

+were light enough on the way out.  They kept time to a very good

+old air, that is as ancient as the Bible, and the words of it are:

+"SURELY THE BITTERNESS OF DEATH IS PASSED."  I mind that I was

+extremely thirsty, and had a drink at Saint Margaret's well on the

+road down, and the sweetness of that water passed belief.  We went

+through the sanctuary, up the Canongate, in by the Netherbow, and

+straight to Prestongrange's door, talking as we came and arranging

+the details of our affair.  The footman owned his master was at

+home, but declared him engaged with other gentlemen on very private

+business, and his door forbidden.

+

+"My business is but for three minutes, and it cannot wait," said I.

+"You may say it is by no means private, and I shall be even glad to

+have some witnesses."

+

+As the man departed unwillingly enough upon this errand, we made so

+bold as to follow him to the ante-chamber, whence I could hear for

+a while the murmuring of several voices in the room within.  The

+truth is, they were three at the one table--Prestongrange, Simon

+Fraser, and Mr. Erskine, Sheriff of Perth; and as they were met in

+consultation on the very business of the Appin murder, they were a

+little disturbed at my appearance, but decided to receive me.

+

+"Well, well, Mr. Balfour, and what brings you here again? and who

+is this you bring with you?" says Prestongrange.

+

+As for Fraser, he looked before him on the table.

+

+"He is here to bear a little testimony in my favour, my lord, which

+I think it very needful you should hear," said I, and turned to

+Duncansby.

+

+"I have only to say this," said the lieutenant, "that I stood up

+this day with Palfour in the Hunter's Pog, which I am now fery

+sorry for, and he behaved himself as pretty as a shentlemans could

+ask it.  And I have creat respects for Palfour," he added.

+

+"I thank you for your honest expressions," said I.

+

+Whereupon Duncansby made his bow to the company, and left the

+chamber, as we had agreed upon before.

+

+"What have I to do with this?" says Prestongrange.

+

+"I will tell your lordship in two words," said I.  "I have brought

+this gentleman, a King's officer, to do me so much justice.  Now I

+think my character in covered, and until a certain date, which your

+lordship can very well supply, it will be quite in vain to despatch

+against me any more officers.  I will not consent to fight my way

+through the garrison of the castle."

+

+The veins swelled on Prestongrange's brow, and he regarded me with

+fury.

+

+"I think the devil uncoupled this dog of a lad between my legs!" he

+cried; and then, turning fiercely on his neighbour, "This is some

+of your work, Simon," he said.  "I spy your hand in the business,

+and, let me tell you, I resent it.  It is disloyal, when we are

+agreed upon one expedient, to follow another in the dark.  You are

+disloyal to me.  What! you let me send this lad to the place with

+my very daughters!  And because I let drop a word to you..... Fy,

+sir, keep your dishonours to yourself!"

+

+Simon was deadly pale.  "I will be a kick-ball between you and the

+Duke no longer," he exclaimed.  "Either come to an agreement, or

+come to a differ, and have it out among yourselves.  But I will no

+longer fetch and carry, and get your contrary instructions, and be

+blamed by both.  For if I were to tell you what I think of all your

+Hanover business it would make your head sing."

+

+But Sheriff Erskine had preserved his temper, and now intervened

+smoothly.  "And in the meantime," says he, "I think we should tell

+Mr. Balfour that his character for valour is quite established.  He

+may sleep in peace.  Until the date he was so good as to refer to

+it shall be put to the proof no more."

+

+His coolness brought the others to their prudence; and they made

+haste, with a somewhat distracted civility, to pack me from the

+house.

+

+

+

+CHAPTER IX--THE HEATHER ON FIRE

+

+

+

+When I left Prestongrange that afternoon I was for the first time

+angry.  The Advocate had made a mock of me.  He had pretended my

+testimony was to be received and myself respected; and in that very

+hour, not only was Simon practising against my life by the hands of

+the Highland soldier, but (as appeared from his own language)

+Prestongrange himself had some design in operation.  I counted my

+enemies; Prestongrange with all the King's authority behind him;

+and the Duke with the power of the West Highlands; and the Lovat

+interest by their side to help them with so great a force in the

+north, and the whole clan of old Jacobite spies and traffickers.

+And when I remembered James More, and the red head of Neil the son

+of Duncan, I thought there was perhaps a fourth in the confederacy,

+and what remained of Rob Roy's old desperate sept of caterans would

+be banded against me with the others.  One thing was requisite--

+some strong friend or wise adviser.  The country must be full of

+such, both able and eager to support me, or Lovat and the Duke and

+Prestongrange had not been nosing for expedients; and it made me

+rage to think that I might brush against my champions in the street

+and be no wiser.

+

+And just then (like an answer) a gentleman brushed against me going

+by, gave me a meaning look, and turned into a close.  I knew him

+with the tail of my eye--it was Stewart the Writer; and, blessing

+my good fortune, turned in to follow him.  As soon as I had entered

+the close I saw him standing in the mouth of a stair, where he made

+me a signal and immediately vanished.  Seven storeys up, there he

+was again in a house door, the which he looked behind us after we

+had entered.  The house was quite dismantled, with not a stick of

+furniture; indeed, it was one of which Stewart had the letting in

+his hands.

+

+"We'll have to sit upon the floor," said he; "but we're safe here

+for the time being, and I've been wearying to see ye, Mr. Balfour."

+

+"How's it with Alan?" I asked.

+

+"Brawly," said he.  "Andie picks him up at Gillane sands to-morrow,

+Wednesday.  He was keen to say good-bye to ye, but the way that

+things were going, I was feared the pair of ye was maybe best

+apart.  And that brings me to the essential:  how does your

+business speed?"

+

+"Why," said I, "I was told only this morning that my testimony was

+accepted, and I was to travel to Inverary with the Advocate, no

+less."

+

+"Hout awa!" cried Stewart.  "I'll never believe that."

+

+"I have maybe a suspicion of my own," says I, "but I would like

+fine to hear your reasons."

+

+"Well, I tell ye fairly, I'm horn-mad," cries Stewart.  "If my one

+hand could pull their Government down I would pluck it like a

+rotten apple.  I'm doer for Appin and for James of the Glens; and,

+of course, it's my duty to defend my kinsman for his life.  Hear

+how it goes with me, and I'll leave the judgment of it to yourself.

+The first thing they have to do is to get rid of Alan.  They cannae

+bring in James as art and part until they've brought in Alan first

+as principal; that's sound law:  they could never put the cart

+before the horse."

+

+"And how are they to bring in Alan till they can catch him?" says

+I.

+

+"Ah, but there is a way to evite that arrestment," said he.  "Sound

+law, too.  It would be a bonny thing if, by the escape of one ill-

+doer another was to go scatheless, and the remeid is to summon the

+principal and put him to outlawry for the non-compearance.  Now

+there's four places where a person can be summoned:  at his

+dwelling-house; at a place where he has resided forty days; at the

+head burgh of the shire where he ordinarily resorts; or lastly (if

+there be ground to think him forth of Scotland) AT THE CROSS OF

+EDINBURGH, AND THE PIER AND SHORE OF LEITH, FOR SIXTY DAYS.  The

+purpose of which last provision is evident upon its face:  being

+that outgoing ships may have time to carry news of the transaction,

+and the summonsing be something other than a form.  Now take the

+case of Alan.  He has no dwelling-house that ever I could hear of;

+I would be obliged if anyone would show me where he has lived forty

+days together since the '45; there is no shire where he resorts

+whether ordinarily or extraordinarily; if he has a domicile at all,

+which I misdoubt, it must be with his regiment in France; and if he

+is not yet forth of Scotland (as we happen to know and they happen

+to guess) it must be evident to the most dull it's what he's aiming

+for.  Where, then, and what way should he be summoned?  I ask it at

+yourself, a layman."

+

+"You have given the very words," said I.  "Here at the cross, and

+at the pier and shore of Leith, for sixty days."

+

+"Ye're a sounder Scots lawyer than Prestongrange, then!" cries the

+Writer.  "He has had Alan summoned once; that was on the twenty-

+fifth, the day that we first met.  Once, and done with it.  And

+where?  Where, but at the cross of Inverary, the head burgh of the

+Campbells?  A word in your ear, Mr. Balfour--they're not seeking

+Alan."

+

+"What do you mean?" I cried.  "Not seeking him?"

+

+"By the best that I can make of it," said he.  "Not wanting to find

+him, in my poor thought.  They think perhaps he might set up a fair

+defence, upon the back of which James, the man they're really

+after, might climb out.  This is not a case, ye see, it's a

+conspiracy."

+

+"Yet I can tell you Prestongrange asked after Alan keenly," said I;

+"though, when I come to think of it, he was something of the

+easiest put by."

+

+"See that!" says he.  "But there!  I may be right or wrong, that's

+guesswork at the best, and let me get to my facts again.  It comes

+to my ears that James and the witnesses--the witnesses, Mr.

+Balfour!--lay in close dungeons, and shackled forbye, in the

+military prison at Fort William; none allowed in to them, nor they

+to write.  The witnesses, Mr. Balfour; heard ye ever the match of

+that?  I assure ye, no old, crooked Stewart of the gang ever out-

+faced the law more impudently.  It's clean in the two eyes of the

+Act of Parliament of 1700, anent wrongous imprisonment.  No sooner

+did I get the news than I petitioned the Lord Justice Clerk.  I

+have his word to-day.  There's law for ye! here's justice!"

+

+He put a paper in my hand, that same mealy-mouthed, false-faced

+paper that was printed since in the pamphlet "by a bystander," for

+behoof (as the title says) of James's "poor widow and five

+children."

+

+"See," said Stewart, "he couldn't dare to refuse me access to my

+client, so he RECOMMENDS THE COMMANDING OFFICER TO LET ME IN.

+Recommends!--the Lord Justice Clerk of Scotland recommends.  Is not

+the purpose of such language plain?  They hope the officer may be

+so dull, or so very much the reverse, as to refuse the

+recommendation.  I would have to make the journey back again

+betwixt here and Fort William.  Then would follow a fresh delay

+till I got fresh authority, and they had disavowed the officer--

+military man, notoriously ignorant of the law, and that--I ken the

+cant of it.  Then the journey a third time; and there we should be

+on the immediate heels of the trial before I had received my first

+instruction.  Am I not right to call this a conspiracy?"

+

+"It will bear that colour," said I.

+

+"And I'll go on to prove it you outright," said he.  "They have the

+right to hold James in prison, yet they cannot deny me to visit

+him.  They have no right to hold the witnesses; but am I to get a

+sight of them, that should be as free as the Lord Justice Clerk

+himself!  See--read:  FOR THE REST, REFUSES TO GIVE ANY ORDERS TO

+KEEPERS OF PRISONS WHO ARE NOT ACCUSED AS HAVING DONE ANYTHING

+CONTRARY TO THE DUTIES OF THEIR OFFICE.  Anything contrary!  Sirs!

+And the Act of seventeen hunner?  Mr. Balfour, this makes my heart

+to burst; the heather is on fire inside my wame."

+

+"And the plain English of that phrase," said I, "is that the

+witnesses are still to lie in prison and you are not to see them?"

+

+"And I am not to see them until Inverary, when the court is set!"

+cries he, "and then to hear Prestongrange upon THE ANXIOUS

+RESPONSIBILITIES OF HIS OFFICE AND THE GREAT FACILITIES AFFORDED

+THE DEFENCE!  But I'll begowk them there, Mr. David.  I have a plan

+to waylay the witnesses upon the road, and see if I cannae get I a

+little harle of justice out of the MILITARY MAN NOTORIOUSLY

+IGNORANT OF THE LAW that shall command the party."

+

+It was actually so--it was actually on the wayside near Tynedrum,

+and by the connivance of a soldier officer, that Mr. Stewart first

+saw the witnesses upon the case.

+

+"There is nothing that would surprise me in this business," I

+remarked.

+

+"I'll surprise you ere I'm done!" cries he.  "Do ye see this?"--

+producing a print still wet from the press.  "This is the libel:

+see, there's Prestongrange's name to the list of witnesses, and I

+find no word of any Balfour.  But here is not the question.  Who do

+ye think paid for the printing of this paper?"

+

+"I suppose it would likely be King George," said I.

+

+"But it happens it was me!" he cried.  "Not but it was printed by

+and for themselves, for the Grants and the Erskines, and yon thief

+of the black midnight, Simon Fraser.  But could _I_ win to get a

+copy!  No!  I was to go blindfold to my defence; I was to hear the

+charges for the first time in court alongst the jury."

+

+"Is not this against the law?" I asked

+

+"I cannot say so much," he replied.  "It was a favour so natural

+and so constantly rendered (till this nonesuch business) that the

+law has never looked to it.  And now admire the hand of Providence!

+A stranger is in Fleming's printing house, spies a proof on the

+floor, picks it up, and carries it to me.  Of all things, it was

+just this libel.  Whereupon I had it set again--printed at the

+expense of the defence:  sumptibus moesti rei; heard ever man the

+like of it?--and here it is for anybody, the muckle secret out--all

+may see it now.  But how do you think I would enjoy this, that has

+the life of my kinsman on my conscience?"

+

+"Troth, I think you would enjoy it ill," said I.

+

+"And now you see how it is," he concluded, "and why, when you tell

+me your evidence is to be let in, I laugh aloud in your face."

+

+It was now my turn.  I laid before him in brief Mr. Simon's threats

+and offers, and the whole incident of the bravo, with the

+subsequent scene at Prestongrange's.  Of my first talk, according

+to promise, I said nothing, nor indeed was it necessary.  All the

+time I was talking Stewart nodded his head like a mechanical

+figure; and no sooner had my voice ceased, than he opened his mouth

+and gave me his opinion in two words, dwelling strong on both of

+them.

+

+"Disappear yourself," said he.

+

+"I do not take you," said I.

+

+"Then I'll carry you there," said he.  "By my view of it you're to

+disappear whatever.  O, that's outside debate.  The Advocate, who

+is not without some spunks of a remainder decency, has wrung your

+life-safe out of Simon and the Duke.  He has refused to put you on

+your trial, and refused to have you killed; and there is the clue

+to their ill words together, for Simon and the Duke can keep faith

+with neither friend nor enemy.  Ye're not to be tried then, and

+ye're not to be murdered; but I'm in bitter error if ye're not to

+be kidnapped and carried away like the Lady Grange.  Bet me what ye

+please--there was their EXPEDIENT!"

+

+"You make me think," said I, and told him of the whistle and the

+red-headed retainer, Neil.

+

+"Wherever James More is there's one big rogue, never be deceived on

+that," said he.  "His father was none so ill a man, though a

+kenning on the wrong side of the law, and no friend to my family,

+that I should waste my breath to be defending him!  But as for

+James he's a brock and a blagyard.  I like the appearance of this

+red-headed Neil as little as yourself.  It looks uncanny:  fiegh!

+it smells bad.  It was old Lovat that managed the Lady Grange

+affair; if young Lovat is to handle yours, it'll be all in the

+family.  What's James More in prison for?  The same offence:

+abduction.  His men have had practice in the business.  He'll be to

+lend them to be Simon's instruments; and the next thing we'll be

+hearing, James will have made his peace, or else he'll have

+escaped; and you'll be in Benbecula or Applecross."

+

+"Ye make a strong case," I admitted.

+

+"And what I want," he resumed, "is that you should disappear

+yourself ere they can get their hands upon ye.  Lie quiet until

+just before the trial, and spring upon them at the last of it when

+they'll be looking for you least.  This is always supposing Mr.

+Balfour, that your evidence is worth so very great a measure of

+both risk and fash."

+

+"I will tell you one thing," said I.  "I saw the murderer and it

+was not Alan."

+

+"Then, by God, my cousin's saved!" cried Stewart.  "You have his

+life upon your tongue; and there's neither time, risk, nor money to

+be spared to bring you to the trial."  He emptied his pockets on

+the floor.  "Here is all that I have by me," he went on, "Take it,

+ye'll want it ere ye're through.  Go straight down this close,

+there's a way out by there to the Lang Dykes, and by my will of it!

+see no more of Edinburgh till the clash is over."

+

+"Where am I to go, then?" I inquired.

+

+"And I wish that I could tell ye!" says he, "but all the places

+that I could send ye to, would be just the places they would seek.

+No, ye must fend for yourself, and God be your guiding!  Five days

+before the trial, September the sixteen, get word to me at the King

+Arms in Stirling; and if ye've managed for yourself as long as

+that, I'll see that ye reach Inverary."

+

+"One thing more," said I.  "Can I no see Alan?"

+

+He seemed boggled.  "Hech, I would rather you wouldnae," said he.

+"But I can never deny that Alan is extremely keen of it, and is to

+lie this night by Silvermills on purpose.  If you're sure that

+you're not followed, Mr. Balfour--but make sure of that--lie in a

+good place and watch your road for a clear hour before ye risk it.

+It would be a dreadful business if both you and him was to

+miscarry!"

+

+

+

+CHAPTER X--THE RED-HEADED MAN

+

+

+

+It was about half-past three when I came forth on the Lang Dykes.

+Dean was where I wanted to go.  Since Catriona dwelled there, and

+her kinsfolk the Glengyle Macgregors appeared almost certainly to

+be employed against me, it was just one of the few places I should

+have kept away from; and being a very young man, and beginning to

+be very much in love, I turned my face in that direction without

+pause.  As a slave to my conscience and common sense, however, I

+took a measure of precaution.  Coming over the crown of a bit of a

+rise in the road, I clapped down suddenly among the barley and lay

+waiting.  After a while, a man went by that looked to be a

+Highlandman, but I had never seen him till that hour.  Presently

+after came Neil of the red head.  The next to go past was a

+miller's cart, and after that nothing but manifest country people.

+Here was enough to have turned the most foolhardy from his purpose,

+but my inclination ran too strong the other way.  I argued it out

+that if Neil was on that road, it was the right road to find him

+in, leading direct to his chief's daughter; as for the other

+Highlandman, if I was to be startled off by every Highlandman I

+saw, I would scarce reach anywhere.  And having quite satisfied

+myself with this disingenuous debate, I made the better speed of

+it, and came a little after four to Mrs. Drumond-Ogilvy's.

+

+Both ladies were within the house; and upon my perceiving them

+together by the open door, I plucked off my hat and said, "Here was

+a lad come seeking saxpence," which I thought might please the

+dowager.

+

+Catriona ran out to greet me heartily, and, to my surprise, the old

+lady seemed scarce less forward than herself.  I learned long

+afterwards that she had despatched a horseman by daylight to

+Rankeillor at the Queensferry, whom she knew to be the doer for

+Shaws, and had then in her pocket a letter from that good friend of

+mine, presenting, in the most favourable view, my character and

+prospects.  But had I read it I could scarce have seen more clear

+in her designs.  Maybe I was COUNTRYFEED; at least, I was not so

+much so as she thought; and it was even to my homespun wits, that

+she was bent to hammer up a match between her cousin and a

+beardless boy that was something of a laird in Lothian.

+

+"Saxpence had better take his broth with us, Catrine," says she.

+"Run and tell the lasses."

+

+And for the little while we were alone was at a good deal of pains

+to flatter me; always cleverly, always with the appearance of a

+banter, still calling me Saxpence, but with such a turn that should

+rather uplift me in my own opinion.  When Catriona returned, the

+design became if possible more obvious; and she showed off the

+girl's advantages like a horse-couper with a horse.  My face flamed

+that she should think me so obtuse.  Now I would fancy the girl was

+being innocently made a show of, and then I could have beaten the

+old carline wife with a cudgel; and now, that perhaps these two had

+set their heads together to entrap me, and at that I sat and

+gloomed betwixt them like the very image of ill-will.  At last the

+matchmaker had a better device, which was to leave the pair of us

+alone.  When my suspicions are anyway roused it is sometimes a

+little the wrong side of easy to allay them.  But though I knew

+what breed she was of, and that was a breed of thieves, I could

+never look in Catriona's face and disbelieve her.

+

+"I must not ask?" says she, eagerly, the same moment we were left

+alone.

+

+"Ah, but to-day I can talk with a free conscience," I replied.  "I

+am lightened of my pledge, and indeed (after what has come and gone

+since morning) I would not have renewed it were it asked."

+

+"Tell me," she said.  "My cousin will not be so long."

+

+So I told her the tale of the lieutenant from the first step to the

+last of it, making it as mirthful as I could, and, indeed, there

+was matter of mirth in that absurdity.

+

+"And I think you will be as little fitted for the rudas men as for

+the pretty ladies, after all!" says she, when I had done.  "But

+what was your father that he could not learn you to draw the sword!

+It is most ungentle; I have not heard the match of that in anyone."

+

+"It is most misconvenient at least," said I; "and I think my father

+(honest man!) must have been wool-gathering to learn me Latin in

+the place of it.  But you see I do the best I can, and just stand

+up like Lot's wife and let them hammer at me."

+

+"Do you know what makes me smile?" said she.  "Well, it is this.  I

+am made this way, that I should have been a man child.  In my own

+thoughts it is so I am always; and I go on telling myself about

+this thing that is to befall and that.  Then it comes to the place

+of the fighting, and it comes over me that I am only a girl at all

+events, and cannot hold a sword or give one good blow; and then I

+have to twist my story round about, so that the fighting is to

+stop, and yet me have the best of it, just like you and the

+lieutenant; and I am the boy that makes the fine speeches all

+through, like Mr. David Balfour."

+

+"You are a bloodthirsty maid," said I.

+

+"Well, I know it is good to sew and spin, and to make samplers,"

+she said, "but if you were to do nothing else in the great world, I

+think you will say yourself it is a driech business; and it is not

+that I want to kill, I think.  Did ever you kill anyone?"

+

+"That I have, as it chances.  Two, no less, and me still a lad that

+should be at the college," said I.  "But yet, in the look-back, I

+take no shame for it."

+

+"But how did you feel, then--after it?" she asked.

+

+'"Deed, I sat down and grat like a bairn," said I.

+

+"I know that, too," she cried.  "I feel where these tears should

+come from.  And at any rate, I would not wish to kill, only to be

+Catherine Douglas that put her arm through the staples of the bolt,

+where it was broken.  That is my chief hero.  Would you not love to

+die so--for your king?" she asked.

+

+"Troth," said I, "my affection for my king, God bless the puggy

+face of him, is under more control; and I thought I saw death so

+near to me this day already, that I am rather taken up with the

+notion of living."

+

+"Right," she said, "the right mind of a man!  Only you must learn

+arms; I would not like to have a friend that cannot strike.  But it

+will not have been with the sword that you killed these two?"

+

+"Indeed, no," said I, "but with a pair of pistols.  And a fortunate

+thing it was the men were so near-hand to me, for I am about as

+clever with the pistols as I am with the sword."

+

+So then she drew from me the story of our battle in the brig, which

+I had omitted in my first account of my affairs.

+

+"Yes," said she, "you are brave.  And your friend, I admire and

+love him."

+

+"Well, and I think anyone would!" said I.  "He has his faults like

+other folk; but he is brave and staunch and kind, God bless him!

+That will be a strange day when I forget Alan."  And the thought of

+him, and that it was within my choice to speak with him that night,

+had almost overcome me.

+

+"And where will my head be gone that I have not told my news!" she

+cried, and spoke of a letter from her father, bearing that she

+might visit him to-morrow in the castle whither he was now

+transferred, and that his affairs were mending.  "You do not like

+to hear it," said she.  "Will you judge my father and not know

+him?"

+

+"I am a thousand miles from judging," I replied.  "And I give you

+my word I do rejoice to know your heart is lightened.  If my face

+fell at all, as I suppose it must, you will allow this is rather an

+ill day for compositions, and the people in power extremely ill

+persons to be compounding with.  I have Simon Fraser extremely

+heavy on my stomach still."

+

+"Ah!" she cried, "you will not be evening these two; and you should

+bear in mind that Prestongrange and James More, my father, are of

+the one blood."

+

+"I never heard tell of that," said I.

+

+"It is rather singular how little you are acquainted with," said

+she.  "One part may call themselves Grant, and one Macgregor, but

+they are still of the same clan.  They are all the sons of Alpin,

+from whom, I think, our country has its name."

+

+"What country is that?" I asked.

+

+"My country and yours," said she

+

+"This is my day for discovering I think," said I, "for I always

+thought the name of it was Scotland."

+

+"Scotland is the name of what you call Ireland," she replied.  "But

+the old ancient true name of this place that we have our foot-soles

+on, and that our bones are made of, will be Alban.  It was Alban

+they called it when our forefathers will be fighting for it against

+Rome and Alexander; and it is called so still in your own tongue

+that you forget."

+

+"Troth," said I, "and that I never learned!"  For I lacked heart to

+take her up about the Macedonian.

+

+"But your fathers and mothers talked it, one generation with

+another," said she.  "And it was sung about the cradles before you

+or me were ever dreamed of; and your name remembers it still.  Ah,

+if you could talk that language you would find me another girl.

+The heart speaks in that tongue."

+

+I had a meal with the two ladies, all very good, served in fine old

+plate, and the wine excellent, for it seems that Mrs. Ogilvy was

+rich.  Our talk, too, was pleasant enough; but as soon as I saw the

+sun decline sharply and the shadows to run out long, I rose to take

+my leave.  For my mind was now made up to say farewell to Alan; and

+it was needful I should see the trysting wood, and reconnoitre it,

+by daylight.  Catriona came with me as far as to the garden gate.

+

+"It is long till I see you now?" she asked.

+

+"It is beyond my judging," I replied.  "It will be long, it may be

+never."

+

+"It may be so," said she.  "And you are sorry?"

+

+I bowed my head, looking upon her.

+

+"So am I, at all events," said she.  "I have seen you but a small

+time, but I put you very high.  You are true, you are brave; in

+time I think you will be more of a man yet.  I will be proud to

+hear of that.  If you should speed worse, if it will come to fall

+as we are afraid--O well! think you have the one friend.  Long

+after you are dead and me an old wife, I will be telling the bairns

+about David Balfour, and my tears running.  I will be telling how

+we parted, and what I said to you, and did to you.  GOD GO WITH YOU

+AND GUIDE YOU, PRAYS YOUR LITTLE FRIEND:  so I said--I will be

+telling them--and here is what I did."

+

+She took up my hand and kissed it.  This so surprised my spirits

+that I cried out like one hurt.  The colour came strong in her

+face, and she looked at me and nodded.

+

+"O yes, Mr. David," said she, "that is what I think of you.  The

+head goes with the lips."

+

+I could read in her face high spirit, and a chivalry like a brave

+child's; not anything besides.  She kissed my hand, as she had

+kissed Prince Charlie's, with a higher passion than the common kind

+of clay has any sense of.  Nothing before had taught me how deep I

+was her lover, nor how far I had yet to climb to make her think of

+me in such a character.  Yet I could tell myself I had advanced

+some way, and that her heart had beat and her blood flowed at

+thoughts of me.

+

+After that honour she had done me I could offer no more trivial

+civility.  It was even hard for me to speak; a certain lifting in

+her voice had knocked directly at the door of my own tears.

+

+"I praise God for your kindness, dear," said I.  "Farewell, my

+little friend!" giving her that name which she had given to

+herself; with which I bowed and left her.

+

+My way was down the glen of the Leith River, towards Stockbridge

+and Silvermills.  A path led in the foot of it, the water bickered

+and sang in the midst; the sunbeams overhead struck out of the west

+among long shadows and (as the valley turned) made like a new scene

+and a new world of it at every corner.  With Catriona behind and

+Alan before me, I was like one lifted up.  The place besides, and

+the hour, and the talking of the water, infinitely pleased me; and

+I lingered in my steps and looked before and behind me as I went.

+This was the cause, under Providence, that I spied a little in my

+rear a red head among some bushes.

+

+Anger sprang in my heart, and I turned straight about and walked at

+a stiff pace to where I came from.  The path lay close by the

+bushes where I had remarked the head.  The cover came to the

+wayside, and as I passed I was all strung up to meet and to resist

+an onfall.  No such thing befell, I went by unmeddled with; and at

+that fear increased upon me.  It was still day indeed, but the

+place exceeding solitary.  If my haunters had let slip that fair

+occasion I could but judge they aimed at something more than David

+Balfour.  The lives of Alan and James weighed upon my spirit with

+the weight of two grown bullocks.

+

+Catriona was yet in the garden walking by herself.

+

+"Catriona," said I, "you see me back again."

+

+"With a changed face," said she.

+

+"I carry two men's lives besides my own," said I.  "It would be a

+sin and shame not to walk carefully.  I was doubtful whether I did

+right to come here.  I would like it ill, if it was by that means

+we were brought to harm."

+

+"I could tell you one that would be liking it less, and will like

+little enough to hear you talking at this very same time," she

+cried.  "What have I done, at all events?"

+

+"O, you I you are not alone," I replied.  "But since I went off I

+have been dogged again, and I can give you the name of him that

+follows me.  It is Neil, son of Duncan, your man or your father's."

+

+"To be sure you are mistaken there," she said, with a white face.

+"Neil is in Edinburgh on errands from my father."

+

+"It is what I fear," said I, "the last of it.  But for his being in

+Edinburgh I think I can show you another of that.  For sure you

+have some signal, a signal of need, such as would bring him to your

+help, if he was anywhere within the reach of ears and legs?"

+

+"Why, how will you know that?" says she.

+

+"By means of a magical talisman God gave to me when I was born, and

+the name they call it by is Common-sense," said I.  "Oblige me so

+far as make your signal, and I will show you the red head of Neil."

+

+No doubt but I spoke bitter and sharp.  My heart was bitter.  I

+blamed myself and the girl and hated both of us:  her for the vile

+crew that she was come of, myself for my wanton folly to have stuck

+my head in such a byke of wasps.

+

+Catriona set her fingers to her lips and whistled once, with an

+exceeding clear, strong, mounting note, as full as a ploughman's.

+A while we stood silent; and I was about to ask her to repeat the

+same, when I heard the sound of some one bursting through the

+bushes below on the braeside.  I pointed in that direction with a

+smile, and presently Neil leaped into the garden.  His eyes burned,

+and he had a black knife (as they call it on the Highland side)

+naked in his hand; but, seeing me beside his mistress, stood like a

+man struck.

+

+"He has come to your call," said I; "judge how near he was to

+Edinburgh, or what was the nature of your father's errands.  Ask

+himself.  If I am to lose my life, or the lives of those that hang

+by me, through the means of your clan, let me go where I have to go

+with my eyes open."

+

+She addressed him tremulously in the Gaelic.  Remembering Alan's

+anxious civility in that particular, I could have laughed out loud

+for bitterness; here, sure, in the midst of these suspicions, was

+the hour she should have stuck by English.

+

+Twice or thrice they spoke together, and I could make out that Neil

+(for all his obsequiousness) was an angry man.

+

+Then she turned to me.  "He swears it is not," she said.

+

+"Catriona," said I, "do you believe the man yourself?"

+

+She made a gesture like wringing the hands.

+

+"How will I can know?" she cried.

+

+But I must find some means to know," said I.  "I cannot continue to

+go dovering round in the black night with two men's lives at my

+girdle!  Catriona, try to put yourself in my place, as I vow to God

+I try hard to put myself in yours.  This is no kind of talk that

+should ever have fallen between me and you; no kind of talk; my

+heart is sick with it.  See, keep him here till two of the morning,

+and I care not.  Try him with that."

+

+They spoke together once more in the Gaelic.

+

+"He says he has James More my father's errand," said she.  She was

+whiter than ever, and her voice faltered as she said it.

+

+"It is pretty plain now," said I, "and may God forgive the wicked!"

+

+She said never anything to that, but continued gazing at me with

+the same white face.

+

+"This is a fine business," said I again.  "Am I to fall, then, and

+those two along with me?"

+

+"O, what am I to do?" she cried.  "Could I go against my father's

+orders, him in prison, in the danger of his life!"

+

+"But perhaps we go too fast," said I.  "This may be a lie too.  He

+may have no right orders; all may be contrived by Simon, and your

+father knowing nothing."

+

+She burst out weeping between the pair of us; and my heart smote me

+hard, for I thought this girl was in a dreadful situation.

+

+"Here," said I, "keep him but the one hour; and I'll chance it, and

+may God bless you."

+

+She put out her hand to me, "I will he needing one good word," she

+sobbed.

+

+"The full hour, then?" said I, keeping her hand in mine.  "Three

+lives of it, my lass!"

+

+"The full hour!" she said, and cried aloud on her Redeemer to

+forgive her.

+

+I thought it no fit place for me, and fled.

+

+

+

+CHAPTER XI--THE WOOD BY SILVERMILLS

+

+

+

+I lost no time, but down through the valley and by Stockbridge and

+Silvermills as hard as I could stave.  It was Alan's tryst to be

+every night between twelve and two "in a bit scrog of wood by east

+of Silvermills and by south the south mill-lade."  This I found

+easy enough, where it grew on a steep brae, with the mill-lade

+flowing swift and deep along the foot of it; and here I began to

+walk slower and to reflect more reasonably on my employment.  I saw

+I had made but a fool's bargain with Catriona.  It was not to be

+supposed that Neil was sent alone upon his errand, but perhaps he

+was the only man belonging to James More; in which case I should

+have done all I could to hang Catriona's father, and nothing the

+least material to help myself.  To tell the truth, I fancied

+neither one of these ideas.  Suppose by holding back Neil, the girl

+should have helped to hang her father, I thought she would never

+forgive herself this side of time.  And suppose there were others

+pursuing me that moment, what kind of a gift was I come bringing to

+Alan? and how would I like that?

+

+I was up with the west end of that wood when these two

+considerations struck me like a cudgel.  My feet stopped of

+themselves and my heart along with them.  "What wild game is this

+that I have been playing?" thought I; and turned instantly upon my

+heels to go elsewhere.

+

+This brought my face to Silvermills; the path came past the village

+with a crook, but all plainly visible; and, Highland or Lowland,

+there was nobody stirring.  Here was my advantage, here was just

+such a conjuncture as Stewart had counselled me to profit by, and I

+ran by the side of the mill-lade, fetched about beyond the east

+corner of the wood, threaded through the midst of it, and returned

+to the west selvage, whence I could again command the path, and yet

+be myself unseen.  Again it was all empty, and my heart began to

+rise.

+

+For more than an hour I sat close in the border of the trees, and

+no hare or eagle could have kept a more particular watch.  When

+that hour began the sun was already set, but the sky still all

+golden and the daylight clear; before the hour was done it had

+fallen to be half mirk, the images and distances of things were

+mingled, and observation began to be difficult.  All that time not

+a foot of man had come east from Silvermills, and the few that had

+gone west were honest countryfolk and their wives upon the road to

+bed.  If I were tracked by the most cunning spies in Europe, I

+judged it was beyond the course of nature they could have any

+jealousy of where I was:  and going a little further home into the

+wood I lay down to wait for Alan.

+

+The strain of my attention had been great, for I had watched not

+the path only, but every bush and field within my vision.  That was

+now at an end.  The moon, which was in her first quarter, glinted a

+little in the wood; all round there was a stillness of the country;

+and as I lay there on my back, the next three or four hours, I had

+a fine occasion to review my conduct.

+

+Two things became plain to me first:  that I had no right to go

+that day to Dean, and (having gone there) had now no right to be

+lying where I was.  This (where Alan was to come) was just the one

+wood in all broad Scotland that was, by every proper feeling,

+closed against me; I admitted that, and yet stayed on, wondering at

+myself.  I thought of the measure with which I had meted to

+Catriona that same night; how I had prated of the two lives I

+carried, and had thus forced her to enjeopardy her father's; and

+how I was here exposing them again, it seemed in wantonness.  A

+good conscience is eight parts of courage.  No sooner had I lost

+conceit of my behaviour, than I seemed to stand disarmed amidst a

+throng of terrors.  Of a sudden I sat up.  How if I went now to

+Prestongrange, caught him (as I still easily might) before he

+slept, and made a full submission?  Who could blame me?  Not

+Stewart the Writer; I had but to say that I was followed, despaired

+of getting clear, and so gave in.  Not Catriona:  here, too, I had

+my answer ready; that I could not bear she should expose her

+father.  So, in a moment, I could lay all these troubles by, which

+were after all and truly none of mine; swim clear of the Appin

+Murder; get forth out of hand-stroke of all the Stewarts and

+Campbells, all the Whigs and Tories, in the land; and live

+henceforth to my own mind, and be able to enjoy and to improve my

+fortunes, and devote some hours of my youth to courting Catriona,

+which would be surely a more suitable occupation than to hide and

+run and be followed like a hunted thief, and begin over again the

+dreadful miseries of my escape with Alan.

+

+At first I thought no shame of this capitulation; I was only amazed

+I had not thought upon the thing and done it earlier; and began to

+inquire into the causes of the change.  These I traced to my

+lowness of spirits, that back to my late recklessness, and that

+again to the common, old, public, disconsidered sin of self-

+indulgence.  Instantly the text came in my head, "HOW CAN SATAN

+CAST OUT SATAN?"  What? (I thought) I had, by self-indulgence; and

+the following of pleasant paths, and the lure of a young maid, cast

+myself wholly out of conceit with my own character, and jeopardised

+the lives of James and Alan?  And I was to seek the way out by the

+same road as I had entered in?  No; the hurt that had been caused

+by self-indulgence must be cured by self-denial; the flesh I had

+pampered must be crucified.  I looked about me for that course

+which I least liked to follow:  this was to leave the wood without

+waiting to see Alan, and go forth again alone, in the dark and in

+the midst of my perplexed and dangerous fortunes.

+

+I have been the more careful to narrate this passage of my

+reflections, because I think it is of some utility, and may serve

+as an example to young men.  But there is reason (they say) in

+planting kale, and even in ethic and religion, room for common

+sense.  It was already close on Alan's hour, and the moon was down.

+If I left (as I could not very decently whistle to my spies to

+follow me) they might miss me in the dark and tack themselves to

+Alan by mistake.  If I stayed, I could at the least of it set my

+friend upon his guard which might prove his mere salvation.  I had

+adventured other peoples' safety in a course of self-indulgence; to

+have endangered them again, and now on a mere design of penance,

+would have been scarce rational.  Accordingly, I had scarce risen

+from my place ere I sat down again, but already in a different

+frame of spirits, and equally marvelling at my past weakness and

+rejoicing in my present composure.

+

+Presently after came a crackling in the thicket.  Putting my mouth

+near down to the ground, I whistled a note or two, of Alan's air;

+an answer came in the like guarded tone, and soon we had knocked

+together in the dark.

+

+"Is this you at last, Davie?" he whispered.

+

+"Just myself," said I.

+

+"God, man, but I've been wearying to see ye!" says he.  "I've had

+the longest kind of a time.  A' day, I've had my dwelling into the

+inside of a stack of hay, where I couldnae see the nebs of my ten

+fingers; and then two hours of it waiting here for you, and you

+never coming!  Dod, and ye're none too soon the way it is, with me

+to sail the morn!  The morn? what am I saying?--the day, I mean."

+

+"Ay, Alan, man, the day, sure enough," said I.  "It's past twelve

+now, surely, and ye sail the day.  This'll be a long road you have

+before you."

+

+"We'll have a long crack of it first," said he.

+

+"Well, indeed, and I have a good deal it will be telling you to

+hear," said I.

+

+And I told him what behooved, making rather a jumble of it, but

+clear enough when done.  He heard me out with very few questions,

+laughing here and there like a man delighted:  and the sound of his

+laughing (above all there, in the dark, where neither one of us

+could see the other) was extraordinary friendly to my heart.

+

+"Ay, Davie, ye're a queer character," says he, when I had done:  "a

+queer bitch after a', and I have no mind of meeting with the like

+of ye.  As for your story, Prestongrange is a Whig like yoursel',

+so I'll say the less of him; and, dod! I believe he was the best

+friend ye had, if ye could only trust him.  But Simon Fraser and

+James More are my ain kind of cattle, and I'll give them the name

+that they deserve.  The muckle black deil was father to the

+Frasers, a'body kens that; and as for the Gregara, I never could

+abye the reek of them since I could stotter on two feet.  I

+bloodied the nose of one, I mind, when I was still so wambly on my

+legs that I cowped upon the top of him.  A proud man was my father

+that day, God rest him! and I think he had the cause.  I'll never

+can deny but what Robin was something of a piper," he added; "but

+as for James More, the deil guide him for me!"

+

+"One thing we have to consider," said I.  "Was Charles Stewart

+right or wrong?  Is it only me they're after, or the pair of us?"

+

+"And what's your ain opinion, you that's a man of so much

+experience?" said he.

+

+"It passes me," said I.

+

+"And me too," says Alan.  "Do ye think this lass would keep her

+word to ye?" he asked.

+

+"I do that," said I.

+

+"Well, there's nae telling," said he.  "And anyway, that's over and

+done:  he'll be joined to the rest of them lang syne."

+

+"How many would ye think there would be of them?" I asked.

+

+"That depends," said Alan.  "If it was only you, they would likely

+send two-three lively, brisk young birkies, and if they thought

+that I was to appear in the employ, I daresay ten or twelve," said

+he.

+

+It was no use, I gave a little crack of laughter.

+

+"And I think your own two eyes will have seen me drive that number,

+or the double of it, nearer hand!" cries he.

+

+"It matters the less," said I, "because I am well rid of them for

+this time."

+

+"Nae doubt that's your opinion," said he; "but I wouldnae be the

+least surprised if they were hunkering this wood.  Ye see, David

+man; they'll be Hieland folk.  There'll be some Frasers, I'm

+thinking, and some of the Gregara; and I would never deny but what

+the both of them, and the Gregara in especial, were clever

+experienced persons.  A man kens little till he's driven a spreagh

+of neat cattle (say) ten miles through a throng lowland country and

+the black soldiers maybe at his tail.  It's there that I learned a

+great part of my penetration.  And ye need nae tell me:  it's

+better than war; which is the next best, however, though generally

+rather a bauchle of a business.  Now the Gregara have had grand

+practice."

+

+"No doubt that's a branch of education that was left out with me,"

+said I.

+

+"And I can see the marks of it upon ye constantly," said Alan.

+"But that's the strange thing about you folk of the college

+learning:  ye're ignorat, and ye cannae see 't.  Wae's me for my

+Greek and Hebrew; but, man, I ken that I dinnae ken them--there's

+the differ of it.  Now, here's you.  Ye lie on your wame a bittie

+in the bield of this wood, and ye tell me that ye've cuist off

+these Frasers and Macgregors.  Why?  BECAUSE I COULDNAE SEE THEM,

+says you.  Ye blockhead, that's their livelihood."

+

+"Take the worst of it," said I, "and what are we to do?"

+

+"I am thinking of that same," said he.  "We might twine.  It

+wouldnae be greatly to my taste; and forbye that, I see reasons

+against it.  First, it's now unco dark, and it's just humanly

+possible we might give them the clean slip.  If we keep together,

+we make but the ae line of it; if we gang separate, we make twae of

+them:  the more likelihood to stave in upon some of these gentry of

+yours.  And then, second, if they keep the track of us, it may come

+to a fecht for it yet, Davie; and then, I'll confess I would be

+blythe to have you at my oxter, and I think you would be none the

+worse of having me at yours.  So, by my way of it, we should creep

+out of this wood no further gone than just the inside of next

+minute, and hold away east for Gillane, where I'm to find my ship.

+It'll be like old days while it lasts, Davie; and (come the time)

+we'll have to think what you should be doing.  I'm wae to leave ye

+here, wanting me."

+

+"Have with ye, then!" says I.  "Do ye gang back where you were

+stopping?"

+

+"Deil a fear!" said Alan.  "They were good folks to me, but I think

+they would be a good deal disappointed if they saw my bonny face

+again.  For (the way times go) I amnae just what ye could call a

+Walcome Guest.  Which makes me the keener for your company, Mr.

+David Balfour of the Shaws, and set ye up!  For, leave aside twa

+cracks here in the wood with Charlie Stewart, I have scarce said

+black or white since the day we parted at Corstorphine."

+

+With which he rose from his place, and we began to move quietly

+eastward through the wood.

+

+

+

+CHAPTER XII--ON THE MARCH AGAIN WITH ALAN

+

+

+

+It was likely between one and two; the moon (as I have said) was

+down; a strongish wind, carrying a heavy wrack of cloud, had set in

+suddenly from the west; and we began our movement in as black a

+night as ever a fugitive or a murderer wanted.  The whiteness of

+the path guided us into the sleeping town of Broughton, thence

+through Picardy, and beside my old acquaintance the gibbet of the

+two thieves.  A little beyond we made a useful beacon, which was a

+light in an upper window of Lochend.  Steering by this, but a good

+deal at random, and with some trampling of the harvest, and

+stumbling and falling down upon the banks, we made our way across

+country, and won forth at last upon the linky, boggy muirland that

+they call the Figgate Whins.  Here, under a bush of whin, we lay

+down the remainder of that night and slumbered.

+

+The day called us about five.  A beautiful morning it was, the high

+westerly wind still blowing strong, but the clouds all blown away

+to Europe.  Alan was already sitting up and smiling to himself.  It

+was my first sight of my friend since we were parted, and I looked

+upon him with enjoyment.  He had still the same big great-coat on

+his back; but (what was new) he had now a pair of knitted boot-hose

+drawn above the knee.  Doubtless these were intended for disguise;

+but, as the day promised to be warm, he made a most unseasonable

+figure.

