Datasets:

NicholasSynovic
/

Modified-VEAA

Dataset card Data Studio Files Files and versions Community

Split (2)

train · 42.9k rows

text stringlengths 1.96k 5.76k	author int64 1 50
kind god bless him that will be a strange day when i forget and the thought of him and that it was within my choice to speak with him that night had almost overcome me and where will my head be gone that i have not told my news she cried and spoke of a letter from her father bearing that she might visit him to morrow in the castle whither he was now transferred and that his affairs were mending you do not like to hear it said she will you judge my father and not know him i am a thousand miles from judging i replied the red man ill 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 and the people in power extremely ill persons to be with i have extremely heavy on my stomach still ah she cried you will not be evening these two and you should bear in mind that and james more my father are of the one blood i never heard tell of that said i it is rather singular you are acquainted with said she one part may call themselves grant and one but they are still of the same they are all the sons of from whom i think our country has its name what country is that i asked my country and yours said she this is my day for discoveries i think said i for i always thought the name of it was scotland scotland is the name of what you call ireland she replied but the old ancient true name of this place that we have our foot on and that bones are made of will be it was they called it when our forefathers will be fighting for it against rome and alexander and it is called so stiu in your o vn tongue that you forget said i and that i never learned for i lacked heart to take her up about the but your fathers and mothers talked it one generation with another said she and it was sung about the before you or me were ever dreamed of and your name remembers it still ah if you could talk that language you would find me another girl the heart speaks in that tongue i had a meal with the two ladies all very good served in fine old plate and the wine excellent for it seems that mrs 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 and it was needful i should see the wood and it by daylight came with me as far as to the garden gate it is long till i see you now she asked it is beyond my judging i replied it will be long it may be never it may be so said she and you are sorry i bowed my head looking upon her so am i at all events said she i have seen you but a small time but i put you very high you are true you are brave in time i think you will be more of a man yet i will be proud to hear of that if you should speed worse if it wiu come to fall as we are afraid well think you have the one friend long after you are dead and me an old wife i will be telling the about david and my tears running i will be how we parted and what i said to you and did to you ood go with you and guide you your little friend so i said i will be telling them and here is what i did she took up my hand and kissed it this so surprised my spirits that i cried out like one hurt the colour came strong in her face and she looked at m and nodded the red headed man yes mr david said she that is what i think of you the heart goes with the i could read in her face high spirit and a like a brave child s not anything she kissed my hand as she had kissed prince 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 i had advanced some way and that her heart had beat and her blood flowed at thoughts of me after that honour she had done me i could offer no more trivial civility it was even hard for me to speak a certain lifting in her voice had knocked directly at the door of my own tears i praise god for your kindness dear said i farewell my little friend giving her that name which she had given to with which i bowed and left her my way was down the of the river towards and a path led in the foot of it the water and sang in the midst the 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 comer with behind and 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 a little in my rear a red head	38
fled chapter xl the wood by i lost no time but down through the valley and by and as hard as i could it was s to lie every night between twelve and two in a bit of wood by east of and by south the south mill this i found easy enough where it grew on a steep with the 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 it was not to be supposed that 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 s father and nothing the least material to help to tell the truth i fancied neither one of these ideas suppose by holding back 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 and how would i like that i was up with the west end of that wood when these two considerations struck me like a my feet stopped of themselves and my heart along the wood by with them what wild game is this that i have been playing thought i and turned instantly upon my heels to go elsewhere this brought my face to the path came past the village with a but all plainly visible and or there was nobody stirring here was my advantage here was just such a as had me to profit by and i ran by the side of the mill fetched about beyond the east comer of the wood through the midst of it and returned to the west whence i could again command the path and yet be myself unseen again it was au 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 stiu all golden and the daylight clear before the hour was done it had fallen to be half 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 and the few that had gone west were honest and their wives upon the road to bed if i were by the most cunning 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 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 a little in the wood all round there was a stillness of the country and as i lay there on my back the next three or four hours i had a fine occasion to review my conduct two things became plain to me first that i had had no right to go that to dean and having gone there had now no right to be lying where i was this where 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 i thought of the measure with which i had to that same night how i had of the two lives i carried and had thus forced her to her father s and how i was here exposing them again it seemed in a good conscience is eight parts of courage no sooner had i lost conceit of my behaviour than i seemed to stand amidst a throng of terrors of a sudden i sat up how if i went now to caught him as i still easily might before he slept and made a full submission who could blame me not the writer i had but to say that i was followed of getting clear and so gave in not 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 murder get forth out of of all the and all the and in the land and live to my own mind and be able to enjoy and to improve my the wood by fortunes and devote some hours of my youth to which would be surely a more suitable occupation than to hide and run and be followed like a thief and begin over again the dreadful miseries of my escape with at first i thought no shame of this 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 of spirits that back to my late and that again to the common old public sin of self indulgence instantly the text came in my head how can satan cast out satan what i thought i had by indulgence and the following of pleasant paths and the of a young maid cast myself wholly out of conceit with my own character and the of james and and i was to seek the way out by the same road as i had entered in no the hurt that had been caused by self indulgence must be cured by self denial the flesh i had must be i	38
looked about me for that course which i least liked to follow this was to leave the wood without waiting to see and go forth again alone in the dark and in the midst of my perplexed and dangerous fortunes i have been the more careful to 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 and even in and religion room for common sense it was already close on s hour and the moon was if i left as i could not very decently whistle to my to follow me they might miss me in the dark and tack themselves to by if i stayed i could at the least of it set my friend upon his guard which might prove his mere salvation i had other safety in a course of self indulgence to have 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 at my past weakness and rejoicing in my present composure presently after came a in the thicket putting my mouth near down to the i whistled a note or two of s air an answer came in the like guarded tone and soon we had knocked together in the dark is this you at last he whispered just myself said i god man but i ve been to see ye i says he i ve had the longest kind of a time a day i ve had my dwelling into the inside of a of hay where i see the of my ten fingers and then two hours of it waiting here for you and you never coming and ye re none too soon the way it is with me to sail the mom the mom what am i saying the day i mean ay man the day sure enough said i it s past twelve now surely and ye sail the day this ll be a long road you have before you we ll have a long crack of it first said ha the wood by well indeed and i have a good deal it will be telling you to hear said i and i told him what making rather a 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 ye re a queer character says he when i had done a queer after a and i have no mind of meeting with the like of ye as for your story is a like so say the less of him and i believe he was the best friend ye had if ye could only trust him but and james more are my ain kind of cattle and i ll give them the name that they deserve the black was father to the a body that and as for the i never could the of them since i could on two feet i the nose of one i mind when i was still so on my legs that i upon the top of him a proud man was my father that day god rest him and i think he had the cause ill never can deny but what robin was something of a he added but as for james more the guide him for me one thing we have to consider said i was charles right or wrong is it only me they re after or the pair of us and what s your ain opinion you that s a man of so much experience said he it passes me said i and me too says do ye think this would keep her word to ye he asked i do that said i well there s telling said he and anyway that s over and done he ll be joined to the rest of them how many would ye think there would be of them i asked that depends said if it was only you they would likely send two three lively brisk young and if they thought that i was to appear in the employ i ten or twelve said he it was no use i gave a little crack of laughter and i think your own two eyes will have seen me drive that number or the double of it nearer hand cries he it matters the less said i because i am well rid of them for this time doubt that s your opinion said he but i be the least surprised if they were wood ye see david man they ll be folk there ll be some i m thinking and some of the and i would never deny but what the both of them and the in especial were clever experienced persons a man little till he s driven a of neat cattle say ten miles through a throng country and the black soldiers maybe at his tail it s there that i learned a great part of my penetration and ye need tell me it s better than war which is the next best however though generally rather a of a the wood by business now the have had grand practice no doubt that s a branch of education that was left out with me said i and i can see the marks of it upon ye constantly said but that s the strange thing about you folk of the college learning ye re ignorant and ye see t s me for my greek and hebrew but man i ken that i ken them	38
there s the of it now here s you ye lie on your a in the of this wood and ye tell me that ye ve off these and why because i see them says you ye that s their take the worst of it said i and what are we to do i am thinking of that same said he we might it be greatly to my taste and that i see reasons against it first it s now dark and it s just possible we might give them the clean sup if we keep together we make but the ae line of it if we gang separate we make of them the more to in upon some of these gentry of yours and then second if they keep the track of us it may come to a for it yet and then i ll confess i would be to have you at my 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 where i m to find my ship it ll be like old days while it lasts and come the time we ll have to think what you should be doing i m to leave ye here wanting me have with ye then says i do ye gang back where you were stopping a fear said they were good folks to me but i think they be a good deal disappointed if they saw my face again for the way times go i just what ye could call a guest which makes me the for your company mr david of the and set ye up for leave aside cracks here in the wood with i have scarce said black or white since the day we parted at with which he rose from his place and we began to move quietly eastward through the wood chapter on the march again with it was likely between one and two the moon as i have said was down a wind carrying a heavy 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 thence through and beside my old acquaintance the of the two thieves a little beyond we made a useful which was a light in an upper window of by this but a good deal at random and with some of the harvest and stumbling and falling down upon the banks we made our way across country and won forth at last upon the that they call the here under a bush of we lay down the remainder of that night and the day called us about five a beautiful morning it was the high wind still blowing strong but the clouds all blown away to europe was already sitting up and smiling to himself it was my first sight of my friend since we were parted and i looked upon him with enjoyment he had still the same big great coat on his back but what was new he had now a pair of boot drawn above the knee doubtless these were intended for disguise but as the day promised to be warm he made a most figure well said he is this no a 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 and while you were there and sleeping i have done a thing that maybe i do over and what was that said i just said my prayers said ho and where are my gentry as ye call them i asked says he and the short and the long of it is that we must take our chance of them up with your foot forth fortune once again of it and a walk we are like to have so we went east by the beach of the sea towards where the salt were smoking in by the mouth no doubt there was a by ordinary of morning sun on arthur s seat and the green and the of the day appeared to set among i feel like a says he to be leaving scotland on a day like this it sticks in my head i would maybe like it better to stay here and ay but ye said i no but what france is a good place too he explained but it s some way no the same it s i believe but it s no scotland i like it fine on the march again with when i m there man yet i kind of weary for and the if that s all you have to complain of 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 s and so you were weary of your i asked wear s word for it said he i m not just precisely a man that s easily cast down but i do better with air and the lift above my head i m like the black t that better to hear the sing than the mouse and yon place ye see was a very suitable place to hide in as i m free to pit from dawn to there were days or nights for how would i tell one from other that seemed to me as long as a long winter how did you know the hour to bide your i asked the brought me my meat and a drop brandy and a candle to eat it by about said he so when i had swallowed a bit it	38
would be time to be getting to the wood there i lay and wearied for ye sore says he laying his hand on my shoulder and guessed when the two hours would be about by unless would come and tell me on his watch and then back to the na it was a employ and praise the lord that i have through with it what did you do with yourself i asked j faith said he the best i could i played at the i m an good hand at the but it s a poor piece of business playing with to admire ye and i would make songs what were they about says i about the deer and the says he and about the ancient old chiefs that are all by with it long and just about what songs are about in general and then 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 i vow that i could hear the of them but the great affair is that it s done with with that he carried me again to my adventures which he heard au over again with more and extraordinary approval swearing at intervals that i was a queer character of a so ye were of sim he asked once in was i cried i so would i have been said he and that is indeed a man but it is only proper to give the his due and i can tell you he is a most respectable person on the field of war is he so brave i asked brave said he he is as brave as my steel sword the story of my set him beside himself to think of that he cried i showed ye the trick in too and three times three times it s a disgrace upon my character on the march again with that learned ye here stand up out with your aim ye shall walk no step beyond this place upon the road till ye can do and me credit said i this is madness here is no time for lessons i well say no to that he admitted but three times man and you standing there like a straw and to fetch your ain sword like a with a pocket david this man must be something altogether by he be if i had the time t would gang straight back and try a turn at him the man must be a you silly fellow said i you forget it was just me na said he but three times when ye ken yourself that i am fair i cried well i never heard tell the equal of it said he i promise you the one thing said i the next time that we i u be better learned you shall not continue to bear the disgrace of a friend that cannot strike ay the next time says he and when wiu that be i would like to ken well i have had some thoughts of that too said i and my plan is this it s my opinion to be called an advocate that s but a weary trade says and rather a one ye would be better in a king s coat than that and no doubt that would be the way to have us j meet cried i but as you ll be in king s coat and be in king s we ll have a dainty meeting of it there s some sense in that he admitted an advocate then it ll have to be i continued and i think it a more suitable trade for a gentleman that was three times but the beauty of the thing is this that one of the best for that kind of learning and the one where my made his studies is the of in holland now what say you could not a of royal get a slip over the and call in upon a student well and i would think he could cried he ye see i stand well in with my colonel count and what s to the purpose i have a cousin of mine lieutenant colonel in a regiment of the dutch could be proper than what i would get a leave to see lieutenant colonel of a and lord who is a very kind of a man and writes books like caesar would be doubtless very pleased to have the advantage of my is lord an author then i asked for much as thought of soldiers i thought more of the gentry that write books the very same said he one would think a colonel would have something better to attend to but what can i say that make songs well then said i it only remains you should give me an address to write you at in france and as soon as i am got to i will send you mine on the march again with the best will be to write me in the care of my said he charles of at the town of in the isle of it might take long or it might take short but it would aye get to my hands at the last of it we had a to our breakfast in where it amused me vastly to hear his great coat and boot were extremely remarkable this warm morning and perhaps some hint of an explanation had been wise but went into that matter like a business or i should rather say like a diversion he engaged the of the house with some compliments upon the of our 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	38
