Catriona...............................................................................................................................................................1

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, hotheaded

youth must repeat today 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,

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

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 beggarman 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. Today 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

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 seasands

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 bankporter. 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

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

"Naething kenspeckle," 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 bettergates than that." And he proposed I should buy

winterhosen from a wife in the Cowgateback, that was a cousin of his own, and made them "extraordinar

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 rabbitwarren, 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 noncommittal 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 hotfoot 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

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 servingman in a fine livery set open; and two of the soldierlads

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

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

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

"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

"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 bred it will be different. I am as landward as yourself; I am Highland, as

"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

"Well, I know Duncan, and you give him the true name!" she said; "and if he is an honest man, his wife is

"Where in the great world is such another!" she cries; "I am loving the smell of that place and the roots that

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

"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. Catriona Drummond is the

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

"I have been sitting with one who was in the same case with yourself," said I, "and I think he will be one of

"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

"All the daughter that he has," says she: "the daughter of a prisoner; that I should forget it so, even for one

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, bandylegged, red haired,

"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 bankporter at my tail. And

"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

"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. .

"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

I took sixpence from my pocket, gave it to Neil, and bade him go about his errand. Then to her, "That

"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."

"And what will you be thinking of myself!" she cried, "to be holding my hand to the first stranger!"

"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."

"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

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 bankporter that put

"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!

"Leddy!" he cried. "Haud us and safe us, whatten leddy? Ca' THON a leddy? The toun's fu' o' them. Leddies!

He did not wholly obey me, for, though he no more addressed me directly, he very impudent sang at me as he

"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."

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

"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

"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

He rose without more words, casting down his paper like a man ill pleased, sent forth his clerk of an errand,

"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 illbecome 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

"Put it in your pocket, sir!" cries he. "Ye need name no names. The deevil's buckie, I ken the button of him!

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,

"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 blackfoot 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."

"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

"I have no great mind to it; but coming as you do with Alan's button, the choice is scarcely left me," said he.

"The first point is to smuggle Alan forth of this country," said I, "but I need not be repeating that."

"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 threehalfpence farthing

"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

"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 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 spendingmoney 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

"Well, and I'm pleased to see you're cautious, too," said the Writer. "But I think ye take a risk to lay so

"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."

"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

"When ye CALL on him!" repeated Mr. Stewart. "Am I daft, or are you! What takes ye near the Advocate!"

"No, sir," said I, "though I think you have allowed yourself some such freedom with myself. But I give you to

"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

"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

He was silent for a breathingspace, and then, "My man," said he, "you'll never be allowed to give such

"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

"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

"Ay," said I, "I was told that same no further back than this morning by another lawyer."

I told I must be excused from naming him, for he was a decent stout old Whig, and had little mind to be

"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 overmany; 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,

"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

oversorely. 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!" 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 welldrawn deed, a

crack in the Parliament House with other lawyer bodies, and perhaps a turn at the golf on a Saturday at e'en.

"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

"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."

"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

"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

"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 goby."

"Weary winds! that's sayrious," cried Robin. "I'll try Andie, then; Andie'll be the best."

"There was a name your clerk mentioned," I went on: "Hoseason. That must be my man, I think: Hoseason,

"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

"No more honest skipper in the trade than Eli," said the clerk. "I would lippen to Eli's word ay, if it was the

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

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

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

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 jumpingjacks 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

"A blessing on your precious face!" she cried. "Twa joes o'mine: just two o' my old joes, my hinny dear."

"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 belanged to

"Ay!" said I to myself, and not to the daft limmer, "and did they come to such a figure for so poor a business?

"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, joe, that lies braid across your

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

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, hagrode 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 legfoot 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

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

"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. "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

"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

"Why sir," said I, "I propose you should write to his lordship, that I am a young man of reasonable good

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

"Then you might go on to say that I sought his lordship on a matter of great moment, connected with His

"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

"And then, sir," said I, and rubbed my neck a little with my thumb, "then I would be very desirous if you

"Protection?" says he, "for your protection! Here is a phrase that somewhat dampens me. If the matter be so

"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

"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

"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

"That is the name to go in," said Mr. Balfour, and resumed his writing. Presently, he signed, reread 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

"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

"Whereupon," continued Mr. Balfour, "I have subscribed myself with the usual compliments. You observe I

"Perfectly, sir; my purpose is known and approved by more than one," said I. "And your letter, which I take a

"It was all I could squeeze out," said he; "and from what I know of the matter you design to meddle in, I can

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.

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

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 businesstable. 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.

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

"I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Mr. Balfour," he said, when he had done. "Let me offer you a glass

"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

"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

"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

"Right, my lord; the name is, indeed, new to you," said I. "And yet you have been for some time extremely

"It will perhaps serve for such," said I, "that if I was in a jesting humour which is far from the case I

He thrust away his glass once and for all, and sat straight up in the chair where he had been previously

"I recognise those words," said he, "which, if you have come here with any illjudged intention of amusing

"My purpose in this," I replied, "is just entirely as serious as life and death, and you have understood me

"The inference is clear," I said. "I am a very loyal subject to King George, but if I had anything to reproach

"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

"And unfortunately, my lord," I added, a little drily, "directly personal to another great personage who may be

"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

"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 illadvised 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 extrajudicially, 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."

"Why, I mean it thus, Mr. Balfour," said he, "that if you give satisfaction, no soul need know so much as that

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

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?"