+

+"Well, Davie," said he, "is this no a bonny morning?  Here is a day

+that looks the way that a day ought to.  This is a great change of

+it from the belly of my haystack; and while you were there

+sottering and sleeping I have done a thing that maybe I do very

+seldom."

+

+"And what was that?" said I.

+

+"O, just said my prayers," said he.

+

+"And where are my gentry, as ye call them?" I asked.

+

+"Gude kens," says he; "and the short and the long of it is that we

+must take our chance of them.  Up with your foot-soles, Davie!

+Forth, Fortune, once again of it!  And a bonny walk we are like to

+have."

+

+So we went east by the beach of the sea, towards where the salt-

+pans were smoking in by the Esk mouth.  No doubt there was a by-

+ordinary bonny blink of morning sun on Arthur's Seat and the green

+Pentlands; and the pleasantness of the day appeared to set Alan

+among nettles.

+

+"I feel like a gomeral," says he, "to be leaving Scotland on a day

+like this.  It sticks in my head; I would maybe like it better to

+stay here and hing."

+

+"Ay, but ye wouldnae, Alan," said I.

+

+"No, but what France is a good place too," he explained; "but it's

+some way no the same.  It's brawer I believe, but it's no Scotland.

+I like it fine when I'm there, man; yet I kind of weary for Scots

+divots and the Scots peat-reek."

+

+"If that's all you have to complain of, Alan, it's no such great

+affair," said I.

+

+"And it sets me ill to be complaining, whatever," said he, "and me

+but new out of yon deil's haystack."

+

+"And so you were unco weary of your haystack?" I asked.

+

+"Weary's nae word for it," said he.  "I'm not just precisely a man

+that's easily cast down; but I do better with caller air and the

+lift above my head.  I'm like the auld Black Douglas (wasnae't?)

+that likit better to hear the laverock sing than the mouse cheep.

+And yon place, ye see, Davie--whilk was a very suitable place to

+hide in, as I'm free to own--was pit mirk from dawn to gloaming.

+There were days (or nights, for how would I tell one from other?)

+that seemed to me as long as a long winter."

+

+"How did you know the hour to bide your tryst?" I asked.

+

+"The goodman brought me my meat and a drop brandy, and a candle-

+dowp to eat it by, about eleeven," said he.  "So, when I had

+swallowed a bit, it would he time to be getting to the wood.  There

+I lay and wearied for ye sore, Davie," says he, laying his hand on

+my shoulder "and guessed when the two hours would be about by--

+unless Charlie Stewart would come and tell me on his watch--and

+then back to the dooms haystack.  Na, it was a driech employ, and

+praise the Lord that I have warstled through with it!"

+

+"What did you do with yourself?" I asked.

+

+"Faith," said he, "the best I could!  Whiles I played at the

+knucklebones.  I'm an extraordinar good hand at the knucklebones,

+but it's a poor piece of business playing with naebody to admire

+ye.  And whiles I would make songs."

+

+"What were they about?" says I.

+

+"O, about the deer and the heather," says he, "and about the

+ancient old chiefs that are all by with it lang syne, and just

+about what songs are about in general.  And then whiles I would

+make believe I had a set of pipes and I was playing.  I played some

+grand springs, and I thought I played them awful bonny; I vow

+whiles that I could hear the squeal of them!  But the great affair

+is that it's done with."

+

+With that he carried me again to my adventures, which he heard all

+over again with more particularity, and extraordinary approval,

+swearing at intervals that I was "a queer character of a callant."

+

+"So ye were frich'ened of Sim Fraser?" he asked once.

+

+"In troth was I!" cried I.

+

+"So would I have been, Davie," said he.  "And that is indeed a

+driedful man.  But it is only proper to give the deil his due:  and

+I can tell you he is a most respectable person on the field of

+war."

+

+"Is he so brave?" I asked.

+

+"Brave!" said he.  "He is as brave as my steel sword."

+

+The story of my duel set him beside himself.

+

+"To think of that!" he cried.  "I showed ye the trick in

+Corrynakiegh too.  And three times--three times disarmed!  It's a

+disgrace upon my character that learned ye!  Here, stand up, out

+with your airn; ye shall walk no step beyond this place upon the

+road till ye can do yoursel' and me mair credit."

+

+"Alan," said I, "this is midsummer madness.  Here is no time for

+fencing lessons."

+

+"I cannae well say no to that," he admitted.  "But three times,

+man!  And you standing there like a straw bogle and rinning to

+fetch your ain sword like a doggie with a pocket-napkin!  David,

+this man Duncansby must be something altogether by-ordinar!  He

+maun be extraordinar skilly.  If I had the time, I would gang

+straight back and try a turn at him mysel'.  The man must be a

+provost."

+

+"You silly fellow," said I, "you forget it was just me."

+

+"Na," said he, "but three times!"

+

+"When ye ken yourself that I am fair incompetent," I cried.

+

+"Well, I never heard tell the equal of it," said he.

+

+"I promise you the one thing, Alan," said I.  "The next time that

+we forgather, I'll be better learned.  You shall not continue to

+bear the disgrace of a friend that cannot strike."

+

+"Ay, the next time!" says he.  "And when will that be, I would like

+to ken?"

+

+"Well, Alan, I have had some thoughts of that, too," said I; "and

+my plan is this.  It's my opinion to be called an advocate."

+

+"That's but a weary trade, Davie," says Alan, "and rather a

+blagyard one forby.  Ye would be better in a king's coat than

+that."

+

+"And no doubt that would be the way to have us meet," cried I.

+"But as you'll be in King Lewie's coat, and I'll be in King

+Geordie's, we'll have a dainty meeting of it."

+

+"There's some sense in that," he admitted

+

+"An advocate, then, it'll have to be," I continued, "and I think it

+a more suitable trade for a gentleman that was THREE TIMES

+disarmed.  But the beauty of the thing is this:  that one of the

+best colleges for that kind of learning--and the one where my

+kinsman, Pilrig, made his studies--is the college of Leyden in

+Holland.  Now, what say you, Alan?  Could not a cadet of Royal

+Ecossais get a furlough, slip over the marches, and call in upon a

+Leyden student?"

+

+"Well, and I would think he could!" cried he.  "Ye see, I stand

+well in with my colonel, Count Drummond-Melfort; and, what's mair

+to the purpose I have a cousin of mine lieutenant-colonel in a

+regiment of the Scots-Dutch.  Naething could be mair proper than

+what I would get a leave to see Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart of

+Halkett's.  And Lord Melfort, who is a very scienteefic kind of a

+man, and writes books like Caesar, would be doubtless very pleased

+to have the advantage of my observes."

+

+"Is Lord Meloort an author, then?" I asked, for much as Alan

+thought of soldiers, I thought more of the gentry that write books.

+

+"The very same, Davie," said he.  "One would think a colonel would

+have something better to attend to.  But what can I say that make

+songs?"

+

+"Well, then," said I, "it only remains you should give me an

+address to write you at in France; and as soon as I am got to

+Leyden I will send you mine."

+

+"The best will be to write me in the care of my chieftain," said

+he, "Charles Stewart, of Ardsheil, Esquire, at the town of Melons,

+in the Isle of France.  It might take long, or it might take short,

+but it would aye get to my hands at the last of it."

+

+We had a haddock to our breakfast in Musselburgh, where it amused

+me vastly to hear Alan.  His great-coat and boot-hose were

+extremely remarkable this warm morning, and perhaps some hint of an

+explanation had been wise; but Alan went into that matter like a

+business, or I should rather say, like a diversion.  He engaged the

+goodwife of the house with some compliments upon the rizzoring of

+our haddocks; and the whole of the rest of our stay held her in

+talk about a cold he had taken on his stomach, gravely relating all

+manner of symptoms and sufferings, and hearing with a vast show of

+interest all the old wives' remedies she could supply him with in

+return.

+

+We left Musselburgh before the first ninepenny coach was due from

+Edinburgh for (as Alan said) that was a rencounter we might very

+well avoid.  The wind although still high, was very mild, the sun

+shone strong, and Alan began to suffer in proportion.  From

+Prestonpans he had me aside to the field of Gladsmuir, where he

+exerted himself a great deal more than needful to describe the

+stages of the battle.  Thence, at his old round pace, we travelled

+to Cockenzie.  Though they were building herring-busses there at

+Mrs. Cadell's, it seemed a desert-like, back-going town, about half

+full of ruined houses; but the ale-house was clean, and Alan, who

+was now in a glowing heat, must indulge himself with a bottle of

+ale, and carry on to the new luckie with the old story of the cold

+upon his stomach, only now the symptoms were all different.

+

+I sat listening; and it came in my mind that I had scarce ever

+heard him address three serious words to any woman, but he was

+always drolling and fleering and making a private mock of them, and

+yet brought to that business a remarkable degree of energy and

+interest.  Something to this effect I remarked to him, when the

+good-wife (as chanced) was called away.

+

+"What do ye want?" says he.  "A man should aye put his best foot

+forrit with the womankind; he should aye give them a bit of a story

+to divert them, the poor lambs!  It's what ye should learn to

+attend to, David; ye should get the principles, it's like a trade.

+Now, if this had been a young lassie, or onyways bonnie, she would

+never have heard tell of my stomach, Davie.  But aince they're too

+old to be seeking joes, they a' set up to be apotecaries.  Why?

+What do I ken?  They'll be just the way God made them, I suppose.

+But I think a man would be a gomeral that didnae give his attention

+to the same."

+

+And here, the luckie coming back, he turned from me as if with

+impatience to renew their former conversation.  The lady had

+branched some while before from Alan's stomach to the case of a

+goodbrother of her own in Aberlady, whose last sickness and demise

+she was describing at extraordinary length.  Sometimes it was

+merely dull, sometimes both dull and awful, for she talked with

+unction.  The upshot was that I fell in a deep muse, looking forth

+of the window on the road, and scarce marking what I saw.

+Presently had any been looking they might have seen me to start.

+

+"We pit a fomentation to his feet," the good-wife was saying, "and

+a het stane to his wame, and we gied him hyssop and water of

+pennyroyal, and fine, clean balsam of sulphur for the hoast. . . "

+

+"Sir," says I, cutting very quietly in, "there's a friend of mine

+gone by the house."

+

+"Is that e'en sae?" replies Alan, as though it were a thing of

+small account.  And then, "Ye were saying, mem?" says he; and the

+wearyful wife went on.

+

+Presently, however, he paid her with a half-crown piece, and she

+must go forth after the change.

+

+"Was it him with the red head?" asked Alan.

+

+"Ye have it," said I.

+

+"What did I tell you in the wood?" he cried.  "And yet it's strange

+he should be here too!  Was he his lane?"

+

+"His lee-lane for what I could see," said I.

+

+"Did he gang by?" he asked.

+

+"Straight by," said I, "and looked neither to the right nor left."

+

+"And that's queerer yet," said Alan.  "It sticks in my mind, Davie,

+that we should be stirring.  But where to?--deil hae't!  This is

+like old days fairly," cries he.

+

+"There is one big differ, though," said I, "that now we have money

+in our pockets."

+

+"And another big differ, Mr. Balfour," says he, "that now we have

+dogs at our tail.  They're on the scent; they're in full cry,

+David.  It's a bad business and be damned to it."  And he sat

+thinking hard with a look of his that I knew well.

+

+"I'm saying, Luckie," says he, when the goodwife returned, "have ye

+a back road out of this change house?"

+

+She told him there was and where it led to.

+

+"Then, sir," says he to me, "I think that will be the shortest road

+for us.  And here's good-bye to ye, my braw woman; and I'll no

+forget thon of the cinnamon water."

+

+We went out by way of the woman's kale yard, and up a lane among

+fields.  Alan looked sharply to all sides, and seeing we were in a

+little hollow place of the country, out of view of men, sat down.

+

+"Now for a council of war, Davie," said he.  "But first of all, a

+bit lesson to ye.  Suppose that I had been like you, what would yon

+old wife have minded of the pair of us!  Just that we had gone out

+by the back gate.  And what does she mind now?  A fine, canty,

+friendly, cracky man, that suffered with the stomach, poor body!

+and was real ta'en up about the goodbrother.  O man, David, try and

+learn to have some kind of intelligence!"

+

+"I'll try, Alan," said I.

+

+"And now for him of the red head," says he; "was he gaun fast or

+slow?"

+

+"Betwixt and between," said I.

+

+"No kind of a hurry about the man?" he asked.

+

+"Never a sign of it," said I.

+

+"Nhm!" said Alan, "it looks queer.  We saw nothing of them this

+morning on the Whins; he's passed us by, he doesnae seem to be

+looking, and yet here he is on our road!  Dod, Davie, I begin to

+take a notion.  I think it's no you they're seeking, I think it's

+me; and I think they ken fine where they're gaun."

+

+"They ken?" I asked.

+

+"I think Andie Scougal's sold me--him or his mate wha kent some

+part of the affair--or else Charlie's clerk callant, which would be

+a pity too," says Alan; "and if you askit me for just my inward

+private conviction, I think there'll be heads cracked on Gillane

+sands."

+

+"Alan," I cried, "if you're at all right there'll be folk there and

+to spare.  It'll be small service to crack heads."

+

+"It would aye be a satisfaction though," says Alan.  But bide a

+bit; bide a bit; I'm thinking--and thanks to this bonny westland

+wind, I believe I've still a chance of it.  It's this way, Davie.

+I'm no trysted with this man Scougal till the gloaming comes.

+BUT," says he, "IF I CAN GET A BIT OF A WIND OUT OF THE WEST I'LL

+BE THERE LONG OR THAT," he says, "AND LIE-TO FOR YE BEHIND THE ISLE

+OF FIDRA.  Now if your gentry kens the place, they ken the time

+forbye.  Do ye see me coming, Davie? Thanks to Johnnie Cope and

+other red-coat gomerals, I should ken this country like the back of

+my hand; and if ye're ready for another bit run with Alan Breck,

+we'll can cast back inshore, and come to the seaside again by

+Dirleton.  If the ship's there, we'll try and get on board of her.

+If she's no there, I'll just have to get back to my weary haystack.

+But either way of it, I think we will leave your gentry whistling

+on their thumbs."

+

+"I believe there's some chance in it," said I.  "Have on with ye,

+Alan!"

+

+

+

+CHAPTER XIII--GILLANE SANDS

+

+

+

+I did not profit by Alan's pilotage as he had done by his marchings

+under General Cope; for I can scarce tell what way we went.  It is

+my excuse that we travelled exceeding fast.  Some part we ran, some

+trotted, and the rest walked at a vengeance of a pace.  Twice,

+while we were at top speed, we ran against country-folk; but though

+we plumped into the first from round a corner, Alan was as ready as

+a loaded musket.

+

+"Has ye seen my horse?" he gasped.

+

+"Na, man, I haenae seen nae horse the day," replied the countryman.

+

+And Alan spared the time to explain to him that we were travelling

+"ride and tie"; that our charger had escaped, and it was feared he

+had gone home to Linton.  Not only that, but he expended some

+breath (of which he had not very much left) to curse his own

+misfortune and my stupidity which was said to be its cause.

+

+"Them that cannae tell the truth," he observed to myself as we went

+on again, "should be aye mindful to leave an honest, handy lee

+behind them.  If folk dinnae ken what ye're doing, Davie, they're

+terrible taken up with it; but if they think they ken, they care

+nae mair for it than what I do for pease porridge."

+

+As we had first made inland, so our road came in the end to lie

+very near due north; the old Kirk of Aberlady for a landmark on the

+left; on the right, the top of the Berwick Law; and it was thus we

+struck the shore again, not far from Dirleton.  From north Berwick

+west to Gillane Ness there runs a string of four small islets,

+Craiglieth, the Lamb, Fidra, and Eyebrough, notable by their

+diversity of size and shape.  Fidra is the most particular, being a

+strange grey islet of two humps, made the more conspicuous by a

+piece of ruin; and I mind that (as we drew closer to it) by some

+door or window of these ruins the sea peeped through like a man's

+eye.  Under the lee of Fidra there is a good anchorage in westerly

+winds, and there, from a far way off, we could see the Thistle

+riding.

+

+The shore in face of these islets is altogether waste.  Here is no

+dwelling of man, and scarce any passage, or at most of vagabond

+children running at their play.  Gillane is a small place on the

+far side of the Ness, the folk of Dirleton go to their business in

+the inland fields, and those of North Berwick straight to the sea-

+fishing from their haven; so that few parts of the coast are

+lonelier.  But I mind, as we crawled upon our bellies into that

+multiplicity of heights and hollows, keeping a bright eye upon all

+sides, and our hearts hammering at our ribs, there was such a

+shining of the sun and the sea, such a stir of the wind in the bent

+grass, and such a bustle of down-popping rabbits and up-flying

+gulls, that the desert seemed to me, like a place alive.  No doubt

+it was in all ways well chosen for a secret embarcation, if the

+secret had been kept; and even now that it was out, and the place

+watched, we were able to creep unperceived to the front of the

+sandhills, where they look down immediately on the beach and sea.

+

+But here Alan came to a full stop.

+

+"Davie," said he, "this is a kittle passage!  As long as we lie

+here we're safe; but I'm nane sae muckle nearer to my ship or the

+coast of France.  And as soon as we stand up and signal the brig,

+it's another matter.  For where will your gentry be, think ye?"

+

+"Maybe they're no come yet," said I.  "And even if they are,

+there's one clear matter in our favour.  They'll be all arranged to

+take us, that's true.  But they'll have arranged for our coming

+from the east and here we are upon their west."

+

+"Ay," says Alan, "I wish we were in some force, and this was a

+battle, we would have bonnily out-manoeuvred them!  But it isnae,

+Davit; and the way it is, is a wee thing less inspiring to Alan

+Breck.  I swither, Davie."

+

+"Time flies, Alan," said I.

+

+"I ken that," said Alan.  "I ken naething else, as the French folk

+say.  But this is a dreidful case of heids or tails.  O! if I could

+but ken where your gentry were!"

+

+"Alan," said I, "this is no like you.  It's got to be now or

+never."

+

+

+"This is no me, quo' he,"

+

+

+sang Alan, with a queer face betwixt shame and drollery.

+

+

+"Neither you nor me, quo' he, neither you nor me.

+Wow, na, Johnnie man! neither you nor me."

+

+

+And then of a sudden he stood straight up where he was, and with a

+handkerchief flying in his right hand, marched down upon the beach.

+I stood up myself, but lingered behind him, scanning the sand-hills

+to the east.  His appearance was at first unremarked:  Scougal not

+expecting him so early, and MY GENTRY watching on the other side.

+Then they awoke on board the Thistle, and it seemed they had all in

+readiness, for there was scarce a second's bustle on the deck

+before we saw a skiff put round her stern and begin to pull lively

+for the coast.  Almost at the same moment of time, and perhaps half

+a mile away towards Gillane Ness, the figure of a man appeared for

+a blink upon a sandhill, waving with his arms; and though he was

+gone again in the same flash, the gulls in that part continued a

+little longer to fly wild.

+

+Alan had not seen this, looking straight to seaward at the ship and

+skiff.

+

+"It maun be as it will!" said he, when I had told him, "Weel may

+yon boatie row, or my craig'll have to thole a raxing."

+

+That part of the beach was long and flat, and excellent walking

+when the tide was down; a little cressy burn flowed over it in one

+place to the sea; and the sandhills ran along the head of it like

+the rampart of a town.  No eye of ours could spy what was passing

+behind there in the bents, no hurry of ours could mend the speed of

+the boat's coming:  time stood still with us through that uncanny

+period of waiting.

+

+"There is one thing I would like to ken," say Alan.  "I would like

+to ken these gentry's orders.  We're worth four hunner pound the

+pair of us:  how if they took the guns to us, Davie!  They would

+get a bonny shot from the top of that lang sandy bank."

+

+"Morally impossible," said I.  "The point is that they can have no

+guns.  This thing has been gone about too secret; pistols they may

+have, but never guns."

+

+"I believe ye'll be in the right," says Alan.  "For all which I am

+wearing a good deal for yon boat."

+

+And he snapped his fingers and whistled to it like a dog.

+

+It was now perhaps a third of the way in, and we ourselves already

+hard on the margin of the sea, so that the soft sand rose over my

+shoes.  There was no more to do whatever but to wait, to look as

+much as we were able at the creeping nearer of the boat, and as

+little as we could manage at the long impenetrable front of the

+sandhills, over which the gulls twinkled and behind which our

+enemies were doubtless marshalling.

+

+"This is a fine, bright, caller place to get shot in," says Alan

+suddenly; "and, man, I wish that I had your courage!"

+

+"Alan!" I cried, "what kind of talk is this of it!  You're just

+made of courage; it's the character of the man, as I could prove

+myself if there was nobody else."

+

+"And you would be the more mistaken," said he.  "What makes the

+differ with me is just my great penetration and knowledge of

+affairs.  But for auld, cauld, dour, deadly courage, I am not fit

+to hold a candle to yourself.  Look at us two here upon the sands.

+Here am I, fair hotching to be off; here's you (for all that I ken)

+in two minds of it whether you'll no stop.  Do you think that I

+could do that, or would?  No me!  Firstly, because I havenae got

+the courage and wouldnae daur; and secondly, because I am a man of

+so much penetration and would see ye damned first."

+

+"It's there ye're coming, is it?" I cried.  "Ah, man Alan, you can

+wile your old wives, but you never can wile me."

+

+Remembrance of my temptation in the wood made me strong as iron.

+

+"I have a tryst to keep," I continued.  "I am trysted with your

+cousin Charlie; I have passed my word."

+

+"Braw trysts that you'll can keep," said Alan.  "Ye'll just

+mistryst aince and for a' with the gentry in the bents.  And what

+for?" he went on with an extreme threatening gravity.  "Just tell

+me that, my mannie!  Are ye to be speerited away like Lady Grange?

+Are they to drive a dirk in your inside and bury ye in the bents?

+Or is it to be the other way, and are they to bring ye in with

+James?  Are they folk to be trustit?  Would ye stick your head in

+the mouth of Sim Fraser and the ither Whigs?" he added with

+extraordinary bitterness.

+

+"Alan," cried I, "they're all rogues and liars, and I'm with ye

+there.  The more reason there should be one decent man in such a

+land of thieves!  My word in passed, and I'll stick to it.  I said

+long syne to your kinswoman that I would stumble at no risk.  Do ye

+mind of that?--the night Red Colin fell, it was.  No more I will,

+then.  Here I stop.  Prestongrange promised me my life:  if he's to

+be mansworn, here I'll have to die."

+

+"Aweel aweel," said Alan.

+

+All this time we had seen or heard no more of our pursuers.  In

+truth we had caught them unawares; their whole party (as I was to

+learn afterwards) had not yet reached the scene; what there was of

+them was spread among the bents towards Gillane.  It was quite an

+affair to call them in and bring them over, and the boat was making

+speed.  They were besides but cowardly fellows:  a mere leash of

+Highland cattle-thieves, of several clans, no gentleman there to be

+the captain and the more they looked at Alan and me upon the beach,

+the less (I must suppose) they liked the look of us.

+

+Whoever had betrayed Alan it was not the captain:  he was in the

+skiff himself, steering and stirring up his oarsmen, like a man

+with his heart in his employ.  Already he was near in, and the boat

+securing--already Alan's face had flamed crimson with the

+excitement of his deliverance, when our friends in the bents,

+either in their despair to see their prey escape them or with some

+hope of scaring Andie, raised suddenly a shrill cry of several

+voices.

+

+This sound, arising from what appeared to be a quite deserted

+coast, was really very daunting, and the men in the boat held water

+instantly.

+

+"What's this of it?" sings out the captain, for he was come within

+an easy hail.

+

+"Freens o'mine," says Alan, and began immediately to wade forth in

+the shallow water towards the boat.  "Davie," he said, pausing,

+"Davie, are ye no coming?  I am swier to leave ye."

+

+"Not a hair of me," said I.

+

+"He stood part of a second where he was to his knees in the salt

+water, hesitating.

+

+"He that will to Cupar, maun to Cupar," said he, and swashing in

+deeper than his waist, was hauled into the skiff, which was

+immediately directed for the ship.

+

+I stood where he had left me, with my hands behind my back; Alan

+sat with his head turned watching me; and the boat drew smoothly

+away.  Of a sudden I came the nearest hand to shedding tears, and

+seemed to myself the most deserted solitary lad in Scotland.  With

+that I turned my back upon the sea and faced the sandhills.  There

+was no sight or sound of man; the sun shone on the wet sand and the

+dry, the wind blew in the bents, the gulls made a dreary piping.

+As I passed higher up the beach, the sand-lice were hopping nimbly

+about the stranded tangles.  The devil any other sight or sound in

+that unchancy place.  And yet I knew there were folk there,

+observing me, upon some secret purpose.  They were no soldiers, or

+they would have fallen on and taken us ere now; doubtless they were

+some common rogues hired for my undoing, perhaps to kidnap, perhaps

+to murder me outright.  From the position of those engaged, the

+first was the more likely; from what I knew of their character and

+ardency in this business, I thought the second very possible; and

+the blood ran cold about my heart.

+

+I had a mad idea to loosen my sword in the scabbard; for though I

+was very unfit to stand up like a gentleman blade to blade, I

+thought I could do some scathe in a random combat.  But I perceived

+in time the folly of resistance.  This was no doubt the joint

+"expedient" on which Prestongrange and Fraser were agreed.  The

+first, I was very sure, had done something to secure my life; the

+second was pretty likely to have slipped in some contrary hints

+into the ears of Neil and his companions; and it I were to show

+bare steel I might play straight into the hands of my worst enemy

+and seal my own doom.

+

+These thoughts brought me to the head of the beach.  I cast a look

+behind, the boat was nearing the brig, and Alan flew his

+handkerchief for a farewell, which I replied to with the waving of

+my hand.  But Alan himself was shrunk to a small thing in my view,

+alongside of this pass that lay in front of me.  I set my hat hard

+on my head, clenched my teeth, and went right before me up the face

+of the sand-wreath.  It made a hard climb, being steep, and the

+sand like water underfoot.  But I caught hold at last by the long

+bent-grass on the brae-top, and pulled myself to a good footing.

+The same moment men stirred and stood up here and there, six or

+seven of them, ragged-like knaves, each with a dagger in his hand.

+The fair truth is, I shut my eyes and prayed.  When I opened them

+again, the rogues were crept the least thing nearer without speech

+or hurry.  Every eye was upon mine, which struck me with a strange

+sensation of their brightness, and of the fear with which they

+continued to approach me.  I held out my hands empty; whereupon one

+asked, with a strong Highland brogue, if I surrendered.

+

+"Under protest," said I, "if ye ken what that means, which I

+misdoubt."

+

+At that word, they came all in upon me like a flight of birds upon

+a carrion, seized me, took my sword, and all the money from my

+pockets, bound me hand and foot with some strong line, and cast me

+on a tussock of bent.  There they sat about their captive in a part

+of a circle and gazed upon him silently like something dangerous,

+perhaps a lion or a tiger on the spring.  Presently this attention

+was relaxed.  They drew nearer together, fell to speech in the

+Gaelic, and very cynically divided my property before my eyes.  It

+was my diversion in this time that I could watch from my place the

+progress of my friend's escape.  I saw the boat come to the brig

+and be hoisted in, the sails fill, and the ship pass out seaward

+behind the isles and by North Berwick.

+

+In the course of two hours or so, more and more ragged Highlandmen

+kept collecting.  Neil among the first, until the party must have

+numbered near a score.  With each new arrival there was a fresh

+bout of talk, that sounded like complaints and explanations; but I

+observed one thing, none of those who came late had any share in

+the division of my spoils.  The last discussion was very violent

+and eager, so that once I thought they would have quarrelled; on

+the heels of which their company parted, the bulk of them returning

+westward in a troop, and only three, Neil and two others, remaining

+sentries on the prisoner.

+

+"I could name one who would be very ill pleased with your day's

+work, Neil Duncanson," said I, when the rest had moved away.

+

+He assured me in answer I should be tenderly used, for he knew he

+was "acquent wi' the leddy."

+

+This was all our talk, nor did any other son of man appear upon

+that portion of the coast until the sun had gone down among the

+Highland mountains, and the gloaming was beginning to grow dark.

+At which hour I was aware of a long, lean, bony-like Lothian man of

+a very swarthy countenance, that came towards us among the bents on

+a farm horse.

+

+"Lads," cried he, "has ye a paper like this?" and held up one in

+his hand.  Neil produced a second, which the newcomer studied

+through a pair of horn spectacles, and saying all was right and we

+were the folk he was seeking, immediately dismounted.  I was then

+set in his place, my feet tied under the horse's belly, and we set

+forth under the guidance of the Lowlander.  His path must have been

+very well chosen, for we met but one pair--a pair of lovers--the

+whole way, and these, perhaps taking us to be free-traders, fled on

+our approach.  We were at one time close at the foot of Berwick Law

+on the south side; at another, as we passed over some open hills, I

+spied the lights of a clachan and the old tower of a church among

+some trees not far off, but too far to cry for help, if I had

+dreamed of it.  At last we came again within sound of the sea.

+There was moonlight, though not much; and by this I could see the

+three huge towers and broken battlements of Tantallon, that old

+chief place of the Red Douglases.  The horse was picketed in the

+bottom of the ditch to graze, and I was led within, and forth into

+the court, and thence into the tumble-down stone hall.  Here my

+conductors built a brisk fire in the midst of the pavement, for

+there was a chill in the night.  My hands were loosed, I was set by

+the wall in the inner end, and (the Lowlander having produced

+provisions) I was given oatmeal bread and a pitcher of French

+brandy.  This done, I was left once more alone with my three

+Highlandmen.  They sat close by the fire drinking and talking; the

+wind blew in by the breaches, cast about the smoke and flames, and

+sang in the tops of the towers; I could hear the sea under the

+cliffs, and, my mind being reassured as to my life, and my body and

+spirits wearied with the day's employment, I turned upon one side

+and slumbered.

+

+I had no means of guessing at what hour I was wakened, only the

+moon was down and the fire was low.  My feet were now loosed, and I

+was carried through the ruins and down the cliff-side by a

+precipitous path to where I found a fisher's boat in a haven of the

+rocks.  This I was had on board of, and we began to put forth from

+the shore in a fine starlight

+

+

+

+CHAPTER XIV--THE BASS

+

+

+

+I had no thought where they were taking me; only looked here and

+there for the appearance of a ship; and there ran the while in my

+head a word of Ransome's--the TWENTY-POUNDERS.  If I were to be

+exposed a second time to that same former danger of the

+plantations, I judged it must turn ill with me; there was no second

+Alan; and no second shipwreck and spare yard to be expected now;

+and I saw myself hoe tobacco under the whip's lash.  The thought

+chilled me; the air was sharp upon the water, the stretchers of the

+boat drenched with a cold dew:  and I shivered in my place beside

+the steersman.  This was the dark man whom I have called hitherto

+the Lowlander; his name was Dale, ordinarily called Black Andie.

+Feeling the thrill of my shiver, he very kindly handed me a rough

+jacket full of fish-scales, with which I was glad to cover myself.

+

+"I thank you for this kindness," said I, "and will make so free as

+to repay it with a warning.  You take a high responsibility in this

+affair.  You are not like these ignorant, barbarous Highlanders,

+but know what the law is and the risks of those that break it."

+

+"I am no just exactly what ye would ca' an extremist for the law,"

+says he, "at the best of times; but in this business I act with a

+good warranty."

+

+"What are you going to do with me?" I asked.

+

+"Nae harm," said he, "nae harm ava'.  Ye'll have strong freens, I'm

+thinking.  Ye'll be richt eneuch yet."

+

+There began to fall a greyness on the face of the sea; little dabs

+of pink and red, like coals of slow fire, came in the east; and at

+the same time the geese awakened, and began crying about the top of

+the Bass.  It is just the one crag of rock, as everybody knows, but

+great enough to carve a city from.  The sea was extremely little,

+but there went a hollow plowter round the base of it.  With the

+growing of the dawn I could see it clearer and clearer; the

+straight crags painted with sea-birds' droppings like a morning

+frost, the sloping top of it green with grass, the clan of white

+geese that cried about the sides, and the black, broken buildings

+of the prison sitting close on the sea's edge.

+

+At the sight the truth came in upon me in a clap.

+

+"It's there you're taking me!" I cried.

+

+"Just to the Bass, mannie," said he:  "Whaur the auld saints were

+afore ye, and I misdoubt if ye have come so fairly by your

+preeson."

+

+"But none dwells there now," I cried; "the place is long a ruin."

+

+"It'll be the mair pleisand a change for the solan geese, then,"

+quoth Andie dryly.

+

+The day coming slowly brighter I observed on the bilge, among the

+big stones with which fisherfolk ballast their boats, several kegs

+and baskets, and a provision of fuel.  All these were discharged

+upon the crag.  Andie, myself, and my three Highlanders (I call

+them mine, although it was the other way about), landed along with

+them.  The sun was not yet up when the boat moved away again, the

+noise of the oars on the thole-pins echoing from the cliffs, and

+left us in our singular reclusion:

+

+Andie Dale was the Prefect (as I would jocularly call him) of the

+Bass, being at once the shepherd and the gamekeeper of that small

+and rich estate.  He had to mind the dozen or so of sheep that fed

+and fattened on the grass of the sloping part of it, like beasts

+grazing the roof of a cathedral.  He had charge besides of the

+solan geese that roosted in the crags; and from these an

+extraordinary income is derived.  The young are dainty eating, as

+much as two shillings a-piece being a common price, and paid

+willingly by epicures; even the grown birds are valuable for their

+oil and feathers; and a part of the minister's stipend of North

+Berwick is paid to this day in solan geese, which makes it (in some

+folks' eyes) a parish to be coveted.  To perform these several

+businesses, as well as to protect the geese from poachers, Andie

+had frequent occasion to sleep and pass days together on the crag;

+and we found the man at home there like a farmer in his steading.

+Bidding us all shoulder some of the packages, a matter in which I

+made haste to bear a hand, he led us in by a looked gate, which was

+the only admission to the island, and through the ruins of the

+fortress, to the governor's house.  There we saw by the ashes in

+the chimney and a standing bed-place in one corner, that he made

+his usual occupation.

+

+This bed he now offered me to use, saying he supposed I would set

+up to be gentry.

+

+"My gentrice has nothing to do with where I lie," said I.  "I bless

+God I have lain hard ere now, and can do the same again with

+thankfulness.  While I am here, Mr. Andie, if that be your name, I

+will do my part and take my place beside the rest of you; and I ask

+you on the other hand to spare me your mockery, which I own I like

+ill."

+

+He grumbled a little at this speech, but seemed upon reflection to

+approve it.  Indeed, he was a long-headed, sensible man, and a good

+Whig and Presbyterian; read daily in a pocket Bible, and was both

+able and eager to converse seriously on religion, leaning more than

+a little towards the Cameronian extremes.  His morals were of a

+more doubtful colour.  I found he was deep in the free trade, and

+used the rains of Tantallon for a magazine of smuggled merchandise.

+As for a gauger, I do not believe he valued the life of one at

+half-a-farthing.  But that part of the coast of Lothian is to this

+day as wild a place, and the commons there as rough a crew, as any

+in Scotland.

+

+One incident of my imprisonment is made memorable by a consequence

+it had long after.  There was a warship at this time stationed in

+the Firth, the Seahorse, Captain Palliser.  It chanced she was

+cruising in the month of September, plying between Fife and

+Lothian, and sounding for sunk dangers.  Early one fine morning she

+was seen about two miles to east of us, where she lowered a boat,

+and seemed to examine the Wildfire Rocks and Satan's Bush, famous

+dangers of that coast.  And presently after having got her boat

+again, she came before the wind and was headed directly for the

+Base.  This was very troublesome to Andie and the Highlanders; the

+whole business of my sequestration was designed for privacy, and

+here, with a navy captain perhaps blundering ashore, it looked to

+become public enough, if it were nothing worse.  I was in a

+minority of one, I am no Alan to fall upon so many, and I was far

+from sure that a warship was the least likely to improve my

+condition.  All which considered, I gave Andie my parole of good

+behaviour and obedience, and was had briskly to the summit of the

+rock, where we all lay down, at the cliff's edge, in different

+places of observation and concealment.  The Seahorse came straight

+on till I thought she would have struck, and we (looking giddily

+down) could see the ship's company at their quarters and hear the

+leadsman singing at the lead.  Then she suddenly wore and let fly a

+volley of I know not how many great guns.  The rock was shaken with

+the thunder of the sound, the smoke flowed over our heads, and the

+geese rose in number beyond computation or belief.  To hear their

+screaming and to see the twinkling of their wings, made a most

+inimitable curiosity; and I suppose it was after this somewhat

+childish pleasure that Captain Palliser had come so near the Bass.

+He was to pay dear for it in time.  During his approach I had the

+opportunity to make a remark upon the rigging of that ship by which

+I ever after knew it miles away; and this was a means (under

+Providence) of my averting from a friend a great calamity, and

+inflicting on Captain Palliser himself a sensible disappointment.

+

+All the time of my stay on the rock we lived well.  We had small

+ale and brandy, and oatmeal, of which we made our porridge night

+and morning.  At times a boat came from the Castleton and brought

+us a quarter of mutton, for the sheep upon the rock we must not

+touch, these being specially fed to market.  The geese were

+unfortunately out of season, and we let them be.  We fished

+ourselves, and yet more often made the geese to fish for us:

+observing one when he had made a capture and searing him from his

+prey ere he had swallowed it.

+

+The strange nature of this place, and the curiosities with which it

+abounded, held me busy and amused.  Escape being impossible, I was

+allowed my entire liberty, and continually explored the surface of

+the isle wherever it might support the foot of man.  The old garden

+of the prison was still to be observed, with flowers and pot-herbs

+running wild, and some ripe cherries on a bush.  A little lower

+stood a chapel or a hermit's cell; who built or dwelt in it, none

+may know, and the thought of its age made a ground of many

+meditations.  The prison, too, where I now bivouacked with Highland

+cattle-thieves, was a place full of history, both human and divine.

+I thought it strange so many saints and martyrs should have gone by

+there so recently, and left not so much as a leaf out of their

+Bibles, or a name carved upon the wall, while the rough soldier

+lads that mounted guard upon the battlements had filled the

+neighbourhood with their mementoes--broken tobacco-pipes for the

+most part, and that in a surprising plenty, but also metal buttons

+from their coats.  There were times when I thought I could have

+heard the pious sound of psalms out of the martyr's dungeons, and

+seen the soldiers tramp the ramparts with their glinting pipes, and

+the dawn rising behind them out of the North Sea.

+

+No doubt it was a good deal Andie and his tales that put these

+fancies in my head.  He was extraordinarily well acquainted with

+the story of the rock in all particulars, down to the names of

+private soldiers, his father having served there in that same

+capacity.  He was gifted besides with a natural genius for

+narration, so that the people seemed to speak and the things to be

+done before your face.  This gift of his and my assiduity to listen

+brought us the more close together.  I could not honestly deny but

+what I liked him; I soon saw that he liked me; and indeed, from the

+first I had set myself out to capture his good-will.  An odd

+circumstance (to be told presently) effected this beyond my

+expectation; but even in early days we made a friendly pair to be a

+prisoner and his gaoler.

+

+I should trifle with my conscience if I pretended my stay upon the

+Bass was wholly disagreeable.  It seemed to me a safe place, as

+though I was escaped there out of my troubles.  No harm was to be

+offered me; a material impossibility, rock and the deep sea,

+prevented me from fresh attempts; I felt I had my life safe and my

+honour safe, and there were times when I allowed myself to gloat on

+them like stolen waters.  At other times my thoughts were very

+different, I recalled how strong I had expressed myself both to

+Rankeillor and to Stewart; I reflected that my captivity upon the

+Bass, in view of a great part of the coasts of Fife and Lothian,

+was a thing I should be thought more likely to have invented than

+endured; and in the eyes of these two gentlemen, at least, I must

+pass for a boaster and a coward.  Now I would take this lightly

+enough; tell myself that so long as I stood well with Catriona

+Drummond, the opinion of the rest of man was but moonshine and

+spilled water; and thence pass off into those meditations of a

+lover which are so delightful to himself and must always appear so

+surprisingly idle to a reader.  But anon the fear would take me

+otherwise; I would be shaken with a perfect panic of self-esteem,

+and these supposed hard judgments appear an injustice impossible to

+be supported.  With that another train of thought would he

+presented, and I had scarce begun to be concerned about men's

+judgments of myself, than I was haunted with the remembrance of

+James Stewart in his dungeon and the lamentations of his wife.

+Then, indeed, passion began to work in me; I could not forgive

+myself to sit there idle:  it seemed (if I were a man at all) that

+I could fly or swim out of my place of safety; and it was in such

+humours and to amuse my self-reproaches that I would set the more

+particularly to win the good side of Andie Dale.

+

+At last, when we two were alone on the summit of the rock on a

+bright morning, I put in some hint about a bribe.  He looked at me,

+cast back his head, and laughed out loud.

+

+"Ay, you're funny, Mr. Dale," said I, "but perhaps if you'll glance

+an eye upon that paper you may change your note."

+

+The stupid Highlanders had taken from me at the time of my seizure

+nothing but hard money, and the paper I now showed Andie was an

+acknowledgment from the British Linen Company for a considerable

+sum.

+

+He read it.  "Troth, and ye're nane sae ill aff," said he.

+

+"I thought that would maybe vary your opinions," said I.

+

+"Hout!" said he.  "It shows me ye can bribe; but I'm no to be

+bribit."

+

+"We'll see about that yet a while," says I.  "And first, I'll show

+you that I know what I am talking.  You have orders to detain me

+here till after Thursday, 21st September."

+

+"Ye're no a'thegether wrong either," says Andie.  "I'm to let you

+gang, bar orders contrair, on Saturday, the 23rd."

+

+I could not but feel there was something extremely insidious in

+this arrangement.  That I was to re-appear precisely in time to be

+too late would cast the more discredit on my tale, if I were minded

+to tell one; and this screwed me to fighting point.

+

+"Now then, Andie, you that kens the world, listen to me, and think

+while ye listen," said I.  "I know there are great folks in the

+business, and I make no doubt you have their names to go upon.  I

+have seen some of them myself since this affair began, and said my

+say into their faces too.  But what kind of a crime would this be

+that I had committed? or what kind of a process is this that I am

+fallen under?  To be apprehended by some ragged John-Hielandman on

+August 30th, carried to a rickle of old stones that is now neither

+fort nor gaol (whatever it once was) but just the gamekeeper's

+lodge of the Bass Rock, and set free again, September 23rd, as

+secretly as I was first arrested--does that sound like law to you?

+or does it sound like justice? or does it not sound honestly like a

+piece of some low dirty intrigue, of which the very folk that

+meddle with it are ashamed?"

+

+"I canna gainsay ye, Shaws.  It looks unco underhand," says Andie.

+"And werenae the folk guid sound Whigs and true-blue Presbyterians

+I would has seen them ayont Jordan and Jeroozlem or I would have

+set hand to it."

+

+"The Master of Lovat'll be a braw Whig," says I, "and a grand

+Presbyterian."

+

+"I ken naething by him," said he.  "I hae nae trokings wi' Lovats."

+

+"No, it'll be Prestongrange that you'll be dealing with," said I.

+

+"Ah, but I'll no tell ye that," said Andie.

+

+"Little need when I ken," was my retort.

+

+"There's just the ae thing ye can be fairly sure of, Shaws," says

+Andie.  "And that is that (try as ye please) I'm no dealing wi'

+yoursel'; nor yet I amnae goin' to," he added.

+

+"Well, Andie, I see I'll have to be speak out plain with you," I

+replied.  And told him so much as I thought needful of the facts.

+

+He heard me out with some serious interest, and when I had done,

+seemed to consider a little with himself.

+

+"Shaws," said he at last, "I'll deal with the naked hand.  It's a

+queer tale, and no very creditable, the way you tell it; and I'm

+far frae minting that is other than the way that ye believe it.  As

+for yoursel', ye seem to me rather a dacent-like young man.  But

+me, that's aulder and mair judeecious, see perhaps a wee bit

+further forrit in the job than what ye can dae.  And here the

+maitter clear and plain to ye.  There'll be nae skaith to yoursel'

+if I keep ye here; far free that, I think ye'll be a hantle better

+by it.  There'll be nae skaith to the kintry--just ae mair

+Hielantman hangit--Gude kens, a guid riddance!  On the ither hand,

+it would be considerable skaith to me if I would let you free.

+Sae, speakin' as a guid Whig, an honest freen' to you, and an

+anxious freen' to my ainsel', the plain fact is that I think ye'll

+just have to bide here wi' Andie an' the solans."

+

+"Andie," said I, laying my hand upon his knee, "this Hielantman's

+innocent."

+

+"Ay, it's a peety about that," said he.  "But ye see, in this

+warld, the way God made it, we cannae just get a'thing that we

+want."