interest all the old wives she could supply him with in return we left before the first coach was due from for as said that was a we might very well avoid the wind although still high was very mild the sun shone strong and began to suffer in proportion from he had me aside to the field of 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 though they were building there at mrs s it seemed a desert like back going town about half full of ruined houses but the ale house was clean and who was now in a glowing heat must indulge himself with a bottle of ale and carry on to the new 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 and and making a private mock of them and yet brought to that business a remarkable degree of energy and interest something to this effect i remarked to him when the good wife as chanced was called away what do ye want says he a man should aye put his best foot with the he should aye give them a bit of a story to divert them the poor 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 or she would never have heard tell of my stomach but they re too old to be seeking they a set up to be why what do i ken they ll be just the way god made them i suppose but i think a man would be a that give his attention to the same and here the coming back he turned from me as if with impatience to renew their former conversation the lady had some while before from s stomach to the case of a of her own in whose last sickness and she was describing at extraordinary length sometimes it was merely dull sometimes both dull and awful on the march again with for she talked with the was that i fell in a deep muse looking forth of the window on the road and scarce marking what i saw presently had any been looking they might have seen me to start we pit a to his feet the good wife was saying and a to his and we him and water of and fine clean of for the sir says i cutting very quietly in there s a friend of mine gone by the house is that e en replies as though it were a thing of small account and then ye were saying says he and the wife went on presently however he paid her with a half crown piece and she must go forth after the change was it him with the red head asked ye have it said i what did i tell you in the wood he cried and yet it s strange he should be here too was he his lane his lee lane for what i could see said i did he gang by he asked straight by said i and looked neither to the nor left and that s yet said it sticks in my mind that we should be stirring but where to t this is like old days fairly cries he there is one big differ though said i that now we have money in our and another big mr says he that now we have dogs at our tail they re on the scent they re in full cry david it s a bad business and be damned to it and he sat thinking hard with a look of his that i knew well i m saying says he when the returned have ye a back road out of this change house she told him there was and where it led to then sir says he to me i think that will be the shortest road for us and here s good bye to ye my woman and i u no forget of the water we went out by way of the woman s yard and up a lane among fields 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 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 friendly man that suffered with the stomach poor body and was real ta en up about the man david try and learn to have some kind of tu try said i and now for him of the red head says he was he fast or slow and between said i no kind of a hurry about the man he asked never a sign of it said l on the march again with said it looks queer we saw nothing of them this morning on the he s passed us by he seem to be looking and yet here he is on our road 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 they ken i asked i think s sold me him or his mate some part of the affair or else s clerk which would be a pity too says and if you me for just my inward	38
private conviction i think there u be heads cracked on sands 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 but bide a bit bide a bit i m thinking and thanks to this wind i believe i ve still a chance of it it s this way i m no with this man till the comes but says he if i can get a hit of a wind out of the west iii he there long or that he says and lie to for ye behind the isle of now if your gentry the place they ken the time do ye see me coming thanks to cope and other red coat i should ken this country like the back of my hand and if ye re ready for another bit run with we ll can cast back and come down to the again by 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 but either way of it i think we will leave your gentry whistling on their i there s some chance in it said l have on with ye chapter sands i did not profit by s as he had done by his under general cope for i can scarce tell what way we went it is my excuse that we travelled exceeding fast some part we ran some trotted and the rest walked at a vengeance of a pace twice while we were at top speed we ran against country folk but though we into the first from round a corner was as ready as a loaded ye seen my horse he gasped na man i seen horse the day replied the and spared the time to explain to him that we were travelling ride and tie that our had escaped and it was feared he had gone home to 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 tell the truth he observed to myself as we went on again should be aye to leave an honest handy lee behind them if folk ken what ye re doing they re terrible taken up with it but if they think they ken they care for it than what i do for as we had first made inland so our road came in the end to he very near due north the old of for a on the left on the right the top of the law and it was thus we struck the shore again not far from from north west to ness there runs a string of four small the lamb and notable by their of size and shape is the most particular being a strange grey of two 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 hke a man s eye under the lee of there is a good in winds and there from a far way off we could see the riding the shore in face of these is altogether waste here is no dwelling of man and scarce any passage or at most of vagabond children running at their play is a small place on the far side of the ness the folk of go to their business in the inland fields and those of north straight to the sea fishing from their haven so that few parts of the coast are but t mind as we crawled upon our into that of heights and hollows keeping a bright eye upon all sides and our hearts 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 and up flying that the desert seemed to me like a place alive no doubt it was in all ways well chosen for a secret if the secret had been kept and even now that it was out and the place watched we were able to creep to the front of the where they look down immediately on the beach and sea but here came to a full stop said he this is a passage i as long as we lie here we re safe but i m nearer to my ship or the coast of france and as soon as we stand up and signal the it s another matter for where will your gentry be think ye maybe they re no come yet said i and even if they are there s one clear matter in our favour they ll be all arranged to take us that s true but they ll have arranged for our coming from the east and here we are upon their west ay says i wish we were in some force and this was a battle we would have them but it and the way it is is a thing less inspiring to i time flies said i i ken that said i ken else as the french folk say but this is a case of or tails if i could but ken where your gentry were said i this is no like you it s got to be now or never this is no me he sang with a queer face shame and neither you nor m he neither you ua man neither you nor me 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	38
myself but lingered behind him the to the east his appearance was at first not expecting him so early and my gentry watching on the other side then they awoke on board the and it seemed they had all in readiness for there was scarce a second s bustle on the deck before we saw a put round her stem and begin to pull lively for the coast almost at the same moment of time and perhaps half a mile away towards ness the figure of a man appeared for a upon a waving with his arms and though he was gone again in the same flash the in that part continued a little longer to fly wild had not seen this looking straight to at the ship and it be as it will said he when i had told him may yon row or my have to a that part of the beach was long and flat and excellent walking when the tide was down a little bum flowed over it in one place to the sea and the ran along the head of it like the of a town no eye of ours could spy what was passing behind there in the no hurry of ours sands could mend the speed of the boat s coming stood still with us through that period of waiting there is one thing i would hke to ken says i would like fine to ken these gentry s orders we re worth four pound the pair of us how if they took the guns to us they would get a shot from the top of that sandy bank morally impossible said i the point is that they can have no guns this thing has been gone about too secret pistols they may have but never guns i believe ye ll be in the right says for all which i am a good deal for yon boat and he snapped his fingers and whistled to it like a dog it was now perhaps a third of the way in and we ourselves already hard on the margin of the sea so that the soft sand rose over my shoes there was no more to do whatever but to wait to look as much as we were able at the creeping nearer of the boat and as little as we could manage at the long impenetrable front of the over which the and behind which our enemies were doubtless this is a fine bright place to get shot in says suddenly and man i wish that i had your courage i cried what kind of talk is this of it you re just made of courage it s the character of the man as i could prove myself if there was nobody else and you would be the more mistaken said ho what makes the differ with me is just my great penetration and knowledge of affairs but for courage i am not fit to hold a candle to look at us two here upon the sands here am i fair 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 because i got the courage and and secondly because i am a man of so much penetration and would see ye damned first it s there ye re coming is it i cried ah man you can your old wives but you never can me remembrance of my temptation in the wood made me strong as iron i have a to keep i continued i am with your cousin i have passed my word that you ll can keep said ye u just and for a with the gentry in the aiid what for he went on with an extreme threatening gravity just tell me that my are ye to be away like lady are they to drive a in your inside and bury ye in the or is it to be the other way and are they to bring ye in with james are they folk to be ye stick your head in the mouth of sim and the he added with extraordinary bitterness cried i they re all and and i m with ye there the more reason there should be one decent man in such a land of thieves my is passed and stick to it i said long to your that i would at no risk do ye mind of that the night red fell it was no more i will then here i stop promised me my life if he s to be here i ll have to die said all this time w e had seen or heard no more of our 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 towards 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 of of several no gentleman there to be the captain and the more they looked at and mo upon the beach the less i must suppose they liked the looks of us whoever had betrayed it was not the captain he was in the himself and stirring up his like a man with his heart in his employ already he was near in and the boat already s face had crimson with tho excitement of his when our friends in the either in despair to see their prey escape them or with some hope of raised suddenly a shrill cry of several voices this sound arising from what appeared to be a quite deserted coast was really very and the men in the boat held water instantly what s this of	38
it sings out the captain for he was come within an easy hail o mine says and began immediately to forth in the shallow water towards the boat he said pausing are ye no coming i am to leave ye not a hair of me said i he stood part of a second where he was to his in the salt water hesitating he that will to to said he and in deeper than his waist was hauled into the which was immediately directed for the ship i stood where he had left me with my hands behind my back 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 there was no sight or of man the sim shone on the wet sand and the dry the wind blew in the the made a dreary as i passed higher up the beach the sand were about the the devil any other sight or sound in that 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 hired for my perhaps to sands perhaps to murder me outright from the position of those engaged the first was the more from what i knew of their character and in this business i thought the second very possible and the blood ran cold about my heart i had a mad idea to my sword in the for though i was very unfit to stand up hke a gentleman blade to blade i thought i could do some in a random combat but i perceived in time the folly of resistance this was no doubt the joint expedient on which and were agreed the first i was very sure had done some thing to secure my life the second was pretty to have slipped in some contrary hints into the ears of and his companions and if i were to show bare steel i might play straight into the hands of my worst enemy and seal my own doom these thoughts brought me to the head of the beach i cast a look behind the boat was the and flew his handkerchief for a farewell which i replied to with the waving of my hand but himself was shrunk to a small thing in my view alongside of this pass that lay in front of me i set my hat hard on my head clenched my teeth and went right before me up the face of the sand wreath it made a hard being steep and the sand like water but i caught hold at last by the long bent grass on the top and pulled myself to a good footing the same moment men stirred and stood up here and there six or seven of them each with a dagger in his hand the fair truth is i shut my eyes and prayed when k opened them again the 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 if i surrendered under protest said i if ye ken what that means which i at that word they came all in upon me like a flight of birds upon a seized me took my sword and all the money from my pockets bound me hand and foot with some strong and cast me on a of bent there they sat about their captive in a part of a circle and gazed upon him silently hke something dangerous perhaps a lion or a tiger on tho spring presently this attention was relaxed they drew nearer together fell to speech in the and very 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 and be hoisted in the sails fill and the ship pass out behind the and by north in the course of two hours or so more and more ragged kept collecting among tho 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 that came late had any share in the division of my spoils the last discussion was very violent and eager so that sands once i thought they would have quarrelled on the heels of which their company parted the bulk of them returning westward in a troop and only three and two others remaining on the prisoner i could name one who would be very ill pleased with your day s work said i when the rest had moved away he assured me in i should be tenderly used for he knew he was wi the 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 mountains and the was beginning to grow dark at which hour i was aware of a long lean bony like man of a very countenance that came towards us among the on a farm horse lads cried he ye a paper like this and held up one in his hand produced a second which the new comer studied through a pair of horn spectacles and saying all was right and we were tho folk he was seeking immediately dismounted i was then set in his	38
place my feet tied under the horse s belly and we set forth under the guidance of tho 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 bo free fled on our approach we were at one time close at the foot of law on the south side at another as we passed over some open hills i the lights of a 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 of that old chief place of the red the horse was in the bottom of the ditch to and i was led within and forth into the court and thence into a tumble down stone hall here my built a brisk fire in the midst of the pavement for there was a chill in the night my hands were i was set by the wall in the inner end and the having produced provisions i was given bread and a of french brandy this done i was left once more alone with my three they sat close by the fire drinking and talking the wind blew in by the cast about the smoke and flames and sang in the tops of the towers i could hear the sea under the cliffs and my mind being reassured as to my life and my body and spirits wearied with the day s employment i turned upon one side and i had no means of at what hour i was only the moon was down and the fire low my feet were now and i was carried through the ruins and down the cliff side by a path to where i found a s boat in a haven of the rocks this i was had on board of and we began to put forth from the shore in a fine chapter xiv the bass i had no thought where they were taking only looked here and there for the appearance of a ship and there ran the while in my head a word of s the twenty if i were to be exposed a second time to that same former danger of the i judged it must turn ill with me there was no second and no second and spare yard to be expected now and i saw myself tobacco under the whip s lash the thought chilled me the air was sharp upon the water the of the boat with a cold dew and i shivered in my place beside the this was the dark man whom i have called hitherto the his name was ordinarily called black feeling the thrill of my shiver he very kindly handed me a rough jacket full of fish scales with which i was glad to cover myself i thank you for this kindness said i and will make so free as to repay it with a warning you take a high responsibility in this affair you are not like these ignorant barbarous but know what the law is and the risks of those that break it i am no just exactly what ye would ca an for the law says he at the best of times but in this business i act with a good what are you going to do with me i asked harm said he harm tell strong i m thinking yell be yet there began to fall a on the face of the sea little of pink and red like coals of slow fire came in the east and at the same time the awakened and began crying about the top of the bass it is just the one of rock as everybody knows but great enough to a city from the sea was extremely little but there went a hollow round the base of it with the growing of the dawn i could see it clearer and clearer the straight painted with sea birds like a morning frost the sloping top of it green with grass the of white that cried about the sides and the black broken buildings of the prison sitting close on the sea s edge at the sight the truth came in upon me in a clap it s there you re taking me i cried just to the bass said he the were afore ye and i if ye have come so fairly by your but none dwells there now i cried the place is long a ruin it ll be the a change for the then the day coming slowly brighter i observed on the among the big stones with which their boats several and baskets and a the bass provision of all these were discharged upon the myself and my three i call them mine although it was the other way about landed along with the sun was not yet up when the boat moved away again the noise of tho oars on the pins echoing from the cliffs and left us in our singular was the as i would call him of the bass being at once the shepherd and the of that small and rich estate he had to mind the dozen or so of sheep that fed and on the grass of the sloping part of it like beasts the roof of a cathedral he had charge besides of the that in the and from these an extraordinary income is derived the young are dainty eating as much as two shillings a piece being a common price and paid willingly by even the grown birds are valuable for their oil and feathers and a part of the minister s of north is paid	38