"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

"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

The Advocate laid his pen down. "I think we are playing at cross purposes," said he, "which you will find to

"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

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

"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

"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

"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

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. . ."

"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 halfadozen 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,

"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."

"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,

"I will give it till tomorrow 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."

"Let me see," he continued. "Tomorrow is the Sabbath. Come to me on Monday by eight in the morning,

"Freely given, my lord," said I. "And with regard to what has fallen from yourself, I will give it for an long as

"It was like your lordship's nobility," said I. "Yet I am not altogether so dull but what I can perceive the

"Well," said he, "goodnight 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.

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

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.

"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

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

"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

"That you know not in the least, sir," said I, "nor yet anybody else; but the name I am called, if you care to

"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

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 faraway cousin," said I, drily, "and I ought to tell you that I never clapped eyes upon

"Well, well," said he, "it makes no change. And you I do not think you were out yourself, sir I have no

"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 brotherinarms 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

trumpedup 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

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

"I have a moment's engagements," said he; "and that you may not sit emptyhanded 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

He led me into another long room above, where a dry old lady sat at a frame of embroidery, and the three

"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

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

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

She shook her head. "I never heard a note of it," said she. "Whistle it all through. And now once again," she

Then she picked it out upon the keyboard, and (to my surprise) instantly enriched the same with

wellsounding chords, and sang, as she played, with a very droll expression and broad accent

"You see," she says, "I can do the poetry too, only it won't rhyme. And then again:

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

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

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

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

"Come, Mr. Balfour," they cried, "come and see. She is the most beautiful creature! She hangs round the

closehead these last days, always with some wretchedlike 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

"Now, girls," said he, "I must take Mr. Balfour away again; but I hope you have been able to persuade him to

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

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

"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 bookshelves, 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

"It would not become me to prejudge," said I, "but if the Advocate was your authority he is fully possessed of

"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

"It will be rather ill to hang him till you catch him," I observed. "And for other matters I very willingly leave

"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:

EXPERTOCREDE. 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

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."

"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 illmannered 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

"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

"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."

"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

today, 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

"I own to a natural weakness," said I. "I think no shame for that. Shame. . ." I was going on.

"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

There was a touch of the truth in these words that knocked me like a blow: clothes, a bottle of

USQUEBAUGH, and threeandfivepence 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

"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

illwill, 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

"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. Tomorrow 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

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

The voices of two of Prestongrange's liveried men upon his doorstep recalled me to myself.

"I think Prestongrange is gane gyte," says the second. "He'll have James More in bed with him next."

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

I began to walk swiftly and at random, conscious only of a desire for movement, air, and the open country.

I CAME forth, I vow I know not how, on the LANG DYKES. 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,

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 selfesteem, 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 outfaced these men, I would continue to

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 tomorrow, and it was sure

enough I might very likely sleep that night in a dungeon, I determined I should hear and speak once more

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 decentlike small

house in a garden of lawns and appletrees. 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

I told her I had met her on Saturday last, had been so fortunate as to render her a trifling service, and was

"O, so you're Saxpence!" she cried, with a very sneering manner. "A braw gift, a bonny gentleman. And hae

"No, ma'am," said I. "I am a son of Alexander's. It's I that am the Laird of Shaws."

"I perceive you know my uncle," said I; "and I daresay you may be the better pleased to hear that business is

"I'm come after my saxpence, mem," said I. "It's to be thought, being my uncle's nephew, I would be found a

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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 goodhearted, 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 redmad 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.

"Spoke with her but the once, I should have said," I interrupted. "I saw her again this morning from a window

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

"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 menfolk'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

"If you think me a spy," I broke out, and speech stuck in my throat. I stood and looked murder at the old lady

"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 backbone, and think a wee pickle less of your dainty self; and ye'll have to try

to find out that womenfolk are nae grenadiers. But that can never be. To your last day you'll ken no more of

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 furtheron 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

When I was in the midst of these thoughts and about halfway 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 tonguetied 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

I told her no; but now I had met with her my walk was not in vain. "Though I have seen you today already,"

"I did not see you," she said. "My eyes are big, but there are better than mine at seeing far. Only I heard

"They think the same of you, Miss Drummond," I replied, "and were all crowding to the window to observe

"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 seafish 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

"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

"Did you?" she cried, with a voice of joy that seemed to mock at me. "You saw James More? You will have

Then I think things went the worst way for me that was humanly possible. She gave me a look of mere

"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

"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

"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

"It will not be through your friendship, I am thinking," said she; "and he is much made up to you for your

"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

"I think here is a great deal of work, Mr. Balfour," said she. "I think we will have met but the once, and will

"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

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

"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

today that sleuthhound 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 byword 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

"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.

"For God's sake!" I cried, "for God's sake, what is this that I have done?" and carried my fists to my temples.

"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 outfaced 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

"Catriona," said I, looking at her, hangdog, "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

"And maybe all this while I am but a child frighted with bogles," said I. "Maybe they but make a mock of

"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

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

"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!"

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 barleyfields, and had such a sense of Catriona's presence that I

THE next day, August 29th, I kept my appointment at the Advocate's in a coat that I had made to my own

"Aha," says Prestongrange, "you are very fine today; 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

"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."