+

+

+

+CHAPTER XV--BLACK ANDIE'S TALE OF TOD LAPRAIK

+

+

+

+I have yet said little of the Highlanders.  They were all three of

+the followers of James More, which bound the accusation very tight

+about their master's neck.  All understood a word or two of

+English, but Neil was the only one who judged he had enough of it

+for general converse, in which (when once he got embarked) his

+company was often tempted to the contrary opinion.  They were

+tractable, simple creatures; showed much more courtesy than might

+have been expected from their raggedness and their uncouth

+appearance, and fell spontaneously to be like three servants for

+Andie and myself.

+

+Dwelling in that isolated place, in the old falling ruins of a

+prison, and among endless strange sounds of the sea and the sea-

+birds, I thought I perceived in them early the effects of

+superstitious fear.  When there was nothing doing they would either

+lie and sleep, for which their appetite appeared insatiable, or

+Neil would entertain the others with stories which seemed always of

+a terrifying strain.  If neither of these delights were within

+reach--if perhaps two were sleeping and the third could find no

+means to follow their example--I would see him sit and listen and

+look about him in a progression of uneasiness, starting, his face

+blenching, his hands clutched, a man strung like a bow.  The nature

+of these fears I had never an occasion to find out, but the sight

+of them was catching, and the nature of the place that we were in

+favourable to alarms.  I can find no word for it in the English,

+but Andie had an expression for it in the Scots from which he never

+varied.

+

+"Ay," he would say, "ITS AN UNCO PLACE, THE BASS."

+

+It is so I always think of it.  It was an unco place by night, unco

+by day; and these were unco sounds, of the calling of the solans,

+and the plash of the sea and the rock echoes, that hung continually

+in our ears.  It was chiefly so in moderate weather.  When the

+waves were anyway great they roared about the rock like thunder and

+the drums of armies, dreadful but merry to hear; and it was in the

+calm days that a man could daunt himself with listening--not a

+Highlandman only, as I several times experimented on myself, so

+many still, hollow noises haunted and reverberated in the porches

+of the rock.

+

+This brings me to a story I heard, and a scene I took part in,

+which quite changed our terms of living, and had a great effect on

+my departure.  It chanced one night I fell in a muse beside the

+fire and (that little air of Alan's coming back to my memory) began

+to whistle.  A hand was laid upon my arm, and the voice of Neil

+bade me to stop, for it was not "canny musics."

+

+"Not canny?" I asked.  "How can that be?"

+

+"Na," said he; "it will be made by a bogle and her wanting ta heid

+upon his body." {13}

+

+"Well," said I, "there can be no bogles here, Neil; for it's not

+likely they would fash themselves to frighten geese."

+

+"Ay?" says Andie, "is that what ye think of it!  But I'll can tell

+ye there's been waur nor bogles here."

+

+"What's waur than bogles, Andie?" said I.

+

+"Warlocks," said he.  "Or a warlock at the least of it.  And that's

+a queer tale, too," he added.  "And if ye would like, I'll tell it

+ye."

+

+To be sure we were all of the one mind, and even the Highlander

+that had the least English of the three set himself to listen with

+all his might.

+

+

+THE TALE OF TOD LAPRAIK

+

+

+MY faither, Tam Dale, peace to his banes, was a wild, sploring lad

+in his young days, wi' little wisdom and little grace.  He was fond

+of a lass and fond of a glass, and fond of a ran-dan; but I could

+never hear tell that he was muckle use for honest employment.  Frae

+ae thing to anither, he listed at last for a sodger and was in the

+garrison of this fort, which was the first way that ony of the

+Dales cam to set foot upon the Bass.  Sorrow upon that service!

+The governor brewed his ain ale; it seems it was the warst

+conceivable.  The rock was proveesioned free the shore with vivers,

+the thing was ill-guided, and there were whiles when they but to

+fish and shoot solans for their diet.  To crown a', thir was the

+Days of the Persecution.  The perishin' cauld chalmers were all

+occupeed wi' sants and martyrs, the saut of the yearth, of which it

+wasnae worthy.  And though Tam Dale carried a firelock there, a

+single sodger, and liked a lass and a glass, as I was sayin,' the

+mind of the man was mair just than set with his position.  He had

+glints of the glory of the kirk; there were whiles when his dander

+rase to see the Lord's sants misguided, and shame covered him that

+he should be haulding a can'le (or carrying a firelock) in so black

+a business.  There were nights of it when he was here on sentry,

+the place a' wheesht, the frosts o' winter maybe riving in the

+wa's, and he would hear ane o' the prisoners strike up a psalm, and

+the rest join in, and the blessed sounds rising from the different

+chalmers--or dungeons, I would raither say--so that this auld craig

+in the sea was like a pairt of Heev'n.  Black shame was on his

+saul; his sins hove up before him muckle as the Bass, and above a',

+that chief sin, that he should have a hand in hagging and hashing

+at Christ's Kirk.  But the truth is that he resisted the spirit.

+Day cam, there were the rousing compainions, and his guid resolves

+depairtit.

+

+In thir days, dwalled upon the Bass a man of God, Peden the Prophet

+was his name.  Ye'll have heard tell of Prophet Peden.  There was

+never the wale of him sinsyne, and it's a question wi' mony if

+there ever was his like afore.  He was wild's a peat-hag, fearsome

+to look at, fearsome to hear, his face like the day of judgment.

+The voice of him was like a solan's and dinnle'd in folks' lugs,

+and the words of him like coals of fire.

+

+Now there was a lass on the rock, and I think she had little to do,

+for it was nae place far decent weemen; but it seems she was bonny,

+and her and Tam Dale were very well agreed.  It befell that Peden

+was in the gairden his lane at the praying when Tam and the lass

+cam by; and what should the lassie do but mock with laughter at the

+sant's devotions?  He rose and lookit at the twa o' them, and Tam's

+knees knoitered thegether at the look of him.  But whan he spak, it

+was mair in sorrow than in anger.  'Poor thing, poor thing!" says

+he, and it was the lass he lookit at, "I hear you skirl and laugh,"

+he says, "but the Lord has a deid shot prepared for you, and at

+that surprising judgment ye shall skirl but the ae time!"  Shortly

+thereafter she was daundering on the craigs wi' twa-three sodgers,

+and it was a blawy day.  There cam a gowst of wind, claught her by

+the coats, and awa' wi' her bag and baggage.  And it was remarked

+by the sodgers that she gied but the ae skirl.

+

+Nae doubt this judgment had some weicht upon Tam Dale; but it

+passed again and him none the better.  Ae day he was flyting wi'

+anither sodger-lad.  "Deil hae me!" quo' Tam, for he was a profane

+swearer.  And there was Peden glowering at him, gash an' waefu';

+Peden wi' his lang chafts an' luntin' een, the maud happed about

+his kist, and the hand of him held out wi' the black nails upon the

+finger-nebs--for he had nae care of the body.  "Fy, fy, poor man!"

+cries he, "the poor fool man!  DEIL HAE ME, quo' he; an' I see the

+deil at his oxter."  The conviction of guilt and grace cam in on

+Tam like the deep sea; he flang doun the pike that was in his

+hands--"I will nae mair lift arms against the cause o' Christ!"

+says he, and was as gude's word.  There was a sair fyke in the

+beginning, but the governor, seeing him resolved, gied him his

+discharge, and he went and dwallt and merried in North Berwick, and

+had aye a gude name with honest folk free that day on.

+

+It was in the year seeventeen hunner and sax that the Bass cam in

+the hands o' the Da'rymples, and there was twa men soucht the

+chairge of it.  Baith were weel qualified, for they had baith been

+sodgers in the garrison, and kent the gate to handle solans, and

+the seasons and values of them.  Forby that they were baith--or

+they baith seemed--earnest professors and men of comely

+conversation.  The first of them was just Tam Dale, my faither.

+The second was ane Lapraik, whom the folk ca'd Tod Lapraik maistly,

+but whether for his name or his nature I could never hear tell.

+Weel, Tam gaed to see Lapraik upon this business, and took me, that

+was a toddlin' laddie, by the hand.  Tod had his dwallin' in the

+lang loan benorth the kirkyaird.  It's a dark uncanny loan, forby

+that the kirk has aye had an ill name since the days o' James the

+Saxt and the deevil's cantrips played therein when the Queen was on

+the seas; and as for Tod's house, it was in the mirkest end, and

+was little liked by some that kenned the best.  The door was on the

+sneck that day, and me and my faither gaed straucht in.  Tod was a

+wabster to his trade; his loom stood in the but.  There he sat, a

+muckle fat, white hash of a man like creish, wi' a kind of a holy

+smile that gart me scunner.  The hand of him aye cawed the shuttle,

+but his een was steeked.  We cried to him by his name, we skirted

+in the deid lug of him, we shook him by the shou'ther.  Nae mainner

+o' service!  There he sat on his dowp, an' cawed the shuttle and

+smiled like creish.

+

+"God be guid to us," says Tam Dale, "this is no canny?"

+

+He had jimp said the word, when Tod Lapraik cam to himsel'.

+

+"Is this you, Tam?" says he.  "Haith, man!  I'm blythe to see ye.

+I whiles fa' into a bit dwam like this," he says; "its frae the

+stamach."

+

+Weel, they began to crack about the Bass and which of them twa was

+to get the warding o't, and little by little cam to very ill words,

+and twined in anger.  I mind weel that as my faither and me gaed

+hame again, he cam ower and ower the same expression, how little he

+likit Tod Lapraik and his dwams.

+

+"Dwam!" says he.  "I think folk hae brunt for dwams like yon."

+

+Aweel, my faither got the Bass and Tod had to go wantin'.  It was

+remembered sinsyne what way he had ta'en the thing.  "Tam," says

+he, "ye hae gotten the better o' me aince mair, and I hope," says

+he, "ye'll find at least a' that ye expeckit at the Bass."  Which

+have since been thought remarkable expressions.  At last the time

+came for Tam Dale to take young solans.  This was a business he was

+weel used wi', he had been a craigsman frae a laddie, and trustit

+nane but himsel'.  So there was he hingin' by a line an' speldering

+on the craig face, whaur its hieest and steighest.  Fower tenty

+lads were on the tap, hauldin' the line and mindin' for his

+signals.  But whaur Tam hung there was naething but the craig, and

+the sea belaw, and the solans skirlin and flying.  It was a braw

+spring morn, and Tam whustled as he claught in the young geese.

+Mony's the time I've heard him tell of this experience, and aye the

+swat ran upon the man.

+

+It chanced, ye see, that Tam keeked up, and he was awaur of a

+muckle solan, and the solan pyking at the line.  He thocht this by-

+ordinar and outside the creature's habits.  He minded that ropes

+was unco saft things, and the solan's neb and the Bass Rock unco

+hard, and that twa hunner feet were raither mair than he would care

+to fa'.

+

+"Shoo!" says Tam.  "Awa', bird!  Shoo, awa' wi' ye!" says he.

+

+The solan keekit doon into Tam's face, and there was something unco

+in the creature's ee.  Just the ae keek it gied, and back to the

+rope.  But now it wroucht and warstl't like a thing dementit.

+There never was the solan made that wroucht as that solan wroucht;

+and it seemed to understand its employ brawly, birzing the saft

+rope between the neb of it and a crunkled jag o' stane.

+

+There gaed a cauld stend o' fear into Tam's heart.  "This thing is

+nae bird," thinks he.  His een turnt backward in his heid and the

+day gaed black aboot him.  "If I get a dwam here," he toucht, "it's

+by wi' Tam Dale."  And he signalled for the lads to pu' him up.

+

+And it seemed the solan understood about signals.  For nae sooner

+was the signal made than he let be the rope, spried his wings,

+squawked out loud, took a turn flying, and dashed straucht at Tam

+Dale's een.  Tam had a knife, he gart the cauld steel glitter.  And

+it seemed the solan understood about knives, for nae suner did the

+steel glint in the sun than he gied the ae squawk, but laighter,

+like a body disappointit, and flegged aff about the roundness of

+the craig, and Tam saw him nae mair.  And as sune as that thing was

+gane, Tam's heid drapt upon his shouther, and they pu'd him up like

+a deid corp, dadding on the craig.

+

+A dram of brandy (which he went never without) broucht him to his

+mind, or what was left of it.  Up he sat.

+

+"Rin, Geordie, rin to the boat, mak' sure of the boat, man--rin!"

+he cries, "or yon solan'll have it awa'," says he.

+

+The fower lads stared at ither, an' tried to whilly-wha him to be

+quiet.  But naething would satisfy Tam Dale, till ane o' them had

+startit on aheid to stand sentry on the boat.  The ithers askit if

+he was for down again.

+

+"Na," says he, "and niether you nor me," says he, "and as sune as I

+can win to stand on my twa feet we'll be aff frae this craig o'

+Sawtan."

+

+Sure eneuch, nae time was lost, and that was ower muckle; for

+before they won to North Berwick Tam was in a crying fever.  He lay

+a' the simmer; and wha was sae kind as come speiring for him, but

+Tod Lapraik!  Folk thocht afterwards that ilka time Tod cam near

+the house the fever had worsened.  I kenna for that; but what I ken

+the best, that was the end of it.

+

+It was about this time o' the year; my grandfaither was out at the

+white fishing; and like a bairn, I but to gang wi' him.  We had a

+grand take, I mind, and the way that the fish lay broucht us near

+in by the Bass, whaur we foregaithered wi' anither boat that

+belanged to a man Sandie Fletcher in Castleton.  He's no lang deid

+neither, or ye could speir at himsel'.  Weel, Sandie hailed.

+

+"What's yon on the Bass?" says he.

+

+"On the Bass?" says grandfaither.

+

+"Ay," says Sandie, "on the green side o't."

+

+"Whatten kind of a thing?" says grandfaither.  "There cannae be

+naething on the Bass but just the sheep."

+

+"It looks unco like a body," quo' Sandie, who was nearer in.

+

+"A body!" says we, and we none of us likit that.  For there was nae

+boat that could have brought a man, and the key o' the prison yett

+hung ower my faither's at hame in the press bed.

+

+We keept the twa boats close for company, and crap in nearer hand.

+Grandfaither had a gless, for he had been a sailor, and the captain

+of a smack, and had lost her on the sands of Tay.  And when we took

+the glass to it, sure eneuch there was a man.  He was in a crunkle

+o' green brae, a wee below the chaipel, a' by his lee lane, and

+lowped and flang and danced like a daft quean at a waddin'.

+

+"It's Tod," says grandfather, and passed the gless to Sandie.

+

+"Ay, it's him," says Sandie.

+

+"Or ane in the likeness o' him," says grandfaither.

+

+"Sma' is the differ," quo' Sandie.  "De'il or warlock, I'll try the

+gun at him," quo' he, and broucht up a fowling-piece that he aye

+carried, for Sandie was a notable famous shot in all that country.

+

+"Haud your hand, Sandie," says grandfaither; "we maun see clearer

+first," says he, "or this may be a dear day's wark to the baith of

+us."

+

+"Hout!" says Sandie, "this is the Lord's judgment surely, and be

+damned to it," says he.

+

+"Maybe ay, and maybe no," says my grandfaither, worthy man!  "But

+have you a mind of the Procurator Fiscal, that I think ye'll have

+foregaithered wi' before," says he.

+

+This was ower true, and Sandie was a wee thing set ajee.  "Aweel,

+Edie," says he, "and what would be your way of it?"

+

+"Ou, just this," says grandfaither.  "Let me that has the fastest

+boat gang back to North Berwick, and let you bide here and keep an

+eye on Thon.  If I cannae find Lapraik, I'll join ye and the twa of

+us'll have a crack wi' him.  But if Lapraik's at hame, I'll rin up

+the flag at the harbour, and ye can try Thon Thing wi' the gun."

+

+Aweel, so it was agreed between them twa.  I was just a bairn, an'

+clum in Sandie's boat, whaur I thoucht I would see the best of the

+employ.  My grandsire gied Sandie a siller tester to pit in his gun

+wi' the leid draps, bein mair deidly again bogles.  And then the as

+boat set aff for North Berwick, an' the tither lay whaur it was and

+watched the wanchancy thing on the brae-side.

+

+A' the time we lay there it lowped and flang and capered and span

+like a teetotum, and whiles we could hear it skelloch as it span.

+I hae seen lassies, the daft queans, that would lowp and dance a

+winter's nicht, and still be lowping and dancing when the winter's

+day cam in.  But there would be fowk there to hauld them company,

+and the lads to egg them on; and this thing was its lee-lane.  And

+there would be a fiddler diddling his elbock in the chimney-side;

+and this thing had nae music but the skirling of the solans.  And

+the lassies were bits o' young things wi' the reid life dinnling

+and stending in their members; and this was a muckle, fat, creishy

+man, and him fa'n in the vale o' years.  Say what ye like, I maun

+say what I believe.  It was joy was in the creature's heart, the

+joy o' hell, I daursay:  joy whatever.  Mony a time I have askit

+mysel' why witches and warlocks should sell their sauls (whilk are

+their maist dear possessions) and be auld, duddy, wrunkl't wives or

+auld, feckless, doddered men; and then I mind upon Tod Lapraik

+dancing a' the hours by his lane in the black glory of his heart.

+Nae doubt they burn for it muckle in hell, but they have a grand

+time here of it, whatever!--and the Lord forgie us!

+

+Weel, at the hinder end, we saw the wee flag yirk up to the mast-

+heid upon the harbour rocks.  That was a' Sandie waited for.  He up

+wi' the gun, took a deleeberate aim, an' pu'd the trigger.  There

+cam' a bang and then ae waefu' skirl frae the Bass.  And there were

+we rubbin' our een and lookin' at ither like daft folk.  For wi'

+the bang and the skirl the thing had clean disappeared.  The sun

+glintit, the wund blew, and there was the bare yaird whaur the

+Wonder had been lowping and flinging but ae second syne.

+

+The hale way hame I roared and grat wi' the terror o' that

+dispensation.  The grawn folk were nane sae muckle better; there

+was little said in Sandie's boat but just the name of God; and when

+we won in by the pier, the harbour rocks were fair black wi' the

+folk waitin' us.  It seems they had fund Lapraik in ane of his

+dwams, cawing the shuttle and smiling.  Ae lad they sent to hoist

+the flag, and the rest abode there in the wabster's house.  You may

+be sure they liked it little; but it was a means of grace to

+severals that stood there praying in to themsel's (for nane cared

+to pray out loud) and looking on thon awesome thing as it cawed the

+shuttle.  Syne, upon a suddenty, and wi' the ae dreidfu' skelloch,

+Tod sprang up frae his hinderlands and fell forrit on the wab, a

+bluidy corp.

+

+When the corp was examined the leid draps hadnae played buff upon

+the warlock's body; sorrow a leid drap was to be fund! but there

+was grandfaither's siller tester in the puddock's heart of him.

+

+

+Andie had scarce done when there befell a mighty silly affair that

+had its consequence.  Neil, as I have said, was himself a great

+narrator.  I have heard since that he knew all the stories in the

+Highlands; and thought much of himself, and was thought much of by

+others on the strength of it.  Now Andie's tale reminded him of one

+he had already heard.

+

+"She would ken that story afore," he said.  "She was the story of

+Uistean More M'Gillie Phadrig and the Gavar Vore."

+

+"It is no sic a thing," cried Andie.  "It is the story of my

+faither (now wi' God) and Tod Lapraik.  And the same in your

+beard," says he; "and keep the tongue of ye inside your Hielant

+chafts!"

+

+In dealing with Highlanders it will be found, and has been shown in

+history, how well it goes with Lowland gentlefolk; but the thing

+appears scarce feasible for Lowland commons.  I had already

+remarked that Andie was continually on the point of quarrelling

+with our three MacGregors, and now, sure enough, it was to come.

+

+"Thir will be no words to use to shentlemans," says Neil.

+

+"Shentlemans!" cries Andie.  "Shentlemans, ye hielant stot!  If God

+would give ye the grace to see yoursel' the way that ithers see ye,

+ye would throw your denner up."

+

+There came some kind of a Gaelic oath from Neil, and the black

+knife was in his hand that moment.

+

+There was no time to think; and I caught the Highlander by the leg,

+and had him down, and his armed hand pinned out, before I knew what

+I was doing.  His comrades sprang to rescue him, Andie and I were

+without weapons, the Gregara three to two.  It seemed we were

+beyond salvation, when Neil screamed in his own tongue, ordering

+the others back, and made his submission to myself in a manner the

+most abject, even giving me up his knife which (upon a repetition

+of his promises) I returned to him on the morrow.

+

+Two things I saw plain:  the first, that I must not build too high

+on Andie, who had shrunk against the wall and stood there, as pale

+as death, till the affair was over; the second, the strength of my

+own position with the Highlanders, who must have received

+extraordinary charges to be tender of my safety.  But if I thought

+Andie came not very well out in courage, I had no fault to find

+with him upon the account of gratitude.  It was not so much that he

+troubled me with thanks, as that his whole mind and manner appeared

+changed; and as he preserved ever after a great timidity of our

+companions, he and I were yet more constantly together.

+

+

+

+CHAPTER XVI--THE MISSING WITNESS

+

+

+

+On the seventeenth, the day I was trysted with the Writer, I had

+much rebellion against fate.  The thought of him waiting in the

+King's Arms, and of what he would think, and what he would say when

+next we met, tormented and oppressed me. The truth was

+unbelievable, so much I had to grant, and it seemed cruel hard I

+should be posted as a liar and a coward, and have never consciously

+omitted what it was possible that I should do.  I repeated this

+form of words with a kind of bitter relish, and re-examined in that

+light the steps of my behaviour.  It seemed I had behaved to James

+Stewart as a brother might; all the past was a picture that I could

+be proud of, and there was only the present to consider.  I could

+not swim the sea, nor yet fly in the air, but there was always

+Andie.  I had done him a service, he liked me; I had a lever there

+to work on; if it were just for decency, I must try once more with

+Andie.

+

+It was late afternoon; there was no sound in all the Bass but the

+lap and bubble of a very quiet sea; and my four companions were all

+crept apart, the three Macgregors higher on the rock, and Andie

+with his Bible to a sunny place among the ruins; there I found him

+in deep sleep, and, as soon as he was awake, appealed to him with

+some fervour of manner and a good show of argument.

+

+"If I thoucht it was to do guid to ye, Shaws!" said he, staring at

+me over his spectacles.

+

+"It's to save another," said I, "and to redeem my word.  What would

+be more good than that?  Do ye no mind the scripture, Andie?  And

+you with the Book upon your lap!  WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT A MAN IF HE

+GAIN THE WHOLE WORLD?"

+

+"Ay," said he, "that's grand for you.  But where do I come in!  I

+have my word to redeem the same's yoursel'.  And what are ye asking

+me to do, but just to sell it ye for siller?"

+

+"Andie! have I named the name of siller?" cried I.

+

+"Ou, the name's naething", said he; "the thing is there, whatever.

+It just comes to this; if I am to service ye the way that you

+propose, I'll lose my lifelihood.  Then it's clear ye'll have to

+make it up to me, and a pickle mair, for your ain credit like.  And

+what's that but just a bribe?  And if even I was certain of the

+bribe!  But by a' that I can learn, it's far frae that; and if YOU

+were to hang, where would _I_ be?  Na:  the thing's no possible.

+And just awa' wi' ye like a bonny lad! and let Andie read his

+chapter."

+

+I remember I was at bottom a good deal gratified with this result;

+and the next humour I fell into was one (I had near said) of

+gratitude to Prestongrange, who had saved me, in this violent,

+illegal manner, out of the midst of my dangers, temptations, and

+perplexities.  But this was both too flimsy and too cowardly to

+last me long, and the remembrance of James began to succeed to the

+possession of my spirits.  The 21st, the day set for the trial, I

+passed in such misery of mind as I can scarce recall to have

+endured, save perhaps upon Isle Earraid only.  Much of the time I

+lay on a brae-side betwixt sleep and waking, my body motionless, my

+mind full of violent thoughts.  Sometimes I slept indeed; but the

+court-house of Inverary and the prisoner glancing on all sides to

+find his missing witness, followed me in slumber; and I would wake

+again with a start to darkness of spirit and distress of body.  I

+thought Andie seemed to observe me, but I paid him little heed.

+Verily, my bread was bitter to me, and my days a burthen.

+

+Early the next morning (Friday, 22nd) a boat came with provisions,

+and Andie placed a packet in my hand.  The cover was without

+address but sealed with a Government seal.  It enclosed two notes.

+"Mr. Balfour can now see for himself it is too late to meddle.  His

+conduct will be observed and his discretion rewarded."  So ran the

+first, which seemed to be laboriously writ with the left hand.

+There was certainly nothing in these expressions to compromise the

+writer, even if that person could be found; the seal, which

+formidably served instead of signature, was affixed to a separate

+sheet on which there was no scratch of writing; and I had to

+confess that (so far) my adversaries knew what they were doing, and

+to digest as well as I was able the threat that peeped under the

+promise.

+

+But the second enclosure was by far the more surprising.  It was in

+a lady's hand of writ.  "MAISTER DAUVIT BALFOUR IS INFORMED A

+FRIEND WAS SPEIRING FOR HIM AND HER EYES WERE OF THE GREY," it ran-

+-and seemed so extraordinary a piece to come to my hands at such a

+moment and under cover of a Government seal, that I stood stupid.

+Catriona's grey eyes shone in my remembrance.  I thought, with a

+bound of pleasure, she must be the friend.  But who should the

+writer be, to have her billet thus enclosed with Prestongrange's?

+And of all wonders, why was it thought needful to give me this

+pleasing but most inconsequent intelligence upon the Bass?  For the

+writer, I could hit upon none possible except Miss Grant.  Her

+family, I remembered, had remarked on Catriona's eyes and even

+named her for their colour; and she herself had been much in the

+habit to address me with a broad pronunciation, by way of a sniff,

+I supposed, at my rusticity.  No doubt, besides, but she lived in

+the same house as this letter came from.  So there remained but one

+step to be accounted for; and that was how Prestongrange should

+have permitted her at all in an affair so secret, or let her daft-

+like billet go in the same cover with his own.  But even here I had

+a glimmering.  For, first of all, there was something rather

+alarming about the young lady, and papa might be more under her

+domination than I knew.  And, second, there was the man's continual

+policy to be remembered, how his conduct had been continually

+mingled with caresses, and he had scarce ever, in the midst of so

+much contention, laid aside a mask of friendship.  He must conceive

+that my imprisonment had incensed me.  Perhaps this little jesting,

+friendly message was intended to disarm my rancour?

+

+I will be honest--and I think it did.  I felt a sudden warmth

+towards that beautiful Miss Grant, that she should stoop to so much

+interest in my affairs.  The summoning up of Catriona moved me of

+itself to milder and more cowardly counsels.  If the Advocate knew

+of her and our acquaintance--if I should please him by some of that

+"discretion" at which his letter pointed--to what might not this

+lead!  IN VAIN IS THE NET PREPARED IN THE SIGHT OF ANY FOWL, the

+Scripture says.  Well, fowls must be wiser than folk!  For I

+thought I perceived the policy, and yet fell in with it.

+

+I was in this frame, my heart beating, the grey eyes plain before

+me like two stars, when Andie broke in upon my musing.

+

+"I see ye has gotten guid news," said he.

+

+I found him looking curiously in my face; with that there came

+before me like a vision of James Stewart and the court of Inverary;

+and my mind turned at once like a door upon its hinges.  Trials, I

+reflected, sometimes draw out longer than is looked for.  Even if I

+came to Inverary just too late, something might yet be attempted in

+the interests of James--and in those of my own character, the best

+would be accomplished.  In a moment, it seemed without thought, I

+had a plan devised.

+

+"Andie," said I, "is it still to be to-morrow?"

+

+He told me nothing was changed.

+

+"Was anything said about the hour?" I asked.

+

+He told me it was to be two o'clock afternoon.

+

+"And about the place?" I pursued.

+

+"Whatten place?" says Andie.

+

+"The place I am to be landed at?" said I.

+

+He owned there was nothing as to that.

+

+"Very well, then," I said, "this shall be mine to arrange.  The

+wind is in the east, my road lies westward:  keep your boat, I hire

+it; let us work up the Forth all day; and land me at two o'clock

+to-morrow at the westmost we'll can have reached."

+

+"Ye daft callant!" he cried; "ye would try for Inverary after a'!"

+

+"Just that, Andie," says I.

+

+"Weel, ye're ill to beat!" says he.  "And I was a kind o' sorry for

+ye a' day yesterday," he added.  "Ye see, I was never entirely sure

+till then, which way of it ye really wantit."

+

+Here was a spur to a lame horse!

+

+"A word in your ear, Andie," said I.  "This plan of mine has

+another advantage yet.  We can leave these Hielandman behind us on

+the rock, and one of your boats from the Castleton can bring them

+off to-morrow.  Yon Neil has a queer eye when he regards you;

+maybe, if I was once out of the gate there might be knives again;

+these red-shanks are unco grudgeful.  And if there should come to

+be any question, here is your excuse.  Our lives were in danger by

+these savages; being answerable for my safety, you chose the part

+to bring me from their neighbourhood and detain me the rest of the

+time on board your boat:  and do you know, Andie?" says I, with a

+smile, "I think it was very wisely chosen,"

+

+"The truth is I have nae goo for Neil," says Andie, "nor he for me,

+I'm thinking; and I would like ill to come to my hands wi' the man.

+Tam Anster will make a better hand of it with the cattle onyway."

+(For this man, Anster, came from Fife, where the Gaelic is still

+spoken.)  "Ay, ay!" says Andie, "Tam'll can deal with them the

+best.  And troth! the mair I think of it, the less I see we would

+be required.  The place--ay, feggs! they had forgot the place.  Eh,

+Shaws, ye're a lang-heided chield when ye like!  Forby that I'm

+awing ye my life," he added, with more solemnity, and offered me

+his hand upon the bargain.

+

+Whereupon, with scarce more words, we stepped suddenly on board the

+boat, cast off, and set the lug.  The Gregara were then busy upon

+breakfast, for the cookery was their usual part; but, one of them

+stepping to the battlements, our flight was observed before we were

+twenty fathoms from the rock; and the three of them ran about the

+ruins and the landing-shelf, for all the world like ants about a

+broken nest, hailing and crying on us to return.  We were still in

+both the lee and the shadow of the rock, which last lay broad upon

+the waters, but presently came forth in almost the same moment into

+the wind and sunshine; the sail filled, the boat heeled to the

+gunwale, and we swept immediately beyond sound of the men's voices.

+To what terrors they endured upon the rock, where they were now

+deserted without the countenance of any civilised person or so much

+as the protection of a Bible, no limit can be set; nor had they any

+brandy left to be their consolation, for even in the haste and

+secrecy of our departure Andie had managed to remove it.

+

+It was our first care to set Anster ashore in a cove by the

+Glenteithy Rocks, so that the deliverance of our maroons might be

+duly seen to the next day.  Thence we kept away up Firth.  The

+breeze, which was then so spirited, swiftly declined, but never

+wholly failed us.  All day we kept moving, though often not much

+more; and it was after dark ere we were up with the Queensferry.

+To keep the letter of Andie's engagement (or what was left of it) I

+must remain on board, but I thought no harm to communicate with the

+shore in writing.  On Prestongrange's cover, where the Government

+seal must have a good deal surprised my correspondent, I writ, by

+the boat's lantern, a few necessary words, aboard and Andie carried

+them to Rankeillor.  In about an hour he came again, with a purse

+of money and the assurance that a good horse should be standing

+saddled for me by two to-morrow at Clackmannan Pool.  This done,

+and the boat riding by her stone anchor, we lay down to sleep under

+the sail.

+

+We were in the Pool the next day long ere two; and there was

+nothing left for me but to sit and wait.  I felt little alacrity

+upon my errand.  I would have been glad of any passable excuse to

+lay it down; but none being to be found, my uneasiness was no less

+great than if I had been running to some desired pleasure.  By

+shortly after one the horse was at the waterside, and I could see a

+man walking it to and fro till I should land, which vastly swelled

+my impatience.  Andie ran the moment of my liberation very fine,

+showing himself a man of his bare word, but scarce serving his

+employers with a heaped measure; and by about fifty seconds after

+two I was in the saddle and on the full stretch for Stirling.  In a

+little more than an hour I had passed that town, and was already

+mounting Alan Water side, when the weather broke in a small

+tempest.  The rain blinded me, the wind had nearly beat me from the

+saddle, and the first darkness of the night surprised me in a

+wilderness still some way east of Balwhidder, not very sure of my

+direction and mounted on a horse that began already to be weary.

+

+In the press of my hurry, and to be spared the delay and annoyance

+of a guide, I had followed (so far as it was possible for any

+horseman) the line of my journey with Alan.  This I did with open

+eyes, foreseeing a great risk in it, which the tempest had now

+brought to a reality.  The last that I knew of where I was, I think

+it must have been about Uam Var; the hour perhaps six at night.  I

+must still think it great good fortune that I got about eleven to

+my destination, the house of Duncan Dhu.  Where I had wandered in

+the interval perhaps the horse could tell.  I know we were twice

+down, and once over the saddle and for a moment carried away in a

+roaring burn.  Steed and rider were bemired up to the eyes.

+

+From Duncan I had news of the trial.  It was followed in all these

+Highland regions with religious interest; news of it spread from

+Inverary as swift as men could travel; and I was rejoiced to learn

+that, up to a late hour that Saturday it was not yet concluded; and

+all men began to suppose it must spread over the Monday.  Under the

+spur of this intelligence I would not sit to eat; but, Duncan

+having agreed to be my guide, took the road again on foot, with the

+piece in my hand and munching as I went.  Duncan brought with him a

+flask of usquebaugh and a hand-lantern; which last enlightened us

+just so long as we could find houses where to rekindle it, for the

+thing leaked outrageously and blew out with every gust.  The more

+part of the night we walked blindfold among sheets of rain, and day

+found us aimless on the mountains.  Hard by we struck a hut on a

+burn-side, where we got bite and a direction; and, a little before

+the end of the sermon, came to the kirk doors of Inverary.

+

+The rain had somewhat washed the upper parts of me, but I was still

+bogged as high as to the knees; I streamed water; I was so weary I

+could hardly limp, and my face was like a ghost's.  I stood

+certainly more in need of a change of raiment and a bed to lie on,

+than of all the benefits in Christianity.  For all which (being

+persuaded the chief point for me was to make myself immediately

+public) I set the door of the church with the dirty Duncan at my

+tails, and finding a vacant place sat down.

+

+"Thirteently, my brethren, and in parenthesis, the law itself must

+be regarded as a means of grace," the minister was saying, in the

+voice of one delighting to pursue an argument.

+

+The sermon was in English on account of the assize.  The judges

+were present with their armed attendants, the halberts glittered in

+a corner by the door, and the seats were thronged beyond custom

+with the array of lawyers.  The text was in Romans 5th and 13th--

+the minister a skilled hand; and the whole of that able churchful--

+from Argyle, and my Lords Elchies and Kilkerran, down to the

+halbertmen that came in their attendance--was sunk with gathered

+brows in a profound critical attention.  The minister himself and a

+sprinkling of those about the door observed our entrance at the

+moment and immediately forgot the same; the rest either did not

+hear or would not hear or would not be heard; and I sat amongst my

+friends and enemies unremarked.

+

+The first that I singled out was Prestongrange.  He sat well

+forward, like an eager horseman in the saddle, his lips moving with

+relish, his eyes glued on the minister; the doctrine was clearly to

+his mind.  Charles Stewart, on the other hand, was half asleep, and

+looked harassed and pale.  As for Simon Fraser, he appeared like a

+blot, and almost a scandal, in the midst of that attentive

+congregation, digging his hands in his pockets, shifting his legs,

+clearing his throat, and rolling up his bald eyebrows and shooting

+out his eyes to right and left, now with a yawn, now with a secret

+smile.  At times, too, he would take the Bible in front of him, run

+it through, seem to read a bit, run it through again, and stop and

+yawn prodigiously:  the whole as if for exercise.

+

+In the course of this restlessness his eye alighted on myself.  He

+sat a second stupefied, then tore a half-leaf out of the Bible,

+scrawled upon it with a pencil, and passed it with a whispered word

+to his next neighbour.  The note came to Prestongrange, who gave me

+but the one look; thence it voyaged to the hands of Mr. Erskine;

+thence again to Argyle, where he sat between the other two lords of

+session, and his Grace turned and fixed me with an arrogant eye.

+The last of those interested in my presence was Charlie Stewart,

+and he too began to pencil and hand about dispatches, none of which

+I was able to trace to their destination in the crowd.

+

+But the passage of these notes had aroused notice; all who were in

+the secret (or supposed themselves to be so) were whispering

+information--the rest questions; and the minister himself seemed

+quite discountenanced by the flutter in the church and sudden stir

+and whispering.  His voice changed, he plainly faltered, nor did he

+again recover the easy conviction and full tones of his delivery.

+It would be a puzzle to him till his dying day, why a sermon that

+had gone with triumph through four parts, should this miscarry in

+the fifth.

+

+As for me, I continued to sit there, very wet and weary, and a good

+deal anxious as to what should happen next, but greatly exulting in

+my success.

+

+

+

+CHAPTER XVII--THE MEMORIAL

+

+

+

+The last word of the blessing was scarce out of the minister's

+mouth before Stewart had me by the arm.  We were the first to be

+forth of the church, and he made such extraordinary expedition that

+we were safe within the four walls of a house before the street had

+begun to be thronged with the home-going congregation.

+

+"Am I yet in time?" I asked.

+

+"Ay and no," said he.  "The case is over; the jury is enclosed, and

+will so kind as let us ken their view of it to-morrow in the

+morning, the same as I could have told it my own self three days

+ago before the play began.  The thing has been public from the

+start.  The panel kent it, 'YE MAY DO WHAT YE WILL FOR ME,'

+whispers he two days ago.  'YE KEN MY FATE BY WHAT THE DUKE OF

+ARGYLE HAS JUST SAID TO MR. MACINTOSH.'  O, it's been a scandal!

+

+

+"The great Agyle he gaed before,

+He gart the cannons and guns to roar,"

+

+

+and the very macer cried 'Cruachan!'  But now that I have got you

+again I'll never despair.  The oak shall go over the myrtle yet;

+we'll ding the Campbells yet in their own town.  Praise God that I

+should see the day!"

+

+He was leaping with excitement, emptied out his mails upon the

+floor that I might have a change of clothes, and incommoded me with

+his assistance as I changed.  What remained to be done, or how I

+was to do it, was what he never told me nor, I believe, so much as

+thought of.  "We'll ding the Campbells yet!" that was still his

+overcome.  And it was forced home upon my mind how this, that had

+the externals of a sober process of law, was in its essence a clan

+battle between savage clans.  I thought my friend the Writer none

+of the least savage.  Who that had only seen him at a counsel's

+back before the Lord Ordinary or following a golf ball and laying

+down his clubs on Bruntsfield links, could have recognised for the

+same person this voluble and violent clansman?

+

+James Stewart's counsel were four in number--Sheriffs Brown of

+Colstoun and Miller, Mr. Robert Macintosh, and Mr. Stewart younger

+of Stewart Hall.  These were covenanted to dine with the Writer

+after sermon, and I was very obligingly included of the party.  No

+sooner the cloth lifted, and the first bowl very artfully

+compounded by Sheriff Miller, than we fell to the subject in hand.

+I made a short narration of my seizure and captivity, and was then

+examined and re-examined upon the circumstances of the murder.  It

+will be remembered this was the first time I had had my say out, or

+the matter at all handled, among lawyers; and the consequence was

+very dispiriting to the others and (I must own) disappointing to

+myself.

+

+"To sum up," said Colstoun, "you prove that Alan was on the spot;

+you have heard him proffer menaces against Glenure; and though you

+assure us he was not the man who fired, you leave a strong

+impression that he was in league with him, and consenting, perhaps

+immediately assisting, in the act.  You show him besides, at the

+risk of his own liberty, actively furthering the criminal's escape.

+And the rest of your testimony (so far as the least material)

+depends on the bare word of Alan or of James, the two accused.  In

+short, you do not at all break, but only lengthen by one personage,

+the chain that binds our client to the murderer; and I need

+scarcely say that the introduction of a third accomplice rather

+aggravates that appearance of a conspiracy which has been our

+stumbling block from the beginning."

+

+"I am of the same opinion," said Sheriff Miller.  "I think we may

+all be very much obliged to Prestongrange for taking a most

+uncomfortable witness out of our way.  And chiefly, I think, Mr.

+Balfour himself might be obliged.  For you talk of a third

+accomplice, but Mr. Balfour (in my view) has very much the

+appearance of a fourth."

+

+"Allow me, sirs!" interposed Stewart the Writer.  "There is another

+view.  Here we have a witness--never fash whether material or not--

+a witness in this cause, kidnapped by that old, lawless, bandit

+crew of the Glengyle Macgregors, and sequestered for near upon a

+month in a bourock of old ruins on the Bass.  Move that and see

+what dirt you fling on the proceedings!  Sirs, this is a tale to

+make the world ring with!  It would be strange, with such a grip as

+this, if we couldnae squeeze out a pardon for my client."

+

+"And suppose we took up Mr. Balfour's cause to-morrow?" said

+Stewart Hall.  "I am much deceived or we should find so many

+impediments thrown in our path, as that James should have been

+hanged before we had found a court to hear us.  This is a great

+scandal, but I suppose we have none of us forgot a greater still, I

+mean the matter of the Lady Grange.  The woman was still in

+durance; my friend Mr. Hope of Rankeillor did what was humanly

+possible; and how did he speed? He never got a warrant!  Well,

+it'll be the same now; the same weapons will be used.  This is a

+scene, gentleman, of clan animosity.  The hatred of the name which

+I have the honour to bear, rages in high quarters.  There is

+nothing here to be viewed but naked Campbell spite and scurvy

+Campbell intrigue."

+

+You may be sure this was to touch a welcome topic, and I sat for

+some time in the midst of my learned counsel, almost deaved with

+their talk but extremely little the wiser for its purport.  The

+Writer was led into some hot expressions; Colstoun must take him up

+and set him right; the rest joined in on different sides, but all

+pretty noisy; the Duke of Argyle was beaten like a blanket; King

+George came in for a few digs in the by-going and a great deal of

+rather elaborate defence; and there was only one person that seemed

+to be forgotten, and that was James of the Glens.

+

+Through all this Mr. Miller sat quiet.  He was a slip of an oldish

+gentleman, ruddy and twinkling; he spoke in a smooth rich voice,

+with an infinite effect of pawkiness, dealing out each word the way

+an actor does, to give the most expression possible; and even now,

+when he was silent, and sat there with his wig laid aside, his

+glass in both hands, his mouth funnily pursed, and his chin out, he

+seemed the mere picture of a merry slyness.  It was plain he had a

+word to say, and waited for the fit occasion.

+

+It came presently.  Colstoun had wound up one of his speeches with

+some expression of their duty to their client.  His brother sheriff

+was pleased, I suppose, with the transition.  He took the table in

+his confidence with a gesture and a look.

+

+"That suggests to me a consideration which seems overlooked," said

+he.  "The interest of our client goes certainly before all, but the

+world does not come to an end with James Stewart."  Whereat he

+cocked his eye.  "I might condescend, exempli gratia, upon a Mr.

+George Brown, a Mr. Thomas Miller, and a Mr. David Balfour.  Mr.

+David Balfour has a very good ground of complaint, and I think,

+gentlemen--if his story was properly redd out--I think there would

+be a number of wigs on the green."

+

+The whole table turned to him with a common movement.

+

+"Properly handled and carefully redd out, his is a story that could

+scarcely fail to have some consequence," he continued.  "The whole

+administration of justice, from its highest officer downward, would

+be totally discredited; and it looks to me as if they would need to

+be replaced."  He seemed to shine with cunning as he said it.  "And

+I need not point out to ye that this of Mr. Balfour's would be a

+remarkable bonny cause to appear in," he added.

+

+Well, there they all were started on another hare; Mr. Balfour's

+cause, and what kind of speeches could be there delivered, and what

+officials could be thus turned out, and who would succeed to their

+positions.  I shall give but the two specimens.  It was proposed to

+approach Simon Fraser, whose testimony, if it could be obtained,

+would prove certainly fatal to Argyle and to Prestongrange.  Miller

+highly approved of the attempt.  "We have here before us a dreeping

+roast," said he, "here is cut-and-come-again for all."  And

+methought all licked their lips.  The other was already near the

+end.  Stewart the Writer was out of the body with delight, smelling

+vengeance on his chief enemy, the Duke.

+

+"Gentlemen," cried he, charging his glass, "here is to Sheriff

+Miller.  His legal abilities are known to all.  His culinary, this

+bowl in front of us is here to speak for.  But when it comes to the

+poleetical!"--cries he, and drains the glass.

+

+"Ay, but it will hardly prove politics in your meaning, my friend,"

+said the gratified Miller.  "A revolution, if you like, and I think

+I can promise you that historical writers shall date from Mr.

+Balfour's cause.  But properly guided, Mr. Stewart, tenderly

+guided, it shall prove a peaceful revolution."

+

+"And if the damned Campbells get their ears rubbed, what care I?"

+cries Stewart, smiting down his fist.

+

+It will be thought I was not very well pleased with all this,

+though I could scarce forbear smiling at a kind of innocency in

+these old intriguers.  But it was not my view to have undergone so

+many sorrows for the advancement of Sheriff Miller or to make a

+revolution in the Parliament House:  and I interposed accordingly

+with as much simplicity of manner as I could assume.