to this day in which makes it in some folks eyes a parish to be to perform these several as well as to protect the from had frequent occasion to sleep and pass days together on the and we found the man at home there like a farmer in his bidding us all shoulder some of the a matter in which i made haste to bear a hand he led us in by a locked gate which was the only admission to the island and through the ruins of the fortress to the governor s house there we saw by the ashes in the chimney and a standing bed place in one comer that he made his usual occupation this bed he now offered me ta use saying he supposed i would set up to be gentry my 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 while i am here mr if that be your name i will do my part and take my place beside the rest of you and i ask you on the other hand to spare me your mockery which i own i like ill he grumbled a little at this speech but seemed upon reflection to approve it indeed he was a sensible man and a good and read daily in a pocket bible and was both able and eager to converse seriously on religion leaning more than a little towards the extremes his morals were of a more doubtful colour i found he was deep in the free trade and used the ruins of for a magazine of as for a i do not believe he valued the life of one at half a but that part of the coast of is to this day as wild a place and the there as rough a crew as any in scotland one incident of my imprisonment is made memorable by a consequence it had long after there was a at this time stationed in the the captain it chanced she was in the month of september between and 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 and satan s bush famous dangers of that coast and presently after having the got her boat again she came before the wind and was headed directly for the bass this was very troublesome to and the the whole business of my was designed for privacy and here with a navy captain perhaps ashore it looked to become enough if it were nothing worse i was in a of one i am no to fall upon so many and i was far from sure that a was the least likely to improve ray condition all which considered i gave my of good behaviour and obedience and was had briskly to the summit of the rock where we ail lay down at the cliff s edge in different places of observation and the came straight on till i thought she would have struck and we looking down could see the ship s company at their quarters and hear the singing at the lead then she suddenly wore and let fly a 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 rose in number beyond or belief to hear their screaming and to see the twinkling of their wings made a most curiosity and i suppose it was after this somewhat childish pleasure that captain 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 of that ship by which i ever after knew it miles away and this was a means imder providence of my from a friend a great calamity and on captain himself a sensible disappointment all the time of my stay on the rock we lived well we had small ale and brandy and of which we made our night and morning at times a boat came from the and brought us a quarter of mutton for the sheep upon the rock wo must not touch these being specially fed to market the were unfortunately out of season and we let them be we ourselves and yet more often made the to fish for us observing one when he had made a capture and him from his prey ere he had swallowed it the strange nature of this place and the with which it held me busy and amused escape being impossible i was allowed my entire liberty and continually the surface of the isle wherever it might support the foot of man the old garden of the prison was still to be observed with flowers and pot running wild and some ripe on a a little lower stood a chapel or a s cell who built or dwelt in it none may know and the its age made a ground of many meditations the prison too where i now with cattle thieves was a place full of history both human and divine i thought it strange so many saints and should have gone by there so recently and left not so much as a leaf out of their or a name carved upon the wall while the rough soldier lads that mounted guard upon the had filled the neighbourhood with their broken tobacco pipes for the most part and that in a surprising plenty but also metal buttons from their coats there were times when i thought i the could have heard the pious sound of out of the and seen the soldiers tramp the with their pipes and the dawn rising behind them out of the north sea no doubt	38
it was a good deal and his tales that put these fancies in my head he was extraordinary 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 so that the people seemed to speak and the things to be done before your face this gift of his and my to listen brought us the more close together i could not honestly deny but what i liked him i soon saw that he liked me and indeed from the first i had set myself out to capture his good will an odd circumstance to be told presently effected this beyond my expectation but even in early days we made a friendly pair to be a prisoner and his i should trifle with my conscience if i pretended my 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 ot 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 on them like stolen waters at other times my thoughts were very different i recalled how strong i had expressed myself both to and to i reflected that my upon the bass in view of a great part of the of and 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 and a coward now i would take this lightly enough tell myself that so long as i stood well with the opinion of the rest of man was but and water and thence pass off into those meditations of a lover which are so delightful to himself and must always appear so idle to a reader but anon the fear would take me otherwise i would be shaken with a perfect panic of self esteem and these supposed hard judgments appear an injustice impossible to be supported with that another train of thought would be presented and i had scarce begun to be concerned about men s judgments of myself than i was haunted with the remembrance ot james in his and the 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 and to amuse my self reproaches that i would set the more particularly to win the good side of at last when we two were alone on the summit of the rock on a bright morning i put in some hint about a bribe he looked at me cast back his head and laughed out loud ay you re funny mr said i but perhaps if you ll glance an eye upon that paper you may change your note the bass the stupid had taken from me at the time of my nothing but hard money and the paper i now showed was an acknowledgment from the british linen company for a considerable sum he read it and ye re ill said he i thought that would maybe vary your opinions said i said he it shows me ye can bribe but i m no to be we ll see about that yet a while says i and first i ll show you that i know what i am talking you have orders to detain me here till after thursday st september ye re no a wrong either says i m to let ye gang bar orders on saturday the rd i could not but feel there was something extremely in this arrangement that i was to precisely in time to be too late would cast the more on my tale if i were minded to tell one and this me to fighting point now then you that the world listen to me and think while ye listen said i i know there are great folks in the business and i make no doubt you have their names to go upon i have seen some of them myself since this affair began and said my say into their faces too but what kind of a crime would this be that i had committed or what kind of a process is this that i am fallen under to be apprehended by some ragged john on august th carried to a of old stones that is now neither fort nor whatever it once was but just the s lodge of the bass rock and set free again september rd 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 of which the very folk that with it are ashamed i ye it looks says and the folk sound and true blue i would seen them and or i would have set hand to it the master of ll be a says l and a grand i ken by him said he i wi no it ll be that you ll be dealing with said i ah but ril no tell ye that said little need when i ken was my retort there s just the ae thing ye can be fairly sure of says and that is that try as ye please no dealing wi nor yet i goin to he added well i see have to be speak out plain with you i replied and i told him so much as i thought needful of the facts he heard me	38
out with serious interest and when i had done seemed to consider a little with himself said he at last i u deal with the naked hand it s a queer tale and no very creditable the the bass way you tell it and i m far that is other than the way that ye believe it as for yo seem to me rather a like young man but me that s and see perhaps a bit further in the job than what ye can and here is the clear and plain to ye there ll be to if i keep ye here far that i think ye ll be a better by it there ll be to the just ae a on the hand it ly ould be considerable to me if i would let you free as a an honest to you and an anxious to my the plain fact is that i think ye ll just have to bide here wi an the said i laying my hand upon his knee this s innocent ay it s a about that said he but ye see in this the way god made it we just get a thing that we want chapter xv black s tale of i have yet said little of the 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 was the only one who judged he had enough of it for general converse in which when once ho got embarked his company was often tempted to the contrary opinion they were simple creatures showed much more courtesy than might have been expected from their and their uncouth appearance and fell to be like three for and myself dwelling in that isolated place in the old falling ruins of a prison and among endless strange sounds of the sea and the sea birds i thought i perceived in them early the effects of superstitious fear when there was nothing doing they would either lie and sleep for which their appetite appeared or would entertain the others with stories which seemed always of a 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 of uneasiness starting his face hi hands clutched a man black s tale of 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 i can find no word for it in the english but had an expression for it in the from which he never varied ay he would say if an place the ba p it is so i always think of it it was an place by night by day and these were sounds of the calling of the and the 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 himself with listening not a only as i several times on myself so many still noises haunted and in the of the rock this brings me to a story i heard and a scene i took part in which quite changed our terms of living and had a great effect on my departure it chanced one night i fell in a muse beside the fire and that little air of s coming back to my memory began to whistle a hand was laid upon my arm and the voice of bade me to stop for it was not not i asked how can that be na said he it will be made by a and her wanting ta upon his body a learned f of my acquaintance s air it has been printed it seems in s of the l well said i there can be no here for it s not likely they would themselves to frighten ay says is that what ye think of it but i ll can tell ye there s been nor here what s than said i said he or a at the least of it and that s a queer tale too he added and if ye would like i u teu it ye to be sure we were all of the one mind and even the that had the least english of the three set himself to listen with all his might the tale of my peace to his was a wild lad in his young days wi little wisdom and less grace he was fond of a and fond of a glass and fond of a ran dan but i could never hear tell that he was use for honest ae thing to he at last for a and was in the garrison of this fort which was the first way that of the to set foot upon the bass sorrow upon that service the governor his ain ale it seems it was the conceivable the rock was the shore with the thing was ill guided and there were when they but to fish and shoot for their diet to crown a was the days of the persecution the were all wi and f ii p upon examination it would really seem as if miss grant s see chapter y would fit with a little to the notes in question black s tale of the of the of which it worthy and though carried a there a single and liked a and a glass	38
and be t wives or men and then i mind upon dancing a they hours by his lane in the black glory of his heart doubt they bum for it in hell but they have a grand time here of it whatever and the lord us at the hinder end we saw the flag up to the mast upon the harbour rocks that was a waited for he up wi the gun took a aim an d the there a bang and then ae the bass and there were we our een and at like folk for wi the bang and the the thing had clean disappeared the sun the blew and there was the bare the wonder had been and flinging but ae second the hale way i roared and wi the terror of that the folk were better there was little said in 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 us it seems they had fund in of his the and smiling ae lad they sent to the flag and the rest abode there in the s house you may be sure they liked it little but it was a means of grace to that stood there praying in to s for cared to pray out loud and looking on thing as it the upon a and wi the ae sprang up his and fell on the a when the was examined the played upon the s body sorrow a was to be fund but there was s in the s heart of him had scarce done when there a mighty silly affair that had its consequence as i have said was himself a great i have heard since that he knew all the stories in the and thought much of himself and was thought much of by others on the strength of it now s tale reminded him of one he had already heard she would ken that story afore he said she was the story of more m and the it is no a thing cried it is the of my now wi god and black s tale of and the same in your beard says he and keep the tongue of ye inside your in dealing with it will he found and has been shown in history how well it goes with but the thing appears scarce for i had already remarked that was continually on the point of quarrelling with our three and now sure enough it was to come will be no words to use to says cries ye if god would give ye the grace to see the way that see ye ye would throw your up there came some kind of a oath from and the black knife was in his hand that moment there was no time to think and i caught the 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 and i were without weapons the three to two it seemed we were beyond salvation when 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 who had against the wall and stood there as pale as death tiu the affair was over the second the strength of my own position with the who must have received extraordinary charges to be tender of my safety but if i thought came not very well out in i had no fault to find with him upon the account of gratitude it was not so much that he troubled me with thanks as that his whole mind and manner appeared changed and as he preserved ever after a great timidity of our companions he and i were yet more constantly together chapter the missing witness on the the day i was with the writer i had much 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 was so much i had to grant and it seemed cruel hard i should be posted as a liar and a coward and have never omitted what it was possible that i should do i repeated this form of words with a kind of bitter relish and re examined in that the steps of my behaviour it seemed i had behaved to james 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 i had done him a service he me i had a there to work on if it were just for decency i must try once more with it was late afternoon there was no sound in all the bass but the lap and of a very quiet sea and my four companions were all crept apart the three higher on the rock and with his bible to a sunny place among the ruins there i found him in deep sleep and as soon as he was awake appealed to him with some of manner and a good show of argument if i it was to do to ye 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 and you with the book upon your lap what shall it profit a man if he gain	38
the whole world ay said he that s grand for you but where do i come in i have my word to redeem the same s and what are ye asking me to do but just to sell it ye for have i named the name of cried i ou the name s 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 then it s clear ye ll have to make it up to me and a for your ain credit uke 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 that and if you were to hang where would be na the thing s no possible and just wi ye uke a lad and let read his chapter i remember i was at bottom a good deal gratified with this result and the next i fell into was one i had near said of gratitude to who had saved me in this violent manner out of the midst of my dangers temptations and but this was both too and too cowardly to last me long th ce of the missing witness james began to succeed to the possession of my spirits the st 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 only much of the time i lay on a side sleep and waking my body motionless my mind full of violent thoughts sometimes i slept indeed but the of 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 seemed to observe me but i paid him little heed verily my bread was bitter to me and my days a early the next morning friday nd a boat came with provisions and placed a packet in my hand the cover was without address but sealed with a government seal it enclosed two notes mr can now see for himself it is too late to 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 served instead of signature was to a separate sheet on which there was no scratch of writing and i had to confess that so far my knew what they were doing and to as well as i was able the threat that peeped under the promise but the second was by far the more surprising it was in a lady s hand of writ is informed a friend was m for him and her eyes were of the grey it ran and seemed so extraordinary a piece to come to my hands at such a moment and under cover of a government seal that i stood stupid s grey eyes shone in my remembrance i thought with a of pleasure she must be the friend but who should the writer be to have her thus enclosed with s and of all wonders why was it thought needful to give me this pleasing but most intelligence upon the bass for the writer i could hit upon none possible except miss grant her family i remembered had remarked on s eyes and even named her for their colour and she herself had been much in the habit to address me with a broad by way of a i supposed at my 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 should have permitted her at all in an so secret or let her like 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 imder her 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 laid aside a mask of friendship he must conceive that my imprisonment had me perhaps this little friendly message was intended to my the missing witness 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 up of moved me of itself to and more cowardly counsels if the advocate knew of her and of 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 spread in the sight of any fowl the scripture says well fowls must be wiser than folk for i thought i perceived the and yet fell in with it i was in this frame my heart beating the grey eyes plain before me like two stars when broke in upon my musing i see ye gotten news said he i found him looking curiously in my face with that there came before me uke a vision of james and the court of 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 just too late something might yet be attempted in the interests of james and in those of my own character the best would be accomplished in a moment it seemed without thought	38
the of my journey with this i did with open eyes 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 the hour perhaps six at night i must still think it great good that i got about eleven to my destination the house of where i had wandered in the interval perhaps the horse could tell i know we were twice down and once over the saddle and for a moment carried away in a roaring bum and rider were up to the eyes from i had news of the trial it was followed in all these regions with religious interest news of it spread from 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 to the monday under the spur of this intelligence i would not sit to eat but having agreed to be my guide took the road again on foot with the piece in my hand and as i went brought with him a of and a hand lantern which last enlightened us just so long as we find houses where to it for the thing and blew out with every gust the more part of the night we walked among sheets of rain and day foimd us on the mountains hard by we struck a hut on a bum side where we got a bite and a direction and a little before the end of the sermon came to the doors of the rain had somewhat washed the upper parts of me but i was still as high as to the knees i streamed water i was so weary i could hardly and my face was like a ghost s i stood certainly more in need of a change of 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 i set the door open entered that church with the dirty at my tails and finding a vacant place hard by sat down my brethren and in the law itself must be regarded as a means of grace the minister was saying in the voice of one to pursue an argument the sermon was in on account of the the judges were present with their armed attendants the glittered in a corner by the door and th seats were thronged beyond custom with the array of lawyers the text was in th and th the minister a skilled hand and the whole of that able from and my lords and to the that came in their attendance was sunk with gathered the missing witness brows in a profound critical attention the minister himself and a 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 heed and i sat there amongst my friends and enemies the first that i out was he sat well forward like an eager in the saddle his moving with relish his eyes on the minister the doctrine was clearly to his mind charles on the other hand was half asleep and looked harassed and pale as for 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 rolling up his bald eyebrows and shooting out his eyes to right and left now with a 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 the whole as if for exercise in the course of this restlessness his eye alighted on myself he sat a second then tore a half leaf out of the bible upon it with a pencil and passed it with a whispered word to his next neighbour the note came to who gave me but the one look thence it to the hands of mr thence again to where he sat between the other two lords of and his grace turned and fixed me with an eye the last of those interested to observe my presence was and he too began to pencil and hand about none of which i was able to trace to their destination in the crowd but the passage of these notes had aroused notice all who were in the secret or supposed themselves to be so were whispering information the rest questions and the minister himself seemed quite 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 it would be a puzzle to him till his dying day why a sermon that had gone with triumph through four parts should thus in the fifth as for me i continued to sit there very wet and weary and a good deal anxious as to what should happen next but greatly in my success chapter the memorial the last word of the blessing was scarce out of the s mouth before 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 to be thronged with the home going congregation am i yet in time i asked ay and no said he the case is over the jury is enclosed and will be so kind as let us ken their view of it to morrow in the morning the same as i could have told	38