"In the meanwhile," he continued, "though I will not ask you to renew your pledge, I must caution you

strictly to be reticent. Tomorrow your precognition must be taken; and outside of that, do you know, I think

"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

"Ah, but you must try and manage, you must try and manage to believe it," says he, soothinglike, "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

today, will doubtless alter the complexion of the case for all concerned, and this makes it less delicate for

"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

"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

"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 cannot guess your reason for so thinking, my lord," I replied, "but such in the fact."

"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."

"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

Into the hands of these Graces I was accordingly offered up, and found them dressed beyond what I had

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 skirttail 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 gravelwalks, furnished with seats and summersheds, 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 coatskirts, 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

From these I was recalled by one of the officers, Lieutenant Hector Duncansby, a gawky, leering Highland

"I am afraid you do not like my name, sir," says I, annoyed with myself to be annoyed with such a rustical

"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

I asked him what he could possibly mean, and he answered, with a heckling laugh, that he thought I must

"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

I paid him as good or better on the return; whereupon he stepped a little back and took off his hat to me

"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 halfadozen 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,

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

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

"Pe tamned if I touch you!" he cried, and asked me bitterly what right I had to stand up before "shentlemans"

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

"That is handsomely said," I replied, "and I am sure you will not stand up a second time to be the actor for

"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,

"And if you knew the nature of Mr. Simon's quarrel with me," said I, "you would be yet the more affronted to

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

"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

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

"My business is but for three minutes, and it cannot wait," said I. "You may say it is by no means private, and

As the man departed unwillingly enough upon this errand, we made so bold as to follow him to the

antechamber, 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

"Well, well, Mr. Balfour, and what brings you here again? and who is this you bring with you?" says

"He is here to bear a little testimony in my favour, my lord, which I think it very needful you should hear,"

"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

Whereupon Duncansby made his bow to the company, and left the chamber, as we had agreed upon before.

"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

"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

Simon was deadly pale. "I will be a kickball 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

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,

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

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

"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

"Brawly," said he. "Andie picks him up at Gillane sands tomorrow, Wednesday. He was keen to say

goodbye to ye, but the way that things were going, I was feared the pair of ye was maybe best apart. And

"Why," said I, "I was told only this morning that my testimony was accepted, and I was to travel to Inverary

"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 hornmad," 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."

"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 illdoer another was to go scatheless, and the remeid is to summon the principal and put him to

outlawry for the noncompearance. Now there's four places where a person can be summoned: at his

dwellinghouse; 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 dwellinghouse 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

"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 twentyfifth, 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

"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.

"Yet I can tell you Prestongrange asked after Alan keenly," said I; "though, when I come to think of it, he was

"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 outfaced 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

He put a paper in my hand, that same mealymouthed, falsefaced 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

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.

"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

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

"And I am not to see them until Inverary, when the court is set!" cries he, "and then to hear Prestongrange

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

It was actually so it was actually on the wayside near Tynedrum, and by the connivance of a soldier officer,

"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

"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."

"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?"

"And now you see how it is," he concluded, "and why, when you tell me your evidence is to be let in, I laugh

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

"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

redheaded 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

"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

"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."

"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

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 was about halfpast 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

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

"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 horsecouper 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 illwill. 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

"Ah, but today 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."

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,

"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

"It is most misconvenient at least," said I; "and I think my father (honest man!) must have been

woolgathering 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

"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

"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.

"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

"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

"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 nearhand to

So then she drew from me the story of our battle in the brig, which I had omitted in my first account of my

"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

"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 tomorrow 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

"Ah!" she cried, "you will not be evening these two; and you should bear in mind that Prestongrange and

"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

"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 footsoles 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

"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

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

"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

She took up my hand and kissed it. This so surprised my spirits that I cried out like one hurt. The colour came

"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

After that honour she had done me I could offer no more trivial civility. It was even hard for me to speak; a

"I praise God for your kindness, dear," said I. "Farewell, my little friend!" giving her that name which she

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

"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

"I could tell you one that would be liking it less, and will like little enough to hear you talking at this very

"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

"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

"By means of a magical talisman God gave to me when I was born, and the name they call it by is

Commonsense," 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

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

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

Twice or thrice they spoke together, and I could make out that Neil (for all his obsequiousness) was an angry

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."

"He says he has James More my father's errand," said she. She was whiter than ever, and her voice faltered as

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

"But perhaps we go too fast," said I. "This may be a lie too. He may have no right orders; all may be

She burst out weeping between the pair of us; and my heart smote me hard, for I thought this girl was in a

"Here," said I, "keep him but the one hour; and I'll chance it, and may God bless you."

"The full hour, then?" said I, keeping her hand in mine. "Three lives of it, my lass!"

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 milllade." This I found easy enough, where it grew on a steep brae, with the milllade

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?"

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 milllade, 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

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 handstroke 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

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 selfindulgence.

Instantly the text came in my head, "HOW CAN SATAN CAST OUT SATAN?" What? (I thought) I had, by

selfindulgence; 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 selfindulgence must be cured by

selfdenial; 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

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

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.

"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

"Ay, Alan, man, the day, sure enough," said I. "It's past twelve now, surely, and ye sail the day. This'll be a

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

"One thing we have to consider," said I. "Was Charles Stewart right or wrong? Is it only me they're after, or

"And me too," says Alan. "Do ye think this lass would keep her word to ye?" he asked.