+

+"I have to thank you, gentlemen, for your advice," said I.  "And

+now I would like, by your leave, to set you two or three questions.

+There is one thing that has fallen rather on one aide, for

+instance:  Will this cause do any good to our friend James of the

+Glens?"

+

+They seemed all a hair set back, and gave various answers, but

+concurring practically in one point, that James had now no hope but

+in the King's mercy.

+

+"To proceed, then," said I, "will it do any good to Scotland?  We

+have a saying that it is an ill bird that fouls his own nest.  I

+remember hearing we had a riot in Edinburgh when I was an infant

+child, which gave occasion to the late Queen to call this country

+barbarous; and I always understood that we had rather lost than

+gained by that.  Then came the year 'Forty-five, which made

+Scotland to be talked of everywhere; but I never heard it said we

+had anyway gained by the 'Forty-five.  And now we come to this

+cause of Mr. Balfour's, as you call it.  Sheriff Miller tells us

+historical writers are to date from it, and I would not wonder.  It

+is only my fear they would date from it as a period of calamity and

+public reproach."

+

+The nimble-witted Miller had already smelt where I was travelling

+to, and made haste to get on the same road.  "Forcibly put, Mr.

+Balfour," says he.  "A weighty observe, sir."

+

+"We have next to ask ourselves if it will be good for King George,"

+I pursued.  "Sheriff Miller appears pretty easy upon this; but I

+doubt you will scarce be able to pull down the house from under

+him, without his Majesty coming by a knock or two, one of which

+might easily prove fatal."

+

+I have them a chance to answer, but none volunteered.

+

+"Of those for whom the case was to be profitable," I went on,

+"Sheriff Miller gave us the names of several, among the which he

+was good enough to mention mine.  I hope he will pardon me if I

+think otherwise.  I believe I hung not the least back in this

+affair while there was life to be saved; but I own I thought myself

+extremely hazarded, and I own I think it would be a pity for a

+young man, with some idea of coming to the Bar, to ingrain upon

+himself the character of a turbulent, factious fellow before he was

+yet twenty.  As for James, it seems--at this date of the

+proceedings, with the sentence as good as pronounced--he has no

+hope but in the King's mercy.  May not his Majesty, then, be more

+pointedly addressed, the characters of these high officers

+sheltered from the public, and myself kept out of a position which

+I think spells ruin for me?"

+

+They all sat and gazed into their glasses, and I could see they

+found my attitude on the affair unpalatable.  But Miller was ready

+at all events.

+

+"If I may be allowed to put my young friend's notion in more formal

+shape," says he, "I understand him to propose that we should embody

+the fact of his sequestration, and perhaps some heads of the

+testimony he was prepared to offer, in a memorial to the Crown.

+This plan has elements of success.  It is as likely as any other

+(and perhaps likelier) to help our client.  Perhaps his Majesty

+would have the goodness to feel a certain gratitude to all

+concerned in such a memorial, which might be construed into an

+expression of a very delicate loyalty; and I think, in the drafting

+of the same, this view might be brought forward."

+

+They all nodded to each other, not without sighs, for the former

+alternative was doubtless more after their inclination.

+

+"Paper, then, Mr. Stewart, if you please," pursued Miller; "and I

+think it might very fittingly be signed by the five of us here

+present, as procurators for the condemned man."'

+

+"It can do none of us any harm, at least," says Colstoun, heaving

+another sigh, for he had seen himself Lord Advocate the last ten

+minutes.

+

+Thereupon they set themselves, not very enthusiastically, to draft

+the memorial--a process in the course of which they soon caught

+fire; and I had no more ado but to sit looking on and answer an

+occasional question.  The paper was very well expressed; beginning

+with a recitation of the facts about myself, the reward offered for

+my apprehension, my surrender, the pressure brought to bear upon

+me; my sequestration; and my arrival at Inverary in time to be too

+late; going on to explain the reasons of loyalty and public

+interest for which it was agreed to waive any right of action; and

+winding up with a forcible appeal to the King's mercy on behalf of

+James.

+

+Methought I was a good deal sacrificed, and rather represented in

+the light of a firebrand of a fellow whom my cloud of lawyers had

+restrained with difficulty from extremes.  But I let it pass, and

+made but the one suggestion, that I should be described as ready to

+deliver my own evidence and adduce that of others before any

+commission of inquiry--and the one demand, that I should be

+immediately furnished with a copy.

+

+Colstoun hummed and hawed.  "This is a very confidential document,"

+said he.

+

+"And my position towards Prestongrange is highly peculiar," I

+replied.  "No question but I must have touched his heart at our

+first interview, so that he has since stood my friend consistently.

+But for him, gentlemen, I must now be lying dead or awaiting my

+sentence alongside poor James.  For which reason I choose to

+communicate to him the fact of this memorial as soon as it is

+copied.  You are to consider also that this step will make for my

+protection.  I have enemies here accustomed to drive hard; his

+Grace is in his own country, Lovat by his side; and if there should

+hang any ambiguity over our proceedings I think I might very well

+awake in gaol."

+

+Not finding any very ready answer to these considerations, my

+company of advisers were at the last persuaded to consent, and made

+only this condition that I was to lay the paper before

+Prestongrange with the express compliments of all concerned.

+

+The Advocate was at the castle dining with his Grace.  By the hand

+of one of Colstoun's servants I sent him a billet asking for an

+interview, and received a summons to meet him at once in a private

+house of the town.  Here I found him alone in a chamber; from his

+face there was nothing to be gleaned; yet I was not so unobservant

+but what I spied some halberts in the hall, and not so stupid but

+what I could gather he was prepared to arrest me there and then,

+should it appear advisable.

+

+"So, Mr. David, this is you?" said he.

+

+"Where I fear I am not overly welcome, my lord," said I.  "And I

+would like before I go further to express my sense of your

+lordship's good offices, even should they now cease."

+

+"I have heard of your gratitude before," he replied drily, "and I

+think this can scarce be the matter you called me from my wine to

+listen to.  I would remember also, if I were you, that you still

+stand on a very boggy foundation."

+

+"Not now, my lord, I think," said I; "and if your lordship will but

+glance an eye along this, you will perhaps think as I do."

+

+He read it sedulously through, frowning heavily; then turned back

+to one part and another which he seemed to weigh and compare the

+effect of.  His face a little lightened.

+

+"This is not so bad but what it might be worse," said he; "though I

+am still likely to pay dear for my acquaintance with Mr. David

+Balfour."

+

+"Rather for your indulgence to that unlucky young man, my lord,"

+said I.

+

+He still skimmed the paper, and all the while his spirits seemed to

+mend.

+

+"And to whom am I indebted for this?" he asked presently.  "Other

+counsels must have been discussed, I think.  Who was it proposed

+this private method?  Was it Miller?"

+

+"My lord, it was myself," said I.  "These gentlemen have shown me

+no such consideration, as that I should deny myself any credit I

+can fairly claim, or spare them any responsibility they should

+properly bear.  And the mere truth is, that they were all in favour

+of a process which should have remarkable consequences in the

+Parliament House, and prove for them (in one of their own

+expressions) a dripping roast.  Before I intervened, I think they

+were on the point of sharing out the different law appointments.

+Our friend Mr. Simon was to be taken in upon some composition."

+

+Prestongrange smiled.  "These are our friends," said he.  "And what

+were your reasons for dissenting, Mr. David?"

+

+I told them without concealment, expressing, however, with more

+force and volume those which regarded Prestongrange himself.

+

+"You do me no more than justice," said he.  "I have fought as hard

+in your interest as you have fought against mine.  And how came you

+here to-day?" he asked.  "As the case drew out, I began to grow

+uneasy that I had clipped the period so fine, and I was even

+expecting you to-morrow.  But to-day--I never dreamed of it."

+

+I was not of course, going to betray Andie.

+

+"I suspect there is some very weary cattle by the road," said I

+

+"If I had known you were such a mosstrooper you should have tasted

+longer of the Bass," says he.

+

+"Speaking of which, my lord, I return your letter."  And I gave him

+the enclosure in the counterfeit hand.

+

+"There was the cover also with the seal," said he.

+

+"I have it not," said I.  "It bore not even an address, and could

+not compromise a cat.  The second enclosure I have, and with your

+permission, I desire to keep it."

+

+I thought he winced a little, but he said nothing to the point.

+"To-morrow," he resumed, "our business here is to be finished, and

+I proceed by Glasgow.  I would be very glad to have you of my

+party, Mr David."

+

+"My lord . . ." I began.

+

+"I do not deny it will be of service to me," he interrupted.  "I

+desire even that, when we shall come to Edinburgh, you should

+alight at my house.  You have very warm friends in the Miss Grants,

+who will be overjoyed to have you to themselves.  If you think I

+have been of use to you, you can thus easily repay me, and so far

+from losing, may reap some advantage by the way.  It is not every

+strange young man who is presented in society by the King's

+Advocate."

+

+Often enough already (in our brief relations) this gentleman had

+caused my head to spin; no doubt but what for a moment he did so

+again now.  Here was the old fiction still maintained of my

+particular favour with his daughters, one of whom had been so good

+as to laugh at me, while the other two had scarce deigned to remark

+the fact of my existence.  And now I was to ride with my lord to

+Glasgow; I was to dwell with him in Edinburgh; I was to be brought

+into society under his protection!  That he should have so much

+good-nature as to forgive me was surprising enough; that he could

+wish to take me up and serve me seemed impossible; and I began to

+seek some ulterior meaning.  One was plain.  If I became his guest,

+repentance was excluded; I could never think better of my present

+design and bring any action.  And besides, would not my presence in

+his house draw out the whole pungency of the memorial?  For that

+complaint could not be very seriously regarded, if the person

+chiefly injured was the guest of the official most incriminated.

+As I thought upon this I could not quite refrain from smiling.

+

+"This is in the nature of a countercheck to the memorial?" said I.

+

+"You are cunning, Mr. David," said he, "and you do not wholly guess

+wrong the fact will be of use to me in my defence.  Perhaps,

+however, you underrate friendly sentiments, which are perfectly

+genuine.  I have a respect for you, David, mingled with awe," says

+he, smiling.

+

+"I am more than willing, I am earnestly desirous to meet your

+wishes," said I.  "It is my design to be called to the Bar, where

+your lordship's countenance would be invaluable; and I am besides

+sincerely grateful to yourself and family for different marks of

+interest and of indulgence.  The difficulty is here.  There is one

+point in which we pull two ways.  You are trying to hang James

+Stewart, I am trying to save him.  In so far as my riding with you

+would better your lordship's defence, I am at your lordships

+orders; but in so far as it would help to hang James Stewart, you

+see me at a stick."

+

+I thought he swore to himself.  "You should certainly be called;

+the Bar is the true scene for your talents," says he, bitterly, and

+then fell a while silent.  "I will tell you," he presently resumed,

+"there is no question of James Stewart, for or against, James is a

+dead man; his life is given and taken--bought (if you like it

+better) and sold; no memorial can help--no defalcation of a

+faithful Mr. David hurt him.  Blow high, blow low, there will be no

+pardon for James Stewart:  and take that for said!  The question is

+now of myself:  am I to stand or fall? and I do not deny to you

+that I am in some danger.  But will Mr. David Balfour consider why?

+It is not because I pushed the case unduly against James; for that,

+I am sure of condonation.  And it is not because I have sequestered

+Mr. David on a rock, though it will pass under that colour; but

+because I did not take the ready and plain path, to which I was

+pressed repeatedly, and send Mr. David to his grave or to the

+gallows.  Hence the scandal--hence this damned memorial," striking

+the paper on his leg.  "My tenderness for you has brought me in

+this difficulty.  I wish to know if your tenderness to your own

+conscience is too great to let you help me out of it."

+

+No doubt but there was much of the truth in what he said; if James

+was past helping, whom was it more natural that I should turn to

+help than just the man before me, who had helped myself so often,

+and was even now setting me a pattern of patience?  I was besides

+not only weary, but beginning to be ashamed, of my perpetual

+attitude of suspicion and refusal

+

+"If you will name the time and place, I will be punctually ready to

+attend your lordship," said I.

+

+He shook hands with me.  "And I think my misses have some news for

+you," says he, dismissing me.

+

+I came away, vastly pleased to have my peace made, yet a little

+concerned in conscience; nor could I help wondering, as I went

+back, whether, perhaps, I had not been a scruple too good-natured.

+But there was the fact, that this was a man that might have been my

+father, an able man, a great dignitary, and one that, in the hour

+of my need, had reached a hand to my assistance.  I was in the

+better humour to enjoy the remainder of that evening, which I

+passed with the advocates, in excellent company no doubt, but

+perhaps with rather more than a sufficiency of punch:  for though I

+went early to bed I have no clear mind of how I got there.

+

+

+

+CHAPTER XVIII--THE TEE'D BALL

+

+

+

+On the morrow, from the justices' private room, where none could

+see me, I heard the verdict given in and judgment rendered upon

+James.  The Duke's words I am quite sure I have correctly; and

+since that famous passage has been made a subject of dispute, I may

+as well commemorate my version.  Having referred to the year '45,

+the chief of the Campbells, sitting as Justice-General upon the

+bench, thus addressed the unfortunate Stewart before him:  "If you

+had been successful in that rebellion, you might have been giving

+the law where you have now received the judgment of it; we, who are

+this day your judges, might have been tried before one of your mock

+courts of judicature; and then you might have been satiated with

+the blood of any name or clan to which you had an aversion."

+

+"This is to let the cat out of the bag, indeed," thought I.  And

+that was the general impression.  It was extraordinary how the

+young advocate lads took hold and made a mock of this speech, and

+how scarce a meal passed but what someone would get in the words:

+"And then you might have been satiated."  Many songs were made in

+time for the hour's diversion, and are near all forgot.  I remember

+one began:

+

+

+"What do ye want the bluid of, bluid of?

+Is it a name, or is it a clan,

+Or is it an aefauld Hielandman,

+That ye want the bluid of, bluid of?"

+

+

+Another went to my old favourite air, The House of Airlie, and

+began thus:

+

+

+"It fell on a day when Argyle was on the bench,

+That they served him a Stewart for his denner."

+

+

+And one of the verses ran:

+

+

+"Then up and spak' the Duke, and flyted on his cook,

+I regard it as a sensible aspersion,

+That I would sup ava', an' satiate my maw,

+With the bluid of ony clan of my aversion."

+

+

+James was as fairly murdered as though the Duke had got a fowling-

+piece and stalked him.  So much of course I knew:  but others knew

+not so much, and were more affected by the items of scandal that

+came to light in the progress of the cause.  One of the chief was

+certainly this sally of the justice's.  It was run hard by another

+of a juryman, who had struck into the midst of Coulston's speech

+for the defence with a "Pray, sir, cut it short, we are quite

+weary," which seemed the very excess of impudence and simplicity.

+But some of my new lawyer friends were still more staggered with an

+innovation that had disgraced and even vitiated the proceedings.

+One witness was never called.  His name, indeed, was printed, where

+it may still be seen on the fourth page of the list:  "James

+Drummond, alias Macgregor, alias James More, late tenant in

+Inveronachile"; and his precognition had been taken, as the manner

+is, in writing.  He had remembered or invented (God help him)

+matter which was lead in James Stewart's shoes, and I saw was like

+to prove wings to his own.  This testimony it was highly desirable

+to bring to the notice of the jury, without exposing the man

+himself to the perils of cross-examination; and the way it was

+brought about was a matter of surprise to all.  For the paper was

+handed round (like a curiosity) in court; passed through the jury-

+box, where it did its work; and disappeared again (as though by

+accident) before it reached the counsel for the prisoner.  This was

+counted a most insidious device; and that the name of James More

+should be mingled up with it filled me with shame for Catriona and

+concern for myself.

+

+The following day, Prestongrange and I, with a considerable

+company, set out for Glasgow, where (to my impatience) we continued

+to linger some time in a mixture of pleasure and affairs.  I lodged

+with my lord, with whom I was encouraged to familiarity; had my

+place at entertainments; was presented to the chief guests; and

+altogether made more of than I thought accorded either with my

+parts or station; so that, on strangers being present, I would

+often blush for Prestongrange.  It must be owned the view I had

+taken of the world in these last months was fit to cast a gloom

+upon my character.  I had met many men, some of them leaders in

+Israel whether by their birth or talents; and who among them all

+had shown clean hands?  As for the Browns and Millers, I had seen

+their self-seeking, I could never again respect them.

+Prestongrange was the best yet; he had saved me, spared me rather,

+when others had it in their minds to murder me outright; but the

+blood of James lay at his door; and I thought his present

+dissimulation with myself a thing below pardon.  That he should

+affect to find pleasure in my discourse almost surprised me out of

+my patience.  I would sit and watch him with a kind of a slow fire

+of anger in my bowels.  "Ah, friend, friend," I would think to

+myself, "if you were but through with this affair of the memorial,

+would you not kick me in the streets?"  Here I did him, as events

+have proved, the most grave injustice; and I think he was at once

+far more sincere, and a far more artful performer, than I supposed.

+

+But I had some warrant for my incredulity in the behaviour of that

+court of young advocates that hung about in the hope of patronage.

+The sudden favour of a lad not previously heard of troubled them at

+first out of measure; but two days were not gone by before I found

+myself surrounded with flattery and attention.  I was the same

+young man, and neither better nor bonnier, that they had rejected a

+month before; and now there was no civility too fine for me!  The

+same, do I say?  It was not so; and the by-name by which I went

+behind my back confirmed it.  Seeing me so firm with the Advocate,

+and persuaded that I was to fly high and far, they had taken a word

+from the golfing green, and called me THE TEE'D BALL. {14}  I was

+told I was now "one of themselves"; I was to taste of their soft

+lining, who had already made my own experience of the roughness of

+the outer husk; and one, to whom I had been presented in Hope Park,

+was so aspired as even to remind me of that meeting.  I told him I

+had not the pleasure of remembering it.

+

+"Why" says he, "it was Miss Grant herself presented me!  My name is

+so-and-so."

+

+"It may very well be, sir," said I; "but I have kept no mind of

+it."

+

+At which he desisted; and in the midst of the disgust that commonly

+overflowed my spirits I had a glisk of pleasure.

+

+But I have not patience to dwell upon that time at length.  When I

+was in company with these young politics I was borne down with

+shame for myself and my own plain ways, and scorn for them and

+their duplicity.  Of the two evils, I thought Prestongrange to be

+the least; and while I was always as stiff as buckram to the young

+bloods, I made rather a dissimulation of my hard feelings towards

+the Advocate, and was (in old Mr. Campbell's word) "soople to the

+laird."  Himself commented on the difference, and bid me be more of

+my age, and make friends with my young comrades.

+

+I told him I was slow of making friends.

+

+"I will take the word back," said he.  "But there is such a thing

+as FAIR GUDE S'EN AND FAIR GUDE DAY, Mr. David.  These are the same

+young men with whom you are to pass your days and get through life:

+your backwardness has a look of arrogance; and unless you can

+assume a little more lightness of manner, I fear you will meet

+difficulties in the path."

+

+"It will be an ill job to make a silk purse of a sow's ear," said

+I.

+

+On the morning of October 1st I was awakened by the clattering in

+of an express; and getting to my window almost before he had

+dismounted, I saw the messenger had ridden hard.  Somewhile after I

+was called to Prestongrange, where he was sitting in his bedgown

+and nightcap, with his letters round him.

+

+"Mr. David," add he, "I have a piece of news for you.  It concerns

+some friends of yours, of whom I sometimes think you are a little

+ashamed, for you have never referred to their existence."

+

+I suppose I blushed.

+

+"See you understand, since you make the answering signal," said he.

+"And I must compliment you on your excellent taste in beauty.  But

+do you know, Mr. David? this seems to me a very enterprising lass.

+She crops up from every side.  The Government of Scotland appears

+unable to proceed for Mistress Katrine Drummond, which was somewhat

+the case (no great while back) with a certain Mr. David Balfour.

+Should not these make a good match?  Her first intromission in

+politics--but I must not tell you that story, the authorities have

+decided you are to hear it otherwise and from a livelier narrator.

+This new example is more serious, however; and I am afraid I must

+alarm you with the intelligence that she is now in prison."

+

+I cried out.

+

+"Yes," said he, "the little lady is in prison.  But I would not

+have you to despair.  Unless you (with your friends and memorials)

+shall procure my downfall, she is to suffer nothing."

+

+"But what has she done?  What is her offence?" I cried.

+

+"It might be almost construed a high treason," he returned, "for

+she has broke the king's Castle of Edinburgh."

+

+"The lady is much my friend," I said.  "I know you would not mock

+me if the thing were serious."

+

+"And yet it is serious in a sense," said he; "for this rogue of a

+Katrine--or Cateran, as we may call her--has set adrift again upon

+the world that very doubtful character, her papa."

+

+Here was one of my previsions justified:  James More was once again

+at liberty.  He had lent his men to keep me a prisoner; he had

+volunteered his testimony in the Appin case, and the same (no

+matter by what subterfuge) had been employed to influence the jury.

+Now came his reward, and he was free.  It might please the

+authorities to give to it the colour of an escape; but I knew

+better--I knew it must be the fulfilment of a bargain.  The same

+course of thought relieved me of the least alarm for Catriona.  She

+might be thought to have broke prison for her father; she might

+have believed so herself.  But the chief hand in the whole business

+was that of Prestongrange; and I was sure, so far from letting her

+come to punishment, he would not suffer her to be even tried.

+Whereupon thus came out of me the not very politic ejaculation:

+

+"Ah! I was expecting that!"

+

+"You have at times a great deal of discretion, too!" says

+Prestongrange.

+

+"And what is my lord pleased to mean by that?" I asked.

+

+"I was just marvelling", he replied, "that being so clever as to

+draw these inferences, you should not be clever enough to keep them

+to yourself.  But I think you would like to hear the details of the

+affair.  I have received two versions:  and the least official is

+the more full and far the more entertaining, being from the lively

+pen of my eldest daughter.  'Here is all the town bizzing with a

+fine piece of work,' she writes, 'and what would make the thing

+more noted (if it were only known) the malefactor is a protegee of

+his lordship my papa.  I am sure your heart is too much in your

+duty (if it were nothing else) to have forgotten Grey Eyes.  What

+does she do, but get a broad hat with the flaps open, a long hairy-

+like man's greatcoat, and a big gravatt; kilt her coats up to GUDE

+KENS WHAUR, clap two pair of boot-hose upon her legs, take a pair

+of CLOUTED BROGUES {15} in her hand, and off to the Castle!  Here

+she gives herself out to be a soutar {16} in the employ of James

+More, and gets admitted to his cell, the lieutenant (who seems to

+have been full of pleasantry) making sport among his soldiers of

+the soutar's greatcoat.  Presently they hear disputation and the

+sound of blows inside.  Out flies the cobbler, his coat flying, the

+flaps of his hat beat about his face, and the lieutenant and his

+soldiers mock at him as he runs off.  They laughed no so hearty the

+next time they had occasion to visit the cell and found nobody but

+a tall, pretty, grey-eyed lass in the female habit!  As for the

+cobbler, he was 'over the hills ayout Dumblane,' and it's thought

+that poor Scotland will have to console herself without him.  I

+drank Catriona's health this night in public.

+

+Indeed, the whole town admires her; and I think the beaux would

+wear bits of her garters in their button-holes if they could only

+get them.  I would have gone to visit her in prison too, only I

+remembered in time I was papa's daughter; so I wrote her a billet

+instead, which I entrusted to the faithful Doig, and I hope you

+will admit I can be political when I please.  The same faithful

+gomeral is to despatch this letter by the express along with those

+of the wiseacres, so that you may hear Tom Fool in company with

+Solomon.  Talking of GOMERALS, do tell DAUVIT BALFOUR.  I would I

+could see the face of him at the thought of a long-legged lass in

+such a predicament; to say nothing of the levities of your

+affectionate daughter, and his respectful friend.'  So my rascal

+signs herself!" continued Prestongrange.  "And you see, Mr. David,

+it is quite true what I tell you, that my daughters regard you with

+the most affectionate playfulness."

+

+"The gomeral is much obliged," said I.

+

+"And was not this prettily done!" he went on.  "Is not this

+Highland maid a piece of a heroine?"

+

+"I was always sure she had a great heart," said I.  "And I wager

+she guessed nothing . . . But I beg your pardon, this is to tread

+upon forbidden subjects."

+

+"I will go bail she did not," he returned, quite openly.  "I will

+go bail she thought she was flying straight into King George's

+face."

+

+Remembrance of Catriona and the thought of her lying in captivity,

+moved me strangely.  I could see that even Prestongrange admired,

+and could not withhold his lips from smiling when he considered her

+behaviour.  As for Miss Grant, for all her ill habit of mockery,

+her admiration shone out plain.  A kind of a heat came on me.

+

+"I am not your lordship's daughter. . . " I began.

+

+"That I know of!" he put in, smiling.

+

+"I speak like a fool," said I; "or rather I began wrong.  It would

+doubtless be unwise in Mistress Grant to go to her in prison; but

+for me, I think I would look like a half-hearted friend if I did

+not fly there instantly."

+

+"So-ho, Mr. David," says he; "I thought that you and I were in a

+bargain?"

+

+"My lord," I said, "when I made that bargain I was a good deal

+affected by your goodness, but I'll never can deny that I was moved

+besides by my own interest.  There was self-seeking in my heart,

+and I think shame of it now.  It may be for your lordship's safety

+to say this fashious Davie Balfour is your friend and housemate.

+Say it then; I'll never contradict you.  But as for your patronage,

+I give it all back.  I ask but the one thing--let me go, and give

+me a pass to see her in her prison."

+

+He looked at me with a hard eye.  "You put the cart before the

+horse, I think," says he.  "That which I had given was a portion of

+my liking, which your thankless nature does not seem to have

+remarked.  But for my patronage, it is not given, nor (to be exact)

+is it yet offered."  He paused a bit.  "And I warn you, you do not

+know yourself," he added.  "Youth is a hasty season; you will think

+better of all this before a year."

+

+"Well, and I would like to be that kind of youth!" I cried.  "I

+have seen too much of the other party in these young advocates that

+fawn upon your lordship and are even at the pains to fawn on me.

+And I have seen it in the old ones also.  They are all for by-ends,

+the whole clan of them!  It's this that makes me seem to misdoubt

+your lordship's liking.  Why would I think that you would like me?

+But ye told me yourself ye had an interest!"

+

+I stopped at this, confounded that I had run so far; he was

+observing me with an unfathomable face.

+

+"My lord, I ask your pardon," I resumed.  "I have nothing in my

+chafts but a rough country tongue.  I think it would be only

+decent-like if I would go to see my friend in her captivity; but

+I'm owing you my life--I'll never forget that; and if it's for your

+lordship's good, here I'll stay.  That's barely gratitude."

+

+"This might have been reached in fewer words," says Prestongrange

+grimly.  "It is easy, and it is at times gracious, to say a plain

+Scots 'ay'."

+

+"Ah, but, my lord, I think ye take me not yet entirely!" cried I.

+"For YOUR sake, for my life-safe, and the kindness that ye say ye

+bear to me--for these, I'll consent; but not for any good that

+might be coming to myself.  If I stand aside when this young maid

+is in her trial, it's a thing I will be noways advantaged by; I

+will lose by it, I will never gain.  I would rather make a

+shipwreck wholly than to build on that foundation."

+

+He was a minute serious, then smiled.  "You mind me of the man with

+the long nose," said he; "was you to see the moon by a telescope

+you would see David Balfour there!  But you shall have your way of

+it.  I will ask at you one service, and then set you free:  My

+clerks are overdriven; be so good as copy me these few pages, and

+when that is done, I shall bid you God speed!  I would never charge

+myself with Mr. David's conscience; and if you could cast some part

+of it (as you went by) in a moss hag, you would find yourself to

+ride much easier without it."

+

+"Perhaps not just entirely in the same direction though, my lord!"

+says I.

+

+"And you shall have the last word, too!" cries he gaily.

+

+Indeed, he had some cause for gaiety, having now found the means to

+gain his purpose.  To lessen the weight of the memorial, or to have

+a readier answer at his hand, he desired I should appear publicly

+in the character of his intimate.  But if I were to appear with the

+same publicity as a visitor to Catriona in her prison the world

+would scarce stint to draw conclusions, and the true nature of

+James More's escape must become evident to all.  This was the

+little problem I had to set him of a sudden, and to which he had so

+briskly found an answer.  I was to be tethered in Glasgow by that

+job of copying, which in mere outward decency I could not well

+refuse; and during these hours of employment Catriona was privately

+got rid of.  I think shame to write of this man that loaded me with

+so many goodnesses.  He was kind to me as any father, yet I ever

+thought him as false as a cracked bell.

+

+

+

+CHAPTER XIX--I AM MUCH IN THE HANDS OF THE LADIES

+

+

+

+The copying was a weary business, the more so as I perceived very

+early there was no sort of urgency in the matters treated, and

+began very early to consider my employment a pretext.  I had no

+sooner finished than I got to horse, used what remained of daylight

+to the best purpose, and being at last fairly benighted, slept in a

+house by Almond-Water side.  I was in the saddle again before the

+day, and the Edinburgh booths were just opening when I clattered in

+by the West Bow and drew up a smoking horse at my lord Advocate's

+door.  I had a written word for Doig, my lord's private hand that

+was thought to be in all his secrets--a worthy little plain man,

+all fat and snuff and self-sufficiency.  Him I found already at his

+desk and already bedabbled with maccabaw, in the same anteroom

+where I rencountered with James More.  He read the note

+scrupulously through like a chapter in his Bible.

+

+"H'm," says he; "ye come a wee thing ahint-hand, Mr. Balfour.  The

+bird's flaen--we hae letten her out."

+

+"Miss Drummond is set free?" I cried.

+

+"Achy!" said he.  "What would we keep her for, ye ken?  To hae made

+a steer about the bairn would has pleased naebody."

+

+"And where'll she be now?" says I.

+

+"Gude kens!" says Doig, with a shrug.

+

+"She'll have gone home to Lady Allardyce, I'm thinking," said I.

+

+"That'll be it," said he.

+

+"Then I'll gang there straight," says I.

+

+"But ye'll be for a bite or ye go?" said he.

+

+"Neither bite nor sup," said I.  "I had a good wauch of milk in by

+Ratho."

+

+"Aweel, aweel," says Doig.  "But ye'll can leave your horse here

+and your bags, for it seems we're to have your up-put."

+

+"Na, na", said I.  "Tamson's mear {17} would never be the thing for

+me this day of all days."

+

+Doig speaking somewhat broad, I had been led by imitation into an

+accent much more countrified than I was usually careful to affect a

+good deal broader, indeed, than I have written it down; and I was

+the more ashamed when another voice joined in behind me with a

+scrap of a ballad:

+

+

+"Gae saddle me the bonny black,

+Gae saddle sune and mak' him ready

+For I will down the Gatehope-slack,

+And a' to see my bonny leddy."

+

+

+The young lady, when I turned to her, stood in a morning gown, and

+her hands muffled in the same, as if to hold me at a distance.  Yet

+I could not but think there was kindness in the eye with which she

+saw me.

+

+"My best respects to you, Mistress Grant," said I, bowing.

+

+"The like to yourself, Mr. David," she replied with a deep

+courtesy.  "And I beg to remind you of an old musty saw, that meat

+and mass never hindered man.  The mass I cannot afford you, for we

+are all good Protestants.  But the meat I press on your attention.

+And I would not wonder but I could find something for your private

+ear that would be worth the stopping for."

+

+"Mistress Grant," said I, "I believe I am already your debtor for

+some merry words--and I think they were kind too--on a piece of

+unsigned paper."

+

+"Unsigned paper?" says she, and made a droll face, which was

+likewise wondrous beautiful, as of one trying to remember.

+

+"Or else I am the more deceived," I went on.  "But to be sure, we

+shall have the time to speak of these, since your father is so good

+as to make me for a while your inmate; and the GOMERAL begs you at

+this time only for the favour of his liberty,"

+

+"You give yourself hard names," said she.

+

+"Mr. Doig and I would be blythe to take harder at your clever pen,"

+says I.

+

+"Once more I have to admire the discretion of all men-folk," she

+replied.  "But if you will not eat, off with you at once; you will

+be back the sooner, for you go on a fool's errand.  Off with you,

+Mr. David," she continued, opening the door.

+

+

+"He has lowpen on his bonny grey,

+He rade the richt gate and the ready

+I trow he would neither stint nor stay,

+For he was seeking his bonny leddy."

+

+

+I did not wait to be twice bidden, and did justice to Miss Grant's

+citation on the way to Dean.

+

+Old Lady Allardyce walked there alone in the garden, in her hat and

+mutch, and having a silver-mounted staff of some black wood to lean

+upon.  As I alighted from my horse, and drew near to her with

+CONGEES, I could see the blood come in her face, and her head fling

+into the air like what I had conceived of empresses.

+

+"What brings you to my poor door?" she cried, speaking high through

+her nose.  "I cannot bar it.  The males of my house are dead and

+buried; I have neither son nor husband to stand in the gate for me;

+any beggar can pluck me by the baird {18}--and a baird there is,

+and that's the worst of it yet?" she added partly to herself.

+

+I was extremely put out at this reception, and the last remark,

+which seemed like a daft wife's, left me near hand speechless.

+

+"I see I have fallen under your displeasure, ma'am," said I.  "Yet

+I will still be so bold as ask after Mistress Drummond."

+

+She considered me with a burning eye, her lips pressed close

+together into twenty creases, her hand shaking on her staff.  "This

+cows all!" she cried.  "Ye come to me to speir for her?  Would God

+I knew!"

+

+"She is not here?" I cried.

+

+She threw up her chin and made a step and a cry at me, so that I

+fell back incontinent.

+

+"Out upon your leeing throat!" she cried.  "What! ye come and speir

+at me!  She's in jyle, whaur ye took her to--that's all there is to

+it.  And of a' the beings ever I beheld in breeks, to think it

+should be to you!  Ye timmer scoun'rel, if I had a male left to my

+name I would have your jaicket dustit till ye raired."

+

+I thought it not good to delay longer in that place, because I

+remarked her passion to be rising.  As I turned to the horse-post

+she even followed me; and I make no shame to confess that I rode

+away with the one stirrup on and scrambling for the other.

+

+As I knew no other quarter where I could push my inquiries, there

+was nothing left me but to return to the Advocate's.  I was well

+received by the four ladies, who were now in company together, and

+must give the news of Prestongrange and what word went in the west

+country, at the most inordinate length and with great weariness to

+myself; while all the time that young lady, with whom I so much

+desired to be alone again, observed me quizzically and seemed to

+find pleasure in the sight of my impatience.  At last, after I had

+endured a meal with them, and was come very near the point of

+appealing for an interview before her aunt, she went and stood by

+the music-case, and picking out a tune, sang to it on a high key--

+"He that will not when he may, When he will he shall have nay."

+But this was the end of her rigours, and presently, after making

+some excuse of which I have no mind, she carried me away in private

+to her father's library.  I should not fail to say she was dressed

+to the nines, and appeared extraordinary handsome.

+

+"Now, Mr. David, sit ye down here and let us have a two-handed

+crack," said she.  "For I have much to tell you, and it appears

+besides that I have been grossly unjust to your good taste."

+

+"In what manner, Mistress Grant?" I asked.  "I trust I have never

+seemed to fail in due respect."

+

+"I will be your surety, Mr, David," said she.  "Your respect,

+whether to yourself or your poor neighbours, has been always and

+most fortunately beyond imitation.  But that is by the question.

+You got a note from me?" she asked.

+

+"I was so bold as to suppose so upon inference," said I, "and it

+was kindly thought upon."

+

+"It must have prodigiously surprised you," said she.  "But let us

+begin with the beginning.  You have not perhaps forgot a day when

+you were so kind as to escort three very tedious misses to Hope

+Park?  I have the less cause to forget it myself, because you was

+so particular obliging as to introduce me to some of the principles

+of the Latin grammar, a thing which wrote itself profoundly on my

+gratitude."

+

+"I fear I was sadly pedantical," said I, overcome with confusion at

+the memory.  "You are only to consider I am quite unused with the

+society of ladies."

+

+"I will say the less about the grammar then," she replied.  "But

+how came you to desert your charge?  'He has thrown her out,

+overboard, his ain dear Annie!'" she hummed; "and his ain dear

+Annie and her two sisters had to taigle home by theirselves like a

+string of green geese!  It seems you returned to my papa's, where

+you showed yourself excessively martial, and then on to realms

+unknown, with an eye (it appears) to the Bass Rock; solan geese

+being perhaps more to your mind than bonny lasses."

+

+Through all this raillery there was something indulgent in the

+lady's eye which made me suppose there might be better coming.

+

+"You take a pleasure to torment me," said I, "and I make a very

+feckless plaything; but let me ask you to be more merciful.  At

+this time there is but the one thing that I care to hear of, and

+that will be news of Catriona."

+

+"Do you call her by that name to her face, Mr. Balfour?" she asked.

+

+"In troth, and I am not very sure," I stammered.

+

+"I would not do so in any case to strangers," said Miss Grant.

+"And why are you so much immersed in the affairs of this young

+lady?"

+

+"I heard she was in prison," said I.

+

+"Well, and now you hear that she is out of it," she replied, "and

+what more would you have?  She has no need of any further

+champion."

+

+"I may have the greater need of her, ma'am," said I.

+

+"Come, this is better!" says Miss Grant.  "But look me fairly in

+the face; am I not bonnier than she?"

+

+"I would be the last to be denying it," said I.  "There is not your

+marrow in all Scotland."

+

+"Well, here you have the pick of the two at your hand, and must

+needs speak of the other," said she.  "This is never the way to

+please the ladies, Mr. Balfour."

+

+"But, mistress," said I, "there are surely other things besides

+mere beauty."

+

+"By which I am to understand that I am no better than I should be,

+perhaps?" she asked.

+

+"By which you will please understand that I am like the cock in the

+midden in the fable book," said I.  "I see the braw jewel--and I

+like fine to see it too--but I have more need of the pickle corn."

+

+"Bravissimo!" she cried.  "There is a word well said at last, and I

+will reward you for it with my story.  That same night of your

+desertion I came late from a friend's house--where I was

+excessively admired, whatever you may think of it--and what should

+I hear but that a lass in a tartan screen desired to speak with me?

+She had been there an hour or better, said the servant-lass, and

+she grat in to herself as she sat waiting.  I went to her direct;

+she rose as I came in, and I knew her at a look.  'Grey Eyes!' says

+I to myself, but was more wise than to let on.  YOU WILL BE MISS

+GRANT AT LAST? she says, rising and looking at me hard and pitiful.

+AY, IT WAS TRUE HE SAID, YOU ARE BONNY AT ALL EVENTS.--THE WAY GOD

+MADE ME, MY DEAR, I said, BUT I WOULD BE GEY AND OBLIGED IF YOU

+COULD TELL ME WHAT BROUGHT YOU HERE AT SUCH A TIME OF THE NIGHT.--

+LADY, she said, WE ARE KINSFOLK, WE ARE BOTH COME OF THE BLOOD OF

+THE SONS OF ALPIN.--MY DEAR, I replied, I THINK NO MORE OF ALPIN OR

+HIS SONS THAN WHAT I DO OF A KALESTOCK.  YOU HAVE A BETTER ARGUMENT

+IN THESE TEARS UPON YOUR BONNY FACE.  And at that I was so weak-

+minded as to kiss her, which is what you would like to do dearly,

+and I wager will never find the courage of.  I say it was weak-

+minded of me, for I knew no more of her than the outside; but it

+was the wisest stroke I could have hit upon.  She is a very

+staunch, brave nature, but I think she has been little used with

+tenderness; and at that caress (though to say the truth, it was but

+lightly given) her heart went out to me.  I will never betray the

+secrets of my sex, Mr. Davie; I will never tell you the way she

+turned me round her thumb, because it is the same she will use to

+twist yourself.  Ay, it is a fine lass!  She is as clean as hill

+well water."

+

+"She is e'en't!" I cried.

+

+"Well, then, she told me her concerns," pursued Miss Grant, "and in

+what a swither she was in about her papa, and what a taking about

+yourself, with very little cause, and in what a perplexity she had

+found herself after you was gone away.  AND THEN I MINDED AT LONG

+LAST, says she, THAT WE WERE KINSWOMEN, AND THAT MR. DAVID SHOULD

+HAVE GIVEN YOU THE NAME OF THE BONNIEST OF THE BONNY, AND I WAS

+THINKING TO MYSELF 'IF SHE IS SO BONNY SHE WILL BE GOOD AT ALL

+EVENTS'; AND I TOOK UP MY FOOT SOLES OUT OF THAT.  That was when I

+forgave yourself, Mr. Davie.  When you was in my society, you

+seemed upon hot iron:  by all marks, if ever I saw a young man that

+wanted to be gone, it was yourself, and I and my two sisters were

+the ladies you were so desirous to be gone from; and now it

+appeared you had given me some notice in the by-going, and was so

+kind as to comment on my attractions!  From that hour you may date

+our friendship, and I began to think with tenderness upon the Latin

+grammar."

+

+"You will have many hours to rally me in," said I; "and I think

+besides you do yourself injustice.  I think it was Catriona turned

+your heart in my direction.  She is too simple to perceive as you

+do the stiffness of her friend."

+

+"I would not like to wager upon that, Mr. David," said she.  "The

+lasses have clear eyes.  But at least she is your friend entirely,

+as I was to see.  I carried her in to his lordship my papa; and his

+Advocacy being in a favourable stage of claret, was so good as to

+receive the pair of us.  HERE IS GREY EYES THAT YOU HAVE BEEN

+DEAVED WITH THESE DAYS PAST, said I, SHE IS COME TO PROVE THAT WE

+SPOKE TRUE, AND I LAY THE PRETTIEST LASS IN THE THREE LOTHIANS AT

+YOUR FEET--making a papistical reservation of myself.  She suited

+her action to my words:  down she went upon her knees to him--I

+would not like to swear but he saw two of her, which doubtless made

+her appeal the more irresistible, for you are all a pack of

+Mahomedans--told him what had passed that night, and how she had

+withheld her father's man from following of you, and what a case

+she was in about her father, and what a flutter for yourself; and

+begged with weeping for the lives of both of you (neither of which

+was in the slightest danger), till I vow I was proud of my sex

+because it was done so pretty, and ashamed for it because of the

+smallness of the occasion.  She had not gone far, I assure you,

+before the Advocate was wholly sober, to see his inmost politics

+ravelled out by a young lass and discovered to the most unruly of

+his daughters.  But we took him in hand, the pair of us, and

+brought that matter straight.  Properly managed--and that means

+managed by me--there is no one to compare with my papa."

+

+"He has been a good man to me," said I.

+

+"Well, he was a good man to Katrine, and I was there to see to it,"

+said she.

+

+"And she pled for me?" say I.

+

+"She did that, and very movingly," said Miss Grant.  "I would not

+like to tell you what she said--I find you vain enough already."

+

+"God reward her for it!" cried I.

+

+"With Mr. David Balfour, I suppose?" says she.

+

+"You do me too much injustice at the last!" I cried.  "I would

+tremble to think of her in such hard hands.  Do you think I would

+presume, because she begged my life?  She would do that for a new

+whelped puppy!  I have had more than that to set me up, if you but

+ken'd.  She kissed that hand of mine.  Ay, but she did.  And why?

+because she thought I was playing a brave part and might be going

+to my death.  It was not for my sake--but I need not be telling

+that to you, that cannot look at me without laughter.  It was for

+the love of what she thought was bravery.  I believe there is none

+but me and poor Prince Charlie had that honour done them.  Was this

+not to make a god of me? and do you not think my heart would quake

+when I remember it?"

+

+"I do laugh at you a good deal, and a good deal more than is quite

+civil," said she; "but I will tell you one thing:  if you speak to

+her like that, you have some glimmerings of a chance."

+

+"Me?" I cried, "I would never dare.  I can speak to you, Miss

+Grant, because it's a matter of indifference what ye think of me.

+But her? no fear!" said I.

+

+"I think you have the largest feet in all broad Scotland," says

+she.

+

+"Troth they are no very small," said I, looking down.

+

+"Ah, poor Catriona!" cries Miss Grant.

+

+And I could but stare upon her; for though I now see very well what

+she was driving at (and perhaps some justification for the same), I

+was never swift at the uptake in such flimsy talk.

+

+"Ah well, Mr. David," she said, "it goes sore against my

+conscience, but I see I shall have to be your speaking board.  She

+shall know you came to her straight upon the news of her

+imprisonment; she shall know you would not pause to eat; and of our

+conversation she shall hear just so much as I think convenient for

+a maid of her age and inexperience.  Believe me, you will be in

+that way much better served than you could serve yourself, for I

+will keep the big feet out of the platter."

+

+"You know where she is, then?" I exclaimed.

+

+"That I do, Mr. David, and will never tell," said she.

+

+"Why that?" I asked.

+

+"Well," she said, "I am a good friend, as you will soon discover;

+and the chief of those that I am friend to is my papa.  I assure

+you, you will never heat nor melt me out of that, so you may spare

+me your sheep's eyes; and adieu to your David-Balfourship for the

+now."