it my own self three days ago before the play began the thing has been public from the start the it ye may do what ye will for me whispers he two days ago ken my fate by what tlie duke of has just said to mr it s been a scandal the great he before he the and guns to roar and the very cried but now that i have got you again i ll never despair the oak shall go over the yet we ll the yet in their own town praise god that i should see the day i he was leaping with excitement emptied out his upon the floor that i might have a change of clothes and 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 the yet that was still his overcome and it was forced home upon my mind how this that had the of a sober process of law was in its essence a battle between savage i thought my friend the writer none of the least savage who that had only seen him at a back before the lord ordinary or following a ball and laying down his clubs on links could have recognised for the same person this and violent james s counsel were four in number brown of and miller mr and mr younger of hall these were to dine with the writer after sermon and i was very included of the party no sooner the cloth lifted and the first bowl very by miller than we fell to the subject in hand i made a short of my and and was then examined and re examined upon the circumstances of the murder it will be remembered this was the first time i had had my say out or the matter at all handled among lawyers and the consequence was very to the others and i must own to myself to sum up said you prove that was on the spot you have heard him the memorial against 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 perhaps immediately assisting in the act you show him besides at the risk of his own liberty the escape and the rest of your testimony so far as the least material depends on the bare word of or of james the two accused in short you do not at all break but only by one personage the chain that our to the murderer and i need scarcely say that the introduction of a third rather that appearance of a conspiracy which has been our stumbling block from the beginning i am of the same opinion said miller i think we may all be very much obliged to for taking a most uncomfortable witness out of our way and chiefly i think mr f might be obliged for you talk of a third but mr in my view has very much the appearance of a fourth allow me interposed the writer there is another view here we have a witness never whether material or not a witness in this cause by that old lawless crew of the and for near upon a month in a of old cold ruins on the bass move that and see what dirt you fling on the proceedings this is a tale to make the world ring with it would be strange with such a grip as this if we squeeze out a pardon for my and suppose we took up mr s cause to morrow said hall i am much deceived or we should find so many 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 the woman was still in my friend mr hope of did what was 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 gentlemen of the hatred of the name which i have the honour to bear in high quarters there is nothing here to be viewed but naked spite and 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 with their talk but extremely uttle the wiser for its purport the writer was led into some hot expressions must take him up and set him right the rest joined in on different sides but all pretty noisy the duke of was beaten like a blanket king came in for a few in the by going and a great deal of rather elaborate defence and there was only one person that seemed to be forgotten and that was james of the through all this mr miller sat quiet he was a slip of an gentleman ruddy and twinkling he spoke in a smooth rich voice with an infinite of dealing out each word the way an the memorial 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 and his chin out he seemed the mere picture of a merry it was plain he had a word to say and waited for the fit occasion it came presently had wound up one of his speeches with some expression of their duty to their his brother was pleased i suppose with the transition he took the table in his confidence with a gesture and a look that suggests	38
there is some very weary cattle by the road said i if i had known you were such a the memorial you should have tasted longer of the bass says he speaking of which my lord i return your letter and i gave him the in the hand there was the cover also with the seal said he i have it not said i it bore but the address and could not compromise a cat the second i have and with your permission i desire to keep it i thought he a little but he said nothing to the point to morrow he resumed our business here is to be finished and i proceed by i would be very glad to have you of my party mr david my lord i began i do not deny it will be of service to me he interrupted i desire even that when we shall come to you should alight at my house you have very warm friends in the miss who will be to have you to themselves if you think i have been of use to you you can thus easily repay me and so far from losing may reap some advantage by the way it is not every strange young man who is presented in society by the kings advocate often enough already in our brief relations this gentleman had caused my head to spin no doubt but what for a moment he did so again now hero was the old fiction still maintained of my particular favour with his daughters one of whom had been so good as laugh at me while the other two had scarce to remark the fact of my existence and now i was to ride with my lord to i was to dwell with him in i was to be brought into society under his protection that he should have so much good nature as to forgive me was surprising enough that he could wish to take me up and serve me seemed impossible and i began to seek for some meaning one was 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 of the memorial for that complaint could not be very seriously regarded if the person chiefly injured was the guest of the official most as i thought upon this i could not quite refrain from smiling this is in the nature of a to the memorial said i you are cunning mr david said he and you do not wholly guess wrong the fact will be of use to me in my defence perhaps however you my friendly sentiments which are perfectly genuine i have a respect for you mr david mingled with awe says he smiling i am more than willing i am earnestly desirous to meet your wishes said i it is my design to be called to the bar where your s countenance would be invaluable and i am besides sincerely grateful to yourself and family for 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 i am trying to save him in so far as my riding with you would better the memorial your s defence i am at your s orders but in so far as it would help to hang james you see me at a stick i thought he swore to himself you should certainly be called the bar is the true scene for your talents says he bitterly and then fell a while silent i will tell you he presently resumed there is no question of james 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 of a faithful mr david hurt him blow high blow low there will be no pardon for james 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 consider why it is not because i have pushed the case against james for that i am sure of and it is not because i have 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 o vn conscience is too great to let you help me out of it no doubt but there was much of the truth in what he said if james was past helping whom was it more natural that i should turn to help than just the man before me who had helped myself so often and was even now setting me a pattern of patience i was besides not only weary but beginning to be ashamed of my perpetual attitude of suspicion and refusal if you will name the time and place i will be ready to attend your said i he shook hands with me and i think my have some news for you says he me i came away vastly pleased to have my peace made yet a little concerned in conscience nor could i help wondering as i went back whether perhaps i had not been a scruple too good natured but there was the fact that this was a man that might have been my father an able man a great and one that in the hour of my need	38
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 in excellent company no doubt but perhaps with rather more than a oi punch for though i went to bed i have no clear mind of how i got there chapter the tee d ball on the morrow from the 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 my version having referred to the year the chief of the sitting as justice general upon the bench thus addressed the unfortunate 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 and then you might have been with the blood of any name or to which you had an aversion this is to let the cat out of the bag indeed thought i and that was the general impression it was extraordinary how the young advocate lads took hold and made a mock of this speech and how scarce a meal passed but what some one would get in the words and then you might have been many songs were made in that time for the hour s diversion and are near all forgot i remember one began what do ye want the of of is it a name or is it a or is it an that ye want the of of p another went to my old favourite air the of and began thus it fell on a day when ar le was on the bench that they served him a st for his and one of the verses ran then np and the duke and on his cook i it as a sensible that i would sup an my with the of of my aversion james was as fairly murdered as though the duke had got a piece and stalked him so much of course i knew but others knew not so much and were more affected by the of scandal that came to light in the progress of the cause one of the chief was certainly this sally of the justice it was run hard by another of a who had struck into the midst of 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 that had disgraced and even 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 the tee d ball james james more late tenant in and his had been taken as the manner is in writing he had remembered or invented god help him matter which was lead in james s shoes and i saw was like to prove wings to his own this testimony it was highly desirable to bring to the notice of the jury without exposing the man himself to the perils of cross examination and the way it was brought about was a matter of surprise to all for the paper was handed round like a curiosity in court passed through the jury box where it did its work and disappeared again as though by accident before it reached the counsel for the prisoner this was counted a most device and that the name of james more should be mingled up with it filled me with shame for and concern for myself the following day and i with a considerable company set out for 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 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 it must be owned the view i had taken of the world in th se last months was fit to cast a gloom upon my character i had met many men some of them leaders in whether by their birth or talents and who among them all had shown clean bands as for the and i had seen their self seeking i could never again respect them was the best yet he had saved me had 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 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 of anger in my ah friend friend i would think to myself if you were but through with this affair of the memorial would you not kick me in the streets here i did him as events have proved the most grave injustice and i think he was at once far more sincere and a far more artful than i supposed but i had some warrant for my incredulity in the behaviour of that court of young that hung about him 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	38
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 open a long hairy like man s and a big her coats up to clap two pair of boot upon her legs take a pair of in her hand and oft to the castle here she gives herself out to be a in the employ of james more and gets admitted to his cell the lieutenant who seems to have been full of making sport among his soldiers of the s presently they hear and the sound of blows inside out flies the his coat flying the of his hat beat about his face and the lieutenant and his soldiers mock at patched the te d ball him as he runs off they laughed not so hearty the next time they had occasion to visit the cell and found nobody but a tall pretty grey eyed in the female habit as for the he was over the hills and it s thought that poor scotland will have to console herself without him i drank s health this night in indeed the whole town her and i think the would wear bits of her in their button holes if they could only get them i would have gone to visit her in prison too only i remembered in time i was papa s daughter so i wrote her a instead which i to the faithful and i hope you will admit i can be political when i please the same faithful is to despatch this letter by the express along with those of the so that you may hear tom fool in company with solomon talking of do tell i would i could see the face of him at the thought of a long legged in a to say nothing of the of your affectionate daughter and his respectful friend so my rascal signs herself continued and you see mr david it is quite true what i tell you that my daughters regard you with the most affectionate the is much obliged said i and was not this prettily done he went on is not this maid a piece of a heroine i was always sure she had a great heart said i and i she guessed nothing but i beg your pardon this is to tread upon forbidden subjects i will go she did not he returned quite openly i will go she thought she was flying straight into king george s face remembrance of and the thought of her lying in moved me strangely i could see that even admired and could not withhold his lips from smiling when he considered her behaviour as for miss grant for all her ill habit of mockery her admiration shone out plain a kind of a heat came on me i am not your s daughter i began that i know of he put in smiling i speak like a fool said i or rather i began wrong it would doubtless be unwise in mistress grant to go to her in prison but for me i think i would look like a half hearted friend if i did not fly there instantly so ho mr david says he i thought that you and i were in a bargain my lord i said when i made that bargain i was a good deal affected by your goodness but i ll never can deny that i was moved besides by my own interest there was self seeking in my heart and i think shame of it now it may be for your s safety to say this fashions is your friend and say it then i ll never contradict you but as for your patronage i give it all back i ask but the one let me go and give me a pass to see her in her prison he looked at me with a hard eye you put the cart before the horse i think says ho that the tee d ball i had given was a portion of my liking which your nature does not seem to have remarked but for my patronage it is not given nor to le 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 that upon your and are even at the pains to on me and i have seen it in the old ones also they are all for by ends the whole of them it s this that makes me seem to your s liking why would i think that you would like me but ye told me yourself ye had an interest i stopped at this confounded that i had run so far he was observing me with an face my lord i ask your pardon i resumed i have nothing in my but a rough country tongue i think it would be only decent like if i would go to see my friend in her but tm owing you my life i ll never forget that and if it s for your s good here i ll stay that s barely gratitude this might have been reached in fewer words says grimly it is easy and it is at times gracious to say a plain ay ah but my lord i think ye take me not yet entirely cried i for your sake for my life safe and the kindness that ye say ye bear to me these i ll consent but not for any good that might be coming to myself if i stand aside	38
when this young maid is in her trial it s a thing i will be by i will lose by it i will never gain i would rather make a wholly than to build on that he was a minute serious then smiled you mind me of the man with the long nose said he was you to look at the moon by a you would see david there but you shall have your way of it i will ask at you one service and then set you free my clerks are be so good as copy me these few pages says he visibly among some huge rolls of 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 you would find yourself to ride much easier without it perhaps not just entirely in the same direction though my lord says i and you shall have the last word too i cries ho indeed he had some cause for gaiety having now found the means to gain his purpose to lessen tho weight of the memorial or to have a 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 as a visitor to in her prison the world would scarce to draw conclusions and the true nature of james more s escape must become evident to all this was the little problem i had r the tee d ball set him of a sudden and to which he had so briskly found an answer i was to be in by that job of which in mere outward decency i could not well refuse and during these hours of my employment was privately got rid of i think shame to write of this man that loaded me with so many he was kind to me as any father yet i ever thought him as false as a cracked bell chapter xix i am much in the hands of the ladies the was a weary business the more so as i perceived very early there was no sort of 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 t fairly slept in a house by water side i was in the saddle again before the day and the were just opening when i in by the west bow and drew up a smoking horse at my lord advocate s door i had a written word for my lord s private hand that was thought to be in all his secrets a worthy little plain man all fat and snuff and self him i found already at his desk and already with in the same room where i with james more he read the note through like a chapter in his bible h m says he ye come a thing hand mr the bird s we her out miss is set free i cried said he what would we keep her for ye ken to made a steer about the would pleased i am much in the hands of the ladies and where ll she be now says i glide says with a shrug shell have gone to lady i m thinking said i that ll be it said he then gang there straight says i but yell be for a bite or ye go said he neither bite nor sup said i i had a good of milk in by says but yell can leave your horse hero and your bags for it seems we re to have your up put na na said i s would never be the thing for me this day of all days speaking somewhat broad i had been led b imitation into an accent much more than i was usually careful to a good deal broader indeed than i have written it down and i was the more ashamed another voice joined in behind me with a scrap of a ballad saddle me the black saddle and him ready far will down the slack and a to see my 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 think there was kindness in the eye with which she saw me my best respects to you mistress grant said i bowing s mare to go tlie like to yourself mr david she replied with a deep courtesy and i beg to remind you of an old saw that meat and mass never man the mass i cannot afford you for we are all good but the meat i press on your attention and i would not wonder but i could find something for your private ear that would be worth the stopping for mistress grant said i i believe i am already your for some merry words and i think they were kind too on a piece of paper paper says she and made a droll face which was likewise wondrous beautiful as of trying to remember or else i am the more deceived i went on but to be sure we shall have the time to speak of these since your father is so good as to make me for a while your and the you at this time only for the favour of his liberty you give yourself hard names said she mr and i would be the to take harder at your clever pen says i once more i have to admire the discretion of all men folk she replied but if you will not	38