"Well, there's nae telling," said he. "And anyway, that's over and done: he'll be joined to the rest of them lang

"That depends," said Alan. "If it was only you, they would likely send twothree lively, brisk young birkies,

and if they thought that I was to appear in the employ, I daresay ten or twelve," said he.

"And I think your own two eyes will have seen me drive that number, or the double of it, nearer hand!" cries

"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

"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

"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

"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

With which he rose from his place, and we began to move quietly eastward through the wood.

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 greatcoat

on his back; but (what was new) he had now a pair of knitted boothose 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

"Gude kens," says he; "and the short and the long of it is that we must take our chance of them. Up with your

footsoles, 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 saltpans were smoking in by the Esk mouth. No

doubt there was a byordinary bonny blink of morning sun on Arthur's Seat and the green Pentlands; and the

"I feel like a gomeral," says he, "to be leaving Scotland on a day like this. It sticks in my head; I would

"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

"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."

"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

"The goodman brought me my meat and a drop brandy, and a candledowp 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

"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

"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

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 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."

"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 pocketnapkin! David, this man Duncansby must be

something altogether byordinar! He maun be extraordinar skilly. If I had the time, I would gang straight

"I promise you the one thing, Alan," said I. "The next time that we forgather, I'll be better learned. You shall

"Well, Alan, I have had some thoughts of that, too," said I; "and my plan is this. It's my opinion to be called

"That's but a weary trade, Davie," says Alan, "and rather a blagyard one forby. Ye would be better in a king's

"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

"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,

"Well, and I would think he could!" cried he. "Ye see, I stand well in with my colonel, Count

DrummondMelfort; and, what's mair to the purpose I have a cousin of mine lieutenantcolonel in a

regiment of the ScotsDutch. Naething could be mair proper than what I would get a leave to see

LieutenantColonel 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

"The very same, Davie," said he. "One would think a colonel would have something better to attend to. But

"Well, then," said I, "it only remains you should give me an address to write you at in France; and as soon as

"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

We had a haddock to our breakfast in Musselburgh, where it amused me vastly to hear Alan. His greatcoat

and boothose 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

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 herringbusses there at Mrs. Cadell's, it seemed

a desertlike, backgoing town, about half full of ruined houses; but the alehouse 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

"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

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

"We pit a fomentation to his feet," the goodwife 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,

Presently, however, he paid her with a halfcrown piece, and she must go forth after the change.

"What did I tell you in the wood?" he cried. "And yet it's strange he should be here too! Was he his lane?"

"And that's queerer yet," said Alan. "It sticks in my mind, Davie, that we should be stirring. But where to?

"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

"I'm saying, Luckie," says he, when the goodwife returned, "have ye a back road out of this change house?"

"Then, sir," says he to me, "I think that will be the shortest road for us. And here's goodbye to ye, my braw

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!"

"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."

"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

"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 LIETO 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 redcoat 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 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 countryfolk; but

though we plumped into the first from round a corner, Alan was as ready as a loaded musket.

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

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 seafishing

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 upflying 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

"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

"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

"Ay," says Alan, "I wish we were in some force, and this was a battle, we would have bonnily

outmanoeuvred them! But it isnae, Davit; and the way it is, is a wee thing less inspiring to Alan Breck. 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.

"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 sandhills 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.

"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

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

"Morally impossible," said I. "The point is that they can have no guns. This thing has been gone about too

"I believe ye'll be in the right," says Alan. "For all which I am wearing a good deal for yon boat."

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

"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

"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

"It's there ye're coming, is it?" I cried. "Ah, man Alan, you can wile your old wives, but you never can wile

"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."

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 cattlethieves, of several

clans, no gentleman there to be the captain and the more they looked at Alan and me upon the beach, the less

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

This sound, arising from what appeared to be a quite deserted coast, was really very daunting, and the men in

"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.

"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

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 sandlice 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

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

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 sandwreath. It made a hard climb,

being steep, and the sand like water underfoot. But I caught hold at last by the long bentgrass on the

braetop, and pulled myself to a good footing. The same moment men stirred and stood up here and there, six

or seven of them, raggedlike 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

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

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

"I could name one who would be very ill pleased with your day's work, Neil Duncanson," said I, when the

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, bonylike Lothian man of a very swarthy countenance, that came towards us

"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 freetraders, 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 tumbledown 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

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 cliffside 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

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 TWENTYPOUNDERS. 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 fishscales, with which I was glad to cover

"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

"I am no just exactly what ye would ca' an extremist for the law," says he, "at the best of times; but in this

"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 seabirds' 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

"Just to the Bass, mannie," said he: "Whaur the auld saints were afore ye, and I misdoubt if ye have come so

"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 tholepins

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 apiece 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 bedplace in one corner, that he made his

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

He grumbled a little at this speech, but seemed upon reflection to approve it. Indeed, he was a longheaded,

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

halfafarthing. But that part of the coast of Lothian is to this day as wild a place, and the commons there as

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

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

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 potherbs 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 cattlethieves, 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

tobaccopipes 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

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

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 selfesteem, 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 selfreproaches that I would set the more particularly to

At last, when we two were alone on the summit of the rock on a bright morning, I put in some hint about a

"Ay, you're funny, Mr. Dale," said I, "but perhaps if you'll glance an eye upon that paper you may change

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.