+

+"But there is yet one thing more," I cried.  "There is one thing

+that must be stopped, being mere ruin to herself, and to me too."

+

+"Well," she said, "be brief; I have spent half the day on you

+already."

+

+"My Lady Allardyce believes," I began--"she supposes--she thinks

+that I abducted her."

+

+The colour came into Miss Grant's face, so that at first I was

+quite abashed to find her ear so delicate, till I bethought me she

+was struggling rather with mirth, a notion in which I was

+altogether confirmed by the shaking of her voice as she replied -

+

+"I will take up the defence of your reputation," she said.  "You

+may leave it in my hands."

+

+And with that she withdrew out of the library.

+

+

+

+CHAPTER XX--I CONTINUE TO MOVE IN GOOD SOCIETY

+

+

+

+For about exactly two months I remained a guest in Prestongrange's

+family, where I bettered my acquaintance with the bench, the bar,

+and the flower of Edinburgh company.  You are not to suppose my

+education was neglected; on the contrary, I was kept extremely

+busy.  I studied the French, so as to be more prepared to go to

+Leyden; I set myself to the fencing, and wrought hard, sometimes

+three hours in the day, with notable advancement; at the suggestion

+of my cousin, Pilrig, who was an apt musician, I was put to a

+singing class; and by the orders of my Miss Grant, to one for the

+dancing, at which I must say I proved far from ornamental.

+However, all were good enough to say it gave me an address a little

+more genteel; and there is no question but I learned to manage my

+coat skirts and sword with more dexterity, and to stand in a room

+as though the same belonged to me.  My clothes themselves were all

+earnestly re-ordered; and the most trifling circumstance, such as

+where I should tie my hair, or the colour of my ribbon, debated

+among the three misses like a thing of weight.  One way with

+another, no doubt I was a good deal improved to look at, and

+acquired a bit of modest air that would have surprised the good

+folks at Essendean.

+

+The two younger misses were very willing to discuss a point of my

+habiliment, because that was in the line of their chief thoughts.

+I cannot say that they appeared any other way conscious of my

+presence; and though always more than civil, with a kind of

+heartless cordiality, could not hide how much I wearied them.  As

+for the aunt, she was a wonderful still woman; and I think she gave

+me much the same attention as she gave the rest of the family,

+which was little enough.  The eldest daughter and the Advocate

+himself were thus my principal friends, and our familiarity was

+much increased by a pleasure that we took in common.  Before the

+court met we spent a day or two at the house of Grange, living very

+nobly with an open table, and here it was that we three began to

+ride out together in the fields, a practice afterwards maintained

+in Edinburgh, so far as the Advocate's continual affairs permitted.

+When we were put in a good frame by the briskness of the exercise,

+the difficulties of the way, or the accidents of bad weather, my

+shyness wore entirely off; we forgot that we were strangers, and

+speech not being required, it flowed the more naturally on.  Then

+it was that they had my story from me, bit by bit, from the time

+that I left Essendean, with my voyage and battle in the Covenant,

+wanderings in the heather, etc.; and from the interest they found

+in my adventures sprung the circumstance of a jaunt we made a

+little later on, on a day when the courts were not sitting, and of

+which I will tell a trifle more at length.

+

+We took horse early, and passed first by the house of Shaws, where

+it stood smokeless in a great field of white frost, for it was yet

+early in the day.  Here Prestongrange alighted down, gave me his

+horse, an proceeded alone to visit my uncle.  My heart, I remember,

+swelled up bitter within me at the sight of that bare house and the

+thought of the old miser sitting chittering within in the cold

+kitchen!

+

+"There is my home," said I; "and my family."

+

+"Poor David Balfour!" said Miss Grant.

+

+What passed during the visit I have never heard; but it would

+doubtless not be very agreeable to Ebenezer, for when the Advocate

+came forth again his face was dark.

+

+"I think you will soon be the laird indeed, Mr. Davie," says he,

+turning half about with the one foot in the stirrup.

+

+"I will never pretend sorrow," said I; and, to say the truth,

+during his absence Miss Grant and I had been embellishing the place

+in fancy with plantations, parterres, and a terrace--much as I have

+since carried out in fact.

+

+Thence we pushed to the Queensferry, where Rankeillor gave us a

+good welcome, being indeed out of the body to receive so great a

+visitor.  Here the Advocate was so unaffectedly good as to go quite

+fully over my affairs, sitting perhaps two hours with the Writer in

+his study, and expressing (I was told) a great esteem for myself

+and concern for my fortunes.  To while this time, Miss Grant and I

+and young Rankeillor took boat and passed the Hope to Limekilns.

+Rankeillor made himself very ridiculous (and, I thought, offensive)

+with his admiration for the young lady, and to my wonder (only it

+is so common a weakness of her sex) she seemed, if anything, to be

+a little gratified.  One use it had:  for when we were come to the

+other side, she laid her commands on him to mind the boat, while

+she and I passed a little further to the alehouse.  This was her

+own thought, for she had been taken with my account of Alison

+Hastie, and desired to see the lass herself.  We found her once

+more alone--indeed, I believe her father wrought all day in the

+fields--and she curtsied dutifully to the gentry-folk and the

+beautiful young lady in the riding-coat.

+

+"Is this all the welcome I am to get?" said I, holding out my hand.

+"And have you no more memory of old friends?"

+

+"Keep me! wha's this of it?" she cried, and then, "God's truth,

+it's the tautit {19} laddie!"

+

+"The very same," says

+

+"Mony's the time I've thocht upon you and your freen, and blythe am

+I to see in your braws," {20} she cried.  "Though I kent ye were

+come to your ain folk by the grand present that ye sent me and that

+I thank ye for with a' my heart."

+

+"There," said Miss Grant to me, "run out by with ye, like a guid

+bairn.  I didnae come here to stand and haud a candle; it's her and

+me that are to crack."

+

+I suppose she stayed ten minutes in the house, but when she came

+forth I observed two things--that her eyes were reddened, and a

+silver brooch was gone out of her bosom.  This very much affected

+me.

+

+"I never saw you so well adorned," said I.

+

+"O Davie man, dinna be a pompous gowk!" said she, and was more than

+usually sharp to me the remainder of the day.

+

+About candlelight we came home from this excursion.

+

+For a good while I heard nothing further of Catriona--my Miss Grant

+remaining quite impenetrable, and stopping my mouth with

+pleasantries.  At last, one day that she returned from walking and

+found me alone in the parlour over my French, I thought there was

+something unusual in her looks; the colour heightened, the eyes

+sparkling high, and a bit of a smile continually bitten in as she

+regarded me.  She seemed indeed like the very spirit of mischief,

+and, walking briskly in the room, had soon involved me in a kind of

+quarrel over nothing and (at the least) with nothing intended on my

+side.  I was like Christian in the slough--the more I tried to

+clamber out upon the side, the deeper I became involved; until at

+last I heard her declare, with a great deal of passion, that she

+would take that answer from the hands of none, and I must down upon

+my knees for pardon.

+

+The causelessness of all this fuff stirred my own bile.  "I have

+said nothing you can properly object to," said I, "and as for my

+knees, that is an attitude I keep for God."

+

+"And as a goddess I am to be served!" she cried, shaking her brown

+locks at me and with a bright colour.  "Every man that comes within

+waft of my petticoats shall use me so!"

+

+"I will go so far as ask your pardon for the fashion's sake,

+although I vow I know not why," I replied.  "But for these play-

+acting postures, you can go to others."

+

+"O Davie!" she said.  "Not if I was to beg you?"

+

+I bethought me I was fighting with a woman, which is the same as to

+say a child, and that upon a point entirely formal.

+

+"I think it a bairnly thing," I said, "not worthy in you to ask, or

+me to render.  Yet I will not refuse you, neither," said I; "and

+the stain, if there be any, rests with yourself."  And at that I

+kneeled fairly down.

+

+"There!" she cried.  "There is the proper station, there is where I

+have been manoeuvring to bring you."  And then, suddenly, "Kep,"

+{21} said she, flung me a folded billet, and ran from the apartment

+laughing.

+

+The billet had neither place nor date.  "Dear Mr. David," it began,

+"I get your news continually by my cousin, Miss Grant, and it is a

+pleisand hearing.  I am very well, in a good place, among good

+folk, but necessitated to be quite private, though I am hoping that

+at long last we may meet again.  All your friendships have been

+told me by my loving cousin, who loves us both.  She bids me to

+send you this writing, and oversees the same.  I will be asking you

+to do all her commands, and rest your affectionate friend, Catriona

+Macgregor-Drummond.  P.S.--Will you not see my cousin, Allardyce?"

+

+I think it not the least brave of my campaigns (as the soldiers

+say) that I should have done as I was here bidden and gone

+forthright to the house by Dean.  But the old lady was now entirely

+changed and supple as a glove.  By what means Miss Grant had

+brought this round I could never guess; I am sure, at least, she

+dared not to appear openly in the affair, for her papa was

+compromised in it pretty deep.  It was he, indeed, who had

+persuaded Catriona to leave, or rather, not to return, to her

+cousin's, placing her instead with a family of Gregorys--decent

+people, quite at the Advocate's disposition, and in whom she might

+have the more confidence because they were of his own clan and

+family.  These kept her private till all was ripe, heated and

+helped her to attempt her father's rescue, and after she was

+discharged from prison received her again into the same secrecy.

+Thus Prestongrange obtained and used his instrument; nor did there

+leak out the smallest word of his acquaintance with the daughter of

+James More.  There was some whispering, of course, upon the escape

+of that discredited person; but the Government replied by a show of

+rigour, one of the cell porters was flogged, the lieutenant of the

+guard (my poor friend, Duncansby) was broken of his rank, and as

+for Catriona, all men were well enough pleased that her fault

+should be passed by in silence.

+

+I could never induce Miss Grant to carry back an answer.  "No," she

+would say, when I persisted, "I am going to keep the big feet out

+of the platter."  This was the more hard to bear, as I was aware

+she saw my little friend many times in the week, and carried her my

+news whenever (as she said) I "had behaved myself."  At last she

+treated me to what she called an indulgence, and I thought rather

+more of a banter.  She was certainly a strong, almost a violent,

+friend to all she liked, chief among whom was a certain frail old

+gentlewoman, very blind and very witty, who dwelt on the top of a

+tall land on a strait close, with a nest of linnets in a cage, and

+thronged all day with visitors.  Miss Grant was very fond to carry

+me there and put me to entertain her friend with the narrative of

+my misfortunes:  and Miss Tibbie Ramsay (that was her name) was

+particular kind, and told me a great deal that was worth knowledge

+of old folks and past affairs in Scotland.  I should say that from

+her chamber window, and not three feet away, such is the straitness

+of that close, it was possible to look into a barred loophole

+lighting the stairway of the opposite house.

+

+Here, upon some pretext, Miss Grant left me one day alone with Miss

+Ramsay.  I mind I thought that lady inattentive and like one

+preoccupied.  I was besides very uncomfortable, for the window,

+contrary to custom, was left open and the day was cold.  All at

+once the voice of Miss Grant sounded in my ears as from a distance.

+

+"Here, Shaws!" she cried, "keek out of the window and see what I

+have broughten you."

+

+I think it was the prettiest sight that ever I beheld.  The well of

+the close was all in clear shadow where a man could see distinctly,

+the walls very black and dingy; and there from the barred loophole

+I saw two faces smiling across at me--Miss Grant's and Catriona's.

+

+"There!" says Miss Grant, "I wanted her to see you in your braws

+like the lass of Limekilns.  I wanted her to see what I could make

+of you, when I buckled to the job in earnest!"

+

+It came in my mind that she had been more than common particular

+that day upon my dress; and I think that some of the same care had

+been bestowed upon Catriona.  For so merry and sensible a lady,

+Miss Grant was certainly wonderful taken up with duds.

+

+"Catriona!" was all I could get out.

+

+As for her, she said nothing in the world, but only waved her hand

+and smiled to me, and was suddenly carried away again from before

+the loophole.

+

+That vision was no sooner lost than I ran to the house door, where

+I found I was locked in; thence back to Miss Ramsay, crying for the

+key, but might as well have cried upon the castle rock.  She had

+passed her word, she said, and I must be a good lad.  It was

+impossible to burst the door, even if it had been mannerly; it was

+impossible I should leap from the window, being seven storeys above

+ground.  All I could do was to crane over the close and watch for

+their reappearance from the stair.  It was little to see, being no

+more than the tops of their two heads each on a ridiculous bobbin

+of skirts, like to a pair of pincushions.  Nor did Catriona so much

+as look up for a farewell; being prevented (as I heard afterwards)

+by Miss Grant, who told her folk were never seen to less advantage

+than from above downward.

+

+On the way home, as soon as I was set free, I upbraided Miss Grant

+with her cruelty.

+

+"I am sorry you was disappointed," says she demurely.  "For my part

+I was very pleased.  You looked better than I dreaded; you looked--

+if it will not make you vain--a mighty pretty young man when you

+appeared in the window.  You are to remember that she could not see

+your feet," says she, with the manner of one reassuring me.

+

+"O!" cried I, "leave my feet be--they are no bigger than my

+neighbours'."

+

+"They are even smaller than some," said she, "but I speak in

+parables like a Hebrew prophet."

+

+"I marvel little they were sometimes stoned!" says I.  "But, you

+miserable girl, how could you do it?  Why should you care to

+tantalise me with a moment?"

+

+"Love is like folk," says she; "it needs some kind of vivers." {22}

+

+"Oh, Barbara, let me see her properly!" I pleaded.  "YOU can--you

+see her when you please; let me have half an hour."

+

+"Who is it that is managing this love affair!  You!  Or me?" she

+asked, and as I continued to press her with my instances, fell back

+upon a deadly expedient:  that of imitating the tones of my voice

+when I called on Catriona by name; with which, indeed, she held me

+in subjection for some days to follow.

+

+There was never the least word heard of the memorial, or none by

+me.  Prestongrange and his grace the Lord President may have heard

+of it (for what I know) on the deafest sides of their heads; they

+kept it to themselves, at least--the public was none the wiser; and

+in course of time, on November 8th, and in the midst of a

+prodigious storm of wind and rain, poor James of the Glens was duly

+hanged at Lettermore by Ballachulish.

+

+So there was the final upshot of my politics!  Innocent men have

+perished before James, and are like to keep on perishing (in spite

+of all our wisdom) till the end of time.  And till the end of time

+young folk (who are not yet used with the duplicity of life and

+men) will struggle as I did, and make heroical resolves, and take

+long risks; and the course of events will push them upon the one

+side and go on like a marching army.  James was hanged; and here

+was I dwelling in the house of Prestongrange, and grateful to him

+for his fatherly attention.  He was hanged; and behold! when I met

+Mr. Simon in the causeway, I was fain to pull off my beaver to him

+like a good little boy before his dominie.  He had been hanged by

+fraud and violence, and the world wagged along, and there was not a

+pennyweight of difference; and the villains of that horrid plot

+were decent, kind, respectable fathers of families, who went to

+kirk and took the sacrament!

+

+But I had had my view of that detestable business they call

+politics--I had seen it from behind, when it is all bones and

+blackness; and I was cured for life of any temptations to take part

+in it again.  A plain, quiet, private path was that which I was

+ambitious to walk in, when I might keep my head out of the way of

+dangers and my conscience out of the road of temptation.  For, upon

+a retrospect, it appeared I had not done so grandly, after all; but

+with the greatest possible amount of big speech and preparation,

+had accomplished nothing.

+

+The 25th of the same month a ship was advertised to sail from

+Leith; and I was suddenly recommended to make up my mails for

+Leyden.  To Prestongrange I could, of course, say nothing; for I

+had already been a long while sorning on his house and table.  But

+with his daughter I was more open, bewailing my fate that I should

+be sent out of the country, and assuring her, unless she should

+bring me to farewell with Catriona, I would refuse at the last

+hour.

+

+"Have I not given you my advice?" she asked.

+

+"I know you have," said I, "and I know how much I am beholden to

+you already, and that I am bidden to obey your orders.  But you

+must confess you are something too merry a lass at times to lippen

+{23} to entirely."

+

+"I will tell you, then," said she.  "Be you on board by nine

+o'clock forenoon; the ship does not sail before one; keep your boat

+alongside; and if you are not pleased with my farewells when I

+shall send them, you can come ashore again and seek Katrine for

+yourself."

+

+Since I could make no more of her, I was fain to be content with

+this.

+

+The day came round at last when she and I were to separate.  We had

+been extremely intimate and familiar; I was much in her debt; and

+what way we were to part was a thing that put me from my sleep,

+like the vails I was to give to the domestic servants.  I knew she

+considered me too backward, and rather desired to rise in her

+opinion on that head.  Besides which, after so much affection shown

+and (I believe) felt upon both sides, it would have looked cold-

+like to be anyways stiff.  Accordingly, I got my courage up and my

+words ready, and the last chance we were like to be alone, asked

+pretty boldly to be allowed to salute her in farewell.

+

+"You forget yourself strangely, Mr. Balfour," said she.  "I cannot

+call to mind that I have given you any right to presume on our

+acquaintancy."

+

+I stood before her like a stopped clock, and knew not what to

+think, far less to say, when of a sudden she cast her arms about my

+neck and kissed me with the best will in the world.

+

+"You inimitable bairn?" she cried.  "Did you think that I would let

+us part like strangers?  Because I can never keep my gravity at you

+five minutes on end, you must not dream I do not love you very

+well:  I am all love and laughter, every time I cast an eye on you!

+And now I will give you an advice to conclude your education, which

+you will have need of before it's very long.

+

+Never ASK womenfolk.  They're bound to answer 'No'; God never made

+the lass that could resist the temptation.  It's supposed by

+divines to be the curse of Eve:  because she did not say it when

+the devil offered her the apple, her daughters can say nothing

+else."

+

+"Since I am so soon to lose my bonny professor," I began.

+

+"This is gallant, indeed," says she curtseying.

+

+"I would put the one question," I went on.  "May I ask a lass to

+marry to me?"

+

+"You think you could not marry her without!" she asked.  "Or else

+get her to offer?"

+

+"You see you cannot be serious," said I.

+

+"I shall be very serious in one thing, David," said she:  "I shall

+always be your friend."

+

+As I got to my horse the next morning, the four ladies were all at

+that same window whence we had once looked down on Catriona, and

+all cried farewell and waved their pocket napkins as I rode away.

+One out of the four I knew was truly sorry; and at the thought of

+that, and how I had come to the door three months ago for the first

+time, sorrow and gratitude made a confusion in my mind.

+

+

+

+

+PART II--FATHER AND DAUGHTER

+

+

+

+

+CHAPTER XXI--THE VOYAGE INTO HOLLAND

+

+

+

+The ship lay at a single anchor, well outside the pier of Leith, so

+that all we passengers must come to it by the means of skiffs.

+This was very little troublesome, for the reason that the day was a

+flat calm, very frosty and cloudy, and with a low shifting fog upon

+the water.  The body of the vessel was thus quite hid as I drew

+near, but the tall spars of her stood high and bright in a sunshine

+like the flickering of a fire.  She proved to be a very roomy,

+commodious merchant, but somewhat blunt in the bows, and loaden

+extraordinary deep with salt, salted salmon, and fine white linen

+stockings for the Dutch.  Upon my coming on board, the captain

+welcomed me--one Sang (out of Lesmahago, I believe), a very hearty,

+friendly tarpaulin of a man, but at the moment in rather of a

+bustle.  There had no other of the passengers yet appeared, so that

+I was left to walk about upon the deck, viewing the prospect and

+wondering a good deal what these farewells should be which I was

+promised.

+

+All Edinburgh and the Pentland Hills glinted above me in a kind of

+smuisty brightness, now and again overcome with blots of cloud; of

+Leith there was no more than the tops of chimneys visible, and on

+the face of the water, where the haar {24} lay, nothing at all.

+Out of this I was presently aware of a sound of oars pulling, and a

+little after (as if out of the smoke of a fire) a boat issued.

+There sat a grave man in the stern sheets, well muffled from the

+cold, and by his side a tall, pretty, tender figure of a maid that

+brought my heart to a stand.  I had scarce the time to catch my

+breath in, and be ready to meet her, as she stepped upon the deck,

+smiling, and making my best bow, which was now vastly finer than

+some months before, when first I made it to her ladyship.  No doubt

+we were both a good deal changed:  she seemed to have shot up like

+a young, comely tree.  She had now a kind of pretty backwardness

+that became her well as of one that regarded herself more highly

+and was fairly woman; and for another thing, the hand of the same

+magician had been at work upon the pair of us, and Miss Grant had

+made us both BRAW, if she could make but the one BONNY.

+

+The same cry, in words not very different, came from both of us,

+that the other was come in compliment to say farewell, and then we

+perceived in a flash we were to ship together.

+

+"O, why will not Baby have been telling me!" she cried; and then

+remembered a letter she had been given, on the condition of not

+opening it till she was well on board.  Within was an enclosure for

+myself, and ran thus:

+

+

+"DEAR DAVIE,--What do you think of my farewell? and what do you say

+to your fellow passenger?  Did you kiss, or did you ask?  I was

+about to have signed here, but that would leave the purport of my

+question doubtful, and in my own case I KEN THE ANSWER.  So fill up

+here with good advice.  Do not be too blate, {25} and for God's

+sake do not try to be too forward; nothing acts you worse.  I am

+

+"Your affectionate friend and governess,

+"BARBARA GRANT."

+

+

+I wrote a word of answer and compliment on a leaf out of my

+pocketbook, put it in with another scratch from Catriona, sealed

+the whole with my new signet of the Balfour arms, and despatched it

+by the hand of Prestongrange's servant that still waited in my

+boat.

+

+Then we had time to look upon each other more at leisure, which we

+had not done for a piece of a minute before (upon a common impulse)

+we shook hands again.

+

+"Catriona?" said I.  It seemed that was the first and last word of

+my eloquence.

+

+"You will be glad to see me again?" says she.

+

+"And I think that is an idle word," said I.  "We are too deep

+friends to make speech upon such trifles."

+

+"Is she not the girl of all the world?" she cried again.  "I was

+never knowing such a girl so honest and so beautiful."

+

+"And yet she cared no more for Alpin than what she did for a kale-

+stock," said I.

+

+"Ah, she will say so indeed!" cries Catriona.  "Yet it was for the

+name and the gentle kind blood that she took me up and was so good

+to me."

+

+"Well, I will tell you why it was," said I.  "There are all sorts

+of people's faces in this world.  There is Barbara's face, that

+everyone must look at and admire, and think her a fine, brave,

+merry girl.  And then there is your face, which is quite different-

+-I never knew how different till to-day.  You cannot see yourself,

+and that is why you do not understand; but it was for the love of

+your face that she took you up and was so good to you.  And

+everybody in the world would do the same."

+

+"Everybody?" says she.

+

+"Every living soul?" said I.

+

+"Ah, then, that will be why the soldiers at the castle took me up!"

+she cried,

+

+"Barbara has been teaching you to catch me," said I.

+

+"She will have taught me more than that at all events.  She will

+have taught me a great deal about Mr. David--all the ill of him,

+and a little that was not so ill either, now and then," she said,

+smiling.  "She will have told me all there was of Mr. David, only

+just that he would sail upon this very same ship.  And why it is

+you go?"

+

+I told her.

+

+"Ah, well," said she, "we will be some days in company and then (I

+suppose) good-bye for altogether!  I go to meet my father at a

+place of the name of Helvoetsluys, and from there to France, to be

+exiles by the side of our chieftain."

+

+I could say no more than just "O!" the name of James More always

+drying up my very voice.

+

+She was quick to perceive it, and to guess some portion of my

+thought.

+

+"There is one thing I must be saying first of all, Mr. David," said

+she.  "I think two of my kinsfolk have not behaved to you

+altogether very well.  And the one of them two is James More, my

+father, and the other is the Laird of Prestongrange.  Prestongrange

+will have spoken by himself, or his daughter in the place of him.

+But for James More, my father, I have this much to say:  he lay

+shackled in a prison; he is a plain honest soldier and a plain

+Highland gentleman; what they would be after he would never be

+guessing; but if he had understood it was to be some prejudice to a

+young gentleman like yourself, he would have died first.  And for

+the sake of all your friendships, I will be asking you to pardon my

+father and family for that same mistake."

+

+"Catriona," said I, "what that mistake was I do not care to know.

+I know but the one thing--that you went to Prestongrange and begged

+my life upon your knees.  O, I ken well enough it was for your

+father that you went, but when you were there you pleaded for me

+also.  It is a thing I cannot speak of.  There are two things I

+cannot think of into myself:  and the one is your good words when

+you called yourself my little friend, and the other that you

+pleaded for my life.  Let us never speak more, we two, of pardon or

+offence."

+

+We stood after that silent, Catriona looking on the deck and I on

+her; and before there was more speech, a little wind having sprung

+up in the nor'-west, they began to shake out the sails and heave in

+upon the anchor.

+

+There were six passengers besides our two selves, which made of it

+a full cabin.  Three were solid merchants out of Leith, Kirkcaldy,

+and Dundee, all engaged in the same adventure into High Germany.

+One was a Hollander returning; the rest worthy merchants' wives, to

+the charge of one of whom Catriona was recommended.  Mrs. Gebbie

+(for that was her name) was by great good fortune heavily

+incommoded by the sea, and lay day and night on the broad of her

+back.  We were besides the only creatures at all young on board the

+Rose, except a white-faced boy that did my old duty to attend upon

+the table; and it came about that Catriona and I were left almost

+entirely to ourselves.  We had the next seats together at the

+table, where I waited on her with extraordinary pleasure.  On deck,

+I made her a soft place with my cloak; and the weather being

+singularly fine for that season, with bright frosty days and

+nights, a steady, gentle wind, and scarce a sheet started all the

+way through the North Sea, we sat there (only now and again walking

+to and fro for warmth) from the first blink of the sun till eight

+or nine at night under the clear stars.  The merchants or Captain

+Sang would sometimes glance and smile upon us, or pass a merry word

+or two and give us the go-by again; but the most part of the time

+they were deep in herring and chintzes and linen, or in

+computations of the slowness of the passage, and left us to our own

+concerns, which were very little important to any but ourselves.

+

+At the first, we had a great deal to say, and thought ourselves

+pretty witty; and I was at a little pains to be the beau, and she

+(I believe) to play the young lady of experience.  But soon we grew

+plainer with each other.  I laid aside my high, clipped English

+(what little there was left of it) and forgot to make my Edinburgh

+bows and scrapes; she, upon her side, fell into a sort of kind

+familiarity; and we dwelt together like those of the same

+household, only (upon my side) with a more deep emotion.  About the

+same time the bottom seemed to fall out of our conversation, and

+neither one of us the less pleased.  Whiles she would tell me old

+wives' tales, of which she had a wonderful variety, many of them

+from my friend red-headed Niel.  She told them very pretty, and

+they were pretty enough childish tales; but the pleasure to myself

+was in the sound of her voice, and the thought that she was telling

+and I listening.  Whiles, again, we would sit entirely silent, not

+communicating even with a look, and tasting pleasure enough in the

+sweetness of that neighbourhood.  I speak here only for myself.  Of

+what was in the maid's mind, I am not very sure that ever I asked

+myself; and what was in my own, I was afraid to consider.  I need

+make no secret of it now, either to myself or to the reader; I was

+fallen totally in love.  She came between me and the sun.  She had

+grown suddenly taller, as I say, but with a wholesome growth; she

+seemed all health, and lightness, and brave spirits; and I thought

+she walked like a young deer, and stood like a birch upon the

+mountains.  It was enough for me to sit near by her on the deck;

+and I declare I scarce spent two thoughts upon the future, and was

+so well content with what I then enjoyed that I was never at the

+pains to imagine any further step; unless perhaps that I would be

+sometimes tempted to take her hand in mine and hold it there.  But

+I was too like a miser of what joys I had, and would venture

+nothing on a hazard.

+

+What we spoke was usually of ourselves or of each other, so that if

+anyone had been at so much pains as overhear us, he must have

+supposed us the most egotistical persons in the world.  It befell

+one day when we were at this practice, that we came on a discourse

+of friends and friendship, and I think now that we were sailing

+near the wind.  We said what a fine thing friendship was, and how

+little we had guessed of it, and how it made life a new thing, and

+a thousand covered things of the same kind that will have been

+said, since the foundation of the world, by young folk in the same

+predicament.  Then we remarked upon the strangeness of that

+circumstance, that friends came together in the beginning as if

+they were there for the first time, and yet each had been alive a

+good while, losing time with other people.

+

+"It is not much that I have done," said she, "and I could be

+telling you the five-fifths of it in two-three words.  It is only a

+girl I am, and what can befall a girl, at all events?  But I went

+with the clan in the year '45.  The men marched with swords and

+fire-locks, and some of them in brigades in the same set of tartan;

+they were not backward at the marching, I can tell you.  And there

+were gentlemen from the Low Country, with their tenants mounted and

+trumpets to sound, and there was a grant skirling of war-pipes.  I

+rode on a little Highland horse on the right hand of my father,

+James More, and of Glengyle himself.  And here is one fine thing

+that I remember, that Glengyle kissed me in the face, because (says

+he) 'my kinswoman, you are the only lady of the clan that has come

+out,' and me a little maid of maybe twelve years old!  I saw Prince

+Charlie too, and the blue eyes of him; he was pretty indeed!  I had

+his hand to kiss in front of the army.  O, well, these were the

+good days, but it is all like a dream that I have seen and then

+awakened.  It went what way you very well know; and these were the

+worst days of all, when the red-coat soldiers were out, and my

+father and uncles lay in the hill, and I was to be carrying them

+their meat in the middle night, or at the short sight of day when

+the cocks crow.  Yes, I have walked in the night, many's the time,

+and my heart great in me for terror of the darkness.  It is a

+strange thing I will never have been meddled with by a bogle; but

+they say a maid goes safe.  Next there was my uncle's marriage, and

+that was a dreadful affair beyond all.  Jean Kay was that woman's

+name; and she had me in the room with her that night at Inversnaid,

+the night we took her from her friends in the old, ancient manner.

+She would and she wouldn't; she was for marrying Rob the one

+minute, and the next she would be for none of him.  I will never

+have seen such a feckless creature of a woman; surely all there was

+of her would tell her ay or no.  Well, she was a widow; and I can

+never be thinking a widow a good woman."

+

+"Catriona!" says I, "how do you make out that?"

+

+"I do not know," said she; "I am only telling you the seeming in my

+heart.  And then to marry a new man!  Fy!  But that was her; and

+she was married again upon my Uncle Robin, and went with him awhile

+to kirk and market; and then wearied, or else her friends got

+claught of her and talked her round, or maybe she turned ashamed;

+at the least of it, she ran away, and went back to her own folk,

+and said we had held her in the lake, and I will never tell you all

+what.  I have never thought much of any females since that day.

+And so in the end my father, James More, came to be cast in prison,

+and you know the rest of it an well as me."

+

+"And through all you had no friends?" said I.

+

+"No," said she; "I have been pretty chief with two-three lasses on

+the braes, but not to call it friends."

+

+"Well, mine is a plain tale," said I.  "I never had a friend to my

+name till I met in with you."

+

+"And that brave Mr. Stewart?" she asked.

+

+"O, yes, I was forgetting him," I said.  "But he in a man, and that

+in very different."

+

+"I would think so," said she.  "O, yes, it is quite different."

+

+"And then there was one other," said I.  "I once thought I had a

+friend, but it proved a disappointment."

+

+She asked me who she was?

+

+"It was a he, then," said I.  "We were the two best lads at my

+father's school, and we thought we loved each other dearly.  Well,

+the time came when he went to Glasgow to a merchant's house, that

+was his second cousin once removed; and wrote me two-three times by

+the carrier; and then he found new friends, and I might write till

+I was tired, he took no notice.  Eh, Catriona, it took me a long

+while to forgive the world.  There is not anything more bitter than

+to lose a fancied friend."

+

+Then she began to question me close upon his looks and character,

+for we were each a great deal concerned in all that touched the

+other; till at last, in a very evil hour, I minded of his letters

+and went and fetched the bundle from the cabin.

+

+"Here are his letters," said I, "and all the letters that ever I

+got.  That will be the last I'll can tell of myself; ye know the

+lave {26} as well as I do."

+

+"Will you let me read them, then?" says she.

+

+I told her, IF SHE WOULD BE AT THE PAINS; and she bade me go away

+and she would read them from the one end to the other.  Now, in

+this bundle that I gave her, there were packed together not only

+all the letters of my false friend, but one or two of Mr.

+Campbell's when he was in town at the Assembly, and to make a

+complete roll of all that ever was written to me, Catriona's little

+word, and the two I had received from Miss Grant, one when I was on

+the Bass and one on board that ship.  But of these last I had no

+particular mind at the moment.

+

+I was in that state of subjection to the thought of my friend that

+it mattered not what I did, nor scarce whether I was in her

+presence or out of it; I had caught her like some kind of a noble

+fever that lived continually in my bosom, by night and by day, and

+whether I was waking or asleep.  So it befell that after I was come

+into the fore-part of the ship where the broad bows splashed into

+the billows, I was in no such hurry to return as you might fancy;

+rather prolonged my absence like a variety in pleasure.  I do not

+think I am by nature much of an Epicurean:  and there had come till

+then so small a share of pleasure in my way that I might be excused

+perhaps to dwell on it unduly.

+

+When I returned to her again, I had a faint, painful impression as

+of a buckle slipped, so coldly she returned the packet.

+

+"You have read them?" said I; and I thought my voice sounded not

+wholly natural, for I was turning in my mind for what could ail

+her.

+

+"Did you mean me to read all?" she asked.

+

+I told her "Yes," with a drooping voice.

+

+"The last of them as well?" said she.

+

+I knew where we were now; yet I would not lie to her either.  "I

+gave them all without afterthought," I said, "as I supposed that

+you would read them.  I see no harm in any."

+

+"I will be differently made," said she.  "I thank God I am

+differently made.  It was not a fit letter to be shown me.  It was

+not fit to be written."

+

+"I think you are speaking of your own friend, Barbara Grant?" said

+I.

+

+"There will not be anything as bitter as to lose a fancied friend,"

+said she, quoting my own expression.

+

+"I think it is sometimes the friendship that was fancied!" I cried.

+"What kind of justice do you call this, to blame me for some words

+that a tomfool of a madcap lass has written down upon a piece of

+paper?  You know yourself with what respect I have behaved--and

+would do always."

+

+"Yet you would show me that same letter!" says she.  "I want no

+such friends.  I can be doing very well, Mr. Balfour, without her--

+or you."

+

+"This is your fine gratitude!" says I.

+

+"I am very much obliged to you," said she.  "I will be asking you

+to take away your--letters."  She seemed to choke upon the word, so

+that it sounded like an oath.

+

+"You shall never ask twice," said I; picked up that bundle, walked

+a little way forward and cast them as far as possible into the sea.

+For a very little more I could have cast myself after them.

+

+The rest of the day I walked up and down raging.  There were few

+names so ill but what I gave her them in my own mind before the sun

+went down.  All that I had ever heard of Highland pride seemed

+quite outdone; that a girl (scarce grown) should resent so trifling

+an allusion, and that from her next friend, that she had near

+wearied me with praising of!  I had bitter, sharp, hard thoughts of

+her, like an angry boy's.  If I had kissed her indeed (I thought),

+perhaps she would have taken it pretty well; and only because it

+had been written down, and with a spice of jocularity, up she must

+fuff in this ridiculous passion.  It seemed to me there was a want

+of penetration in the female sex, to make angels weep over the case

+of the poor men.

+

+We were side by side again at supper, and what a change was there!

+She was like curdled milk to me; her face was like a wooden doll's;

+I could have indifferently smitten her or grovelled at her feet,

+but she gave me not the least occasion to do either.  No sooner the

+meal done than she betook herself to attend on Mrs. Gebbie, which I

+think she had a little neglected heretofore.  But she was to make

+up for lost time, and in what remained of the passage was

+extraordinary assiduous with the old lady, and on deck began to

+make a great deal more than I thought wise of Captain Sang.  Not

+but what the Captain seemed a worthy, fatherly man; but I hated to

+behold her in the least familiarity with anyone except myself.

+

+Altogether, she was so quick to avoid me, and so constant to keep

+herself surrounded with others, that I must watch a long while

+before I could find my opportunity; and after it was found, I made

+not much of it, as you are now to hear.

+

+"I have no guess how I have offended," said I; "it should scarce be

+beyond pardon, then.  O, try if you can pardon me."

+

+"I have no pardon to give," said she; and the words seemed to come

+out of her throat like marbles.  "I will be very much obliged for

+all your friendships."  And she made me an eighth part of a

+curtsey.

+

+But I had schooled myself beforehand to say more, and I was going

+to say it too.

+

+"There is one thing," said I.  "If I have shocked your

+particularity by the showing of that letter, it cannot touch Miss

+Grant.  She wrote not to you, but to a poor, common, ordinary lad,

+who might have had more sense than show it.  If you are to blame

+me--"

+

+"I will advise you to say no more about that girl, at all events!"

+said Catriona.  "It is her I will never look the road of, not if

+she lay dying."  She turned away from me, and suddenly back.  "Will

+you swear you will have no more to deal with her?" she cried.

+

+"Indeed, and I will never be so unjust then," said I; "nor yet so

+ungrateful."

+

+And now it was I that turned away.

+

+

+

+CHAPTER XXII--HELVOETSLUYS

+

+

+

+The weather in the end considerably worsened; the wind sang in the

+shrouds, the sea swelled higher, and the ship began to labour and

+cry out among the billows.  The song of the leadsman in the chains

+was now scarce ceasing, for we thrid all the way among shoals.

+About nine in the morning, in a burst of wintry sun between two

+squalls of hail, I had my first look of Holland--a line of

+windmills birling in the breeze.  It was besides my first knowledge

+of these daft-like contrivances, which gave me a near sense of

+foreign travel and a new world and life.  We came to an anchor

+about half-past eleven, outside the harbour of Helvoetsluys, in a

+place where the sea sometimes broke and the ship pitched

+outrageously.  You may be sure we were all on deck save Mrs.

+Gebbie, some of us in cloaks, others mantled in the ship's

+tarpaulins, all clinging on by ropes, and jesting the most like old

+sailor-folk that we could imitate.

+

+Presently a boat, that was backed like a partancrab, came gingerly

+alongside, and the skipper of it hailed our master in the Dutch.

+Thence Captain Sang turned, very troubled-like, to Catriona; and

+the rest of us crowding about, the nature of the difficulty was

+made plain to all.  The Rose was bound to the port of Rotterdam,

+whither the other passengers were in a great impatience to arrive,

+in view of a conveyance due to leave that very evening in the

+direction of the Upper Germany.  This, with the present half-gale

+of wind, the captain (if no time were lost) declared himself still

+capable to save.  Now James More had trysted in Helvoet with his

+daughter, and the captain had engaged to call before the port and

+place her (according to the custom) in a shore boat.  There was the

+boat, to be sure, and here was Catriona ready:  but both our master

+and the patroon of the boat scrupled at the risk, and the first was

+in no humour to delay.

+

+"Your father," said he, "would be gey an little pleased if we was

+to break a leg to ye, Miss Drummond, let-a-be drowning of you.

+Take my way of it," says he, "and come on-by with the rest of us

+here to Rotterdam.  Ye can get a passage down the Maes in a sailing

+scoot as far as to the Brill, and thence on again, by a place in a

+rattel-waggon, back to Helvoet."

+

+But Catriona would hear of no change.  She looked white-like as she

+beheld the bursting of the sprays, the green seas that sometimes

+poured upon the fore-castle, and the perpetual bounding and

+swooping of the boat among the billows; but she stood firmly by her

+father's orders.  "My father, James More, will have arranged it

+so," was her first word and her last.  I thought it very idle and

+indeed wanton in the girl to be so literal and stand opposite to so

+much kind advice; but the fact is she had a very good reason, if

+she would have told us.  Sailing scoots and rattel-waggons are

+excellent things; only the use of them must first be paid for, and

+all she was possessed of in the world was just two shillings and a

+penny halfpenny sterling.  So it fell out that captain and

+passengers, not knowing of her destitution--and she being too proud

+to tell them--spoke in vain.

+

+"But you ken nae French and nae Dutch neither," said one.

+

+"It is very true," says she, "but since the year '46 there are so

+many of the honest Scotch abroad that I will be doing very well.  I

+thank you."

+

+There was a pretty country simplicity in this that made some laugh,

+others looked the more sorry, and Mr. Gebbie fall outright in a

+passion.  I believe he knew it was his duty (his wife having

+accepted charge of the girl) to have gone ashore with her and seen

+her safe:  nothing would have induced him to have done so, since it

+must have involved the lose of his conveyance; and I think he made

+it up to his conscience by the loudness of his voice.  At least he

+broke out upon Captain Sang, raging and saying the thing was a

+disgrace; that it was mere death to try to leave the ship, and at

+any event we could not cast down an innocent maid in a boatful of

+nasty Holland fishers, and leave her to her fate.  I was thinking

+something of the same; took the mate upon one side, arranged with

+him to send on my chests by track-scoot to an address I had in

+Leyden, and stood up and signalled to the fishers.

+

+"I will go ashore with the young lady, Captain Sang," said I.  "It

+is all one what way I go to Leyden;" and leaped at the same time

+into the boat, which I managed not so elegantly but what I fell

+with two of the fishers in the bilge.

+

+From the boat the business appeared yet more precarious than from

+the ship, she stood so high over us, swung down so swift, and

+menaced us so perpetually with her plunging and passaging upon the

+anchor cable.  I began to think I had made a fool's bargain, that

+it was merely impossible Catriona should be got on board to me, and

+that I stood to be set ashore at Helvoet all by myself and with no

+hope of any reward but the pleasure of embracing James More, if I

+should want to.  But this was to reckon without the lass's courage.

+She had seen me leap with very little appearance (however much

+reality) of hesitation; to be sure, she was not to be beat by her

+discarded friend.  Up she stood on the bulwarks and held by a stay,

+the wind blowing in her petticoats, which made the enterprise more

+dangerous, and gave us rather more of a view of her stockings than

+would be thought genteel in cities.  There was no minute lost, and

+scarce time given for any to interfere if they had wished the same.

+I stood up on the other side and spread my arms; the ship swung

+down on us, the patroon humoured his boat nearer in than was

+perhaps wholly safe, and Catriona leaped into the air.  I was so

+happy as to catch her, and the fishers readily supporting us,

+escaped a fall.  She held to me a moment very tight, breathing

+quick and deep; thence (she still clinging to me with both hands)

+we were passed aft to our places by the steersman; and Captain Sang

+and all the crew and passengers cheering and crying farewell, the

+boat was put about for shore.

+

+As soon as Catriona came a little to herself she unhanded me

+suddenly, but said no word.  No more did I; and indeed the

+whistling of the wind and the breaching of the sprays made it no

+time for speech; and our crew not only toiled excessively but made

+extremely little way, so that the Rose had got her anchor and was

+off again before we had approached the harbour mouth.

+

+We were no sooner in smooth water than the patroon, according to

+their beastly Hollands custom, stopped his boat and required of us

+our fares.  Two guilders was the man's demand--between three and

+four shillings English money--for each passenger.  But at this

+Catriona began to cry out with a vast deal of agitation.  She had

+asked of Captain Sang, she said, and the fare was but an English

+shilling.  "Do you think I will have come on board and not ask

+first?" cries she.  The patroon scolded back upon her in a lingo

+where the oaths were English and the rest right Hollands; till at

+last (seeing her near tears) I privately slipped in the rogue's

+hand six shillings, whereupon he was obliging enough to receive

+from her the other shilling without more complaint.  No doubt I was

+a good deal nettled and ashamed.  I like to see folk thrifty, but

+not with so much passion; and I daresay it would be rather coldly

+that I asked her, as the boat moved on again for shore, where it

+was that she was trysted with her father.

+

+"He is to be inquired of at the house of one Sprott, an honest

+Scotch merchant," says she; and then with the same breath, "I am

+wishing to thank you very much--you are a brave friend to me."

+

+"It will be time enough when I get you to your father," said I,

+little thinking that I spoke so true.  "I can tell him a fine tale

+of a loyal daughter."

+

+"O, I do not think I will be a loyal girl, at all events," she

+cried, with a great deal of painfulness in the expression.  "I do

+not think my heart is true."

+

+"Yet there are very few that would have made that leap, and all to

+obey a father's orders," I observed.

+

+"I cannot have you to be thinking of me so," she cried again.

+"When you had done that same, how would I stop behind?  And at all

+events that was not all the reasons."  Whereupon, with a burning

+face, she told me the plain truth upon her poverty.

+

+"Good guide us!" cried I, "what kind of daft-like proceeding is

+this, to let yourself be launched on the continent of Europe with

+an empty purse--I count it hardly decent--scant decent!" I cried.

+

+"You forget James More, my father, is a poor gentleman," said she.

+"He is a hunted exile."

+

+"But I think not all your friends are hunted exiles," I exclaimed.

+"And was this fair to them that care for you?  Was it fair to me?