eat ofl with you at once j ou will be back the sooner for you go on a errand off with you mr david she continued opening the door he has on his grey he the gate and the ready i he would neither nor stay far ho was seeking his am much in the hands of the ladies i lid not wait to be twice and did justice to miss grant s on the way to dean old lady walked there alone in the garden in her hat and and having a staff of some black wood to lean upon as i alighted from my horse and drew near to her with i could see the blood come in her face and her head fling into the air like what i had conceived of what brings you to my poor door she cried speaking high through her nose i cannot bar it the 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 and a 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 wife s left me near hand speechless i see i have fallen under your displeasure ma am said i yet i will still be so bold as ask after mistress she considered me with a burning eye her lips pressed close together into twenty her hand shaking on her staff this cows all she cried ye come to me to for her would god i knew she is not here i cried she threw up her chin and made a step and a cry at me so that i fell back out upon your throat she cried beard what ye come and ab me she s in ye took her to that s all there is to it and of a the beings ever i beheld in to think it should be you ye if i had a male left to my name i would have your till ye i thought it not good to delay longer in that place because i remarked her passion to be rising as i turned to the horse post she even followed me and i make no shame to confess that i rode away with the one on and for the other as i knew no other quarter where i could push my inquiries there was nothing left me but to return to the advocate s i was well received by the four ladies who were now in company together and must give the news of and what word went in the west country at the most 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 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 for an interview before her mother she went and stood by the and picking out a tune sang to it on a high key he that mil not when he may when he will he shall have nay but this was the end of her 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 that she was dressed to the and appeared extraordinary handsome i am much i r the hands of the ladies now mr david sit ye down here and let us have a two handed crack said she for i have much to tell you and it appears besides that i have been 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 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 tion you got a note from me she asked i was so bold as to suppose so upon said i and it was kindly thought upon it must have 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 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 said i overcome with confusion at the memory you are only to consider i am quite unused with the society of ladies i will say the less about the grammar then she replied but how came you to desert your charge he has thrown her out overboard his ain dear she and his ain dear and her two sisters had to home by like a string of green it seems you returned to my papa s where you showed yourself excessively martial and then on to vn with an eye it appears to the bass rock being perhaps more to your mind than through all this there was something indulgent in the lady s eye which made me suppose there might be better coming you take a pleasure to torment me said i and i make a very 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 do you call her by that name to her face mr she asked in and i am not very sure i stammered i would not	38
do so in any case to strangers said miss grant and why are you so much in the affairs of this young lady i heard she was in prison said i well and now you hear that she is out of it she replied and what more would you have she has no need of any further champion i may have the greater need of her ma am said i come this is better says miss grant but look me fairly in the face am i not than she i would be the last to be denying it said i there is not your in all scotland well here you have the pick of the two at your hand and must needs speak of the other said she this is never the way to please the ladies mr but mistress said i there are surely other things besides mere beauty i am much in the hands of the ladies by 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 in the fable book said i i see the jewel and i like fine to see it too but i have more need of the corn 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 in a screen desired to speak with me she had been there an hour or better said the servant and she 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 to myself but was more wise than to let on you be miss grant at last she says rising and looking at me hard and pitiful ay it was true he said you are ai all events the way god made me m y dear i said but i would be and obliged if ye could tell me what brought you here at such a time of the night lady she said we are we are both come of the blood of the sons of my dear i think no more of or his sons than what i do of a you have a better argument in these tears upon your face and at that i was so weak minded as to kiss her which is what you would like to do dearly and i will never find the courage of i say it was of me for i knew no more of her than the outside but it was the wisest stroke i could have upon she is a very brave nature but i think she has been little used with tenderness and at that caress though to say the truth it w as but lightly given her heart went out to me i will never betray the secrets of my sex mr i will never tell you the way she turned mo round her thumb because it is the same she will use to twist yourself ay it is a fine she is as clean as hill well water she is e en t i cried well then she told me her concerns miss grant and in what a she was in about her papa and what a taking about yourself with very little cause and in what a perplexity she had found herself after you gone away and then i minded at long last says she that we were and that mr david should have given the name of the of the and i was thinking to myself if she is so she will be good at all events and i took up ray foot out of that tliat was when i forgave yourself mr 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 and was so kind as to comment on my attractions from that hour you may date our friendship and i began to think with tenderness upon the latin grammar i a i much in thb hands of the ladies you will have many hours to rally me in said i and i think besides you do yourself injustice i think it was turned your heart in my direction she is too simple to perceive as you do the of her friend i would not like to upon that mr david said she the have clear eyes but at least she is your friend entirely as i was to see i carried her in to his my papa and his being in a favourable stage of was so good as to receive the pair of us here is grey eyes that you have been with these days past said i she is come to prove that we spoke true and i lay the prettiest in the three at your feet making a 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 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 for yourself and begged with weeping for the of	38
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 of the occasion she had not gone far i assure you before the advocate was wholly sober to see his inmost out by a young and discovered to the most of his daughters but we took him in hand the pair of us and brought that matter p straight properly managed and that means managed by me there is no one to compare with my papa he has been a good man to me said i well he was a good man to and i was there to see to it said she and she for me say i she did that and very said miss grant i would not uke to tell you what she said i find you vain enough already god reward her for it cried i with mr david i suppose says she you do me too much injustice at the last i cried i would tremble to think of her in such hard hands do you think i would presume because she begged my hfe she would do that for a new 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 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 had that honour done them was this not to make a god of me and do you not think my heart would when i remember it i do laugh at you a good deal and a good deal more than is quite civil said she but i will tell you one thing if you speak to her like that you have some of a chance i am much in the hands of the ladies me i cried i would never dare i can speak to you miss grant because it s a matter of indifference what ye think of m but her no fear said i i think you have the largest feet in all broad scotland says she they are no very small said i looking down ah poor cries miss grant and i could but stare upon her for though i now see very well what she was driving at and perhaps some justification for the same i was never swift at the in such talk ah well mr david she said it goes against my conscience but i see i shall have to bo 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 believe me you will be in that way much better served than you could yourself for i will keep the big feet out of the you know where she is then i exclaimed that i do mr david and will never tell said she why that i asked well she said i am a good friend as you will soon discover and the chief of those that i am friend to is my papa i assure you you will never heat nor melt me out of that so you may spare me your sheep s eyes and adieu to your david for the now but there is yet one thing more i cried there is one thing that must be stopped being mere ruin to herself and to me too well she said be brief i have spent half the day on you already my lady believes i began she thinks that i 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 me she was struggling rather with mirth a notion in which i was altogether confirmed by the shaking of her voice as she i will take up the defence of your reputation said she ou may leave it in my hands and with that she withdrew out of the library t i chapter xx i to move in good society for about exactly two months i remained a guest in s family where i my acquaintance with the bench the bar and the flow er of company you are not to suppose m education was neglected on the contrary i was kept extremely busy i studied the french so as to be more prepared to go to i set myself to the and wrought hard sometimes three hours in the day with notable advancement at the suggestion of my cousin who was an apt i was put to a singing class and by the orders of my miss grant to one for the dancing at which i must say i proved far from ornamental however all were good enough to say it gave me an address a little more genteel and there is no question but i learned to manage my coat skirts and sword with more dexterity and to stand in a room as though the same belonged to me my clothes themselves were all earnestly re ordered and the most trifling circumstance such as where i should tie my hair or the colour of my ribbon among tho three 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 a air th jt would have surprised the good folks at	38
the two younger were very willing to discuss a point of my 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 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 so far as the advocate s continual affairs permitted when we were put in a good frame by the of the exercise the difficulties of the way or the accidents of bad weather my shyness wore entirely off wo forgot that we wore 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 with my voyage and battle in the wanderings in the etc and from the interest they found in my adventures sprung the circumstance of a we made a little later on on a day when the courts were not sitting and of which i will tell a trifle more at length we took horse early and passed first by the house of where it stood in a great field of i continue to move in good society white frost for it was yet early in the day here alighted down gave me his horse and 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 sitting within in the cold kitchen there is my home said i and my family poor david said miss grant what passed during the visit i have never heard but it would doubtless not be very agreeable to for when the advocate came forth again his face was dark i think you will soon be the indeed mr 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 the place in fancy with and a terrace much as i have since carried out in fact thence we pushed to the gave us a good welcome being indeed out of the body to receive so great a visitor here the advocate was so good as to go quite fully over my 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 took boat and passed the hope to made himself very ridiculous and i thought 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 wo 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 this was her own thought for she had been taken with my account of and desired to see the herself we found her once more alone indeed i believe her father wrought all day in the fields and she to the gentry folk and the beautiful young lady in the riding coat is this all the welcome i am to get said i holding out my hand and have you no more memory of old friends keep me s this of it she cried and god s truth it s the the very same says i s the time i ve upon you and your and am i to see in your f she cried though i ye were come to your ain folk by the grand present that ye sent me and that i thank ye for with a my heart there said miss grant to me run out by with ye like a good i come here to stand and a candle it s her and me that are to crack i suppose she stayed ten minutes in the house but when she came forth i observed two things that her eyes were and a silver was gone out of her bosom this very much affected me i never saw you so well adorned said i ragged t fine things i continue to move in good society man be a said she and was more than usually sharp to me the of the about we came home from this excursion for a good while i heard nothing further of my miss grant remaining quite impenetrable and stopping my mouth with 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 the more i tried to out upon the side the deeper i became involved until at last i heard her declare with a great deal of passion that	38
she would take that answer at the hands of none and i must down upon my knees for pardon the of all this stirred my own i have said nothing you can properly object to said i and as for my knees that is an attitude i keep for god and as a goddess i am to be served she cried shaking her brown locks at me and with a bright colour every man that comes within of my shall use me so i will go so far as ask your pardon for the fashion s sake although i vow i know not why i replied but for these play acting you can go to others she said not if i was to beg you i me i was fighting with a woman which is the same as to say a child and that upon a point entirely formal i think it a 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 fairly down there she cried there is the proper station there is where i have been to bring you and then suddenly said she flung me a folded and ran from the apartment laughing the had neither place nor date dear mr david it began i get your news continually by my cousin miss grant and it is a hearing i am very well in a good place among good folk but to be quite private though i am hoping that at long last we may meet again all your have been told me by my loving cousin who loves us both she bids me to send you this writing and the same i will bo asking you to do all her commands and rest your affectionate friend p s will you not see my cousin i think it not the least of my as the soldiers say that i should have done as i was here and gone to the house by dean but the old lady was now entirely changed and as a glove by what means miss grant catch i continue to move in good society 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 in it pretty deep it was he indeed who had persuaded to leave or rather not to return to her cousin s placing her instead with a family of decent people quite at the advocate s disposition and in whom she might have the more confidence because they were of her own 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 obtained and used his instrument nor did there out the smallest word of his acquaintance with the daughter of james more there was some whispering of course upon the escape of that person but the government replied by a show of one of the cell was the lieutenant of the guard my poor friend was broken of his rank and as for all men were well enough pleased that her fault should be passed by in silence i could never induce miss grant to carry back an answer no she would say when i persisted i am going to keep the big feet out of the this was the more hard to bear as i was aware she saw my uttle 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 she was certainly a strong almost a violent friend to all she liked chief among whom was a certain frail old very blind and very witty who dwelt in the top of a tall land on a strait close with a nest of 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 that was her name was particular and told me a great deal that was worth knowledge of old folks and past affairs in scotland i should gay that from her chamber window and not three feet away such is the of that close it was possible to look into a barred lighting the of the opposite house here upon some pretext miss grant left me one day alone with miss i mind i thought that lady and like one i was besides very uncomfortable for the window contrary to custom was left open and the day was cold all at once the voice of miss grant sounded in my ears as from a distance here she cried out of the window and sec what i have 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 i saw two faces smiling across at miss grant s and s there says miss grant i wanted her to see you in your like the of i wanted her to see what i could make of you when i to the job in earnest i continue to move in good it came in my mind 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 for so merry and sensible a lady miss grant was certainly wonderful taken up with was all i could get out as for her she said nothing	38
rise in her opinion on that head besides which after so much shown and i believe trust i continue to move in good society felt upon both sides it would have looked cold uke to be 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 her in farewell you forget yourself strangely mr said she i cannot to mind that i have given you any right to presume on our i stood before her like a stopped clock and knew not what to think far less to say when of a sudden she cast her arms about my neck and kissed me with the best will in the world you she cried did you think that i would let us part hke strangers because i can never keep my gravity at you five minutes on end you must not dream i do not love you very well i am all love and laughter every time i cast an eye on you and now i will give you an advice to conclude your education which you will have need of before it s very long never ask they re bound to answer no god never made the that could resist the temptation it s supposed by to be the curse of eve because she did not say it when the devil offered her the apple her daughters can say nothing else since i am so soon to lose my professor i began this is gallant indeed says she i would put the one question i went on may i ask a to marry me you think you could not marry her without she asked or else get her to offer q you see you cannot be serious said i i shall be very serious in one thing david said she i shall always be your friend as i got to my house the next morning the four ladies were all at that same window whence we had once looked down on and all cried farewell and waved their pocket as i rode away one out of the four i knew was truly sorry and at the thought of that and how i had come to the door three months ago for the first time sorrow and gratitude made a confusion in my mind i part il father and daughter chapter xxi the voyage into holland the ship lay at a single anchor well outside the pier of so that all we passengers must come to it by the means of 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 of her stood high and bright in a sunshine like the flickering of a fire she proved to be a very merchant but somewhat blunt in the bows and leaden extraordinary deep with salt salmon and fine white linen stockings for the dutch upon my coming on board the captain welcomed me one sang out of i believe a very hearty friendly 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 the prospect and wondering a good deal what these should be which i was promised all and the hills above me in a kind of brightness now and again overcome with of cloud of there was no more than the tops of chimneys visible and on the face of the water where the lay nothing at all out of this i was presently aware of a sound of oars and a uttle after as if out of the smoke of a fire a boat issued there sat a grave man in the stem 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 i made it to her no doubt we were both a good deal changed she seemed to have shot up taller like a young comely tree she had now a kind of pretty 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 had been at work upon the pair of us and miss grant had made us both if she could make but the one the same cry in words not very different came from both of us that the other was come in compliment to say farewell and then we perceived in a flash we were to ship together 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 sea fog the voyage into holland well on board within was an for myself and ran thus dear 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 hare signed here but that would leave the purport of my question doubtful and in my own case i hen the answer so fill up here with good advice do not be too and for god s sake do not try to be too forward nothing sets you worse i am tour affectionate friend and i wrote a word of answer and on a leaf out of my put it in with another scratch from	38