"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

"Ye're no a'thegether wrong either," says Andie. "I'm to let you gang, bar orders contrair, on Saturday, the

I could not but feel there was something extremely insidious in this arrangement. That I was to reappear

precisely in time to be too late would cast the more discredit on my tale, if I were minded to tell one; and this

"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 JohnHielandman 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

"I canna gainsay ye, Shaws. It looks unco underhand," says Andie. "And werenae the folk guid sound Whigs

and trueblue Presbyterians I would has seen them ayont Jordan and Jeroozlem or I would have set hand to

"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

"Well, Andie, I see I'll have to be speak out plain with you," I replied. And told him so much as I thought

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 dacentlike 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."

"Ay, it's a peety about that," said he. "But ye see, in this warld, the way God made it, we cannae just get

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

Dwelling in that isolated place, in the old falling ruins of a prison, and among endless strange sounds of the

sea and the seabirds, 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.

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,

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

"Na," said he; "it will be made by a bogle and her wanting ta heid upon his body."

"Well," said I, "there can be no bogles here, Neil; for it's not likely they would fash themselves to frighten

"Ay?" says Andie, "is that what ye think of it! But I'll can tell ye there's been waur nor bogles here."

"Warlocks," said he. "Or a warlock at the least of it. And that's a queer tale, too," he added. "And if ye would

To be sure we were all of the one mind, and even the Highlander that had the least English of the three set

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 randan; 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 illguided, 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

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 peathag, 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' twathree 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 sodgerlad. "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 fingernebs 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.

"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;

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.

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

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 byordinar 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

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

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

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

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

The fower lads stared at ither, an' tried to whillywha 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

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

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,

"Whatten kind of a thing?" says grandfaither. "There cannae be naething on the Bass but just the sheep."

"A body!" says we, and we none of us likit that. For there was nae boat that could have brought a man, and

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,

"Sma' is the differ," quo' Sandie. "De'il or warlock, I'll try the gun at him," quo' he, and broucht up a

fowlingpiece 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

"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

This was ower true, and Sandie was a wee thing set ajee. "Aweel, Edie," says he, "and what would be your

"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

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 leelane. And there would be a fiddler diddling

his elbock in the chimneyside; 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!

Weel, at the hinder end, we saw the wee flag yirk up to the mastheid 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

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

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

"She would ken that story afore," he said. "She was the story of Uistean More M'Gillie Phadrig and the Gavar

"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.

"Shentlemans!" cries Andie. "Shentlemans, ye hielant stot! If God would give ye the grace to see yoursel' the

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.

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 reexamined 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

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

"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

"Ay," said he, "that's grand for you. But where do I come in! I have my word to redeem the same's yoursel'.

"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

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 braeside betwixt sleep and waking, my body motionless, my mind

full of violent thoughts. Sometimes I slept indeed; but the courthouse 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.

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

But the second enclosure was by far the more surprising. It was in a lady's hand of writ. "MAISTER

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 daftlike 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

I was in this frame, my heart beating, the grey eyes plain before me like two stars, when Andie broke in upon

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

"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 tomorrow at the westmost

"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

"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 tomorrow.

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 redshanks 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,

"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 langheided chield when ye like! Forby that I'm awing ye my life," he

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 landingshelf, 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

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 tomorrow at Clackmannan Pool. This done, and the boat riding by her stone anchor, we lay down to

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

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

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 handlantern; 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 burnside, where we got bite and a direction; and, a little before the end of the sermon, came to the kirk

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

"Thirteently, my brethren, and in parenthesis, the law itself must be regarded as a means of grace," the

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

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 halfleaf

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

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

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 homegoing congregation.

"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

tomorrow 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

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

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 reexamined 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

"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

"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,

"And suppose we took up Mr. Balfour's cause tomorrow?" 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

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

bygoing and a great deal of rather elaborate defence; and there was only one person that seemed to be

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

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

"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

"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

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 cutandcomeagain 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,

"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

"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

"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

They seemed all a hair set back, and gave various answers, but concurring practically in one point, that James

"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 'Fortyfive, which made Scotland to be talked of everywhere; but I never heard it

said we had anyway gained by the 'Fortyfive. 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

The nimblewitted Miller had already smelt where I was travelling to, and made haste to get on the same

"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

"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

"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

"Paper, then, Mr. Stewart, if you please," pursued Miller; "and I think it might very fittingly be signed by the

"It can do none of us any harm, at least," says Colstoun, heaving another sigh, for he had seen himself Lord

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

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.

"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

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

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

"Where I fear I am not overly welcome, my lord," said I. "And I would like before I go further to express my

"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

"Not now, my lord, I think," said I; "and if your lordship will but glance an eye along this, you will perhaps

He read it sedulously through, frowning heavily; then turned back to one part and another which he seemed to

"This is not so bad but what it might be worse," said he; "though I am still likely to pay dear for my

"And to whom am I indebted for this?" he asked presently. "Other counsels must have been discussed, I

"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

Prestongrange smiled. "These are our friends," said he. "And what were your reasons for dissenting, Mr.

I told them without concealment, expressing, however, with more force and volume those which regarded

"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 today?" 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 today I never dreamed of it."

"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.

"I have it not," said I. "It bore not even an address, and could not compromise a cat. The second enclosure I

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."

"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

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 goodnature

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

"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

"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

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

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

"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 goodnatured. 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.

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 JusticeGeneral 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

"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

"It fell on a day when Argyle was on the bench, That they served him a Stewart for his denner."