+was it fair to Miss Grant that counselled you to go, and would be

+driven fair horn-mad if she could hear of it?  Was it even fair to

+these Gregory folk that you were living with, and used you

+lovingly?  It's a blessing you have fallen in my hands!  Suppose

+your father hindered by an accident, what would become of you here,

+and you your lee-lone in a strange place?  The thought of the thing

+frightens me," I said.

+

+"I will have lied to all of them," she replied.  "I will have told

+them all that I had plenty.  I told HER too.  I could not be

+lowering James More to them."

+

+I found out later on that she must have lowered him in the very

+dust, for the lie was originally the father's, not the daughter's,

+and she thus obliged to persevere in it for the man's reputation.

+But at the time I was ignorant of this, and the mere thought of her

+destitution and the perils in which see must have fallen, had

+ruffled me almost beyond reason.

+

+"Well, well, well," said I, "you will have to learn more sense."

+

+I left her mails for the moment in an inn upon the shore, where I

+got a direction for Sprott's house in my new French, and we walked

+there--it was some little way--beholding the place with wonder as

+we went.  Indeed, there was much for Scots folk to admire:  canals

+and trees being intermingled with the houses; the houses, each

+within itself, of a brave red brick, the colour of a rose, with

+steps and benches of blue marble at the cheek of every door, and

+the whole town so clean you might have dined upon the causeway.

+Sprott was within, upon his ledgers, in a low parlour, very neat

+and clean, and set out with china and pictures, and a globe of the

+earth in a brass frame.  He was a big-chafted, ruddy, lusty man,

+with a crooked hard look to him; and he made us not that much

+civility as offer us a seat.

+

+"Is James More Macgregor now in Helvoet, sir?" says I.

+

+"I ken nobody by such a name," says he, impatient-like.

+

+"Since you are so particular," says I, "I will amend my question,

+and ask you where we are to find in Helvoet one James Drummond,

+alias Macgregor, alias James More, late tenant in Inveronachile?"

+

+"Sir," says he, "he may be in Hell for what I ken, and for my part

+I wish he was."

+

+"The young lady is that gentleman's daughter, sir," said I, "before

+whom, I think you will agree with me, it is not very becoming to

+discuss his character."

+

+"I have nothing to make either with him, or her, or you!" cries he

+in his gross voice.

+

+"Under your favour, Mr. Sprott," said I, "this young lady is come

+from Scotland seeking him, and by whatever mistake, was given the

+name of your house for a direction.  An error it seems to have

+been, but I think this places both you and me--who am but her

+fellow-traveller by accident--under a strong obligation to help our

+countrywoman."

+

+"Will you ding me daft?" he cries.  "I tell ye I ken naething and

+care less either for him or his breed.  I tell ye the man owes me

+money."

+

+"That may very well be, sir," said I, who was now rather more angry

+than himself.  "At least, I owe you nothing; the young lady is

+under my protection; and I am neither at all used with these

+manners, nor in the least content with them."

+

+As I said this, and without particularly thinking what I did, I

+drew a step or two nearer to his table; thus striking, by mere good

+fortune, on the only argument that could at all affect the man.

+The blood left his lusty countenance.

+

+"For the Lord's sake dinna be hasty, sir!" he cried.  "I am truly

+wishfu' no to be offensive.  But ye ken, sir, I'm like a wheen

+guid-natured, honest, canty auld fellows--my bark is waur nor my

+bite.  To hear me, ye micht whiles fancy I was a wee thing dour;

+but na, na! it's a kind auld fallow at heart, Sandie Sprott!  And

+ye could never imagine the fyke and fash this man has been to me."

+

+"Very good, sir," said I.  "Then I will make that much freedom with

+your kindness as trouble you for your last news of Mr. Drummond."

+

+"You're welcome, sir!" said he.  "As for the young leddy (my

+respects to her!), he'll just have clean forgotten her.  I ken the

+man, ye see; I have lost siller by him ere now.  He thinks of

+naebody but just himsel'; clan, king, or dauchter, if he can get

+his wameful, he would give them a' the go-by! ay, or his

+correspondent either.  For there is a sense in whilk I may be

+nearly almost said to be his correspondent.  The fact is, we are

+employed thegether in a business affair, and I think it's like to

+turn out a dear affair for Sandie Sprott.  The man's as guid's my

+pairtner, and I give ye my mere word I ken naething by where he is.

+He micht be coming here to Helvoet; he micht come here the morn, he

+michtnae come for a twalmouth; I would wonder at naething--or just

+at the ae thing, and that's if he was to pay me my siller.  Ye see

+what way I stand with it; and it's clear I'm no very likely to

+meddle up with the young leddy, as ye ca' her.  She cannae stop

+here, that's ae thing certain sure.  Dod, sir, I'm a lone man!  If

+I was to tak her in, its highly possible the hellicat would try and

+gar me marry her when he turned up."

+

+"Enough of this talk," said I.  "I will take the young leddy among

+better friends.  Give me, pen, ink, and paper, and I will leave

+here for James More the address of my correspondent in Leyden.  He

+can inquire from me where he is to seek his daughter."

+

+This word I wrote and sealed; which while I was doing, Sprott of

+his own motion made a welcome offer, to charge himself with Miss

+Drummond's mails, and even send a porter for them to the inn.  I

+advanced him to that effect a dollar or two to be a cover, and he

+gave me an acknowledgment in writing of the sum.

+

+Whereupon (I giving my arm to Catriona) we left the house of this

+unpalatable rascal.  She had said no word throughout, leaving me to

+judge and speak in her place; I, upon my side, had been careful not

+to embarrass her by a glance; and even now, although my heart still

+glowed inside of me with shame and anger, I made it my affair to

+seem quite easy.

+

+"Now," said I, "let us get back to yon same inn where they can

+speak the French, have a piece of dinner, and inquire for

+conveyances to Rotterdam.  I will never be easy till I have you

+safe again in the hands of Mrs. Gebbie."

+

+"I suppose it will have to be," said Catriona, "though whoever will

+be pleased, I do not think it will be her.  And I will remind you

+this once again that I have but one shilling, and three baubees."

+

+"And just this once again," said I, "I will remind you it was a

+blessing that I came alongst with you."

+

+"What else would I be thinking all this time?" says she, and I

+thought weighed a little on my arm.  "It is you that are the good

+friend to me."

+

+

+

+CHAPTER XXIII--TRAVELS IN HOLLAND

+

+

+

+The rattel-waggon, which is a kind of a long waggon set with

+benches, carried us in four hours of travel to the great city of

+Rotterdam.  It was long past dark by then, but the streets were

+pretty brightly lighted and thronged with wild-like, outlandish

+characters--bearded Hebrews, black men, and the hordes of

+courtesans, most indecently adorned with finery and stopping seamen

+by their very sleeves; the clash of talk about us made our heads to

+whirl; and what was the most unexpected of all, we appeared to be

+no more struck with all these foreigners than they with us.  I made

+the best face I could, for the lass's sake and my own credit; but

+the truth is I felt like a lost sheep, and my heart beat in my

+bosom with anxiety.  Once or twice I inquired after the harbour or

+the berth of the ship Rose:  but either fell on some who spoke only

+Hollands, or my own French failed me.  Trying a street at a

+venture, I came upon a lane of lighted houses, the doors and

+windows thronged with wauf-like painted women; these jostled and

+mocked upon us as we passed, and I was thankful we had nothing of

+their language.  A little after we issued forth upon an open place

+along the harbour.

+

+"We shall be doing now," cries I, as soon as I spied masts.  "Let

+us walk here by the harbour.  We are sure to meet some that has the

+English, and at the best of it we may light upon that very ship."

+

+We did the next best, as happened; for, about nine of the evening,

+whom should we walk into the arms of but Captain Sang?  He told us

+they had made their run in the most incredible brief time, the wind

+holding strong till they reached port; by which means his

+passengers were all gone already on their further travels.  It was

+impossible to chase after the Gebbies into the High Germany, and we

+had no other acquaintance to fall back upon but Captain Sang

+himself.  It was the more gratifying to find the man friendly and

+wishful to assist.  He made it a small affair to find some good

+plain family of merchants, where Catriona might harbour till the

+Rose was loaden; declared he would then blithely carry her back to

+Leith for nothing and see her safe in the hands of Mr. Gregory; and

+in the meanwhile carried us to a late ordinary for the meal we

+stood in need of.  He seemed extremely friendly, as I say, but what

+surprised me a good deal, rather boisterous in the bargain; and the

+cause of this was soon to appear.  For at the ordinary, calling for

+Rhenish wine and drinking of it deep, he soon became unutterably

+tipsy.  In this case, as too common with all men, but especially

+with those of his rough trade, what little sense or manners he

+possessed deserted him; and he behaved himself so scandalous to the

+young lady, jesting most ill-favouredly at the figure she had made

+on the ship's rail, that I had no resource but carry her suddenly

+away.

+

+She came out of the ordinary clinging to me close.  "Take me away,

+David," she said.  "YOU keep me.  I am not afraid with you."

+

+"And have no cause, my little friend!" cried I, and could have

+found it in my heart to weep.

+

+"Where will you be taking me?" she said again.  "Don't leave me at

+all events--never leave me."

+

+"Where am I taking you to?" says I stopping, for I had been staving

+on ahead in mere blindness.  "I must stop and think.  But I'll not

+leave you, Catriona; the Lord do so to me, and more also, if I

+should fail or fash you."

+

+She crept close into me by way of a reply.

+

+"Here," I said, "is the stillest place we have hit on yet in this

+busy byke of a city.  Let us sit down here under yon tree and

+consider of our course."

+

+That tree (which I am little like to forget) stood hard by the

+harbour side.  It was like a black night, but lights were in the

+houses, and nearer hand in the quiet ships; there was a shining of

+the city on the one hand, and a buzz hung over it of many thousands

+walking and talking; on the other, it was dark and the water

+bubbled on the sides.  I spread my cloak upon a builder's stone,

+and made her sit there; she would have kept her hold upon me, for

+she still shook with the late affronts; but I wanted to think

+clear, disengaged myself, and paced to and fro before her, in the

+manner of what we call a smuggler's walk, belabouring my brains for

+any remedy.  By the course of these scattering thoughts I was

+brought suddenly face to face with a remembrance that, in the heat

+and haste of our departure, I had left Captain Sang to pay the

+ordinary.  At this I began to laugh out loud, for I thought the man

+well served; and at the same time, by an instinctive movement,

+carried my hand to the pocket where my money was.  I suppose it was

+in the lane where the women jostled us; but there is only the one

+thing certain, that my purse was gone.

+

+"You will have thought of something good," said she, observing me

+to pause.

+

+At the pinch we were in, my mind became suddenly clear as a

+perspective glass, and I saw there was no choice of methods.  I had

+not one doit of coin, but in my pocket-book I had still my letter

+on the Leyden merchant; and there was now but the one way to get to

+Leyden, and that was to walk on our two feet.

+

+"Catriona," said I, "I know you're brave and I believe you're

+strong--do you think you could walk thirty miles on a plain road?"

+We found it, I believe, scarce the two-thirds of that, but such was

+my notion of the distance.

+

+"David," she said, "if you will just keep near, I will go anywhere

+and do anything.  The courage of my heart, it is all broken.  Do

+not be leaving me in this horrible country by myself, and I will do

+all else."

+

+"Can you start now and march all night?" said I.

+

+"I will do all that you can ask of me," she said, "and never ask

+you why.  I have been a bad ungrateful girl to you; and do what you

+please with me now!  And I think Miss Barbara Grant is the best

+lady in the world," she added, "and I do not see what she would

+deny you for at all events."

+

+This was Greek and Hebrew to me; but I had other matters to

+consider, and the first of these was to get clear of that city on

+the Leyden road.  It proved a cruel problem; and it may have been

+one or two at night ere we had solved it.  Once beyond the houses,

+there was neither moon nor stars to guide us; only the whiteness of

+the way in the midst and a blackness of an alley on both hands.

+The walking was besides made most extraordinary difficult by a

+plain black frost that fell suddenly in the small hours and turned

+that highway into one long slide.

+

+"Well, Catriona," said I, "here we are like the king's sons and the

+old wives' daughters in your daft-like Highland tales.  Soon we'll

+be going over the 'SEVEN BENS, THE SEVEN GLENS AND THE SEVEN

+MOUNTAIN MOORS'."  Which was a common byword or overcome in those

+tales of hers that had stuck in my memory.

+

+"Ah," says she, "but here are no glens or mountains!  Though I will

+never be denying but what the trees and some of the plain places

+hereabouts are very pretty.  But our country is the best yet."

+

+"I wish we could say as much for our own folk," says I, recalling

+Sprott and Sang, and perhaps James More himself.

+

+"I will never complain of the country of my friend," said she, and

+spoke it out with an accent so particular that I seemed to see the

+look upon her face.

+

+I caught in my breath sharp and came near falling (for my pains) on

+the black ice.

+

+"I do not know what YOU think, Catriona," said I, when I was a

+little recovered, "but this has been the best day yet!  I think

+shame to say it, when you have met in with such misfortunes and

+disfavours; but for me, it has been the best day yet."

+

+"It was a good day when you showed me so much love," said she.

+

+"And yet I think shame to be happy too," I went on, "and you here

+on the road in the black night."

+

+"Where in the great world would I be else?" she cried.  "I am

+thinking I am safest where I am with you."

+

+"I am quite forgiven, then?" I asked.

+

+"Will you not forgive me that time so much as not to take it in

+your mouth again?" she cried.  "There is nothing in this heart to

+you but thanks.  But I will be honest too," she added, with a kind

+of suddenness, "and I'll never can forgive that girl."

+

+"Is this Miss Grant again?" said I.  "You said yourself she was the

+best lady in the world."

+

+"So she will be, indeed!" says Catriona.  "But I will never forgive

+her for all that.  I will never, never forgive her, and let me hear

+tell of her no more."

+

+"Well," said I, "this beats all that ever came to my knowledge; and

+I wonder that you can indulge yourself in such bairnly whims.  Here

+is a young lady that was the best friend in the world to the both

+of us, that learned us how to dress ourselves, and in a great

+manner how to behave, as anyone can see that knew us both before

+and after."

+

+But Catriona stopped square in the midst of the highway.

+

+"It is this way of it," said she.  "Either you will go on to speak

+of her, and I will go back to yon town, and let come of it what God

+pleases!  Or else you will do me that politeness to talk of other

+things."

+

+I was the most nonplussed person in this world; but I bethought me

+that she depended altogether on my help, that she was of the frail

+sex and not so much beyond a child, and it was for me to be wise

+for the pair of us.

+

+"My dear girl," said I, "I can make neither head nor tails of this;

+but God forbid that I should do anything to set you on the jee.  As

+for talking of Miss Grant, I have no such a mind to it, and I

+believe it was yourself began it.  My only design (if I took you up

+at all) was for your own improvement, for I hate the very look of

+injustice.  Not that I do not wish you to have a good pride and a

+nice female delicacy; they become you well; but here you show them

+to excess."

+

+"Well, then, have you done?" said she.

+

+"I have done," said I.

+

+"A very good thing," said she, and we went on again, but now in

+silence.

+

+It was an eerie employment to walk in the gross night, beholding

+only shadows and hearing nought but our own steps.  At first, I

+believe our hearts burned against each other with a deal of enmity;

+but the darkness and the cold, and the silence, which only the

+cocks sometimes interrupted, or sometimes the farmyard dogs, had

+pretty soon brought down our pride to the dust; and for my own

+particular, I would have jumped at any decent opening for speech.

+

+Before the day peeped, came on a warmish rain, and the frost was

+all wiped away from among our feet.  I took my cloak to her and

+sought to hap her in the same; she bade me, rather impatiently, to

+keep it.

+

+"Indeed and I will do no such thing," said I.  "Here am I, a great,

+ugly lad that has seen all kinds of weather, and here are you a

+tender, pretty maid!  My dear, you would not put me to a shame?"

+

+Without more words she let me cover her; which as I was doing in

+the darkness, I let my hand rest a moment on her shoulder, almost

+like an embrace.

+

+"You must try to be more patient of your friend," said I.

+

+I thought she seemed to lean the least thing in the world against

+my bosom, or perhaps it was but fancy.

+

+"There will be no end to your goodness," said she.

+

+And we went on again in silence; but now all was changed; and the

+happiness that was in my heart was like a fire in a great chimney.

+

+The rain passed ere day; it was but a sloppy morning as we came

+into the town of Delft.  The red gabled houses made a handsome show

+on either hand of a canal; the servant lassies were out slestering

+and scrubbing at the very stones upon the public highway; smoke

+rose from a hundred kitchens; and it came in upon me strongly it

+was time to break our fasts.

+

+"Catriona," said I, "I believe you have yet a shilling and three

+baubees?"

+

+"Are you wanting it?" said she, and passed me her purse.  "I am

+wishing it was five pounds!  What will you want it for?"

+

+"And what have we been walking for all night, like a pair of waif

+Egyptians!" says I.  "Just because I was robbed of my purse and all

+I possessed in that unchancy town of Rotterdam.  I will tell you of

+it now, because I think the worst is over, but we have still a good

+tramp before us till we get to where my money is, and if you would

+not buy me a piece of bread, I were like to go fasting."

+

+She looked at me with open eyes.  By the light of the new day she

+was all black and pale for weariness, so that my heart smote me for

+her.  But as for her, she broke out laughing.

+

+"My torture! are we beggars then!" she cried.  "You too?  O, I

+could have wished for this same thing!  And I am glad to buy your

+breakfast to you.  But it would be pleisand if I would have had to

+dance to get a meal to you!  For I believe they are not very well

+acquainted with our manner of dancing over here, and might be

+paying for the curiosity of that sight."

+

+I could have kissed her for that word, not with a lover's mind, but

+in a heat of admiration.  For it always warms a man to see a woman

+brave.

+

+We got a drink of milk from a country wife but new come to the

+town, and in a baker's, a piece of excellent, hot, sweet-smelling

+bread, which we ate upon the road as we went on.  That road from

+Delft to the Hague is just five miles of a fine avenue shaded with

+trees, a canal on the one hand, on the other excellent pastures of

+cattle.  It was pleasant here indeed.

+

+"And now, Davie," said she, "what will you do with me at all

+events?"

+

+"It is what we have to speak of," said I, "and the sooner yet the

+better.  I can come by money in Leyden; that will be all well.  But

+the trouble is how to dispose of you until your father come.  I

+thought last night you seemed a little sweir to part from me?"

+

+"It will be more than seeming then," said she.

+

+"You are a very young maid," said I, "and I am but a very young

+callant.  This is a great piece of difficulty.  What way are we to

+manage?  Unless indeed, you could pass to be my sister?"

+

+"And what for no?" said she, "if you would let me!"

+

+"I wish you were so, indeed," I cried.  "I would be a fine man if I

+had such a sister.  But the rub is that you are Catriona Drummond."

+

+"And now I will be Catriona Balfour," she said.  "And who is to

+ken?  They are all strange folk here."

+

+"If you think that it would do," says I.  "I own it troubles me.  I

+would like it very ill, if I advised you at all wrong."

+

+"David, I have no friend here but you," she said.

+

+"The mere truth is, I am too young to be your friend," said I.  "I

+am too young to advise you, or you to be advised.  I see not what

+else we are to do, and yet I ought to warn you."

+

+"I will have no choice left," said she.  "My father James More has

+not used me very well, and it is not the first time, I am cast upon

+your hands like a sack of barley meal, and have nothing else to

+think of but your pleasure.  If you will have me, good and well.

+If you will not"--she turned and touched her hand upon my arm--

+"David, I am afraid," said she.

+

+"No, but I ought to warn you," I began; and then bethought me I was

+the bearer of the purse, and it would never do to seem too

+churlish.  "Catriona," said I, "don't misunderstand me:  I am just

+trying to do my duty by you, girl!  Here am I going alone to this

+strange city, to be a solitary student there; and here is this

+chance arisen that you might dwell with me a bit, and be like my

+sister; you can surely understand this much, my dear, that I would

+just love to have you?"

+

+"Well, and here I am," said she.  "So that's soon settled."

+

+I know I was in duty bounden to have spoke more plain.  I know this

+was a great blot on my character, for which I was lucky that I did

+not pay more dear.  But I minded how easy her delicacy had been

+startled with a word of kissing her in Barbara's letter; now that

+she depended on me, how was I to be more bold?  Besides, the truth

+is, I could see no other feasible method to dispose of her.  And I

+daresay inclination pulled me very strong.

+

+A little beyond the Hague she fell very lame and made the rest of

+the distance heavily enough.  Twice she must rest by the wayside,

+which she did with pretty apologies, calling herself a shame to the

+Highlands and the race she came of, and nothing but a hindrance to

+myself.  It was her excuse, she said, that she was not much used

+with walking shod.  I would have had her strip off her shoes and

+stockings and go barefoot.  But she pointed out to me that the

+women of that country, even in the landward roads, appeared to be

+all shod.

+

+"I must not be disgracing my brother," said she, and was very merry

+with it all, although her face told tales of her.

+

+There is a garden in that city we were bound to, sanded below with

+clean sand, the trees meeting overhead, some of them trimmed, some

+preached, and the whole place beautified with alleys and arbours.

+Here I left Catriona, and went forward by myself to find my

+correspondent.  There I drew on my credit, and asked to be

+recommended to some decent, retired lodging.  My baggage being not

+yet arrived, I told him I supposed I should require his caution

+with the people of the house; and explained that, my sister being

+come for a while to keep house with me, I should be wanting two

+chambers.  This was all very well; but the trouble was that Mr.

+Balfour in his letter of recommendation had condescended on a great

+deal of particulars, and never a word of any sister in the case.  I

+could see my Dutchman was extremely suspicious; and viewing me over

+the rims of a great pair of spectacles--he was a poor, frail body,

+and reminded me of an infirm rabbit--he began to question me close.

+

+Here I fell in a panic.  Suppose he accept my tale (thinks I),

+suppose he invite my sister to his house, and that I bring her.  I

+shall have a fine ravelled pirn to unwind, and may end by

+disgracing both the lassie and myself.  Thereupon I began hastily

+to expound to him my sister's character.  She was of a bashful

+disposition, it appeared, and be extremely fearful of meeting

+strangers that I had left her at that moment sitting in a public

+place alone.  And then, being launched upon the stream of

+falsehood, I must do like all the rest of the world in the same

+circumstance, and plunge in deeper than was any service; adding

+some altogether needless particulars of Miss Balfour's ill-health

+and retirement during childhood.  In the midst of which I awoke to

+a sense of my behaviour, and was turned to one blush.

+

+The old gentleman was not so much deceived but what he discovered a

+willingness to be quit of me.  But he was first of all a man of

+business; and knowing that my money was good enough, however it

+might be with my conduct, he was so far obliging as to send his son

+to be my guide and caution in the matter of a lodging.  This

+implied my presenting of the young man to Catriona.  The poor,

+pretty child was much recovered with resting, looked and behaved to

+perfection, and took my arm and gave me the name of brother more

+easily than I could answer her.  But there was one misfortune:

+thinking to help, she was rather towardly than otherwise to my

+Dutchman.  And I could not but reflect that Miss Balfour had rather

+suddenly outgrown her bashfulness.  And there was another thing,

+the difference of our speech.  I had the Low Country tongue and

+dwelled upon my words; she had a hill voice, spoke with something

+of an English accent, only far more delightful, and was scarce

+quite fit to be called a deacon in the craft of talking English

+grammar; so that, for a brother and sister, we made a most uneven

+pair.  But the young Hollander was a heavy dog, without so much

+spirit in his belly as to remark her prettiness, for which I

+scorned him.  And as soon as he had found a cover to our heads, he

+left us alone, which was the greater service of the two.

+

+

+

+CHAPTER XXIV--FULL STORY OF A COPY OF HEINECCIUS

+

+

+

+The place found was in the upper part of a house backed on a canal.

+We had two rooms, the second entering from the first; each had a

+chimney built out into the floor in the Dutch manner; and being

+alongside, each had the same prospect from the window of the top of

+a tree below us in a little court, of a piece of the canal, and of

+houses in the Hollands architecture and a church spire upon the

+further side.  A full set of bells hung in that spire and made

+delightful music; and when there was any sun at all, it shone

+direct in our two chambers.  From a tavern hard by we had good

+meals sent in.

+

+The first night we were both pretty weary, and she extremely so.

+There was little talk between us, and I packed her off to her bed

+as soon as she had eaten.  The first thing in the morning I wrote

+word to Sprott to have her mails sent on, together with a line to

+Alan at his chief's; and had the same despatched, and her breakfast

+ready, ere I waked her.  I was a little abashed when she came forth

+in her one habit, and the mud of the way upon her stockings.  By

+what inquiries I had made, it seemed a good few days must pass

+before her mails could come to hand in Leyden, and it was plainly

+needful she must have a shift of things.  She was unwilling at

+first that I should go to that expense; but I reminded her she was

+now a rich man's sister and must appear suitably in the part, and

+we had not got to the second merchant's before she was entirely

+charmed into the spirit of the thing, and her eyes shining.  It

+pleased me to see her so innocent and thorough in this pleasure.

+What was more extraordinary was the passion into which I fell on it

+myself; being never satisfied that I had bought her enough or fine

+enough, and never weary of beholding her in different attires.

+Indeed, I began to understand some little of Miss Grant's immersion

+in the interest of clothes; for the truth is, when you have the

+ground of a beautiful person to adorn, the whole business becomes

+beautiful.  The Dutch chintzes I should say were extraordinary

+cheap and fine; but I would be ashamed to set down what I paid for

+stockings to her.  Altogether I spent so great a sum upon this

+pleasuring (as I may call it) that I was ashamed for a great while

+to spend more; and by way of a set-off, I left our chambers pretty

+bare.  If we had beds, if Catriona was a little braw, and I had

+light to see her by, we were richly enough lodged for me.

+

+By the end of this merchandising I was glad to leave her at the

+door with all our purchases, and go for a long walk alone in which

+to read myself a lecture.  Here had I taken under my roof, and as

+good as to my bosom, a young lass extremely beautiful, and whose

+innocence was her peril.  My talk with the old Dutchman, and the

+lies to which I was constrained, had already given me a sense of

+how my conduct must appear to others; and now, after the strong

+admiration I had just experienced and the immoderacy with which I

+had continued my vain purchases, I began to think of it myself as

+very hazarded.  I bethought me, if I had a sister indeed, whether I

+would so expose her; then, judging the case too problematical, I

+varied my question into this, whether I would so trust Catriona in

+the hands of any other Christian being; the answer to which made my

+face to burn.  The more cause, since I had been entrapped and had

+entrapped the girl into an undue situation, that I should behave in

+it with scrupulous nicety.  She depended on me wholly for her bread

+and shelter; in case I should alarm her delicacy, she had no

+retreat.  Besides I was her host and her protector; and the more

+irregularly I had fallen in these positions, the less excuse for me

+if I should profit by the same to forward even the most honest

+suit; for with the opportunities that I enjoyed, and which no wise

+parent would have suffered for a moment, even the most honest suit

+would be unfair.  I saw I must be extremely hold-off in my

+relations; and yet not too much so neither; for if I had no right

+to appear at all in the character of a suitor, I must yet appear

+continually, and if possible agreeably, in that of host.  It was

+plain I should require a great deal of tact and conduct, perhaps

+more than my years afforded.  But I had rushed in where angels

+might have feared to tread, and there was no way out of that

+position save by behaving right while I was in it.  I made a set of

+rules for my guidance; prayed for strength to be enabled to observe

+them, and as a more human aid to the same end purchased a study-

+book in law.  This being all that I could think of, I relaxed from

+these grave considerations; whereupon my mind bubbled at once into

+an effervescency of pleasing spirits, and it was like one treading

+on air that I turned homeward.  As I thought that name of home, and

+recalled the image of that figure awaiting me between four walls,

+my heart beat upon my bosom.

+

+My troubles began with my return.  She ran to greet me with an

+obvious and affecting pleasure.  She was clad, besides, entirely in

+the new clothes that I had bought for her; looked in them beyond

+expression well; and must walk about and drop me curtseys to

+display them and to be admired.  I am sure I did it with an ill

+grace, for I thought to have choked upon the words.

+

+"Well," she said, "if you will not be caring for my pretty clothes,

+see what I have done with our two chambers."  And she showed me the

+place all very finely swept, and the fires glowing in the two

+chimneys.

+

+I was glad of a chance to seem a little more severe than I quite

+felt.  "Catriona," said I, "I am very much displeased with you, and

+you must never again lay a hand upon my room.  One of us two must

+have the rule while we are here together; it is most fit it should

+be I who am both the man and the elder; and I give you that for my

+command."

+

+She dropped me one of her curtseys; which were extraordinary

+taking.  "If you will be cross," said she, "I must be making pretty

+manners at you, Davie.  I will be very obedient, as I should be

+when every stitch upon all there is of me belongs to you.  But you

+will not be very cross either, because now I have not anyone else."

+

+This struck me hard, and I made haste, in a kind of penitence, to

+blot out all the good effect of my last speech.  In this direction

+progress was more easy, being down hill; she led me forward,

+smiling; at the sight of her, in the brightness of the fire and

+with her pretty becks and looks, my heart was altogether melted.

+We made our meal with infinite mirth and tenderness; and the two

+seemed to be commingled into one, so that our very laughter sounded

+like a kindness.

+

+In the midst of which I awoke to better recollections, made a lame

+word of excuse, and set myself boorishly to my studies.  It was a

+substantial, instructive book that I had bought, by the late Dr.

+Heineccius, in which I was to do a great deal reading these next

+few days, and often very glad that I had no one to question me of

+what I read.  Methought she bit her lip at me a little, and that

+cut me.  Indeed it left her wholly solitary, the more as she was

+very little of a reader, and had never a book.  But what was I to

+do?

+

+So the rest of the evening flowed by almost without speech.

+

+I could have beat myself.  I could not lie in my bed that night for

+rage and repentance, but walked to and fro on my bare feet till I

+was nearly perished, for the chimney was gone out and the frost

+keen.  The thought of her in the next room, the thought that she

+might even hear me as I walked, the remembrance of my churlishness

+and that I must continue to practise the same ungrateful course or

+be dishonoured, put me beside my reason.  I stood like a man

+between Scylla and Charybdis:  WHAT MUST SHE THINK OF ME? was my

+one thought that softened me continually into weakness.  WHAT IS TO

+BECOME OF US? the other which steeled me again to resolution.  This

+was my first night of wakefulness and divided counsels, of which I

+was now to pass many, pacing like a madman, sometimes weeping like

+a childish boy, sometimes praying (I fain would hope) like a

+Christian.

+

+But prayer is not very difficult, and the hitch comes in practice.

+In her presence, and above all if I allowed any beginning of

+familiarity, I found I had very little command of what should

+follow.  But to sit all day in the same room with her, and feign to

+be engaged upon Heineccius, surpassed my strength.  So that I fell

+instead upon the expedient of absenting myself so much as I was

+able; taking out classes and sitting there regularly, often with

+small attention, the test of which I found the other day in a note-

+book of that period, where I had left off to follow an edifying

+lecture and actually scribbled in my book some very ill verses,

+though the Latinity is rather better than I thought that I could

+ever have compassed.  The evil of this course was unhappily near as

+great as its advantage.  I had the less time of trial, but I

+believe, while the time lasted, I was tried the more extremely.

+For she being so much left to solitude, she came to greet my return

+with an increasing fervour that came nigh to overmaster me.  These

+friendly offers I must barbarously cast back; and my rejection

+sometimes wounded her so cruelly that I must unbend and seek to

+make it up to her in kindness.  So that our time passed in ups and

+downs, tiffs and disappointments, upon the which I could almost say

+(if it may be said with reverence) that I was crucified.

+

+The base of my trouble was Catriona's extraordinary innocence, at

+which I was not so much surprised as filled with pity and

+admiration.  She seemed to have no thought of our position, no

+sense of my struggles; welcomed any mark of my weakness with

+responsive joy; and when I was drove again to my retrenchments, did

+not always dissemble her chagrin.  There were times when I have

+thought to myself, "If she were over head in love, and set her cap

+to catch me, she would scarce behave much otherwise;" and then I

+would fall again into wonder at the simplicity of woman, from whom

+I felt (in these moments) that I was not worthy to be descended.

+

+There was one point in particular on which our warfare turned, and

+of all things, this was the question of her clothes.  My baggage

+had soon followed me from Rotterdam, and hers from Helvoet.  She

+had now, as it were, two wardrobes; and it grew to be understood

+between us (I could never tell how) that when she was friendly she

+would wear my clothes, and when otherwise her own.  It was meant

+for a buffet, and (as it were) the renunciation of her gratitude;

+and I felt it so in my bosom, but was generally more wise than to

+appear to have observed the circumstance.

+

+Once, indeed, I was betrayed into a childishness greater than her

+own; it fell in this way.  On my return from classes, thinking upon

+her devoutly with a great deal of love and a good deal of annoyance

+in the bargain, the annoyance began to fade away out of my mind;

+and spying in a window one of those forced flowers, of which the

+Hollanders are so skilled in the artifice, I gave way to an impulse

+and bought it for Catriona.  I do not know the name of that flower,

+but it was of the pink colour, and I thought she would admire the

+same, and carried it home to her with a wonderful soft heart.  I

+had left her in my clothes, and when I returned to find her all

+changed and a face to match, I cast but the one look at her from

+head to foot, ground my teeth together, flung the window open, and

+my flower into the court, and then (between rage and prudence)

+myself out of that room again, of which I slammed she door as I

+went out.

+

+On the steep stair I came near falling, and this brought me to

+myself, so that I began at once to see the folly of my conduct.  I

+went, not into the street as I had purposed, but to the house

+court, which was always a solitary place, and where I saw my flower

+(that had cost me vastly more than it was worth) hanging in the

+leafless tree.  I stood by the side of the canal, and looked upon

+the ice.  Country people went by on their skates, and I envied

+them.  I could see no way out of the pickle I was in no way so much

+as to return to the room I had just left.  No doubt was in my mind

+but I had now betrayed the secret of my feelings; and to make

+things worse, I had shown at the same time (and that with wretched

+boyishness) incivility to my helpless guest.

+

+I suppose she must have seen me from the open window.  It did not

+seem to me that I had stood there very long before I heard the

+crunching of footsteps on the frozen snow, and turning somewhat

+angrily (for I was in no spirit to be interrupted) saw Catriona

+drawing near.  She was all changed again, to the clocked stockings.

+

+"Are we not to have our walk to-day?" said she.

+

+I was looking at her in a maze.  "Where is your brooch?" says I.

+

+She carried her hand to her bosom and coloured high.  "I will have

+forgotten it," said she.  "I will run upstairs for it quick, and

+then surely we'll can have our walk?"

+

+There was a note of pleading in that last that staggered me; I had

+neither words nor voice to utter them; I could do no more than nod

+by way of answer; and the moment she had left me, climbed into the

+tree and recovered my flower, which on her return I offered her.

+

+"I bought it for you, Catriona," said I.

+

+She fixed it in the midst of her bosom with the brooch, I could

+have thought tenderly.

+

+"It is none the better of my handling," said I again, and blushed.

+

+"I will be liking it none the worse, you may be sure of that," said

+she.

+

+We did not speak so much that day; she seemed a thought on the

+reserve, though not unkindly.  As for me, all the time of our

+walking, and after we came home, and I had seen her put my flower

+into a pot of water, I was thinking to myself what puzzles women

+were.  I was thinking, the one moment, it was the most stupid thing

+on earth she should not have perceived my love; and the next, that

+she had certainly perceived it long ago, and (being a wise girl

+with the fine female instinct of propriety) concealed her

+knowledge.

+

+We had our walk daily.  Out in the streets I felt more safe; I

+relaxed a little in my guardedness; and for one thing, there was no

+Heineccius.  This made these periods not only a relief to myself,

+but a particular pleasure to my poor child.  When I came back about

+the hour appointed, I would generally find her ready dressed, and

+glowing with anticipation.  She would prolong their duration to the

+extreme, seeming to dread (as I did myself) the hour of the return;

+and there is scarce a field or waterside near Leyden, scarce a

+street or lane there, where we have not lingered.  Outside of

+these, I bade her confine herself entirely to our lodgings; this in

+the fear of her encountering any acquaintance, which would have

+rendered our position very difficult.  From the same apprehension I

+would never suffer her to attend church, nor even go myself; but

+made some kind of shift to hold worship privately in our own

+chamber--I hope with an honest, but I am quite sure with a very

+much divided mind.  Indeed, there was scarce anything that more

+affected me, than thus to kneel down alone with her before God like

+man and wife.

+

+One day it was snowing downright hard.  I had thought it not

+possible that we should venture forth, and was surprised to find

+her waiting for me ready dressed.

+

+"I will not be doing without my walk," she cried.  "You are never a

+good boy, Davie, in the house; I will never be caring for you only

+in the open air.  I think we two will better turn Egyptian and

+dwell by the roadside."

+

+That was the best walk yet of all of them; she clung near to me in

+the falling snow; it beat about and melted on us, and the drops

+stood upon her bright cheeks like tears and ran into her smiling

+mouth.  Strength seemed to come upon me with the sight like a

+giant's; I thought I could have caught her up and run with her into

+the uttermost places in the earth; and we spoke together all that

+time beyond belief for freedom and sweetness.

+

+It was the dark night when we came to the house door.  She pressed

+my arm upon her bosom.  "Thank you kindly for these same good

+hours," said she, on a deep note of her voice.

+

+The concern in which I fell instantly on this address, put me with

+the same swiftness on my guard; and we were no sooner in the

+chamber, and the light made, than she beheld the old, dour,

+stubborn countenance of the student of Heineccius.  Doubtless she

+was more than usually hurt; and I know for myself, I found it more

+than usually difficult to maintain any strangeness.  Even at the

+meal, I durst scarce unbuckle and scarce lift my eyes to her; and

+it was no sooner over than I fell again to my civilian, with more

+seeming abstraction and less understanding than before.  Methought,

+as I read, I could hear my heart strike like an eight-day clock.

+Hard as I feigned to study, there was still some of my eyesight

+that spilled beyond the book upon Catriona.  She sat on the floor

+by the side of my great mail, and the chimney lighted her up, and

+shone and blinked upon her, and made her glow and darken through a

+wonder of fine hues.  Now she would be gazing in the fire, and then

+again at me; and at that I would be plunged in a terror of myself,

+and turn the pages of Heineccius like a man looking for the text in

+church.

+

+Suddenly she called out aloud.  "O, why does not my father come?"

+she cried, and fell at once into a storm of tears.

+

+I leaped up, flung Heineccius fairly in the fire, ran to her side,

+and cast an arm around her sobbing body.

+

+She put me from her sharply, "You do not love your friend," says

+she.  "I could be so happy too, if you would let me!"  And then,

+"O, what will I have done that you should hate me so?"

+

+"Hate you!" cries I, and held her firm.  "You blind less, can you

+not see a little in my wretched heart?  Do you not think when I sit

+there, reading in that fool-book that I have just burned and be

+damned to it, I take ever the least thought of any stricken thing

+but just yourself?  Night after night I could have grat to see you

+sitting there your lone.  And what was I to do?  You are here under

+my honour; would you punish me for that?  Is it for that that you

+would spurn a loving servant?"

+

+At the word, with a small, sudden motion, she clung near to me.  I

+raised her face to mine, I kissed it, and she bowed her brow upon

+my bosom, clasping me tight.  I saw in a mere whirl like a man

+drunken.  Then I heard her voice sound very small and muffled in my

+clothes.

+

+"Did you kiss her truly?" she asked.

+

+There went through me so great a heave of surprise that I was all

+shook with it.

+

+"Miss Grant?" I cried, all in a disorder.  "Yes, I asked her to

+kiss me good-bye, the which she did."

+

+"Ah, well!" said she, "you have kissed me too, at all events."

+

+At the strangeness and sweetness of that word, I saw where we had

+fallen; rose, and set her on her feet.

+

+"This will never do," said I.  "This will never, never do.  O

+Catrine, Catrine!"  Then there came a pause in which I was debarred

+from any speaking.  And then, "Go away to your bed," said I.  "Go

+away to your bed and leave me."

+

+She turned to obey me like a child, and the next I knew of it, had

+stopped in the very doorway.

+

+"Good night, Davie!" said she.

+

+"And O, good night, my love!" I cried, with a great outbreak of my

+soul, and caught her to me again, so that it seemed I must have

+broken her.  The next moment I had thrust her from the room, shut

+to the door even with violence, and stood alone.

+

+The milk was spilt now, the word was out and the truth told.  I had

+crept like an untrusty man into the poor maid's affections; she was

+in my hand like any frail, innocent thing to make or mar; and what

+weapon of defence was left me?  It seemed like a symbol that

+Heineccius, my old protection, was now burned.  I repented, yet

+could not find it in my heart to blame myself for that great

+failure.  It seemed not possible to have resisted the boldness of

+her innocence or that last temptation of her weeping.  And all that

+I had to excuse me did but make my sin appear the greater--it was

+upon a nature so defenceless, and with such advantages of the

+position, that I seemed to have practised.

+

+What was to become of us now?  It seemed we could no longer dwell

+in the one place.  But where was I to go? or where she?  Without

+either choice or fault of ours, life had conspired to wall us

+together in that narrow place.  I had a wild thought of marrying

+out of hand; and the next moment put it from me with revolt.  She

+was a child, she could not tell her own heart; I had surprised her

+weakness, I must never go on to build on that surprisal; I must

+keep her not only clear of reproach, but free as she had come to

+me.

+

+Down I sat before the fire, and reflected, and repented, and beat

+my brains in vain for any means of escape.  About two of the

+morning, there were three red embers left and the house and all the

+city was asleep, when I was aware of a small sound of weeping in

+the next room.  She thought that I slept, the poor soul; she

+regretted her weakness--and what perhaps (God help her!) she called

+her forwardness--and in the dead of the night solaced herself with

+tears.  Tender and bitter feelings, love and penitence and pity,

+struggled in my soul; it seemed I was under bond to heal that

+weeping.

+

+"O, try to forgive me!" I cried out, "try, try to forgive me.  Let

+us forget it all, let us try if we'll no can forget it!"

+

+There came no answer, but the sobbing ceased.  I stood a long while

+with my hands still clasped as I had spoken; then the cold of the

+night laid hold upon me with a shudder, and I think my reason

+reawakened.

+

+"You can make no hand of this, Davie," thinks I.  "To bed with you

+like a wise lad, and try if you can sleep.  To-morrow you may see

+your way."

+

+

+

+CHAPTER XXV--THE RETURN OF JAMES MORE

+

+

+

+I was called on the morrow out of a late and troubled slumber by a

+knocking on my door, ran to open it, and had almost swooned with

+the contrariety of my feelings, mostly painful; for on the

+threshold, in a rough wraprascal and an extraordinary big laced

+hat, there stood James More.

+

+I ought to have been glad perhaps without admixture, for there was

+a sense in which the man came like an answer to prayer.  I had been

+saying till my head was weary that Catriona and I must separate,

+and looking till my head ached for any possible means of

+separation.  Here were the means come to me upon two legs, and joy

+was the hindmost of my thoughts.  It is to be considered, however,

+that even if the weight of the future were lifted off me by the

+man's arrival, the present heaved up the more black and menacing;

+so that, as I first stood before him in my shirt and breeches, I

+believe I took a leaping step backward like a person shot.

+

+"Ah," said he, "I have found you, Mr, Balfour."  And offered me his

+large, fine hand, the which (recovering at the same time my post in

+the doorway, as if with some thought of resistance) I took him by

+doubtfully.  "It is a remarkable circumstance how our affairs

+appear to intermingle," he continued.  "I am owing you an apology

+for an unfortunate intrusion upon yours, which I suffered myself to

+be entrapped into by my confidence in that false-face,

+Prestongrange; I think shame to own to you that I was ever trusting

+to a lawyer."  He shrugged his shoulders with a very French air.

+"But indeed the man is very plausible," says he.  "And now it seems

+that you have busied yourself handsomely in the matter of my

+daughter, for whose direction I was remitted to yourself."

+

+"I think, sir," said I, with a very painful air, "that it will be

+necessary we two should have an explanation."

+

+"There is nothing amiss?" he asked.  "My agent, Mr. Sprott--"

+

+"For God's sake moderate your voice!" I cried.  "She must not hear

+till we have had an explanation."

+

+"She is in this place?" cries he.

+

+"That is her chamber door," said I.

+

+"You are here with her alone?" he asked.

+

+"And who else would I have got to stay with us?" cries I.

+

+I will do him the justice to admit that he turned pale.

+

+"This is very unusual," said he.  "This is a very unusual

+circumstance.  You are right, we must hold an explanation."

+

+So saying he passed me by, and I must own the tall old rogue

+appeared at that moment extraordinary dignified.  He had now, for

+the first time, the view of my chamber, which I scanned (I may say)

+with his eyes.  A bit of morning sun glinted in by the window pane,

+and showed it off; my bed, my mails, and washing dish, with some

+disorder of my clothes, and the unlighted chimney, made the only

+plenishing; no mistake but it looked bare and cold, and the most

+unsuitable, beggarly place conceivable to harbour a young lady.  At

+the same time came in on my mind the recollection of the clothes

+that I had bought for her; and I thought this contrast of poverty

+and prodigality bore an ill appearance.