sealed the whole with my new of the arms and despatched it by the hand of s servant that still waited in my boat then we had time to look upon each other more at leisure which we had not done for a piece of a minute before upon a common impulse we shook hands again said i it seemed that was the first and last word of my eloquence you will be glad to see me again says she and i think that is an idle word said i we are too deep friends to make speech upon such trifles is she not the girl of all the world she cried again i was never knowing such a girl so honest and so beautiful and yet she cared no more for than what she did for a stock said i ah she will say so cries yet it was for the name and the gentle kind blood that she took me up and was so good to me well i will tell you why it was said i there are all sorts of people s faces in this world there is s face that must look at and admire and think her a fine brave merry girl and then there is your face which is quite i never knew how till to day you cannot see yourself and that is why you do not understand but it was for the love of your face that she took you up and was so good to you and everybody in the world would do the same everybody says she every living soul i said i ah then that will be why the soldiers at the castle took me up she cried has been teaching you to catch me said i she will have taught me more than that at all events she will have taught me a great deal about mr david all the ill of him and a little that was not so ill either now and then she said smiling she will have told me all there was of mr david only just that he would sail upon this very same ship and why it is you go i told her ah well said she we will be some days in company and then i suppose good bye for altogether i go to meet my father at a place of the name of and from there to france to be by the side of our the voyage into holland i could say no more than just the name of james more always drying up my very voice she was quick to perceive it and to guess some portion of my thought there is one thing i must be saying first of all mr david said she i think two of my have not behaved to you altogether very well and the one of them two is james more my father and the other is the of 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 in a prison he is a plain honest soldier and a plain gentleman what they would be after he would never be 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 i will be asking you to pardon my father and family for that same mistake said i what that mistake was i do not care to know i know but the one thing that you went to and begged my life upon your knees ken well 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 o there are two things i cannot think of in to 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 we stood after that silent 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 and all engaged in the same adventure into high germany one was a returning the rest worthy merchants wives to the charge of one of whom was recommended mrs for that was her name was by great good fortune heavily 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 except a white faced boy that did my old duty to attend upon the table and it came about that 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 of the sun till eight or nine at night under the clear stars the merchants or captain sang would sometimes glance and smile upon us or pass a merry word or two and give us the go by again but the most part of the time they were deep in and and linen or in of the of the the voyage into holland passage and left us to our own concerns which were	38
very little important to any but ourselves at the first we had a great deal to say and thought ourselves pretty witty and i was at a little pains to be the beau and she i believe to play the young lady of experience but soon we grew with each other i laid aside my high english what little there was of it and forgot to make my bows and 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 she would tell me old wives tales of which she had a wonderful variety many of them from my friend 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 again we would sit entirely silent not communicating even with a look and 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 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 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 of what joys i had and would venture nothing on a hazard what we spoke was usually of ourselves or of each other so that if anyone had been at so much pains as us he must have supposed us the most persons in the world it 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 then we remarked upon the strangeness of that circumstance that friends came together in the beginning as if they were there for the first time and yet each had been alive a good while losing time with other people it is not much that i have done said she and i could be telling you the five of it in two three words it is only a girl i am and what can befall a girl at all events but i went with the in the year the men marched with swords and and some of them in l in the same set of the voyage into 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 grand of war pipes i rode on a little horse on the right hand of my father james more and of himself and here is one fine thing that i remember that kissed me in the face because says he my you are the only lady of the that has come out and me a little maid of maybe twelve years old i saw prince too and the blue eyes of him he was pretty indeed i had his hand to kiss in the front of the army well these were the good days but it is all like a dream that i have seen and then awakened it went what way you very well know and these were the worst days of all when the red coat soldiers were out and my father and my lay in the hill and i was to be carrying them their meat in the middle night or at the short side of day when the 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 with a but they say a maid goes safe next there was my uncle s marriage and that was a dreadful affair beyond all was that woman s name and she had me in the room with her that night at 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 creature of a woman surely all there was of her would tell her ay or no well she was a widow and i can never be thinking a widow a good woman says i how do you make out that i do not know said she i am only telling you the seeming in my heart and then to marry a new man but that was her and she was married again upon my uncle robin and went with him awhile to and market and then wearied or else her	38
friends got 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 as well as me and through all you had no friends said i no said she i have been pretty chief with two three on the but not to call it friends well mine is a plain tale said i i never had a friend to my name till i met in with you and that brave mr she asked yes i was forgetting him i said but he is a man and that is very different i would think so said she yes it is quite different and then there was one other said i i once thought i had a friend but it proved a disappointment she asked me who she was the voyage into holland 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 to a merchant s house that was his second cousin once removed and wrote me times by the and then he found new friends and i might write till i was tired he took no notice eh it took me a long while to forgive the world there is not anything more bitter than to lose a fancied friend then she began to question me close upon his looks and character for we were each a great deal concerned in all that touched the other till at last in a very evil hour i minded of his letters and went and fetched the bundle from the cabin here are his letters said i and all the letters that ever i got that will be the last can tell of myself you know the lave as well as i do will you let me read them then says she i told her if she would he 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 s when he was in town at the assembly and to make a complete roll of all that ever was written to me s little word and the two i had received from miss grant one when i was on the bass and one on board that ship but of these last i had no particular mind at the moment i was in that state of to the thought of rest 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 that after i was come into the fore part of the ship where the broad bows into the 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 and there had come till then so small a share of pleasure in my way that i might be excused perhaps to dwell on it when i returned to her again i had a faint impression as of a slipped so coldly she returned the packet you have read them said i and i thought my voice sounded not wholly natural for i was turning in my mind for what could ail her did you mean me to read all she asked i told her yes with a drooping the last of them as well she i knew where we were now yet i would not lie to her either i gave them all without i said as i supposed that you would read them i see no harm in any i will be differently made said she i thank god i am differently made it was not a fit letter to be shown ma it was not fit to be written i think you are speaking of your own friend grant said i there will not be anything as bitter as to lose a the voyage into holland 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 of a has written down upon a piece of paper you know yourself with what respect i have behaved and would do always yet you would show me that same letter says she i want no such friends i can be doing very well mr without her or you this is your fine gratitude says i i am very much obliged to you said she i will be asking you to take away your letters she seemed to choke upon the word so that it sounded like an oath you shall never ask twice said i picked up that bundle walked a little way forward and cast them as far as possible into the sea for a very little more i could have cast myself after them the rest of the day i walked up and down raging there were few names so ill but what i gave her them in my own mind before the sun went down all that i had ever heard of	38
pride seemed quite that a girl scarce grown should resent so trifling an allusion and that from her next friend that she had near wearied me with 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 of up she must in this ridiculous passion it seemed to b 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 milk to me her face was like a wooden doll s i could have indifferently smitten her or at her feet but she gave me not the least occasion to do either no sooner the meal done than she herself to attend on mrs 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 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 man but i hated to behold her in the least familiarity with anyone except myself altogether she was so quick to avoid me and so constant to keep herself surrounded with others that i must watch a long while before i could find my opportunity and after it was found i made not much of it as you are now to hear i have no guess how i have offended said i it should scarce be beyond pardon then try if you can pardon me i have no pardon to give said she and the words seemed to come out of her throat like i will be very much obliged for all your and she made me an eighth part of a but i had myself beforehand to say more and i was going to say it too there is one thing said i if i have shocked the voyage into holland your by the showing of that letter it cannot touch miss grant she wrote not to you but to a poor common ordinary lad who might have had more sense than show it if you are to blame me i will advise you to say no more about that girl at all events said it is her i will never look the road of not if she lay dying she turned away from me and suddenly back will you swear you will have no more to deal with her she cried indeed and i will never be so unjust then said i nor yet so ungrateful and now it was i that turned away p chapter xxii the weather in the end considerably the wind sang in the the sea swelled higher and the ship began to labour and cry out among the the song of the in the chains was now scarce ceasing for we all the way among about nine in the morning in a burst of wintry sun between two of hail i had my first look of holland a line of in the breeze it was besides my first knowledge of these like which gave me a near sense of foreign travel and a new world and life we came to an anchor about half past eleven outside the harbour of in a place where the sea sometimes broke and the ship pitched you may be sure we were all on deck save mrs some of us in others in the ship s all clinging on by ropes and the most like old sailor folk that we could imitate presently a boat that was backed like a came alongside and the of it hailed our master in the dutch thence captain sang turned very troubled like to and the rest of us crowding about the nature of the difficulty was made plain to all the was bound to the port of 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 of wind the captain if no time were lost declared himself still capable to save now james more had in 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 ready but both our master and the of the boat at the risk and the first was in no humour to delay your father said he would be an little pleased if we was to break a leg to ye miss let a be drowning of you take my way of it says he and come on by with the rest of us here to ye can get a passage down the in a sailing as far as to the and thence on again by a place in a back to but would hear of no change she looked white like as she beheld the bursting of the the green seas that sometimes poured upon the and the perpetual bounding and of the boat among the 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 and are excellent things only the use of them must first be paid for and all she was possessed of in the world was just	38
two shillings and a penny sterling so it fell out that captain and passengers not knowing of her and she being too proud to tell them spoke in vain but you ken french and dutch neither said one it is very true says she but since the year there are so many of the honest abroad that i will be doing very well i thank you there was a pretty country simplicity in this that made some laugh others looked the more sorry and mr 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 loss of his conveyance and i think he made it up to his conscience by the 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 of nasty holland 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 by track to an address i had in and stood up and to the i will go ashore with the young lady captain sang said i it is all one what way i go to and leaped at the same time into the boat which i managed not so but what i fell with two of the in the from the boat the business appeared yet more precarious than from the ship she stood so high over us swung down so swift and us so perpetually with her plunging and upon the anchor cable i began to think i had made a bargain that it was merely impossible should be got on board to me and that i stood to be set ashore at 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 s courage she had seen me leap with very httle appearance however much reality of hesitation to be sure she was not to be beat by her discarded friend up she stood on the and held by a stay the wind blowing in her 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 humoured his boat nearer in than was perhaps wholly safe and leaped into the air i was so happy as to catch her and the 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 and captain sang and all the crew and passengers cheering and crying farewell the boat was put about for shore i as soon as came a little to herself she me suddenly but said no word no more did i and indeed the whistling of the wind and the of the made it no time for speech and our crew not only toiled excessively but made extremely little way so that the rose had got her anchor and was off again before we had approached the harbour mouth we were no sooner in smooth water than the according to their custom stopped his boat and required of us our two was the man s demand between three and tour shillings english money for each passenger but at this 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 back upon her in a where the oaths were and the rest right tiu 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 and ashamed i uke to see folk but not with so much passion and i it would be rather coldly that i asked her as the boat moved on again for shore where it was that she was with her father he is to be inquired of at the house of one an honest scotch merchant says she and then with the same breath i am wishing to thank you very much j ou are a brave friend to ma it will be time enough when i get you to your father said i little thinking that i spoke so true i can tell him a fine tale of a loyal daughter i do not think will be a loyal girl at all events she cried with a great deal of in the expression i do not think my heart is true yet there are very few that would have made that leap and all to obey a father s orders i observed i cannot have you to be thinking of me so she cried again when you had done that same how would i stop behind and at all events that was not all the reasons whereupon with a burning face she told me the plain truth upon her poverty good guide us cried i what kind of proceeding is this to let yourself be launched on the continent of europe with an	38