"Then up and spak' the Duke, and flyted on his cook, I regard it as a sensible aspersion, That I would sup

James was as fairly murdered as though the Duke had got a fowlingpiece 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 crossexamination; 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 jurybox, 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

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 selfseeking, 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

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 byname 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. 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

At which he desisted; and in the midst of the disgust that commonly overflowed my spirits I had a glisk of

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,

"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

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."

"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."

"Yes," said he, "the little lady is in prison. But I would not have you to despair. Unless you (with your friends

"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

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:

"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 hairylike 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 in her hand, and off to the Castle! Here she gives herself out to be a soutar 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

Indeed, the whole town admires her; and I think the beaux would wear bits of her garters in their

buttonholes 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

longlegged 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."

"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

"I will go bail she did not," he returned, quite openly. "I will go bail she thought she was flying straight into

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

"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 halfhearted friend if I did not fly there instantly."

"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 selfseeking 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

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 byends, 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

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 decentlike 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

"Ah, but, my lord, I think ye take me not yet entirely!" cried I. "For YOUR sake, for my lifesafe, 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

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

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 AlmondWater 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 selfsufficiency. 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

"H'm," says he; "ye come a wee thing ahinthand, Mr. Balfour. The bird's flaen we hae letten her out."

"Achy!" said he. "What would we keep her for, ye ken? To hae made a steer about the bairn would has

"Aweel, aweel," says Doig. "But ye'll can leave your horse here and your bags, for it seems we're to have

"Na, na", said I. "Tamson's mear 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

"Gae saddle me the bonny black, Gae saddle sune and mak' him ready For I will down the Gatehopeslack,

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.

"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

"Mistress Grant," said I, "I believe I am already your debtor for some merry words and I think they were

"Unsigned paper?" says she, and made a droll face, which was likewise wondrous beautiful, as of one trying

"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

"Once more I have to admire the discretion of all menfolk," 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

"He has lowpen on his bonny grey, He rade the richt gate and the ready I trow he would neither stint nor stay,

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 silvermounted

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 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

"I see I have fallen under your displeasure, ma'am," said I. "Yet I will still be so bold as ask after Mistress

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 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 horsepost she even followed me; and I make no shame to confess that I rode away with the one stirrup

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 musiccase, 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 twohanded 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

"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

"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

Through all this raillery there was something indulgent in the lady's eye which made me suppose there might

"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."

"I would not do so in any case to strangers," said Miss Grant. "And why are you so much immersed in the

"Well, and now you hear that she is out of it," she replied, "and what more would you have? She has no need

"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

"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 servantlass, 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.

ARGUMENT IN THESE TEARS UPON YOUR BONNY FACE. And at that I was so weakminded 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."

"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

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 bygoing, and was so

kind as to comment on my attractions! From that hour you may date our friendship, and I began to think with

"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

"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

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

"She did that, and very movingly," said Miss Grant. "I would not like to tell you what she said I find you

"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

"Me?" I cried, "I would never dare. I can speak to you, Miss Grant, because it's a matter of indifference what

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

"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;

"But there is yet one thing more," I cried. "There is one thing that must be stopped, being mere ruin to

"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

"I will take up the defence of your reputation," she said. "You may leave it in my hands."

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 reordered; 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

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!

What passed during the visit I have never heard; but it would doubtless not be very agreeable to Ebenezer, for

"I think you will soon be the laird indeed, Mr. Davie," says he, turning half about with the one foot in the

"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

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

"Is this all the welcome I am to get?" said I, holding out my hand. "And have you no more memory of old

"Keep me! wha's this of it?" she cried, and then, "God's truth, it's the tautit laddie!"

"Mony's the time I've thocht upon you and your freen, and blythe am I to see in your braws," 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

"There," said Miss Grant to me, "run out by with ye, like a guid bairn. I didnae come here to stand and haud a

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.

"O Davie man, dinna be a pompous gowk!" said she, and was more than usually sharp to me the remainder of

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

The causelessness of all this fuff stirred my own bile. "I have said nothing you can properly object to," said I,

"And as a goddess I am to be served!" she cried, shaking her brown locks at me and with a bright colour.

"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

I bethought me I was fighting with a woman, which is the same as to say a child, and that upon a point

"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," 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

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,

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

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

"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

"There!" says Miss Grant, "I wanted her to see you in your braws like the lass of Limekilns. I wanted her to

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

As for her, she said nothing in the world, but only waved her hand and smiled to me, and was suddenly

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

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

"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

"Oh, Barbara, let me see her properly!" I pleaded. "YOU can you see her when you please; let me have half

"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

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,

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

"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 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

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 coldlike 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

I stood before her like a stopped clock, and knew not what to think, far less to say, when of a sudden she cast

"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,

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

"You think you could not marry her without!" she asked. "Or else get her to offer?"

"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

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

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 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

"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,

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

Then we had time to look upon each other more at leisure, which we had not done for a piece of a minute

"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

"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

"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 today. 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.

"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?"

"Ah, well," said she, "we will be some days in company and then (I suppose) goodbye 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

I could say no more than just "O!" the name of James More always drying up my very voice.

"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 whitefaced 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 goby

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

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 redheaded 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

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

"It is not much that I have done," said she, "and I could be telling you the fivefifths of it in twothree 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 firelocks, 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 warpipes. 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 redcoat 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

"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."

"No," said she; "I have been pretty chief with twothree 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."