+

+He looked all about the chamber for a seat, and finding nothing

+else to his purpose except my bed, took a place upon the side of

+it; where, after I had closed the door, I could not very well avoid

+joining him.  For however this extraordinary interview might end,

+it must pass if possible without waking Catriona; and the one thing

+needful was that we should sit close and talk low.  But I can

+scarce picture what a pair we made; he in his great coat which the

+coldness of my chamber made extremely suitable; I shivering in my

+shirt and breeks; he with very much the air of a judge; and I

+(whatever I looked) with very much the feelings of a man who has

+heard the last trumpet.

+

+"Well?" says he.

+

+And "Well," I began, but found myself unable to go further.

+

+"You tell me she is here?" said he again, but now with a spice of

+impatience that seemed to brace me up.

+

+"She is in this house," said I, "and I knew the circumstance would

+be called unusual.  But you are to consider how very unusual the

+whole business was from the beginning.  Here is a young lady landed

+on the coast of Europe with two shillings and a penny halfpenny.

+She is directed to yon man Sprott in Helvoet.  I hear you call him

+your agent.  All I can say is he could do nothing but damn and

+swear at the mere mention of your name, and I must fee him out of

+my own pocket even to receive the custody of her effects.  You

+speak of unusual circumstances, Mr. Drummond, if that be the name

+you prefer.  Here was a circumstance, if you like, to which it was

+barbarity to have exposed her."

+

+"But this is what I cannot understand the least," said James.  "My

+daughter was placed into the charge of some responsible persons,

+whose names I have forgot."  "Gebbie was the name," said I; "and

+there is no doubt that Mr. Gebbie should have gone ashore with her

+at Helvoet.  But he did not, Mr. Drummond; and I think you might

+praise God that I was there to offer in his place."

+

+"I shall have a word to say to Mr. Gebbie before long," said he.

+"As for yourself, I think it might have occurred that you were

+somewhat young for such a post."

+

+"But the choice was not between me and somebody else, it was

+between me and nobody," cried I.  "Nobody offered in my place, and

+I must say I think you show a very small degree of gratitude to me

+that did."

+

+"I shall wait until I understand my obligation a little more in the

+particular," says he.

+

+"Indeed, and I think it stares you in the face, then," said I.

+"Your child was deserted, she was clean flung away in the midst of

+Europe, with scarce two shillings, and not two words of any

+language spoken there:  I must say, a bonny business!  I brought

+her to this place.  I gave her the name and the tenderness due to a

+sister.  All this has not gone without expense, but that I scarce

+need to hint at.  They were services due to the young lady's

+character which I respect; and I think it would be a bonny business

+too, if I was to be singing her praises to her father."

+

+"You are a young man," he began.

+

+"So I hear you tell me," said I, with a good deal of heat.

+

+"You are a very young man," he repeated, "or you would have

+understood the significancy of the step."

+

+"I think you speak very much at your ease," cried I.  "What else

+was I to do?  It is a fact I might have hired some decent, poor

+woman to be a third to us, and I declare I never thought of it

+until this moment!  But where was I to find her, that am a

+foreigner myself?  And let me point out to your observation, Mr.

+Drummond, that it would have cost me money out of my pocket.  For

+here is just what it comes to, that I had to pay through the nose

+for your neglect; and there is only the one story to it, just that

+you were so unloving and so careless as to have lost your

+daughter."

+

+"He that lives in a glass house should not be casting stones," says

+he; "and we will finish inquiring into the behaviour of Miss

+Drummond before we go on to sit in judgment on her father."

+

+"But I will be entrapped into no such attitude," said I.  "The

+character of Miss Drummond is far above inquiry, as her father

+ought to know.  So is mine, and I am telling you that.  There are

+but the two ways of it open.  The one is to express your thanks to

+me as one gentleman to another, and to say no more.  The other (if

+you are so difficult as to be still dissatisfied) is to pay me,

+that which I have expended and be done."

+

+He seemed to soothe me with a hand in the air.  "There, there,"

+said he.  "You go too fast, you go too fast, Mr. Balfour.  It is a

+good thing that I have learned to be more patient.  And I believe

+you forget that I have yet to see my daughter."

+

+I began to be a little relieved upon this speech and a change in

+the man's manner that I spied in him as soon as the name of money

+fell between us.

+

+"I was thinking it would be more fit--if you will excuse the

+plainness of my dressing in your presence--that I should go forth

+and leave you to encounter her alone?" said I.

+

+"What I would have looked for at your hands!" says he; and there

+was no mistake but what he said it civilly.

+

+I thought this better and better still, and as I began to pull on

+my hose, recalling the man's impudent mendicancy at

+Prestongrange's, I determined to pursue what seemed to be my

+victory.

+

+"If you have any mind to stay some while in Leyden," said I, "this

+room is very much at your disposal, and I can easy find another for

+myself:  in which way we shall have the least amount of flitting

+possible, there being only one to change."

+

+"Why, sir," said he, making his bosom big, "I think no shame of a

+poverty I have come by in the service of my king; I make no secret

+that my affairs are quite involved; and for the moment, it would be

+even impossible for me to undertake a journey."

+

+"Until you have occasion to communicate with your friends," said I,

+"perhaps it might be convenient for you (as of course it would be

+honourable to myself) if you were to regard yourself in the light

+of my guest?"

+

+"Sir," said he, "when an offer is frankly made, I think I honour

+myself most to imitate that frankness.  Your hand, Mr. David; you

+have the character that I respect the most; you are one of those

+from whom a gentleman can take a favour and no more words about it.

+I am an old soldier," he went on, looking rather disgusted-like

+around my chamber, "and you need not fear I shall prove

+burthensome.  I have ate too often at a dyke-side, drank of the

+ditch, and had no roof but the rain."

+

+"I should be telling you," said I, "that our breakfasts are sent

+customarily in about this time of morning.  I propose I should go

+now to the tavern, and bid them add a cover for yourself and delay

+the meal the matter of an hour, which will give you an interval to

+meet your daughter in."

+

+Methought his nostrils wagged at this.  "O, an hour" says he.

+"That is perhaps superfluous.  Half an hour, Mr. David, or say

+twenty minutes; I shall do very well in that.  And by the way," he

+adds, detaining me by the coat, "what is it you drink in the

+morning, whether ale or wine?"

+

+"To be frank with you, sir," says I, "I drink nothing else but

+spare, cold water."

+

+"Tut-tut," says he, "that is fair destruction to the stomach, take

+an old campaigner's word for it.  Our country spirit at home is

+perhaps the most entirely wholesome; but as that is not come-at-

+able, Rhenish or a white wine of Burgundy will be next best."

+

+"I shall make it my business to see you are supplied," said I.

+

+"Why, very good," said he, "and we shall make a man of you yet, Mr.

+David."

+

+By this time, I can hardly say that I was minding him at all,

+beyond an odd thought of the kind of father-in-law that he was like

+to prove; and all my cares centred about the lass his daughter, to

+whom I determined to convey some warning of her visitor.  I stepped

+to the door accordingly, and cried through the panels, knocking

+thereon at the same time:  "Miss Drummond, here is your father come

+at last."

+

+With that I went forth upon my errand, having (by two words)

+extraordinarily damaged my affairs.

+

+

+

+CHAPTER XXVI--THE THREESOME

+

+

+

+Whether or not I was to be so much blamed, or rather perhaps

+pitied, I must leave others to judge.  My shrewdness (of which I

+have a good deal, too) seems not so great with the ladies.  No

+doubt, at the moment when I awaked her, I was thinking a good deal

+of the effect upon James More; and similarly when I returned and we

+were all sat down to breakfast, I continued to behave to the young

+lady with deference and distance; as I still think to have been

+most wise.  Her father had cast doubts upon the innocence of my

+friendship; and these, it was my first business to allay.  But

+there is a kind of an excuse for Catriona also.  We had shared in a

+scene of some tenderness and passion, and given and received

+caresses:  I had thrust her from me with violence; I had called

+aloud upon her in the night from the one room to the other; she had

+passed hours of wakefulness and weeping; and it is not to be

+supposed I had been absent from her pillow thoughts.  Upon the back

+of this, to be awaked, with unaccustomed formality, under the name

+of Miss Drummond, and to be thenceforth used with a great deal of

+distance and respect, led her entirely in error on my private

+sentiments; and she was indeed so incredibly abused as to imagine

+me repentant and trying to draw off!

+

+The trouble betwixt us seems to have been this:  that whereas I

+(since I had first set eyes on his great hat) thought singly of

+James More, his return and suspicions, she made so little of these

+that I may say she scarce remarked them, and all her troubles and

+doings regarded what had passed between us in the night before.

+This is partly to be explained by the innocence and boldness of her

+character; and partly because James More, having sped so ill in his

+interview with me, or had his mouth closed by my invitation, said

+no word to her upon the subject.  At the breakfast, accordingly, it

+soon appeared we were at cross purposes.  I had looked to find her

+in clothes of her own:  I found her (as if her father were

+forgotten) wearing some of the best that I had bought for her, and

+which she knew (or thought) that I admired her in.  I had looked to

+find her imitate my affectation of distance, and be most precise

+and formal; instead I found her flushed and wild-like, with eyes

+extraordinary bright, and a painful and varying expression, calling

+me by name with a sort of appeal of tenderness, and referring and

+deferring to my thoughts and wishes like an anxious or a suspected

+wife.

+

+But this was not for long.  As I behold her so regardless of her

+own interests, which I had jeopardised and was now endeavouring to

+recover, I redoubled my own coldness in the manner of a lesson to

+the girl.  The more she came forward, the farther I drew back; the

+more she betrayed the closeness of our intimacy, the more pointedly

+civil I became, until even her father (if he had not been so

+engrossed with eating) might have observed the opposition.  In the

+midst of which, of a sudden, she became wholly changed, and I told

+myself, with a good deal of relief, that she had took the hint at

+last.

+

+All day I was at my classes or in quest of my new lodging; and

+though the hour of our customary walk hung miserably on my hands, I

+cannot say but I was happy on the whole to find my way cleared, the

+girl again in proper keeping, the father satisfied or at least

+acquiescent, and myself free to prosecute my love with honour.  At

+supper, as at all our meals, it was James More that did the

+talking.  No doubt but he talked well if anyone could have believed

+him.  But I will speak of him presently more at large.  The meal at

+an end, he rose, got his great coat, and looking (as I thought) at

+me, observed he had affairs abroad.  I took this for a hint that I

+was to be going also, and got up; whereupon the girl, who had

+scarce given me greeting at my entrance, turned her eyes upon me

+wide open with a look that bade me stay.  I stood between them like

+a fish out of water, turning from one to the other; neither seemed

+to observe me, she gazing on the floor, he buttoning his coat:

+which vastly swelled my embarrassment.  This appearance of

+indifference argued, upon her side, a good deal of anger very near

+to burst out.  Upon his, I thought it horribly alarming; I made

+sure there was a tempest brewing there; and considering that to be

+the chief peril, turned towards him and put myself (so to speak) in

+the man's hands.

+

+"Can I do anything for YOU, Mr. Drummond?" says I.

+

+He stifled a yawn, which again I thought to be duplicity.  "Why,

+Mr. David," said he, "since you are so obliging as to propose it,

+you might show me the way to a certain tavern" (of which he gave

+the name) "where I hope to fall in with some old companions in

+arms."

+

+There was no more to say, and I got my hat and cloak to bear him

+company.

+

+"And as for you," say he to his daughter, "you had best go to your

+bed.  I shall be late home, and EARLY TO BED AND EARLY TO RISE,

+GARS BONNY LASSES HAVE BRIGHT EYES."

+

+Whereupon he kissed her with a good deal of tenderness, and ushered

+me before him from the door.  This was so done (I thought on

+purpose) that it was scarce possible there should be any parting

+salutation; but I observed she did not look at me, and set it down

+to terror of James More.

+

+It was some distance to that tavern.  He talked all the way of

+matters which did not interest me the smallest, and at the door

+dismissed me with empty manners.  Thence I walked to my new

+lodging, where I had not so much as a chimney to hold me warm, and

+no society but my own thoughts.  These were still bright enough; I

+did not so much as dream that Catriona was turned against me; I

+thought we were like folk pledged; I thought we had been too near

+and spoke too warmly to be severed, least of all by what were only

+steps in a most needful policy.  And the chief of my concern was

+only the kind of father-in-law that I was getting, which was not at

+all the kind I would have chosen:  and the matter of how soon I

+ought to speak to him, which was a delicate point on several sides.

+In the first place, when I thought how young I was I blushed all

+over, and could almost have found it in my heart to have desisted;

+only that if once I let them go from Leyden without explanation, I

+might lose her altogether.  And in the second place, there was our

+very irregular situation to be kept in view, and the rather scant

+measure of satisfaction I had given James More that morning.  I

+concluded, on the whole, that delay would not hurt anything, yet I

+would not delay too long neither; and got to my cold bed with a

+full heart.

+

+The next day, as James More seemed a little on the complaining hand

+in the matter of my chamber, I offered to have in more furniture;

+and coming in the afternoon, with porters bringing chairs and

+tables, found the girl once more left to herself.  She greeted me

+on my admission civilly, but withdrew at once to her own room, of

+which she shut the door.  I made my disposition, and paid and

+dismissed the men so that she might hear them go, when I supposed

+she would at once come forth again to speak to me.  I waited yet

+awhile, then knocked upon her door.

+

+"Catriona!" said I.

+

+The door was opened so quickly, even before I had the word out,

+that I thought she must have stood behind it listening.  She

+remained there in the interval quite still; but she had a look that

+I cannot put a name on, as of one in a bitter trouble.

+

+"Are we not to have our walk to-day either?" so I faltered.

+

+"I am thanking you," said she.  "I will not be caring much to walk,

+now that my father is come home."

+

+"But I think he has gone out himself and left you here alone," said

+I.

+

+"And do you think that was very kindly said?" she asked.

+

+"It was not unkindly meant," I replied.  "What ails you, Catriona?

+What have I done to you that you should turn from me like this?"

+

+"I do not turn from you at all," she said, speaking very carefully.

+"I will ever be grateful to my friend that was good to me; I will

+ever be his friend in all that I am able.  But now that my father

+James More is come again, there is a difference to be made, and I

+think there are some things said and done that would be better to

+be forgotten.  But I will ever be your friend in all that I am

+able, and if that is not all that . . . . if it is not so much . .

+. . Not that you will be caring!  But I would not have you think of

+me too hard.  It was true what you said to me, that I was too young

+to be advised, and I am hoping you will remember I was just a

+child.  I would not like to lose your friendship, at all events."

+

+She began this very pale; but before she was done, the blood was in

+her face like scarlet, so that not her words only, but her face and

+the trembling of her very hands, besought me to be gentle.  I saw,

+for the first time, how very wrong I had done to place the child in

+that position, where she had been entrapped into a moment's

+weakness, and now stood before me like a person shamed.

+

+"Miss Drummond," I said, and stuck, and made the same beginning

+once again, "I wish you could see into my heart," I cried.  "You

+would read there that my respect is undiminished.  If that were

+possible, I should say it was increased.  This is but the result of

+the mistake we made; and had to come; and the less said of it now

+the better.  Of all of our life here, I promise you it shall never

+pass my lips; I would like to promise you too that I would never

+think of it, but it's a memory that will be always dear to me.  And

+as for a friend, you have one here that would die for you."

+

+"I am thanking you," said she.

+

+We stood awhile silent, and my sorrow for myself began to get the

+upper hand; for here were all my dreams come to a sad tumble, and

+my love lost, and myself alone again in the world as at the

+beginning.

+

+"Well," said I, "we shall be friends always, that's a certain

+thing.  But this is a kind of farewell, too:  it's a kind of a

+farewell after all; I shall always ken Miss Drummond, but this is a

+farewell to my Catriona."

+

+I looked at her; I could hardly say I saw her, but she seemed to

+grow great and brighten in my eyes; and with that I suppose I must

+have lost my head, for I called out her name again and made a step

+at her with my hands reached forth.

+

+She shrank back like a person struck, her face flamed; but the

+blood sprang no faster up into her cheeks, than what it flowed back

+upon my own heart, at sight of it, with penitence and concern.  I

+found no words to excuse myself, but bowed before her very deep,

+and went my ways out of the house with death in my bosom.

+

+I think it was about five days that followed without any change.  I

+saw her scarce ever but at meals, and then of course in the company

+of James More.  If we were alone even for a moment, I made it my

+devoir to behave the more distantly and to multiply respectful

+attentions, having always in my mind's eye that picture of the girl

+shrinking and flaming in a blush, and in my heart more pity for her

+than I could depict in words.  I was sorry enough for myself, I

+need not dwell on that, having fallen all my length and more than

+all my height in a few seconds; but, indeed, I was near as sorry

+for the girl, and sorry enough to be scarce angry with her save by

+fits and starts.  Her plea was good; she had been placed in an

+unfair position; if she had deceived herself and me, it was no more

+than was to have been looked for.

+

+And for another thing she was now very much alone.  Her father,

+when he was by, was rather a caressing parent; but he was very easy

+led away by his affairs and pleasures, neglected her without

+compunction or remark, spent his nights in taverns when he had the

+money, which was more often than I could at all account for; and

+even in the course of these few days, failed once to come to a

+meal, which Catriona and I were at last compelled to partake of

+without him.  It was the evening meal, and I left immediately that

+I had eaten, observing I supposed she would prefer to be alone; to

+which she agreed and (strange as it may seem) I quite believed her.

+Indeed, I thought myself but an eyesore to the girl, and a reminder

+of a moment's weakness that she now abhorred to think of.  So she

+must sit alone in that room where she and I had been so merry, and

+in the blink of that chimney whose light had shone upon our many

+difficult and tender moments.  There she must sit alone, and think

+of herself as of a maid who had most unmaidenly proffered her

+affections and had the same rejected.  And in the meanwhile I would

+be alone some other place, and reading myself (whenever I was

+tempted to be angry) lessons upon human frailty and female

+delicacy.  And altogether I suppose there were never two poor fools

+made themselves more unhappy in a greater misconception.

+

+As for James, he paid not so much heed to us, or to anything in

+nature but his pocket, and his belly, and his own prating talk.

+Before twelve hours were gone he had raised a small loan of me;

+before thirty, he had asked for a second and been refused.  Money

+and refusal he took with the same kind of high good nature.

+Indeed, he had an outside air of magnanimity that was very well

+fitted to impose upon a daughter; and the light in which he was

+constantly presented in his talk, and the man's fine presence and

+great ways went together pretty harmoniously.  So that a man that

+had no business with him, and either very little penetration or a

+furious deal of prejudice, might almost have been taken in.  To me,

+after my first two interviews, he was as plain as print; I saw him

+to be perfectly selfish, with a perfect innocency in the same; and

+I would hearken to his swaggering talk (of arms, and "an old

+soldier," and "a poor Highland gentleman," and "the strength of my

+country and my friends") as I might to the babbling of a parrot.

+

+The odd thing was that I fancy he believed some part of it himself,

+or did at times; I think he was so false all through that he scarce

+knew when he was lying; and for one thing, his moments of dejection

+must have been wholly genuine.  There were times when he would be

+the most silent, affectionate, clinging creature possible, holding

+Catriona's hand like a big baby, and begging of me not to leave if

+I had any love to him; of which, indeed, I had none, but all the

+more to his daughter.  He would press and indeed beseech us to

+entertain him with our talk, a thing very difficult in the state of

+our relations; and again break forth in pitiable regrets for his

+own land and friends, or into Gaelic singing.

+

+"This is one of the melancholy airs of my native land," he would

+say.  "You may think it strange to see a soldier weep, and indeed

+it is to make a near friend of you," says he.  "But the notes of

+this singing are in my blood, and the words come out of my heart.

+And when I mind upon my red mountains and the wild birds calling

+there, and the brave streams of water running down, I would scarce

+think shame to weep before my enemies."  Then he would sing again,

+and translate to me pieces of the song, with a great deal of

+boggling and much expressed contempt against the English language.

+"It says here," he would say, "that the sun is gone down, and the

+battle is at an end, and the brave chiefs are defeated.  And it

+tells here how the stars see them fleeing into strange countries or

+lying dead on the red mountain; and they will never more shout the

+call of battle or wash their feet in the streams of the valley.

+But if you had only some of this language, you would weep also

+because the words of it are beyond all expression, and it is mere

+mockery to tell you it in English."

+

+Well, I thought there was a good deal of mockery in the business,

+one way and another; and yet, there was some feeling too, for which

+I hated him, I think, the worst of all.  And it used to cut me to

+the quick to see Catriona so much concerned for the old rogue, and

+weeping herself to see him weep, when I was sure one half of his

+distress flowed from his last night's drinking in some tavern.

+There were times when I was tempted to lend him a round sum, and

+see the last of him for good; but this would have been to see the

+last of Catriona as well, for which I was scarcely so prepared; and

+besides, it went against my conscience to squander my good money on

+one who was so little of a husband.

+

+

+

+CHAPTER XXVII--A TWOSOME

+

+

+

+I believe it was about the fifth day, and I know at least that

+James was in one of his fits of gloom, when I received three

+letters.  The first was from Alan, offering to visit me in Leyden;

+the other two were out of Scotland and prompted by the same affair,

+which was the death of my uncle and my own complete accession to my

+rights.  Rankeillor's was, of course, wholly in the business view;

+Miss Grant's was like herself, a little more witty than wise, full

+of blame to me for not having written (though how was I to write

+with such intelligence?) and of rallying talk about Catriona, which

+it cut me to the quick to read in her very presence.

+

+For it was of course in my own rooms that I found them, when I came

+to dinner, so that I was surprised out of my news in the very first

+moment of reading it.  This made a welcome diversion for all three

+of us, nor could any have foreseen the ill consequences that

+ensued.  It was accident that brought the three letters the same

+day, and that gave them into my hand in the same room with James

+More; and of all the events that flowed from that accident, and

+which I might have prevented if I had held my tongue, the truth is

+that they were preordained before Agricola came into Scotland or

+Abraham set out upon his travels.

+

+The first that I opened was naturally Alan's; and what more natural

+than that I should comment on his design to visit me? but I

+observed James to sit up with an air of immediate attention.

+

+"Is that not Alan Breck that was suspected of the Appin accident?"

+he inquired.

+

+I told him, "Ay," it was the same; and he withheld me some time

+from my other letters, asking of our acquaintance, of Alan's manner

+of life in France, of which I knew very little, and further of his

+visit as now proposed.

+

+"All we forfeited folk hang a little together," he explained, "and

+besides I know the gentleman:  and though his descent is not the

+thing, and indeed he has no true right to use the name of Stewart,

+he was very much admired in the day of Drummossie.  He did there

+like a soldier; if some that need not be named had done as well,

+the upshot need not have been so melancholy to remember.  There

+were two that did their best that day, and it makes a bond between

+the pair of us," says he.

+

+I could scarce refrain from shooting out my tongue at him, and

+could almost have wished that Alan had been there to have inquired

+a little further into that mention of his birth.  Though, they tell

+me, the same was indeed not wholly regular.

+

+Meanwhile, I had opened Miss Grant's, and could not withhold an

+exclamation.

+

+"Catriona," I cried, forgetting, the first time since her father

+was arrived, to address her by a handle, "I am come into my kingdom

+fairly, I am the laird of Shaws indeed--my uncle is dead at last."

+

+She clapped her hands together leaping from her seat.  The next

+moment it must have come over both of us at once what little cause

+of joy was left to either, and we stood opposite, staring on each

+other sadly.

+

+But James showed himself a ready hypocrite.  "My daughter," says

+he, "is this how my cousin learned you to behave?  Mr. David has

+lost a new friend, and we should first condole with him on his

+bereavement."

+

+"Troth, sir," said I, turning to him in a kind of anger, "I can

+make no such great faces.  His death is as blithe news as ever I

+got."

+

+"It's a good soldier's philosophy," says James.  "'Tis the way of

+flesh, we must all go, all go.  And if the gentleman was so far

+from your favour, why, very well!  But we may at least congratulate

+you on your accession to your estates."

+

+"Nor can I say that either," I replied, with the same heat.  "It is

+a good estate; what matters that to a lone man that has enough

+already?  I had a good revenue before in my frugality; and but for

+the man's death--which gratifies me, shame to me that must confess

+it!--I see not how anyone is to be bettered by this change."

+

+"Come, come," said he, "you are more affected than you let on, or

+you would never make yourself out so lonely.  Here are three

+letters; that means three that wish you well; and I could name two

+more, here in this very chamber.  I have known you not so very

+long, but Catriona, when we are alone, is never done with the

+singing of your praises."

+

+She looked up at him, a little wild at that; and he slid off at

+once into another matter, the extent of my estate, which (during

+the most of the dinner time) he continued to dwell upon with

+interest.  But it was to no purpose he dissembled; he had touched

+the matter with too gross a hand:  and I knew what to expect.

+Dinner was scarce ate when he plainly discovered his designs.  He

+reminded Catriona of an errand, and bid her attend to it.  "I do

+not see you should be one beyond the hour," he added, "and friend

+David will be good enough to bear me company till you return."  She

+made haste to obey him without words.  I do not know if she

+understood, I believe not; but I was completely satisfied, and sat

+strengthening my mind for what should follow.

+

+The door had scarce closed behind her departure, when the man

+leaned back in his chair and addressed me with a good affectation

+of easiness.  Only the one thing betrayed him, and that was his

+face; which suddenly shone all over with fine points of sweat.

+

+"I am rather glad to have a word alone with you," says he, "because

+in our first interview there were some expressions you

+misapprehended and I have long meant to set you right upon.  My

+daughter stands beyond doubt.  So do you, and I would make that

+good with my sword against all gainsayers.  But, my dear David,

+this world is a censorious place--as who should know it better than

+myself, who have lived ever since the days of my late departed

+father, God sain him! in a perfect spate of calumnies?  We have to

+face to that; you and me have to consider of that; we have to

+consider of that."  And he wagged his head like a minister in a

+pulpit.

+

+"To what effect, Mr. Drummond?" said I.  "I would be obliged to you

+if you would approach your point."

+

+"Ay, ay," said he, laughing, "like your character, indeed! and what

+I most admire in it.  But the point, my worthy fellow, is sometimes

+in a kittle bit."  He filled a glass of wine.  "Though between you

+and me, that are such fast friends, it need not bother us long.

+The point, I need scarcely tell you, is my daughter.  And the first

+thing is that I have no thought in my mind of blaming you.  In the

+unfortunate circumstances, what could you do else?  'Deed, and I

+cannot tell."

+

+"I thank you for that," said I, pretty close upon my guard.

+

+"I have besides studied your character," he went on; "your talents

+are fair; you seem to have a moderate competence, which does no

+harm; and one thing with another, I am very happy to have to

+announce to you that I have decided on the latter of the two ways

+open."

+

+"I am afraid I am dull," said I.  "What ways are these?"

+

+He bent his brows upon me formidably and uncrossed his legs.  "Why,

+sir," says he, "I think I need scarce describe them to a gentleman

+of your condition; either that I should cut your throat or that you

+should marry my daughter."

+

+"You are pleased to be quite plain at last," said I.

+

+"And I believe I have been plain from the beginning!" cries he

+robustiously.  "I am a careful parent, Mr. Balfour; but I thank

+God, a patient and deleeborate man.  There is many a father, sir,

+that would have hirsled you at once either to the altar or the

+field.  My esteem for your character--"

+

+"Mr. Drummond," I interrupted, "if you have any esteem for me at

+all, I will beg of you to moderate your voice.  It is quite

+needless to rowt at a gentleman in the same chamber with yourself

+and lending you his best attention."

+

+"Why, very true," says he, with an immediate change.  "And you must

+excuse the agitations of a parent."

+

+"I understand you then," I continued--"for I will take no note of

+your other alternative, which perhaps it was a pity you let fall--I

+understand you rather to offer me encouragement in case I should

+desire to apply for your daughter's hand?"

+

+"It is not possible to express my meaning better," said he, "and I

+see we shall do well together."

+

+"That remains to be yet seen," said I.  "But so much I need make no

+secret of, that I bear the lady you refer to the most tender

+affection, and I could not fancy, even in a dream, a better fortune

+than to get her."

+

+"I was sure of it, I felt certain of you, David," he cried, and

+reached out his hand to me.

+

+I put it by.  "You go too fast, Mr. Drummond," said I.  "There are

+conditions to be made; and there is a difficulty in the path, which

+I see not entirely how we shall come over.  I have told you that,

+upon my side, there is no objection to the marriage, but I have

+good reason to believe there will be much on the young lady's."

+

+"This is all beside the mark," says he.  "I will engage for her

+acceptance."

+

+"I think you forget, Mr. Drummond," said I, "that, even in dealing

+with myself, you have been betrayed into two-three unpalatable

+expressions.  I will have none such employed to the young lady.  I

+am here to speak and think for the two of us; and I give you to

+understand that I would no more let a wife be forced upon myself,

+than what I would let a husband be forced on the young lady."

+

+He sat and glowered at me like one in doubt and a good deal of

+temper.

+

+"So that is to be the way of it," I concluded.  "I will marry Miss

+Drummond, and that blithely, if she is entirely willing.  But if

+there be the least unwillingness, as I have reason to fear--marry

+her will I never."

+

+"Well well," said he, "this is a small affair.  As soon as she

+returns I will sound her a bit, and hope to reassure you--"

+

+But I cut in again.  "Not a finger of you, Mr. Drummond, or I cry

+off, and you can seek a husband to your daughter somewhere else,"

+said I.  "It is I that am to be the only dealer and the only judge.

+I shall satisfy myself exactly; and none else shall anyways meddle-

+-you the least of all."

+

+"Upon my word, sir!" he exclaimed, "and who are you to be the

+judge?"

+

+"The bridegroom, I believe," said I.

+

+"This is to quibble," he cried.  "You turn your back upon the fact.

+The girl, my daughter, has no choice left to exercise.  Her

+character is gone."

+

+"And I ask your pardon," said I, "but while this matter lies

+between her and you and me, that is not so."

+

+"What security have I!" he cried.  "Am I to let my daughter's

+reputation depend upon a chance?"

+

+"You should have thought of all this long ago," said I, "before you

+were so misguided as to lose her; and not afterwards when it is

+quite too late.  I refuse to regard myself as any way accountable

+for your neglect, and I will be browbeat by no man living.  My mind

+is quite made up, and come what may, I will not depart from it a

+hair's breadth.  You and me are to sit here in company till her

+return:  upon which, without either word or look from you, she and

+I are to go forth again to hold our talk.  If she can satisfy me

+that she is willing to this step, I will then make it; and if she

+cannot, I will not."

+

+He leaped out of his chair like a man stung.  "I can spy your

+manoeuvre," he cried; "you would work upon her to refuse!"

+

+"Maybe ay, and maybe no," said I.  "That is the way it is to be,

+whatever."

+

+"And if I refuse?" cries he.

+

+"Then, Mr. Drummond, it will have to come to the throat-cutting,"

+said I.

+

+What with the size of the man, his great length of arm in which he

+came near rivalling his father, and his reputed skill at weapons, I

+did not use this word without trepidation, to say nothing at all of

+the circumstance that he was Catriona's father.  But I might have

+spared myself alarms.  From the poorness of my lodging--he does not

+seem to have remarked his daughter's dresses, which were indeed all

+equally new to him--and from the fact that I had shown myself

+averse to lend, he had embraced a strong idea of my poverty.  The

+sudden news of my estate convinced him of his error, and he had

+made but the one bound of it on this fresh venture, to which he was

+now so wedded, that I believe he would have suffered anything

+rather than fall to the alternative of fighting.

+

+A little while longer he continued to dispute with me, until I hit

+upon a word that silenced him.

+

+"If I find you so averse to let me see the lady by herself," said

+I, "I must suppose you have very good grounds to think me in the

+right about her unwillingness."

+

+He gabbled some kind of an excuse.

+

+"But all this is very exhausting to both of our tempers," I added,

+"and I think we would do better to preserve a judicious silence."

+

+The which we did until the girl returned, and I must suppose would

+have cut a very ridiculous figure had there been any there to view

+us.

+

+

+

+CHAPTER XXVIII--IN WHICH I AM LEFT ALONE

+

+

+

+I opened the door to Catriona and stopped her on the threshold.

+

+"Your father wishes us to take our walk," said I.

+

+She looked to James More, who nodded, and at that, like a trained

+soldier, she turned to go with me.

+

+We took one of our old ways, where we had gone often together, and

+been more happy than I can tell of in the past.  I came a half a

+step behind, so that I could watch her unobserved.  The knocking of

+her little shoes upon the way sounded extraordinary pretty and sad;

+and I thought it a strange moment that I should be so near both

+ends of it at once, and walk in the midst between two destinies,

+and could not tell whether I was hearing these steps for the last

+time, or whether the sound of them was to go in and out with me

+till death should part us.

+

+She avoided even to look at me, only walked before her, like one

+who had a guess of what was coming.  I saw I must speak soon before

+my courage was run out, but where to begin I knew not.  In this

+painful situation, when the girl was as good as forced into my arms

+and had already besought my forbearance, any excess of pressure

+must have seemed indecent; yet to avoid it wholly would have a very

+cold-like appearance.  Between these extremes I stood helpless, and

+could have bit my fingers; so that, when at last I managed to speak

+at all, it may be said I spoke at random.

+

+"Catriona," said I, "I am in a very painful situation; or rather,

+so we are both; and I would be a good deal obliged to you if you

+would promise to let me speak through first of all, and not to

+interrupt me till I have done."

+

+She promised me that simply.

+

+"Well," said I, "this that I have got to say is very difficult, and

+I know very well I have no right to be saying it.  After what

+passed between the two of us last Friday, I have no manner of

+right.  We have got so ravelled up (and all by my fault) that I

+know very well the least I could do is just to hold my tongue,

+which was what I intended fully, and there was nothing further from

+my thoughts than to have troubled you again.  But, my dear, it has

+become merely necessary, and no way by it.  You see, this estate of

+mine has fallen in, which makes of me rather a better match; and

+the--the business would not have quite the same ridiculous-like

+appearance that it would before.  Besides which, it's supposed that

+our affairs have got so much ravelled up (as I was saying) that it

+would be better to let them be the way they are.  In my view, this

+part of the thing is vastly exagerate, and if I were you I would

+not wear two thoughts on it.  Only it's right I should mention the

+same, because there's no doubt it has some influence on James More.

+Then I think we were none so unhappy when we dwelt together in this

+town before.  I think we did pretty well together.  If you would

+look back, my dear--"

+

+"I will look neither back nor forward," she interrupted.  "Tell me

+the one thing:  this is my father's doing?"

+

+"He approves of it," said I.  "He approved I that I should ask your

+hand in marriage," and was going on again with somewhat more of an

+appeal upon her feelings; but she marked me not, and struck into

+the midst.

+

+"He told you to!" she cried.  "It is no sense denying it, you said

+yourself that there was nothing farther from your thoughts.  He

+told you to."

+

+"He spoke of it the first, if that is what you mean," I began.

+

+She was walking ever the faster, and looking fain in front of her;

+but at this she made a little noise in her head, and I thought she

+would have run.

+

+"Without which," I went on, "after what you said last Friday, I

+would never have been so troublesome as make the offer.  But when

+he as good as asked me, what was I to do?"

+

+She stopped and turned round upon me.

+

+"Well, it is refused at all events," she cried, "and there will be

+an end of that."

+

+And she began again to walk forward.

+

+"I suppose I could expect no better," said I, "but I think you

+might try to be a little kind to me for the last end of it.  I see

+not why you should be harsh.  I have loved you very well, Catriona-

+-no harm that I should call you so for the last time.  I have done

+the best that I could manage, I am trying the same still, and only

+vexed that I can do no better.  It is a strange thing to me that

+you can take any pleasure to be hard to me."

+

+"I am not thinking of you," she said, "I am thinking of that man,

+my father."

+

+"Well, and that way, too!" said I.  "I can be of use to you that

+way, too; I will have to be.  It is very needful, my dear, that we

+should consult about your father; for the way this talk has gone,

+an angry man will be James More."

+

+She stopped again.  "It is because I am disgraced?" she asked.

+

+"That is what he is thinking," I replied, "but I have told you

+already to make nought of it."

+

+"It will be all one to me," she cried.  "I prefer to be disgraced!"

+

+I did not know very well what to answer, and stood silent.

+

+There seemed to be something working in her bosom after that last

+cry; presently she broke out, "And what is the meaning of all this?

+Why is all this shame loundered on my head?  How could you dare it,

+David Balfour?"

+

+"My dear," said I, "what else was I to do?"

+

+"I am not your dear," she said, "and I defy you to be calling me

+these words."

+

+"I am not thinking of my words," said I.  "My heart bleeds for you,

+Miss Drummond.  Whatever I may say, be sure you have my pity in

+your difficult position.  But there is just the one thing that I

+wish you would bear in view, if it was only long enough to discuss

+it quietly; for there is going to be a collieshangie when we two

+get home.  Take my word for it, it will need the two of us to make

+this matter end in peace."

+

+"Ay," said she.  There sprang a patch of red in either of her

+cheeks.  "Was he for fighting you?" said she.

+

+"Well, he was that," said I.

+

+She gave a dreadful kind of laugh.  "At all events, it is

+complete!" she cried.  And then turning on me.  "My father and I

+are a fine pair," said she, "but I am thanking the good God there

+will be somebody worse than what we are.  I am thanking the good

+God that he has let me see you so.  There will never be the girl

+made that will not scorn you."

+

+I had borne a good deal pretty patiently, but this was over the

+mark.

+

+"You have no right to speak to me like that," said I.  "What have I

+done but to be good to you, or try to be?  And here is my

+repayment!  O, it is too much."

+

+She kept looking at me with a hateful smile.  "Coward!" said she.

+

+"The word in your throat and in your father's!" I cried.  "I have

+dared him this day already in your interest.  I will dare him

+again, the nasty pole-cat; little I care which of us should fall!

+Come," said I, "back to the house with us; let us be done with it,

+let me be done with the whole Hieland crew of you!  You will see

+what you think when I am dead."

+

+She shook her head at me with that same smile I could have struck

+her for.

+

+"O, smile away!" I cried.  "I have seen your bonny father smile on

+the wrong side this day.  Not that I mean he was afraid, of

+course," I added hastily, "but he preferred the other way of it."

+

+"What is this?" she asked.

+

+"When I offered to draw with him," said I.

+

+"You offered to draw upon James More!" she cried.

+

+"And I did so," said I, "and found him backward enough, or how

+would we be here?"

+

+"There is a meaning upon this," said she.  "What is it you are

+meaning?"

+

+"He was to make you take me," I replied, "and I would not have it.

+I said you should be free, and I must speak with you alone; little

+I supposed it would be such a speaking!  'AND WHAT IF I REFUSE?'

+said he.--'THEN IT MUST COME TO THE THROAT-CUTTING,' says I, 'FOR I

+WILL NO MORE HAVE A HUSBAND FORCED ON THAT YOUNG LADY, THAN WHAT I

+WOULD HAVE A WIFE FORCED UPON MYSELF.'  These were my words, they

+were a friend's words; bonnily have I paid for them!  Now you have

+refused me of your own clear free will, and there lives no father

+in the Highlands, or out of them, that can force on this marriage.

+I will see that your wishes are respected; I will make the same my

+business, as I have all through.  But I think you might have that

+decency as to affect some gratitude.  'Deed, and I thought you knew

+me better!  I have not behaved quite well to you, but that was

+weakness.  And to think me a coward, and such a coward as that--O,

+my lass, there was a stab for the last of it!"

+

+"Davie, how would I guess?" she cried.  "O, this is a dreadful

+business!  Me and mine,"--she gave a kind of a wretched cry at the

+word--"me and mine are not fit to speak to you.  O, I could be

+kneeling down to you in the street, I could be kissing your hands

+for forgiveness!"

+

+"I will keep the kisses I have got from you already," cried I.  "I

+will keep the ones I wanted and that were something worth; I will

+not be kissed in penitence."

+

+"What can you be thinking of this miserable girl?" says she.

+

+"What I am trying to tell you all this while!" said I, "that you

+had best leave me alone, whom you can make no more unhappy if you

+tried, and turn your attention to James More, your father, with

+whom you are like to have a queer pirn to wind."

+

+"O, that I must be going out into the world alone with such a man!"

+she cried, and seemed to catch herself in with a great effort.

+"But trouble yourself no more for that," said she.  "He does not

+know what kind of nature is in my heart.  He will pay me dear for

+this day of it; dear, dear, will he pay."

+

+She turned, and began to go home and I to accompany her.  At which

+she stopped.

+

+"I will be going alone," she said.  "It is alone I must be seeing

+him."

+

+Some little time I raged about the streets, and told myself I was

+the worst used lad in Christendom.  Anger choked me; it was all

+very well for me to breathe deep; it seemed there was not air

+enough about Leyden to supply me, and I thought I would have burst

+like a man at the bottom of the sea.  I stopped and laughed at

+myself at a street corner a minute together, laughing out loud, so

+that a passenger looked at me, which brought me to myself.

+

+"Well," I thought, "I have been a gull and a ninny and a soft Tommy

+long enough.  Time it was done.  Here is a good lesson to have

+nothing to do with that accursed sex, that was the ruin of the man

+in the beginning and will be so to the end.  God knows I was happy

+enough before ever I saw her; God knows I can be happy enough again

+when I have seen the last of her."

+

+That seemed to me the chief affair:  to see them go.  I dwelled

+upon the idea fiercely; and presently slipped on, in a kind of

+malevolence, to consider how very poorly they were likely to fare

+when Davie Balfour was no longer by to be their milk-cow; at which,

+to my very own great surprise, the disposition of my mind turned

+bottom up.  I was still angry; I still hated her; and yet I thought

+I owed it to myself that she should suffer nothing.

+

+This carried me home again at once, where I found the mails drawn

+out and ready fastened by the door, and the father and daughter

+with every mark upon them of a recent disagreement.  Catriona was

+like a wooden doll; James More breathed hard, his face was dotted

+with white spots, and his nose upon one side.  As soon as I came

+in, the girl looked at him with a steady, clear, dark look that

+might have been followed by a blow.  It was a hint that was more

+contemptuous than a command, and I was surprised to see James More

+accept it.  It was plain he had had a master talking-to; and I

+could see there must be more of the devil in the girl than I had

+guessed, and more good humour about the man than I had given him

+the credit of.

+

+He began, at least, calling me Mr. Balfour, and plainly speaking

+from a lesson; but he got not very far, for at the first pompous

+swell of his voice, Catriona cut in.

+

+"I will tell you what James More is meaning," said she.  "He means

+we have come to you, beggar-folk, and have not behaved to you very

+well, and we are ashamed of our ingratitude and ill-behaviour.  Now

+we are wanting to go away and be forgotten; and my father will have

+guided his gear so ill, that we cannot even do that unless you will

+give us some more alms.  For that is what we are, at an events,

+beggar-folk and sorners."

+

+"By your leave, Miss Drummond," said I, "I must speak to your

+father by myself."

+

+She went into her own room and shut the door, without a word or a

+look.

+

+"You must excuse her, Mr. Balfour," says James More.  "She has no

+delicacy."

+

+"I am not here to discuss that with you," said I, "but to be quit

+of you.  And to that end I must talk of your position.  Now, Mr.

+Drummond, I have kept the run of your affairs more closely than you

+bargained for.  I know you had money of your own when you were

+borrowing mine.  I know you have had more since you were here in

+Leyden, though you concealed it even from your daughter."

+

+"I bid you beware.  I will stand no more baiting," he broke out.

+"I am sick of her and you.  What kind of a damned trade is this to

+be a parent!  I have had expressions used to me--"  There he broke

+off.  "Sir, this is the heart of a soldier and a parent," he went

+on again, laying his hand on his bosom, "outraged in both

+characters--and I bid you beware."

+

+"If you would have let me finish," says I, "you would have found I

+spoke for your advantage."

+

+"My dear friend," he cried, "I know I might have relied upon the

+generosity of your character."

+

+"Man! will you let me speak?" said I.  "The fact is that I cannot

+win to find out if you are rich or poor.  But it is my idea that

+your means, as they are mysterious in their source, so they are

+something insufficient in amount; and I do not choose your daughter

+to be lacking.  If I durst speak to herself, you may be certain I

+would never dream of trusting it to you; because I know you like

+the back of my hand, and all your blustering talk is that much wind

+to me.  However, I believe in your way you do still care something

+for your daughter after all; and I must just be doing with that

+ground of confidence, such as it is."

+

+Whereupon, I arranged with him that he was to communicate with me,

+as to his whereabouts and Catriona's welfare, in consideration of

+which I was to serve him a small stipend.

+

+He heard the business out with a great deal of eagerness; and when

+it was done, "My dear fellow, my dear son," he cried out, "this is

+more like yourself than any of it yet!  I will serve you with a

+soldier's faithfulness--"

+

+"Let me hear no more of it!" says I.  "You have got me to that

+pitch that the bare name of soldier rises on my stomach.  Our

+traffic is settled; I am now going forth and will return in one

+half-hour, when I expect to find my chambers purged of you."