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 au your friends are hunted i exclaimed and was this fair to them that care for you was it fair to me was it fair to miss grant that you to go and would be driven fair horn mad if she could hear of it was it even fair to these folk that you were living with and used you lovingly it s a blessing you have fallen hands suppose your father by an accident what would become of you here and you your lee lone in a strange place the thought of the thing me i said i will have lied to all of them she replied i will have told them all that i had plenty i told her too i could not be lowering james more to them i found out later on that she must have lowered him in the very dust for the lie was originally the father s not the daughter s and she thus to in it for the man s reputation but at the time i was ignorant of this and the mere thought of her and the perils in which she must have fallen had ruffled me almost beyond reason well well well said i you will have to learn more sense i left her for the moment in an inn upon the shore where i got a direction for 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 folk to admire and trees being 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 was within upon his 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 ruddy man with a crooked hard look to him and he made us not that much civility as us a seat is james more now in sir says i i ken nobody by such a name says he impatient like since you are so particular says i i will my question and ask you where we are to find in one james james more late tenant in sir says he he may be in hell for what i ken and for my part i wish he was the young lady is that gentleman s daughter sir said i before whom i think you will agree with me it is not very becoming to discuss his character i have nothing to make either with him or her or you cries he in his gross voice under your favour mr said i this young lady is come from scotland seeking him and by mistake was given the name of your house for a direction an error it seems to have been but i think this places both you and me who am but her fellow traveller by accident under a strong obligation to help our will you me he cries i tell ye i ken and care less either for him or his breed i tell ye the man owes me money that may very well be sir said i who was now rather more angry than himself at least i owe you nothing the young lady is under my protection and i am neither at all used with these manners nor in the least content with them as i said this and 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 the man the blood left his countenance for the lord s sake be hasty sir he cried i am truly no to be offensive but ye ken sir i m like a natured honest my bark is nor my bite to hear me ye fancy i was a thing but na na it s a kind at heart and ye could never imagine the and this man has been to me very good sir said i then i will make that much freedom with your kindness as trouble you for your last news of mr you re welcome sir said he as for the young my s to her he ll just have clean forgotten her i ken the man ye see i have lost by him ere now he thinks of but just king or if he can get his he would give them a the go by ay or his correspondent either for there is a sense in i may be nearly almost said to be his correspondent the fact is we are employed in a business affair and i think it s like to turn out a dear affair for the man s as s my and i give ye my mere word i ken by where he is he be coming here to he come here the mom he come for a i would wonder at or just at the ae thing and that s if he was to pay me my ye see what way i stand with it and it s clear i m no very likely to up with the young as ye ca her she stop here that s ae thing certain sure sir i m a lone man if i was to her in it s highly possible the would try and me marry her when he turned up enough of this talk said l i will take the young lady among	38
better friends give me pen ink and paper and i will leave here for james more the address of my correspondent in he can inquire from me where he is to seek his daughter this word i wrote and sealed which while i was doing of his own motion made a welcome offer to charge himself with miss s 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 we left the house of this 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 her by a glance and even now although my heart still glowed inside of me with shame and anger i made it my affair to seem quite easy now said i let us get back to yon same inn where they can speak the french have a piece of dinner and inquire for to i will never be easy till i have you safe again in the hands of mrs i suppose it will have to be said 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 and just this once again said i i wiu remind you it was a blessing that i came with you what else would i be thinking all this time says she and i thought weighed a little on my arm it is you that are the good friend to mc chapter travels in holland the wagon which is a kind of a long wagon set with benches carried us in four hours of travel to the great city of it was long past dark by then but the streets pretty brightly lighted and thronged with wild like characters bearded black men and the of most adorned with finery and stopping 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 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 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 like painted women these and upon us as we passed and i was thankful we had nothing of their language a uttle after we issued forth upon an open place along the harbour travels in holland we shall be doing now cries i as soon as i 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 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 to assist he made it a small affair to find some good plain family of merchants where might harbour till the rose was declared he would then carry her back to for nothing and see her safe in the hands of mr and in the meanwhile carried us to a late ordinary for the meal we stood in need o 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 wine and drinking of it deep he soon became 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 most ill at the figure she had made on the ship s rail that i had no resource but carry her suddenly away she came out of that ordinary clinging to me close take me away david she said you keep me i am not afraid with you and have no cause my little friend cried i and could have found it in my heart to weep where will you be taking me she said again don t leave me at all events never leave me where am i taking you indeed says i stopping for i had been on ahead in mere blindness i must stop and think but i ll not leave you the lord do so to me and more also if i should fail or you she crept closer in to me by way of a reply here i said is the place that we have hit on yet in this busy of a city let us sit down here under yon tree and consider of our course that tree which i am httle like to forget stood hard by the harbour it was 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	38
politeness to talk of other things i was the most person in this world but i 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 as for talking of miss grant i have no such a mind to it and i believe it was began it my only design if i took you up at all was for your own improvement for i hate the very look of injustice not that i do not wish you to have a good pride and a nice female delicacy they become you well but here you show them to excess well then have you done said sha i have done said i a very good thing said she and we went on again but now in silence it was an employment to walk in the gross night beholding only shadows and hearing 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 travels in holland only the sometimes interrupted or sometimes the dogs had pretty soon brought down our pride to the dust and for my own particular i would have jumped at any decent opening for speech before the day peeped came on a rain and the frost was all wiped away from among our feet i took my cloak to her and sought to hap her in the same she bade me rather impatiently to keep it indeed and i will do no such thing said i here am i a great ugly lad that has seen all kinds of weather and here are you a tender pretty maid my dear you would not put me to a shame without more words she let me cover her which as i was doing in the darkness i let my hand rest a moment on her shoulder almost like an embrace you must try to be more patient of your friend said i i thought she seemed to lean the least thing in the world against my bosom or perhaps it was but fancy there will be no end to your goodness said she and we went on again in silence but now all was changed and the happiness that was in my heart was like a fire in a great chimney the rain passed ere day it was but a morning as we came into the town of the red houses made a handsome show on either hand of a canal the servant were out and at the very stones upon the public highway smoke rose from a hundred and it came in upon ma strongly it was time to break our said i i believe you have yet a shilling and three are you wanting it t said she and passed me her purse i am wishing it was five pounds what will you want it for and what have we been walking for all night like a pair of says i just because i was robbed of my purse and all i possessed in that town of i will tell you of it now because i think the worst is over but we have still a good tramp before us till we get to where my money is and if you would not buy me a piece of bread i were like to go she looked at me with open eyes by the light of the new day she was all black and pale for weariness so that my heart smote me for her but as for her she broke out laughing my torture are we beggars then she cried you too o i could have wished for this same thing and i am glad to buy your breakfast to you but it would be if i would have had to dance to get a meal to you for i believe they are not very well acquainted with our manner of dancing over here and might be paying for the curiosity of that sight i could have kissed her for that word not with a lover s mind but in a heat of admiration for it always a man to see a woman brave we got a drink of milk from a country wife but new come to the town and in a baker s a piece of excellent hot sweet smelling bread which we ate upon the road as we went on that road from travels in holland to the is just five miles of a fine avenue shaded with trees a canal on the one hand on the other excellent pastures of cattle it was pleasant here indeed and now said she what will you do with me at all events it is what what we have to speak of said i and the sooner yet the better i can come by money in that will be all well but the trouble is how to dispose of you until your father come i thought last night you seemed a little to part from me it will be more than seeming then said she you are a very young maid said i and i am but a very yoimg this is a great piece of difficulty what way are we to manage unless indeed you could pass to be my sister and what for no said she if you would let me i wish you were so indeed i cried i would be a fine man if i had such a sister but the rub is that you are and now i will be she said and who is to ken they are au strange folk here	38
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 au wrong david i have no friend here but you she said the mere truth is i am too young to be your friend said i i am too young to advise you or you to be advised i see not what else we are to do and yet i ought to warn you i will have no choice left said she my father james more has not used me very well and it is not the first time i am cast upon your hands like a sack of meal and have nothing else to think of but your pleasure if you will have me good and h ll if you will not she turned and touched her hand upon my arm david i am afraid said she no but i ought to warn you i began and then me that i was the bearer of the purse and it would never do to seem too said i don t me i am just trying to do my duty by you girl here am i going alone to this strange city to be a solitary student there and here is this chance arisen that you might dwell with me a bit and be like my sister you can surely understand this much my dear that i would just love to have you well and here i am said she so that s soon settled i know i was in duty 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 s letter now that she depended on me how was i to be more bold besides the truth is i could see no other method to dispose of her and i inclination pulled me very strong a little beyond the she fell very lame and made the rest of the distance heavily enough twice she must rest by the which she did with pretty apologies calling herself a shame to the and the race she came of and nothing but a travels in holland 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 but she pointed out to me that the women of that country even in the roads appeared to be all shod i must not be my brother said she and was very merry with it all although her face told tales of her there is a garden in that city we were bound to below with clean sand the trees meeting overhead some of them trimmed some and the whole place with and here i left 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 not being 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 in his letter of recommendation had condescended on a great deal of particulars and never a word of any sister in the e i could see my was extremely suspicious and me over the of a great pair of spectacles he was a poor frail body and reminded me of an rabbit he began to question me close here i fell in a panic suppose he accept my tale thinks i suppose he invite my sister to his house and that i bring her i shall have a fine to and may end by both the and myself thereupon i began hastily to to him my sister s character she was of a disposition it appeared and so 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 hke 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 s ill health and retirement during childhood in the midst of which i awoke to a sense of my behaviour and was turned to one blush the old gentleman was not so much deceived but what he discovered a 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 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 than otherwise to my and i could not but reflect that miss had rather suddenly her and there was another thing the difference of our speech i had the low country tongue and upon my words she had a hill voice spoke with something of an accent only far more delightful and was travels in holland scarce quite fit to be called a in the craft of talking english grammar so that for a brother and sister we made a most pair but the young was a heavy dog without so much spirit in his belly as to remark her	38
for which i scorned him and as soon as he had found a cover to out heads he left us alone which was the greater service of the two chapter xxiv full story of a of 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 architecture and a church spire upon the further side a full set of bells hung in that spire and made delightful music and when there was any sun at all it shone direct in our two chambers from a tavern hard by we had good meals sent in the first night we were both pretty weary and she extremely so there was little talk between us and i packed her oflf to her bed as soon as she had eaten the first thing in the morning i wrote word to to have her sent on together with a line to at his chiefs and had the same despatched and her breakfast ready ere i 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 could come to hand in and it was plainly needful she must have a shift of things full story of a copy of 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 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 indeed i began to understand some little of miss grant s in that interest of clothes for the truth is when you have the ground of a beautiful person to adorn the whole business becomes the dutch 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 as i may call it that i was ashamed for a great while to spend more and by way of a set off i left our chambers pretty bare if we had beds if was a little and i had light to see her by we were richly enough lodged for me by the end of this 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 yoimg extremely beautiful and whose innocence was her peril my talk with the old 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 with which i had continued my vain purchases i began to think of it myself as very i me if i had a sister indeed whether i would so expose her then judging the case too i varied my question into this whether i would so trust in the hands of any other christian being the answer to which made my face to bum the more cause since i had been and had the girl into an undue situation that i should behave in it with scrupulous she depended on me wholly for her bread and shelter in case i should alarm her she had no retreat besides i was her host and her protector and the more 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 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 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 right while i was in it i made a set of rules for my guidance prayed for strength to be enabled to observe them and as a more human aid to the same end purchased a study book in law full story of a copy of this being all that i could think of i relaxed from these grave considerations whereupon my mind at once into an of pleasing spirits and it was like one treading on air that i turned homeward as i thought that name of home and recalled the image of that figure awaiting me between four walls my heart beat upon my bosom my troubles began with my return she ran to greet me with an obvious and affecting pleasure she was clad besides entirely in the new clothes that i had bought for her looked in them beyond	38
expression well and must walk about and drop me to display them and to be admired i am sure i did it with an ill grace for i thought to have choked upon the words well she said if you will not be caring for my pretty clothes see what i have done with our two chambers and she showed me the place all very finely swept and the fires glowing in the two chimneys i was glad of a chance to seem a little more severe than i quite felt said i i am very much displeased with you and you must never again lay a hand upon my room one of us two must have the rule while we are here together it is most fit it should be i who am both the man and the elder and i give you that for my command she dropped me one of her which were extraordinary taking if you will be cross said she i must be making pretty manners at you i will be very obedient as i should be when every 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 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 and looks my heart was altogether melted wo made our meal with infinite mirth and tenderness and the two seemed to be into one so that our very laughter sounded like a kindness in the midst of which i awoke to better recollections made a lame word of excuse and set myself to my studies it was a substantial instructive book that i had bought by the late dr in which i was to do a great deal of reading these next days and often very glad that i had no one to question me of what i read she bit her lip at me a uttle and that cut me indeed it left her solitary the more as she was very little of a reader and had never a book but what was i to do so the rest of the evening flowed by almost without speech i could have beat myself i could not lie in my bed that night for rage and repentance but walked to and fro on my bare feet till i was nearly perished for the chimney was gone out and the frost keen the thought of her in the next room the thought that she might even hear me as i walked the remembrance of my and that i must full story of a copy of continue to practise the same ungrateful course or be put me beside my reason i stood like a man between and what must she think of me was my one thought that softened mo continually into weakness what is to become of its the other which me again to resolution this was my first night of and divided counsels of which i was now to pass many pacing like a madman sometimes weeping like a childish boy sometimes praying i would fain hope like a christian but prayer is not very difficult and the 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 to be engaged upon surpassed my strength so that i fell instead upon the expedient of so much as i was able taking out classes and sitting there regularly often with small attention the test of which i foimd the other day in a of that period where i had left off to follow an lecture and actually in my book some very ill verses though the is rather better than i thought i could ever have the evil of this course was unhappily near as great as its advantage i had the less time of trial but i believe while that 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 that came nigh to me these friendly offers i must cast back and my t sometimes wounded her so cruelly that i must and seek to make it up to her in kindness so that our time passed in and downs and disappointments upon the which i could almost say if it may be said with reverence that i was the base of my trouble was 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 joy and when i was drove again to my did not always her there were times when i have thought to myself if she were over head in love and set her cap to catch me she would scarce behave much otherwise and then i would fall again into wonder at the simplicity of woman from whom i felt in these moments that i was not worthy to be descended there was one point in particular on which our warfare turned and of all things this was the question of her clothes my baggage had soon followed me from and hers from she had now as it were two 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 and as it were the of her gratitude and i	38