"O, yes, I was forgetting him," I said. "But he in a man, and that in very different."

"And then there was one other," said I. "I once thought I had a friend, but it proved a disappointment."

"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 twothree 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

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

"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

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

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

forepart 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

When I returned to her again, I had a faint, painful impression as of a buckle slipped, so coldly she returned

"You have read them?" said I; and I thought my voice sounded not wholly natural, for I was turning in my

I knew where we were now; yet I would not lie to her either. "I gave them all without afterthought," I said,

"I will be differently made," said she. "I thank God I am differently made. It was not a fit letter to be shown

"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

"Yet you would show me that same letter!" says she. "I want no such friends. I can be doing very well, Mr.

"I am very much obliged to you," said she. "I will be asking you to take away your letters." She seemed to

"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

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

"I have no guess how I have offended," said I; "it should scarce be beyond pardon, then. O, try if you can

"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

"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

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 daftlike contrivances, which gave me a near sense of foreign travel and a new

world and life. We came to an anchor about halfpast 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

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 troubledlike, 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 halfgale 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

"Your father," said he, "would be gey an little pleased if we was to break a leg to ye, Miss Drummond,

letabe drowning of you. Take my way of it," says he, "and come onby 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,

But Catriona would hear of no change. She looked whitelike as she beheld the bursting of the sprays, the

green seas that sometimes poured upon the forecastle, 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 rattelwaggons 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.

"It is very true," says she, "but since the year '46 there are so many of the honest Scotch abroad that I will be

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 trackscoot to an address I had in Leyden, and stood up

"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

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

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

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

"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

"O, I do not think I will be a loyal girl, at all events," she cried, with a great deal of painfulness in the

"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

"Good guide us!" cried I, "what kind of daftlike 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 hornmad 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 leelone 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

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

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;

"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

"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 fellowtraveller by accident under a strong obligation

"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

"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

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

"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

"Very good, sir," said I. "Then I will make that much freedom with your kindness as trouble you for your last

"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 goby! 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

"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

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

"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.

"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

THE rattelwaggon, 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 wildlike, 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 wauflike 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 illfavouredly at the figure she had made on the ship's rail, that I had no resource

She came out of the ordinary clinging to me close. "Take me away, David," she said. "YOU keep me. I am

"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."

"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

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

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 pocketbook 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 twothirds of that, but such was my notion of the

"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."

"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

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

"Well, Catriona," said I, "here we are like the king's sons and the old wives' daughters in your daftlike

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

"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

"I will never complain of the country of my friend," said she, and spoke it out with an accent so particular

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

"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."

"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

"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

"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

"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;

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

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

I thought she seemed to lean the least thing in the world against my bosom, or perhaps it was but fancy.

And we went on again in silence; but now all was changed; and the happiness that was in my heart was like a

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

"Are you wanting it?" said she, and passed me her purse. "I am wishing it was five pounds! What will you

"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

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 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

I could have kissed her for that word, not with a lover's mind, but in a heat of admiration. For it always

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, sweetsmelling 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

"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

"You are a very young maid," said I, "and I am but a very young callant. This is a great piece of difficulty.

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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 setoff, 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 holdoff 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 studybook 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

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,

"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

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

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?

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

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 notebook 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

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

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

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

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.

She carried her hand to her bosom and coloured high. "I will have forgotten it," said she. "I will run upstairs

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

She fixed it in the midst of her bosom with the brooch, I could have thought tenderly.

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

One day it was snowing downright hard. I had thought it not possible that we should venture forth, and was

"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

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 eightday 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

Suddenly she called out aloud. "O, why does not my father come?" she cried, and fell at once into a storm of

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

"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 foolbook 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

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

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 goodbye, the which she did."

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

She turned to obey me like a child, and the next I knew of it, had stopped in the very doorway.

"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

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

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

"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

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.

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

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 falseface, 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

"I think, sir," said I, with a very painful air, "that it will be necessary we two should have an explanation."

"For God's sake moderate your voice!" I cried. "She must not hear till we have had an explanation."

"This is very unusual," said he. "This is a very unusual circumstance. You are right, we must hold an

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

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

"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,

"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

"I shall have a word to say to Mr. Gebbie before long," said he. "As for yourself, I think it might have

"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

"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

"He that lives in a glass house should not be casting stones," says he; "and we will finish inquiring into the

"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

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

"I was thinking it would be more fit if you will excuse the plainness of my dressing in your presence that

"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

"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

"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 disgustedlike

around my chamber, "and you need not fear I shall prove burthensome. I have ate too often at a dykeside,

"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

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

"To be frank with you, sir," says I, "I drink nothing else but spare, cold water."

"Tuttut," 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 comeatable, Rhenish or a white

By this time, I can hardly say that I was minding him at all, beyond an odd thought of the kind of

fatherinlaw 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.

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 wildlike, 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,

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

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)

"And as for you," say he to his daughter, "you had best go to your bed. I shall be late home, and EARLY TO

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

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 fatherinlaw 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

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

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

"I am thanking you," said she. "I will not be caring much to walk, now that my father is come home."