+

+I gave them good measure of time; it was my one fear that I might

+see Catriona again, because tears and weakness were ready in my

+heart, and I cherished my anger like a piece of dignity.  Perhaps

+an hour went by; the sun had gone down, a little wisp of a new moon

+was following it across a scarlet sunset; already there were stars

+in the east, and in my chambers, when at last I entered them, the

+night lay blue.  I lit a taper and reviewed the rooms; in the first

+there remained nothing so much as to awake a memory of those who

+were gone; but in the second, in a corner of the floor, I spied a

+little heap that brought my heart into my mouth.  She had left

+behind at her departure all that she had ever had of me.  It was

+the blow that I felt sorest, perhaps because it was the last; and I

+fell upon that pile of clothing and behaved myself more foolish

+than I care to tell of.

+

+Late in the night, in a strict frost, and my teeth chattering, I

+came again by some portion of my manhood and considered with

+myself.  The sight of these poor frocks and ribbons, and her

+shifts, and the clocked stockings, was not to be endured; and if I

+were to recover any constancy of mind, I saw I must be rid of them

+ere the morning.  It was my first thought to have made a fire and

+burned them; but my disposition has always been opposed to wastery,

+for one thing; and for another, to have burned these things that

+she had worn so close upon her body seemed in the nature of a

+cruelty.  There was a corner cupboard in that chamber; there I

+determined to bestow them.  The which I did and made it a long

+business, folding them with very little skill indeed but the more

+care; and sometimes dropping them with my tears.  All the heart was

+gone out of me, I was weary as though I had run miles, and sore

+like one beaten; when, as I was folding a kerchief that she wore

+often at her neck, I observed there was a corner neatly cut from

+it.  It was a kerchief of a very pretty hue, on which I had

+frequently remarked; and once that she had it on, I remembered

+telling her (by way of a banter) that she wore my colours.  There

+came a glow of hope and like a tide of sweetness in my bosom; and

+the next moment I was plunged back in a fresh despair.  For there

+was the corner crumpled in a knot and cast down by itself in

+another part of the floor.

+

+But when I argued with myself, I grew more hopeful.  She had cut

+that corner off in some childish freak that was manifestly tender;

+that she had cast it away again was little to be wondered at; and I

+was inclined to dwell more upon the first than upon the second, and

+to be more pleased that she had ever conceived the idea of that

+keepsake, than concerned because she had flung it from her in an

+hour of natural resentment.

+

+

+

+CHAPTER XXIX--WE MEET IN DUNKIRK.

+

+

+

+Altogether, then, I was scare so miserable the next days but what I

+had many hopeful and happy snatches; threw myself with a good deal

+of constancy upon my studies; and made out to endure the time till

+Alan should arrive, or I might hear word of Catriona by the means

+of James More.  I had altogether three letters in the time of our

+separation.  One was to announce their arrival in the town of

+Dunkirk in France, from which place James shortly after started

+alone upon a private mission.  This was to England and to see Lord

+Holderness; and it has always been a bitter thought that my good

+money helped to pay the charges of the same.  But he has need of a

+long spoon who soups with the de'il, or James More either.  During

+this absence, the time was to fall due for another letter; and as

+the letter was the condition of his stipend, he had been so careful

+as to prepare it beforehand and leave it with Catriona to be

+despatched.  The fact of our correspondence aroused her suspicions,

+and he was no sooner gone than she had burst the seal.  What I

+received began accordingly in the writing of James More:

+

+

+"My dear Sir,--Your esteemed favour came to hand duly, and I have

+to acknowledge the inclosure according to agreement.  It shall be

+all faithfully expended on my daughter, who is well, and desires to

+be remembered to her dear friend.  I find her in rather a

+melancholy disposition, but trust in the mercy of God to see her

+re-established.  Our manner of life is very much alone, but we

+solace ourselves with the melancholy tunes of our native mountains,

+and by walking up the margin of the sea that lies next to Scotland.

+It was better days with me when I lay with five wounds upon my body

+on the field of Gladsmuir.  I have found employment here in the

+haras of a French nobleman, where my experience is valued.  But, my

+dear Sir, the wages are so exceedingly unsuitable that I would be

+ashamed to mention them, which makes your remittances the more

+necessary to my daughter's comfort, though I daresay the sight of

+old friends would be still better.

+

+"My dear Sir,

+"Your affectionate, obedient servant,

+"JAMES MACGREGOR DRUMMOND."

+

+

+Below it began again in the hand of Catriona:-

+

+

+"Do not be believing him, it is all lies together,--C. M. D."

+

+

+Not only did she add this postscript, but I think she must have

+come near suppressing the letter; for it came long after date, and

+was closely followed by the third.  In the time betwixt them, Alan

+had arrived, and made another life to me with his merry

+conversation; I had been presented to his cousin of the Scots-

+Dutch, a man that drank more than I could have thought possible and

+was not otherwise of interest; I had been entertained to many

+jovial dinners and given some myself, all with no great change upon

+my sorrow; and we two (by which I mean Alan and myself, and not at

+all the cousin) had discussed a good deal the nature of my

+relations with James More and his daughter.  I was naturally

+diffident to give particulars; and this disposition was not anyway

+lessened by the nature of Alan's commentary upon those I gave.

+

+"I cannae make heed nor tail of it," he would say, "but it sticks

+in my mind ye've made a gowk of yourself.  There's few people that

+has had more experience than Alan Breck:  and I can never call to

+mind to have heard tell of a lassie like this one of yours.  The

+way that you tell it, the thing's fair impossible.  Ye must have

+made a terrible hash of the business, David."

+

+"There are whiles that I am of the same mind," said I.

+

+"The strange thing is that ye seem to have a kind of fancy for her

+too!" said Alan.

+

+"The biggest kind, Alan," said I, "and I think I'll take it to my

+grave with me."

+

+"Well, ye beat me, whatever!" he would conclude.

+

+I showed him the letter with Catriona's postscript.  "And here

+again!" he cried.  "Impossible to deny a kind of decency to this

+Catriona, and sense forby!  As for James More, the man's as boss as

+a drum; he's just a wame and a wheen words; though I'll can never

+deny that he fought reasonably well at Gladsmuir, and it's true

+what he says here about the five wounds.  But the loss of him is

+that the man's boss."

+

+"Ye see, Alan," said I, "it goes against the grain with me to leave

+the maid in such poor hands."

+

+"Ye couldnae weel find poorer," he admitted.  "But what are ye to

+do with it?  It's this way about a man and a woman, ye see, Davie:

+The weemenfolk have got no kind of reason to them.  Either they

+like the man, and then a' goes fine; or else they just detest him,

+and ye may spare your breath--ye can do naething.  There's just the

+two sets of them--them that would sell their coats for ye, and them

+that never look the road ye're on.  That's a' that there is to

+women; and you seem to be such a gomeral that ye cannae tell the

+tane frae the tither."

+

+"Well, and I'm afraid that's true for me," said I.

+

+"And yet there's naething easier!" cried Alan.  "I could easy learn

+ye the science of the thing; but ye seem to me to be born blind,

+and there's where the deefficulty comes in."

+

+"And can YOU no help me?" I asked, "you that are so clever at the

+trade?"

+

+"Ye see, David, I wasnae here," said he.  "I'm like a field officer

+that has naebody but blind men for scouts and eclaireurs; and what

+would he ken?  But it sticks in my mind that ye'll have made some

+kind of bauchle; and if I was you I would have a try at her again."

+

+"Would ye so, man Alan?" said I.

+

+"I would e'en't," says he.

+

+The third letter came to my hand while we were deep in some such

+talk:  and it will be seen how pat it fell to the occasion.  James

+professed to be in some concern upon his daughter's health, which I

+believe was never better; abounded in kind expressions to myself;

+and finally proposed that I should visit them at Dunkirk.

+

+"You will now be enjoying the society of my old comrade Mr.

+Stewart," he wrote.  "Why not accompany him so far in his return to

+France?  I have something very particular for Mr. Stewart's ear;

+and, at any rate, I would be pleased to meet in with an old fellow-

+soldier and one so mettle as himself.  As for you, my dear sir, my

+daughter and I would be proud to receive our benefactor, whom we

+regard as a brother and a son.  The French nobleman has proved a

+person of the most filthy avarice of character, and I have been

+necessitate to leave the haras.  You will find us in consequence a

+little poorly lodged in the auberge of a man Bazin on the dunes;

+but the situation is caller, and I make no doubt but we might spend

+some very pleasant days, when Mr. Stewart and I could recall our

+services, and you and my daughter divert yourselves in a manner

+more befitting your age.  I beg at least that Mr. Stewart would

+come here; my business with him opens a very wide door."

+

+"What does the man want with me?" cried Alan, when he had read.

+"What he wants with you in clear enough--it's siller.  But what can

+he want with Alan Breck?"

+

+"O, it'll be just an excuse," said I.  "He is still after this

+marriage, which I wish from my heart that we could bring about.

+And he asks you because he thinks I would be less likely to come

+wanting you."

+

+"Well, I wish that I kent," says Alan.  "Him and me were never

+onyways pack; we used to girn at ither like a pair of pipers.

+'Something for my ear,' quo' he!  I'll maybe have something for his

+hinder-end, before we're through with it.  Dod, I'm thinking it

+would be a kind of divertisement to gang and see what he'll be

+after!  Forby that I could see your lassie then.  What say ye,

+Davie?  Will ye ride with Alan?"

+

+You may be sure I was not backward, and Alan's furlough running

+towards an end, we set forth presently upon this joint adventure.

+

+It was near dark of a January day when we rode at last into the

+town of Dunkirk.  We left our horses at the post, and found a guide

+to Bazin's Inn, which lay beyond the walls.  Night was quite

+fallen, so that we were the last to leave that fortress, and heard

+the doors of it close behind us as we passed the bridge.  On the

+other side there lay a lighted suburb, which we thridded for a

+while, then turned into a dark lane, and presently found ourselves

+wading in the night among deep sand where we could hear a bullering

+of the sea.  We travelled in this fashion for some while, following

+our conductor mostly by the sound of his voice; and I had begun to

+think he was perhaps misleading us, when we came to the top of a

+small brae, and there appeared out of the darkness a dim light in a

+window.

+

+"Voila l'auberge a Bazin," says the guide.

+

+Alan smacked his lips.  "An unco lonely bit," said he, and I

+thought by his tone he was not wholly pleased.

+

+A little after, and we stood in the lower storey of that house,

+which was all in the one apartment, with a stairs leading to the

+chambers at the side, benches and tables by the wall, the cooking

+fire at the one end of it, and shelves of bottles and the cellar-

+trap at the other.  Here Bazin, who was an ill-looking, big man,

+told us the Scottish gentleman was gone abroad he knew not where,

+but the young lady was above, and he would call her down to us.

+

+I took from my breast that kerchief wanting the corner, and knotted

+it about my throat.  I could hear my heart go; and Alan patting me

+on the shoulder with some of his laughable expressions, I could

+scarce refrain from a sharp word.  But the time was not long to

+wait.  I heard her step pass overhead, and saw her on the stair.

+This she descended very quietly, and greeted me with a pale face

+and a certain seeming of earnestness, or uneasiness, in her manner

+that extremely dashed me.

+

+"My father, James More, will be here soon.  He will be very pleased

+to see you," she said.  And then of a sudden her face flamed, her

+eyes lightened, the speech stopped upon her lips; and I made sure

+she had observed the kerchief.  It was only for a breath that she

+was discomposed; but methought it was with a new animation that she

+turned to welcome Alan.  "And you will be his friend, Alan Breck?"

+she cried.  "Many is the dozen times I will have heard him tell of

+you; and I love you already for all your bravery and goodness."

+

+"Well, well," says Alan, holding her hand in his and viewing her,

+"and so this is the young lady at the last of it!  David, ye're an

+awful poor hand of a description."

+

+I do not know that ever I heard him speak so straight to people's

+hearts; the sound of his voice was like song.

+

+"What? will he have been describing me?" she cried.

+

+"Little else of it since I ever came out of France!" says he,

+"forby a bit of a speciment one night in Scotland in a shaw of wood

+by Silvermills.  But cheer up, my dear! ye're bonnier than what he

+said.  And now there's one thing sure; you and me are to be a pair

+of friends.  I'm a kind of a henchman to Davie here; I'm like a

+tyke at his heels; and whatever he cares for, I've got to care for

+too--and by the holy airn! they've got to care for me!  So now you

+can see what way you stand with Alan Breck, and ye'll find ye'll

+hardly lose on the transaction.  He's no very bonnie, my dear, but

+he's leal to them he loves."

+

+"I thank you from my heart for your good words," said she.  "I have

+that honour for a brave, honest man that I cannot find any to be

+answering with."

+

+Using travellers' freedom, we spared to wait for James More, and

+sat down to meat, we threesome.  Alan had Catriona sit by him and

+wait upon his wants:  he made her drink first out of his glass, he

+surrounded her with continual kind gallantries, and yet never gave

+me the most small occasion to be jealous; and he kept the talk so

+much in his own hand, and that in so merry a note, that neither she

+nor I remembered to be embarrassed.  If any had seen us there, it

+must have been supposed that Alan was the old friend and I the

+stranger.  Indeed, I had often cause to love and to admire the man,

+but I never loved or admired him better than that night; and I

+could not help remarking to myself (what I was sometimes rather in

+danger of forgetting) that he had not only much experience of life,

+but in his own way a great deal of natural ability besides.  As for

+Catriona, she seemed quite carried away; her laugh was like a peal

+of bells, her face gay as a May morning; and I own, although I was

+well pleased, yet I was a little sad also, and thought myself a

+dull, stockish character in comparison of my friend, and very unfit

+to come into a young maid's life, and perhaps ding down her gaiety.

+

+But if that was like to be my part, I found that at least I was not

+alone in it; for, James More returning suddenly, the girl was

+changed into a piece of stone.  Through the rest of that evening,

+until she made an excuse and slipped to bed, I kept an eye upon her

+without cease; and I can bear testimony that she never smiled,

+scarce spoke, and looked mostly on the board in front of her.  So

+that I really marvelled to see so much devotion (as it used to be)

+changed into the very sickness of hate.

+

+Of James More it is unnecessary to say much; you know the man

+already, what there was to know of him; and I am weary of writing

+out his lies.  Enough that he drank a great deal, and told us very

+little that was to any possible purpose.  As for the business with

+Alan, that was to be reserved for the morrow and his private

+hearing.

+

+It was the more easy to be put off, because Alan and I were pretty

+weary with four day's ride, and sat not very late after Catriona.

+

+We were soon alone in a chamber where we were to make-shift with a

+single bed.  Alan looked on me with a queer smile.

+

+"Ye muckle ass!" said he.

+

+"What do ye mean by that?" I cried.

+

+"Mean?  What do I mean!  It's extraordinar, David man," say he,

+"that you should be so mortal stupit."

+

+Again I begged him to speak out.

+

+"Well, it's this of it," said he.  "I told ye there were the two

+kinds of women--them that would sell their shifts for ye, and the

+others.  Just you try for yoursel, my bonny man!  But what's that

+neepkin at your craig?"

+

+I told him.

+

+"I thocht it was something thereabout" said he.

+

+Nor would he say another word though I besieged him long with

+importunities.

+

+

+

+CHAPTER XXX--THE LETTER FROM THE SHIP

+

+

+

+Daylight showed us how solitary the inn stood.  It was plainly hard

+upon the sea, yet out of all view of it, and beset on every side

+with scabbit hills of sand.  There was, indeed, only one thing in

+the nature of a prospect, where there stood out over a brae the two

+sails of a windmill, like an ass's ears, but with the ass quite

+hidden.  It was strange (after the wind rose, for at first it was

+dead calm) to see the turning and following of each other of these

+great sails behind the hillock.  Scarce any road came by there; but

+a number of footways travelled among the bents in all directions up

+to Mr. Bazin's door.  The truth is, he was a man of many trades,

+not any one of them honest, and the position of his inn was the

+best of his livelihood.  Smugglers frequented it; political agents

+and forfeited persons bound across the water came there to await

+their passages; and I daresay there was worse behind, for a whole

+family might have been butchered in that house and nobody the

+wiser.

+

+I slept little and ill.  Long ere it was day, I had slipped from

+beside my bedfellow, and was warming myself at the fire or walking

+to and fro before the door.  Dawn broke mighty sullen; but a little

+after, sprang up a wind out of the west, which burst the clouds,

+let through the sun, and set the mill to the turning.  There was

+something of spring in the sunshine, or else it was in my heart;

+and the appearing of the great sails one after another from behind

+the hill, diverted me extremely.  At times I could hear a creak of

+the machinery; and by half-past eight of the day, and I thought

+this dreary, desert place was like a paradise.

+

+For all which, as the day drew on and nobody came near, I began to

+be aware of an uneasiness that I could scarce explain.  It seemed

+there was trouble afoot; the sails of the windmill, as they came up

+and went down over the hill, were like persons spying; and outside

+of all fancy, it was surely a strange neighbourhood and house for a

+young lady to be brought to dwell in.

+

+At breakfast, which we took late, it was manifest that James More

+was in some danger or perplexity; manifest that Alan was alive to

+the same, and watched him close; and this appearance of duplicity

+upon the one side, and vigilance upon the other, held me on live

+coals.  The meal was no sooner over than James seemed to come began

+to make apologies.  He had an appointment of a private nature in

+the town (it was with the French nobleman, he told me), and we

+would please excuse him till about noon.  Meanwhile he carried his

+daughter aside to the far end of the room, where he seemed to speak

+rather earnestly and she to listen with much inclination.

+

+"I am caring less and less about this man James," said Alan.

+"There's something no right with the man James, and I shouldnae

+wonder but what Alan Breck would give an eye to him this day.  I

+would like fine to see yon French nobleman, Davie; and I daresay

+you could find an employ to yoursel, and that would be to speir at

+the lassie for some news o' your affair.  Just tell it to her

+plainly--tell her ye're a muckle ass at the off-set; and then, if I

+were you, and ye could do it naitural, I would just mint to her I

+was in some kind of a danger; a' weemenfolk likes that."

+

+"I cannae lee, Alan, I cannae do it naitural," says I, mocking him.

+

+"The more fool you!" says he.  "Then ye'll can tell her that I

+recommended it; that'll set her to the laughing; and I wouldnae

+wonder but what that was the next best.  But see to the pair of

+them!  If I didnae feel just sure of the lassie, and that she was

+awful pleased and chief with Alan, I would think there was some

+kind of hocus-pocus about you."

+

+"And is she so pleased with ye, then, Alan?" I asked.

+

+"She thinks a heap of me," says he.  "And I'm no like you:  I'm one

+that can tell.  That she does--she thinks a heap of Alan.  And

+troth! I'm thinking a good deal of him mysel; and with your

+permission, Shaws, I'll be getting a wee yont amang the bents, so

+that I can see what way James goes."

+

+One after another went, till I was left alone beside the breakfast

+table; James to Dunkirk, Alan dogging him, Catriona up the stairs

+to her own chamber.  I could very well understand how she should

+avoid to be alone with me; yet was none the better pleased with it

+for that, and bent my mind to entrap her to an interview before the

+men returned.  Upon the whole, the best appeared to me to do like

+Alan.  If I was out of view among the sandhills, the fine morning

+would decoy her forth; and once I had her in the open, I could

+please myself.

+

+No sooner said than done; nor was I long under the bield of a

+hillock before she appeared at the inn door, looked here and there,

+and (seeing nobody) set out by a path that led directly seaward,

+and by which I followed her.  I was in no haste to make my presence

+known; the further she went I made sure of the longer hearing to my

+suit; and the ground being all sandy it was easy to follow her

+unheard.  The path rose and came at last to the head of a knowe.

+Thence I had a picture for the first time of what a desolate

+wilderness that inn stood hidden in; where was no man to be seen,

+nor any house of man, except just Bazin's and the windmill.  Only a

+little further on, the sea appeared and two or three ships upon it,

+pretty as a drawing.  One of these was extremely close in to be so

+great a vessel; and I was aware of a shock of new suspicion, when I

+recognised the trim of the Seahorse.  What should an English ship

+be doing so near in to France?  Why was Alan brought into her

+neighbourhood, and that in a place so far from any hope of rescue?

+and was it by accident, or by design, that the daughter of James

+More should walk that day to the seaside?

+

+Presently I came forth behind her in the front of the sandhills and

+above the beach.  It was here long and solitary; with a man-o'-

+war's boat drawn up about the middle of the prospect, and an

+officer in charge and pacing the sands like one who waited.  I sat

+down where the rough grass a good deal covered me, and looked for

+what should follow.  Catriona went straight to the boat; the

+officer met her with civilities; they had ten words together; I saw

+a letter changing hands; and there was Catriona returning.  At the

+same time, as if this were all her business on the Continent, the

+boat shoved off and was headed for the Seahorse.  But I observed

+the officer to remain behind and disappear among the bents.

+

+I liked the business little; and the more I considered of it, liked

+it less.  Was it Alan the officer was seeking? or Catriona?  She

+drew near with her head down, looking constantly on the sand, and

+made so tender a picture that I could not bear to doubt her

+innocence.  The next, she raised her face and recognised me; seemed

+to hesitate, and then came on again, but more slowly, and I thought

+with a changed colour.  And at that thought, all else that was upon

+my bosom--fears, suspicions, the care of my friend's life--was

+clean swallowed up; and I rose to my feet and stood waiting her in

+a drunkenness of hope.

+

+I gave her "good morning" as she came up, which she returned with a

+good deal of composure.

+

+"Will you forgive my having followed you?" said I.

+

+"I know you are always meaning kindly," she replied; and then, with

+a little outburst, "but why will you be sending money to that man!

+It must not be."

+

+"I never sent it for him," said I, "but for you, as you know well."

+

+"And you have no right to be sending it to either one of us," she

+said.  "David, it is not right."

+

+"It is not, it is all wrong," said I, "and I pray God he will help

+this dull fellow (if it be at all possible) to make it better.

+Catriona, this is no kind of life for you to lead; and I ask your

+pardon for the word, but yon man is no fit father to take care of

+you."

+

+"Do not be speaking of him, even!" was her cry.

+

+"And I need speak of him no more; it is not of him that I am

+thinking, O, be sure of that!" says I.  "I think of the one thing.

+I have been alone now this long time in Leyden; and when I was by

+way of at my studies, still I was thinking of that.  Next Alan

+came, and I went among soldier-men to their big dinners; and still

+I had the same thought.  And it was the same before, when I had her

+there beside me.  Catriona, do you see this napkin at my throat!

+You cut a corner from it once and then cast it from you.  They're

+YOUR colours now; I wear them in my heart.  My dear, I cannot be

+wanting you.  O, try to put up with me!"

+

+I stepped before her so as to intercept her walking on.

+

+"Try to put up with me," I was saying, "try and bear me with a

+little."

+

+Still she had never the word, and a fear began to rise in me like a

+fear of death.

+

+"Catriona," I cried, gazing on her hard, "is it a mistake again?

+Am I quite lost?"

+

+She raised her face to me, breathless.

+

+"Do you want me, Davie, truly?" said she, and I scarce could hear

+her say it.

+

+"I do that," said I.  "O, sure you know it--I do that."

+

+"I have nothing left to give or to keep back," said she.  "I was

+all yours from the first day, if you would have had a gift of me!"

+she said,

+

+This was on the summit of a brae; the place was windy and

+conspicuous, we were to be seen there even from the English ship;

+but I kneeled down before her in the sand, and embraced her knees,

+and burst into that storm of weeping that I thought it must have

+broken me.  All thought was wholly beaten from my mind by the

+vehemency of my discomposure.  I knew not where I was.  I had

+forgot why I was happy; only I knew she stooped, and I felt her

+cherish me to her face and bosom, and heard her words out of a

+whirl.

+

+"Davie," she was saying, "O, Davie, is this what you think of me!

+Is it so that you were caring for poor me!  O, Davie, Davie!"

+

+With that she wept also, and our tears were commingled in a perfect

+gladness.

+

+It might have been ten in the day before I came to a clear sense of

+what a mercy had befallen me; and sitting over against her, with

+her hands in mine, gazed in her face, and laughed out loud for

+pleasure like a child, and called her foolish and kind names.  I

+have never seen the place that looked so pretty as those bents by

+Dunkirk; and the windmill sails, as they bobbed over the knowe,

+were like a tune of music.

+

+I know not how much longer we might have continued to forget all

+else besides ourselves, had I not chanced upon a reference to her

+father, which brought us to reality.

+

+"My little friend," I was calling her again and again, rejoicing to

+summon up the past by the sound of it, and to gaze across on her,

+and to be a little distant--"My little friend, now you are mine

+altogether; mine for good, my little friend and that man's no

+longer at all."

+

+There came a sudden whiteness in her face, she plucked her hands

+from mine.

+

+"Davie, take me away from him!" she cried.  "There's something

+wrong; he's not true.  There will be something wrong; I have a

+dreadful terror here at my heart.  What will he be wanting at all

+events with that King's ship?  What will this word be saying?"  And

+she held the letter forth.  "My mind misgives me, it will be some

+ill to Alan.  Open it, Davie--open it and see."

+

+I took it, and looked at it, and shook my head.

+

+"No," said I, "it goes against me, I cannot open a man's letter."

+

+"Not to save your friend?" she cried.

+

+"I cannae tell," said I.  "I think not.  If I was only sure!"

+

+"And you have but to break the seal!" said she.

+

+"I know it," said I, "but the thing goes against me."

+

+"Give it here," said she, "and I will open it myself."

+

+"Nor you neither," said I.  "You least of all.  It concerns your

+father, and his honour, dear, which we are both misdoubting.  No

+question but the place is dangerous-like, and the English ship

+being here, and your father having word from it, and yon officer

+that stayed ashore.  He would not be alone either; there must be

+more along with him; I daresay we are spied upon this minute.  Ay,

+no doubt, the letter should be opened; but somehow, not by you nor

+me."

+

+I was about thus far with it, and my spirit very much overcome with

+a sense of danger and hidden enemies, when I spied Alan, come back

+again from following James and walking by himself among the sand-

+hills.  He was in his soldier's coat, of course, and mighty fine;

+but I could not avoid to shudder when I thought how little that

+jacket would avail him, if he were once caught and flung in a

+skiff, and carried on board of the Seahorse, a deserter, a rebel,

+and now a condemned murderer.

+

+"There," said I, "there is the man that has the best right to open

+it:  or not, as he thinks fit."

+

+With which I called upon his name, and we both stood up to be a

+mark for him.

+

+"If it is so--if it be more disgrace--will you can bear it?" she

+asked, looking upon me with a burning eye.

+

+"I was asked something of the same question when I had seen you but

+the once," said I.  "What do you think I answered?  That if I liked

+you as I thought I did--and O, but I like you better!--I would

+marry you at his gallows' foot."

+

+The blood rose in her face; she came close up and pressed upon me,

+holding my hand:  and it was so that we awaited Alan.

+

+He came with one of his queer smiles.  "What was I telling ye,

+David?" says he.

+

+"There is a time for all things, Alan," said I, "and this time is

+serious.  How have you sped?  You can speak out plain before this

+friend of ours."

+

+"I have been upon a fool's errand," said he.

+

+"I doubt we have done better than you, then," said I; "and, at

+least, here is a great deal of matter that you must judge of.  Do

+you see that?" I went on, pointing to the ship.  "That is the

+Seahorse, Captain Palliser."

+

+"I should ken her, too," says Alan.  "I had fyke enough with her

+when she was stationed in the Forth.  But what ails the man to come

+so close?"

+

+"I will tell you why he came there first," said I.  "It was to

+bring this letter to James More.  Why he stops here now that it's

+delivered, what it's likely to be about, why there's an officer

+hiding in the bents, and whether or not it's probable that he's

+alone--I would rather you considered for yourself."

+

+"A letter to James More?" said he.

+

+"The same," said I.

+

+"Well, and I can tell ye more than that," said Alan.  "For the last

+night, when you were fast asleep, I heard the man colloguing with

+some one in the French, and then the door of that inn to be opened

+and shut."

+

+"Alan!" cried I, "you slept all night, and I am here to prove it."

+

+"Ay, but I would never trust Alan whether he was asleep or waking!"

+says he.  "But the business looks bad.  Let's see the letter."

+

+I gave it him.

+

+"Catriona," said he, "you have to excuse me, my dear; but there's

+nothing less than my fine bones upon the cast of it, and I'll have

+to break this seal."

+

+"It is my wish," said Catriona.

+

+He opened it, glanced it through, and flung his hand in the air.

+

+"The stinking brock!" says he, and crammed the paper in his pocket.

+"Here, let's get our things together.  This place is fair death to

+me."  And he began to walk towards the inn.

+

+It was Catriona that spoke the first.  "He has sold you?" she

+asked.

+

+"Sold me, my dear," said Alan.  "But thanks to you and Davie, I'll

+can jink him yet.  Just let me win upon my horse," he added.

+

+"Catriona must come with us," said I.  "She can have no more

+traffic with that man.  She and I are to be married."  At which she

+pressed my hand to her side.

+

+"Are ye there with it?" says Alan, looking back.  "The best day's

+work that ever either of you did yet!  And I'm bound to say, my

+dawtie, ye make a real, bonny couple."

+

+The way that he was following brought us close in by the windmill,

+where I was aware of a man in seaman's trousers, who seemed to be

+spying from behind it.  Only, of course, we took him in the rear.

+

+"See, Alan!"

+

+"Wheesht!" said, he, "this is my affairs."

+

+The man was, no doubt, a little deafened by the clattering of the

+mill, and we got up close before he noticed.  Then he turned, and

+we saw he was a big fellow with a mahogany face.

+

+"I think, sir," says Alan, "that you speak the English?"

+

+"Non, monsieur," says he, with an incredible bad accent.

+

+"Non, monsieur," cries Alan, mocking him.  "Is that how they learn

+you French on the Seahorse?  Ye muckle, gutsey hash, here's a Scots

+boot to your English hurdies!"

+

+And bounding on him before he could escape, he dealt the man a kick

+that laid him on his nose.  Then he stood, with a savage smile, and

+watched him scramble to his feet and scamper off into the sand-

+hills.

+

+"But it's high time I was clear of these empty bents!" said Alan;

+and continued his way at top speed, and we still following, to the

+backdoor of Bazin's inn.

+

+It chanced that as we entered by the one door we came face to face

+with James More entering by the other.

+

+"Here!" said I to Catriona, "quick! upstairs with you and make your

+packets; this is no fit scene for you."

+

+In the meanwhile James and Alan had met in the midst of the long

+room.  She passed them close by to reach the stairs; and after she

+was some way up I saw her turn and glance at them again, though

+without pausing.  Indeed, they were worth looking at.  Alan wore as

+they met one of his best appearances of courtesy and friendliness,

+yet with something eminently warlike, so that James smelled danger

+off the man, as folk smell fire in a house, and stood prepared for

+accidents.

+

+Time pressed.  Alan's situation in that solitary place, and his

+enemies about him, might have daunted Caesar.  It made no change in

+him; and it was in his old spirit of mockery and daffing that he

+began the interview.

+

+"A braw good day to ye again, Mr. Drummond," said he.  "What'll yon

+business of yours be just about?"

+

+"Why, the thing being private, and rather of a long story," says

+James, "I think it will keep very well till we have eaten."

+

+"I'm none so sure of that," said Alan.  "It sticks in my mind it's

+either now or never; for the fact is me and Mr. Balfour here have

+gotten a line, and we're thinking of the road."

+

+I saw a little surprise in James's eye; but he held himself

+stoutly.

+

+"I have but the one word to say to cure you of that," said he, "and

+that is the name of my business."

+

+"Say it then," says Alan.  "Hout! wha minds for Davie?"

+

+"It is a matter that would make us both rich men," said James.

+

+"Do you tell me that?" cries Alan.

+

+"I do, sir," said James.  "The plain fact is that it is Cluny's

+Treasure."

+

+"No!" cried Alan.  "Have ye got word of it?"

+

+"I ken the place, Mr. Stewart, and can take you there," said James.

+

+"This crowns all!" says Alan.  "Well, and I'm glad I came to

+Dunkirk.  And so this was your business, was it?  Halvers, I'm

+thinking?"

+

+"That is the business, sir," said James.

+

+"Well, well," said Alan; and then in the same tone of childlike

+interest, "it has naething to do with the Seahorse, then?" he

+asked,

+

+"With what?" says James.

+

+"Or the lad that I have just kicked the bottom of behind yon

+windmill?" pursued Alan.  "Hut, man! have done with your lees!  I

+have Palliser's letter here in my pouch.  You're by with it, James

+More.  You can never show your face again with dacent folk."

+

+James was taken all aback with it.  He stood a second, motionless

+and white, then swelled with the living anger.

+

+"Do you talk to me, you bastard?" he roared out.

+

+"Ye glee'd swine!" cried Alan, and hit him a sounding buffet on the

+mouth, and the next wink of time their blades clashed together.

+

+At the first sound of the bare steel I instinctively leaped back

+from the collision.  The next I saw, James parried a thrust so

+nearly that I thought him killed; and it lowed up in my mind that

+this was the girl's father, and in a manner almost my own, and I

+drew and ran in to sever them.

+

+"Keep back, Davie!  Are ye daft!  Damn ye, keep back!" roared Alan.

+"Your blood be on your ain heid then!"

+

+I beat their blades down twice.  I was knocked reeling against the

+wall; I was back again betwixt them.  They took no heed of me,

+thrusting at each other like two furies.  I can never think how I

+avoided being stabbed myself or stabbing one of these two

+Rodomonts, and the whole business turned about me like a piece of a

+dream; in the midst of which I heard a great cry from the stair,

+and Catriona sprang before her father.  In the same moment the

+point of my sword encountered some thing yielding.  It came back to

+me reddened.  I saw the blood flow on the girl's kerchief, and

+stood sick.

+

+"Will you be killing him before my eyes, and me his daughter after

+all!" she cried.

+

+"My dear, I have done with him," said Alan, and went, and sat on a

+table, with his arms crossed and the sword naked in his hand.

+

+Awhile she stood before the man, panting, with big eyes, then swung

+suddenly about and faced him.

+

+"Begone!" was her word, "take your shame out of my sight; leave me

+with clean folk.  I am a daughter of Alpin!  Shame of the sons of

+Alpin, begone!"

+

+It was said with so much passion as awoke me from the horror of my

+own bloodied sword.  The two stood facing, she with the red stain

+on her kerchief, he white as a rag.  I knew him well enough--I knew

+it must have pierced him in the quick place of his soul; but he

+betook himself to a bravado air.

+

+"Why," says he, sheathing his sword, though still with a bright eye

+on Alan, "if this brawl is over I will but get my portmanteau--"

+

+"There goes no pockmantie out of this place except with me," says

+Alan.

+

+"Sir!" cries James.

+

+"James More," says Alan, "this lady daughter of yours is to marry

+my friend Davie, upon the which account I let you pack with a hale

+carcase.  But take you my advice of it and get that carcase out of

+harm's way or ower late.  Little as you suppose it, there are

+leemits to my temper."

+

+"Be damned, sir, but my money's there!" said James.

+

+"I'm vexed about that, too," says Alan, with his funny face, "but

+now, ye see, it's mines."  And then with more gravity, "Be you

+advised, James More, you leave this house."

+

+James seemed to cast about for a moment in his mind; but it's to be

+thought he had enough of Alan's swordsmanship, for he suddenly put

+off his hat to us and (with a face like one of the damned) bade us

+farewell in a series.  With which he was gone.

+

+At the same time a spell was lifted from me.

+

+"Catriona," I cried, "it was me--it was my sword.  O, are you much

+hurt?"

+

+"I know it, Davie, I am loving you for the pain of it; it was done

+defending that bad man, my father.  See!" she said, and showed me a

+bleeding scratch, "see, you have made a man of me now.  I will

+carry a wound like an old soldier."

+

+Joy that she should be so little hurt, and the love of her brave

+nature, supported me.  I embraced her, I kissed the wound.

+

+"And am I to be out of the kissing, me that never lost a chance?"

+says Alan; and putting me aside and taking Catriona by either

+shoulder, "My dear," he said, "you're a true daughter of Alpin.  By

+all accounts, he was a very fine man, and he may weel be proud of

+you.  If ever I was to get married, it's the marrow of you I would

+be seeking for a mother to my sons.  And I bear's a king's name and

+speak the truth."

+

+He said it with a serious heat of admiration that was honey to the

+girl, and through her, to me.  It seemed to wipe us clean of all

+James More's disgraces.  And the next moment he was just himself

+again.

+

+"And now by your leave, my dawties," said he, "this is a' very

+bonny; but Alan Breck'll be a wee thing nearer to the gallows than

+he's caring for; and Dod! I think this is a grand place to be

+leaving."

+

+The word recalled us to some wisdom.  Alan ran upstairs and

+returned with our saddle-bags and James More's portmanteau; I

+picked up Catriona's bundle where she had dropped it on the stair;

+and we were setting forth out of that dangerous house, when Bazin

+stopped the way with cries and gesticulations.  He had whipped

+under a table when the swords were drawn, but now he was as bold as

+a lion.  There was his bill to be settled, there was a chair

+broken, Alan had sat among his dinner things, James More had fled.

+

+"Here," I cried, "pay yourself," and flung him down some Lewie

+d'ors; for I thought it was no time to be accounting.

+

+He sprang upon that money, and we passed him by, and ran forth into

+the open.  Upon three sides of the house were seamen hasting and

+closing in; a little nearer to us James More waved his hat as if to

+hurry them; and right behind him, like some foolish person holding

+up his hands, were the sails of the windmill turning.

+

+Alan gave but one glance, and laid himself down to run.  He carried

+a great weight in James More's portmanteau; but I think he would as

+soon have lost his life as cast away that booty which was his

+revenge; and he ran so that I was distressed to follow him, and

+marvelled and exulted to see the girl bounding at my side.

+

+As soon as we appeared, they cast off all disguise upon the other

+side; and the seamen pursued us with shouts and view-hullohs.  We

+had a start of some two hundred yards, and they were but bandy-

+legged tarpaulins after all, that could not hope to better us at

+such an exercise.  I suppose they were armed, but did not care to

+use their pistols on French ground.  And as soon as I perceived

+that we not only held our advantage but drew a little away, I began

+to feel quite easy of the issue.  For all which, it was a hot,

+brisk bit of work, so long as it lasted; Dunkirk was still far off;

+and when we popped over a knowe, and found a company of the

+garrison marching on the other side on some manoeuvre, I could very

+well understand the word that Alan had.

+

+He stopped running at once; and mopping at his brow, "They're a

+real bonny folk, the French nation," says he.

+

+

+

+CONCLUSION

+

+

+

+No sooner were we safe within the walls of Dunkirk than we held a

+very necessary council-of-war on our position.  We had taken a

+daughter from her father at the sword's point; any judge would give

+her back to him at once, and by all likelihood clap me and Alan

+into jail; and though we had an argument upon our side in Captain

+Palliser's letter, neither Catriona nor I were very keen to be

+using it in public.  Upon all accounts it seemed the most prudent

+to carry the girl to Paris to the hands of her own chieftain,

+Macgregor of Bohaldie, who would be very willing to help his

+kinswoman, on the one hand, and not at all anxious to dishonour

+James upon other.

+

+We made but a slow journey of it up, for Catriona was not so good

+at the riding as the running, and had scarce sat in the saddle

+since the 'Forty-five.  But we made it out at last, reached Paris

+early of a Sabbath morning, and made all speed, under Alan's

+guidance, to find Bohaldie.  He was finely lodged, and lived in a

+good style, having a pension on the Scots Fund, as well as private

+means; greeted Catriona like one of his own house, and seemed

+altogether very civil and discreet, but not particularly open.  We

+asked of the news of James More.  "Poor James!" said he, and shook

+his head and smiled, so that I thought he knew further than he

+meant to tell.  Then we showed him Palliser's letter, and he drew a

+long face at that.

+

+"Poor James!" said he again.  "Well, there are worse folk than

+James More, too.  But this is dreadful bad.  Tut, tut, he must have

+forgot himself entirely!  This is a most undesirable letter.  But,

+for all that, gentlemen, I cannot see what we would want to make it

+public for.  It's an ill bird that fouls his own nest, and we are

+all Scots folk and all Hieland."

+

+Upon this we all agreed, save perhaps Alan; and still more upon the

+question of our marriage, which Bohaldie took in his own hands, as

+though there had been no such person as James More, and gave

+Catriona away with very pretty manners and agreeable compliments in

+French.  It was not till all was over, and our healths drunk, that

+he told us James was in that city, whither he had preceded us some

+days, and where he now lay sick, and like to die.  I thought I saw

+by my wife's face what way her inclination pointed.

+

+"And let us go see him, then," said I.

+

+"If it is your pleasure," said Catriona.  These were early days.

+

+He was lodged in the same quarter of the city with his chief, in a

+great house upon a corner; and we were guided up to the garret

+where he lay by the sound of Highland piping.  It seemed he had

+just borrowed a set of them from Bohaldie to amuse his sickness;

+though he was no such hand as was his brother Rob, he made good

+music of the kind; and it was strange to observe the French folk

+crowding on the stairs, and some of them laughing.  He lay propped

+in a pallet.  The first look of him I saw he was upon his last

+business; and, doubtless, this was a strange place for him to die

+in.  But even now I find I can scarce dwell upon his end with

+patience.  Doubtless, Bohaldie had prepared him; he seemed to know

+we were married, complimented us on the event, and gave us a

+benediction like a patriarch.

+

+"I have been never understood," said he.  "I forgive you both

+without an afterthought;" after which he spoke for all the world in

+his old manner, was so obliging as to play us a tune or two upon

+his pipes, and borrowed a small sum before I left.

+

+I could not trace even a hint of shame in any part of his

+behaviour; but he was great upon forgiveness; it seemed always

+fresh to him.  I think he forgave me every time we met; and when

+after some four days he passed away in a kind of odour of

+affectionate sanctity, I could have torn my hair out for

+exasperation.  I had him buried; but what to put upon his tomb was

+quite beyond me, till at last I considered the date would look best

+alone.

+

+I thought it wiser to resign all thoughts of Leyden, where we had

+appeared once as brother and sister, and it would certainly look

+strange to return in a new character.  Scotland would be doing for

+us; and thither, after I had recovered that which I had left

+behind, we sailed in a Low Country ship.

+

+

+And now, Miss Barbara Balfour (to set the ladies first), and Mr.

+Alan Balfour younger of Shaws, here is the story brought fairly to

+an end.  A great many of the folk that took a part in it, you will

+find (if you think well) that you have seen and spoken with.

+Alison Hastie in Limekilns was the lass that rocked your cradle

+when you were too small to know of it, and walked abroad with you

+in the policy when you were bigger.  That very fine great lady that

+is Miss Barbara's name-mamma is no other than the same Miss Grant

+that made so much a fool of David Balfour in the house of the Lord

+Advocate.  And I wonder whether you remember a little, lean, lively

+gentleman in a scratch-wig and a wraprascal, that came to Shaws

+very late of a dark night, and whom you were awakened out of your

+beds and brought down to the dining-hall to be presented to, by the

+name of Mr. Jamieson?  Or has Alan forgotten what he did at Mr.

+Jamieson's request--a most disloyal act--for which, by the letter

+of the law, he might be hanged--no less than drinking the king's

+health ACROSS THE WATER?  These were strange doings in a good Whig

+house!  But Mr. Jamieson is a man privileged, and might set fire to

+my corn-barn; and the name they know him by now in France is the

+Chevalier Stewart.

+

+As for Davie and Catriona, I shall watch you pretty close in the

+next days, and see if you are so bold as to be laughing at papa and

+mamma.  It is true we were not so wise as we might have been, and

+made a great deal of sorrow out of nothing; but you will find as

+you grow up that even the artful Miss Barbara, and even the valiant

+Mr. Alan, will be not so very much wiser than their parents.  For

+the life of man upon this world of ours is a funny business.  They

+talk of the angels weeping; but I think they must more often be

+holding their sides as they look on; and there was one thing I

+determined to do when I began this long story, and that was to tell

+out everything as it befell.

+

+

+

+Footnotes

+

+{1}  Conspicuous.

+

+{2}  Country.

+

+{3}  The Fairies.

+

+{4}  Flatteries.

+

+{5}  Trust to.

+

+{6}  This must have reference to Dr. Cameron on his first visit.--

+D. B.

+

+{7}  Sweetheart.

+

+{8}  Child.

+

+{9}  Palm.

+

+{10}  Gallows.

+

+{11}  My Catechism.

+

+{12}  Now Prince's Street.

+

+{13}  A learned folklorist of my acquaintance hereby identifies

+Alan's air.  It has been printed (it seems) in Campbell's Tales of

+the West Highlands, Vol.  II., p. 91.  Upon examination it would

+really seem as if Miss Grant's unrhymed doggrel (see Chapter V.)

+would fit with little humouring to the notes in question.

+

+{14}  A ball placed upon a little mound for convenience of

+striking.

+

+{15}  Patched shoes.

+

+{16}  Shoemaker.

+

+{17}  Tamson's mere--to go afoot.

+

+{18}  Beard.

+

+{19}  Ragged.

+

+{20}  Fine things.

+

+{21}  Catch.

+

+{22}  Victuals.

+

+{23}  Trust.

+

+{24}  Sea fog.

+

+{25}  Bashful.

+

+{26}  Rest.

+

+

+

+

+

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