"It was not unkindly meant," I replied. "What ails you, Catriona? What have I done to you that you should

"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

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

"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

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

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 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

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

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

"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

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

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

"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,

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

"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

"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

"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

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

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

"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

"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

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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"I think you forget, Mr. Drummond," said I, "that, even in dealing with myself, you have been betrayed into

twothree 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,

"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

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

"This is to quibble," he cried. "You turn your back upon the fact. The girl, my daughter, has no choice left to

"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,

He leaped out of his chair like a man stung. "I can spy your manoeuvre," he cried; "you would work upon her

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

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

"But all this is very exhausting to both of our tempers," I added, "and I think we would do better to preserve a

The which we did until the girl returned, and I must suppose would have cut a very ridiculous figure had

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

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 coldlike appearance.

Between these extremes I stood helpless, and could have bit my fingers; so that, when at last I managed to

"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

"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 ridiculouslike

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

"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

She was walking ever the faster, and looking fain in front of her; but at this she made a little noise in her

"Without which," I went on, "after what you said last Friday, I would never have been so troublesome as

"Well, it is refused at all events," she cried, "and there will be an end of that."

"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."

"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

"That is what he is thinking," I replied, "but I have told you already to make nought of it."

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

"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.

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

"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?

"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 polecat; 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

"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."

"And I did so," said I, "and found him backward enough, or how would we be here?"

"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

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

"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

"I will keep the kisses I have got from you already," cried I. "I will keep the ones I wanted and that were

"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

"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."

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

"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

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 milkcow; 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

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 talkingto; 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

"I will tell you what James More is meaning," said she. "He means we have come to you, beggarfolk, and

have not behaved to you very well, and we are ashamed of our ingratitude and illbehaviour. 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, beggarfolk and sorners."

"By your leave, Miss Drummond," said I, "I must speak to your father by myself."

"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

"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

"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

Whereupon, I arranged with him that he was to communicate with me, as to his whereabouts and Catriona's

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 halfhour, when I expect to find

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

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

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 he 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.

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

"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

reestablished. 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.

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 ScotsDutch, 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

"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

"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."

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

"And yet there's naething easier!" cried Alan. "I could easy learn ye the science of the thing; but ye seem to

"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

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 fellowsoldier 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

"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 hinderend, 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

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

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 cellartrap at the other. Here Bazin, who was an illlooking, 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

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

"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

I do not know that ever I heard him speak so straight to people's hearts; the sound of his voice was like song.

"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.

"I thank you from my heart for your good words," said she. "I have that honour for a brave, honest man that I

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

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

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

We were soon alone in a chamber where we were to makeshift with a single bed. Alan looked on me with a

"Mean? What do I mean! It's extraordinar, David man," say he, "that you should be so mortal stupit."

"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?"

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

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

halfpast 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

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

"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 offset; 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'

"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

"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

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

Presently I came forth behind her in the front of the sandhills and above the beach. It was here long and

solitary; with a mano'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

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;

I gave her "good morning" as she came up, which she returned with a good deal of composure.

"I know you are always meaning kindly," she replied; and then, with a little outburst, "but why will you be

"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

"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 soldiermen 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

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?"

"I have nothing left to give or to keep back," said she. "I was all yours from the first day, if you would have

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!

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

"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

"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

"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 dangerouslike, 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

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 sandhills. 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

"There," said I, "there is the man that has the best right to open it: or not, as he thinks fit."

"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

The blood rose in her face; she came close up and pressed upon me, holding my hand: and it was so that we

"There is a time for all things, Alan," said I, "and this time is serious. How have you sped? You can speak out

"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

"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

"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."

"Ay, but I would never trust Alan whether he was asleep or waking!" says he. "But the business looks bad.

"Catriona," said he, "you have to excuse me, my dear; but there's nothing less than my fine bones upon the

"The stinking brock!" says he, and crammed the paper in his pocket. "Here, let's get our things together. This

"Sold me, my dear," said Alan. "But thanks to you and Davie, I'll can jink him yet. Just let me win upon my

"Catriona must come with us," said I. "She can have no more traffic with that man. She and I are to be

"Are ye there with it?" says Alan, looking back. "The best day's work that ever either of you did yet! And I'm

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.

The man was, no doubt, a little deafened by the clattering of the mill, and we got up close before he noticed.

"NON, MONSIEUR," cries Alan, mocking him. "Is that how they learn you French on the SEAHORSE? Ye

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 sandhills.

"But it's high time I was clear of these empty bents!" said Alan; and continued his way at top speed, and we

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

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

"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.

"I have but the one word to say to cure you of that," said he, "and that is the name of my business."

"This crowns all!" says Alan. "Well, and I'm glad I came to Dunkirk. And so this was your business, was it?

"Well, well," said Alan; and then in the same tone of childlike interest, "it has naething to do with the

"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

James was taken all aback with it. He stood a second, motionless and white, then swelled with the living

"Ye glee'd swine!" cried Alan, and hit him a sounding buffet on the mouth, and the next wink of time their

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,

"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

"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

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

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

"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

"I'm vexed about that, too," says Alan, with his funny face, "but now, ye see, it's mines." And then with more

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

"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

Joy that she should be so little hurt, and the love of her brave nature, supported me. I embraced her, I kissed

"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 saddlebags 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

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

As soon as we appeared, they cast off all disguise upon the other side; and the seamen pursued us with shouts

and viewhullohs. We had a start of some two hundred yards, and they were but bandylegged 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.

NO sooner were we safe within the walls of Dunkirk than we held a very necessary councilofwar 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

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 'Fortyfive. 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

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.

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

"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

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

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

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 namemamma 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 scratchwig 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 dininghall 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 cornbarn; 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