felt it so in my bosom but was generally more wise than to appear to have observed the circumstance once indeed i was betrayed into a full story of a copy of 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 in a window one of those forced flowers of which the are so skilled in the i gave way to an impulse and bought it for i do not know the name of that flower but it was of the pink colour and i thought she would admire the same and carried it home to her with a wonderful soft heart i had left her in my clothes and when i returned to find her all changed and a face to match i cast but the one look at her from head to foot ground my teeth together flung the window open and my flower into the court and then between rage and prudence myself out of that room again of which i the door as i went out on the steep stair i came near falling and this brought me to myself so that i began at once to see the folly of my conduct i went not into the street as i had 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 tree i stood by the side of the canal and looked upon the ice country people went by on their and i envied them i could see no way out of the 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 to my helpless guest t 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 of footsteps on the frozen snow and turning somewhat angrily for i was in no spirit to be interrupted saw drawing near she was all changed again to the stockings are we not to have our walk to day said she i was looking at her in a where is your says i she carried her hand to her bosom and coloured high i will have forgotten it said she i will run upstairs for it quick and then surely well can have our walk there was a note of pleading in that last that staggered me i had neither words nor voice to utter them i could do no more than nod by way of answer and the moment she had left me climbed into the tree and recovered my flower which on her return i offered her i bought it for you said i she fixed it in the midst of her bosom with the i could have thought tenderly it is none the better of my handling said i again and blushed i will be liking it none the worse you may bo sure of that said she we did not speak so much that day she seemed a thought on the reserve though not 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 women full story of a copy of 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 httle in my and for one thing there was no 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 their duration to the extreme seeming to dread as i did myself the hour of the return and there is scarce a field or near 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 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 cl i hope with an honest but i am quite sure with a very much divided mind indeed there was scarce anything that more affected me than thus to kneel down alone with her before god like man and wife one day it was downright hard i had thought it not possible that we should venture forth and was surprised to find her waiting for me ready dressed i will not be doing without my walk she cried you are never a good boy 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	38
with the sight like a giant s i thought i could have caught her up and run with her into the places in the earth and we spoke together all that time beyond belief for freedom and sweetness it was the dark night when we came to the house door she pressed my arm upon her bosom thank you kindly for these same good hours said she on a deep note of her voice the concern in which i fell instantly on this address put me with the same swiftness on my guard and we were no sooner in the chamber and the light made than she beheld the old stubborn countenance of the student of doubtless she was more than usually hurt and i know for myself i found it more than usually difficult to maintain my strangeness even at the meal i scarce and scarce lift my eyes to her and it was no sooner over than i fell again to my with more seeming abstraction and less understanding than before as i read i could hear my heart strike like an eight day clock hard as i feigned to study there was still some of ray full story of a copy of that beyond the book upon she sat on the floor by the side of my great mail and the chimney lighted her up and shone and upon her and made her glow and through a wonder of fine hues now she would be gazing in tho fire and then again at me and at that i would be plunged in a terror of myself and turn the pages of like a man looking for the text in church suddenly she called out aloud why does not my father come she cried and fell at once into a storm of i leaped up flung fairly in the fire ran to her side and cast an arm around her sobbing body she put me from her sharply you do not love your friend says she i could be so happy too if you would let me and then o what will i have done that you should hate me so hate you cries i and held her firm you blind can you not see a little in my wretched heart do you think when i sit there reading in that fool book that i have just burned and be damned to it i take ever the least thought of any stricken thing but just yourself night after night i could have to see you sitting there your lone and what was i to do you are here under my honour would you punish me for that is it for that that you would a loving servant at the word with a small sudden motion she clung near to me i raised her face to mine i kissed it and she bowed her brow upon my bosom clasping me tight i sat in a mere whirl like a man drunken then i heard her voice sound very small and muffled in my clothes did you kiss her truly she asked there went through me so great a heave of surprise that i was all shook with it miss grant i cried all in a disorder yes i asked her to kiss me good bye the which she did ah well said she you have kissed me too at all events at the strangeness and sweetness of that word i saw where we had fallen rose and set her on her feet this will never do said i this wiu never never do then there came a pause in which i was from any speaking and then go away to your bed said i go away to your bed and leave me she turned to obey me like a little child and the next i knew of it had stopped in the very doorway good night said she and good night my love i cried with a great outbreak of my soul and caught her to me again so that it seemed i have broken her the next moment i had thrust her from the room shut to the door even with violence and stood alone the milk was now the word was out and the truth told i had crept like an 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 full story of a copy of a symbol that my old protection was now burned i repented yet could not find it in my heart to e 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 and with such advantages of the position that i seemed to have practised what was to become of us now it seemed we could no longer dwell in the one place but where was i to go or where she without either choice or fault of ours life had 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 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	38
cannot understand the least said james my daughter was placed into the charge of some responsible persons whose names i have forgot was the name said i and there is no doubt that mr should have gone ashore with her at but he did not mr and i think you might praise god that i was there to in his place i shall have a word to say to mr before long said he as for yourself i think it might have occurred that you were somewhat young for such a post but the choice was not between me and somebody else it was between me and nobody i cried 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 you in the face then said i your child was deserted she was clean flung away in the midst of europe with scarce the return of james more two shillings and not two words of any language spoken there i must say a 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 business too if i was to be singing her praises to her father you are a young man he so i hear you tell me said i with a good deal of heat i r you are a very young m n he repeated or you would have understood the 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 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 and so careless as to have lost your daughter he that lives in a glass house should not be casting stones says he and we will finish into the behaviour of miss before we on to sit in judgment on her father but i will be into no such attitude said l the character of miss 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 the other if you are so difficult as to be still dissatisfied is to pay me that which i have expended and be he seemed to soothe me with a hand in the air there there said ha you go too fast you go too fast mr it is a good thing that i have learned to be more patient and i believe you forget that i have yet to see my daughter i began to be a relieved upon this speech and a change in the man s manner that i in him as soon as the name of money fell between us i was thinking it would be more fit if you will excuse the of my dressing in your presence that i should go forth and leave you to encounter her alone said l what i would have looked for at your hands says he and there was no mistake but what he said it i thought this better and better still and as i began to pull on my recalling the man s impudent at s i determined to pursue what seemed to be my victory if you have any mind to stay some while in said i this room is very much at your disposal and i can easy find another for myself in which way we shall have the least amount of flitting possible there being only one to change why sir said he making his bosom big i the return of james more think no shame of a poverty i have come by in the service of my king i make no secret that my affairs are quite involved and for the moment it would be even impossible for me to undertake a journey until you have occasion to communicate with your friends said i perhaps it might be convenient for you as of course it would be honourable to myself if you were to regard yourself in the light of my guest sir said he when an offer is frankly made i think i honour myself most to imitate that frankness your hand mr david you have the character that i respect the most you are one of those from whom a gentleman can take a favour and no more words about it i am an old soldier he went on looking rather disgusted like around my chamber and you need not fear i shall prove i have ate too often at a side drank of the ditch and had no roof but the rain i should be telling you said i that our are sent in about this time of morning i propose i should go now to the tavern and bid them add a cover for yourself and delay the meal the matter of an hour which will give you an interval to meet your daughter in his nostrils at this	38
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 me by the coat what is it you drink in the morning whether ale or wine y to be frank with you sir says i i drink nothing else but spare cold water tut tut s he that is fair destruction to the stomach take an old s word for it our country spirit at home is perhaps the most entirely wholesome but as that is not come at able or a white wine of will be next best i shall make it my business to see you are supplied said i why very good said he and we shall make a man of you yet mr david by this time i can hardly say that i was him at all beyond an odd thought of the kind of father in law that he was like to prove arid all my cares about the his daughter to whom i determined to convey some warning of her visitor i stepped to the door accordingly and cried through the knocking at the time miss here is your father come at last with that i went forth upon my errand having by two words my chapter xxvi the whether or not i was to be so blamed or rather perhaps pitied i must leave others to judge my of which i have a good deal too seems not so great with the ladies no doubt at the moment when i her i was thinking a good deal of the effect upon james more and 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 of my friendship and these it was my first business to but there is a kind of an excuse for 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 and weeping is not to be supposed i had been absent from her pillow thoughts upon the back of this to be with formality under the name of miss and to be used with a great deal of distance and respect led her entirely in error on my private sentiments and she was indeed so abused v as to imagine me and trying to draw off the trouble us seems to have been this that whereas i since i had first set eyes on his great hat thought singly of james more his return and suspicions she made so little of these that i may say she scarce remarked them and all her troubles and doings regarded what had passed between us in the night before this is partly to be explained by the innocence and boldness of her character and partly because james more having sped so ill in his interview with me or had his mouth closed by my invitation said no word to her upon the subject at the breakfast accordingly it soon appeared we were at cross purposes i had looked to find her in clothes of her own i found her as if her father were forgotten wearing some of the best that i had bought for her and which she knew or thought that i admired her in i had looked to find her imitate my affectation of distance and be most precise and formal instead i found her flushed and wild uke with eyes extraordinary bright and a painful and varying expression calling me by name with a sort of appeal of tenderness and referring and to my thoughts and wishes like an anxious or a suspected wife but this was not for long as i beheld her so regardless of her own interests which i had and was now endeavouring to recover i my own coldness in the manner of a lesson to the girl the more she came forward the further i drew back the more she betrayed the of our intimacy the more civil i became until the even her father if he had not been so engrossed with eating might have observed the opposition in the midst of which of a sudden she became wholly changed and i told myself with a good deal of relief that she had the hint at last all day i was at my classes or in quest of my new lodging and though the hour of our customary walk hung miserably on my hands i cannot say but i was happy on the whole to find my way cleared the girl again in proper keeping the father satisfied or at least and myself free to 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 on 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 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	38
thought it horribly alarming i made sure there was a tempest there and considering that to be the chief peril turned towards him and put myself so to speak in the man s hands can i do anything for mr says l he stifled a which again i thought to be why mr david said he since you are so obliging as to propose it you might show me the way to a certain tavern of which he gave the name where i hope to fall in vith some old companions in arms there was no more to say and i got my hat and cloak to bear him company and as for you says he to his daughter you had best go to your bed i shall be late home and early to bed and early to rise liave bright eyes whereupon he kissed her with a good deal of tenderness and ushered me before him from the door this was so done i thought on purpose that it was scarce possible there should be any parting salutation but i observed she did not look at me and set it down to terror of james more it was some distance to that tavern he talked all the way of matters which did not interest me the smallest and at the door dismissed me with empty manners thence i walked to my new lodging where i had not so much as a chimney to hold me warm and no society but my own thoughts these were still bright enough i did not so much as dream that was turned against me i thought we were like folk pledged i thought we had been too near and spoke too wai to be severed least of all by what were only steps in a most needful policy and the chief of my concern was only the kind of father in law that i was getting which was not at all the kind i would have chosen and the matter of how soon i ought to the speak him which was a delicate 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 only that if once i let them go from without explanation i might lose her altogether and in the second place there was our very irregular situation to be kept in view and the rather scant measure of satisfaction i had given james more that morning i concluded on the whole that delay would not hurt anything yet i would not delay too long neither and got to my cold bed with a full heart the next day as james more seemed a little on the complaining hand in the matter of my chamber i offered to have in more furniture and coming in the afternoon with bringing chairs and tables found the girl once more left to herself she greeted me on my admission but withdrew at once to her own room of which she shut the door i made my disposition and paid and dismissed the men so that she might hear them go when i supposed she would at once come forth again to speak to me i waited yet awhile then knocked upon her door said i the door was opened so quickly even before i had the word out that i thought she must have stood behind it listening she remained there in the interval quite still but she had a look that i cannot put a name on as of one in a bitter trouble are we not to have our walk to day either so i faltered i am thanking you said she i will not bo caring much to walk now that my father is come home but i think he has gone out himself and left you here alone said i and do you think that was very kindly said she asked it was not meant i replied what you what have i done to j ou that you should turn from me like this i do not turn from you at all she said speaking very carefully i will ever be grateful to my friend that was good to me i will ever be his friend in all that i am able but now that my father james more is come again there is a difference to be made and i think there are some things said and done that would be better to be forgotten but i will ever be your friend in all that i am able and if that is not all that if it is not so much not that you will be caring but i would not have you think of me too hard it was true what you said to me that i was too young to be advised and i am hoping you will remember i was just a child i would not like to lose your friendship at all events she began this very pale but before she was done the blood was in her face like scarlet so that not her words only but her face and the trembling of her very hands 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 into a moment s weakness and now stood before me like a person the miss 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 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	38
i would hke to promise you too that i would never think of it but it s a memory that will be always dear to me and as for a friend you have one here that would die for you i am thanking you said she we stood awhile silent and my sorrow for myself began to get the upper hand for here were all my dreams come to a sad tumble and my love lost and myself alone again in the world as at the beginning well said i we shall be friends always that s a certain thing but this is a kind of a farewell too it s a kind of a farewell after all i shall always ken miss but this is a farewell to my i looked at her i could hardly say i saw her but she seemed to grow great and in my eyes and with that i suppose i must have lost my head for i called out her name again and made a step at her with my hands reached forth she shrank back like a person struck her face but the blood sprang no faster up into her cheeks than what it flowed back upon my own heart at sight of it with 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 to behave the more and to 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 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 her plea was good she was but a child she had been placed in an unfair position if she had deceived herself and me it was no more than was to have been looked for and for another thing she was now very much her father when he was by was rather a caressing parent but he was very easy led away by his and pleasures neglected her without or remark spent his nights in 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 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 the thought myself but an to the girl and a of a moment s weakness that she now to think of so she must sit alone in that room where she and i had been so merry and in the of that chimney whose light had shone upon our many and tender moments there she must sit alone and think of herself as of a maid who had most 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 and female and altogether i suppose there were never two poor fools made themselves more unhappy in a greater as for james he paid not so much heed to us oi to anything in nature but his pocket and his belly and his own 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 indeed he had an outside air of 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 so that a man that had no business with him and either very httle penetration or a furious deal of prejudice might almost have been taken in to me after my first two he was as plain as print i saw him to be perfectly selfish with a perfect in the same and i would to his talk of arms and an old soldier and a poor gentleman and the strength of my country and my friends as i might to the of a the odd thing was that i fancy he 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 must have been wholly genuine there were times when he would be the most silent affectionate clinging creature possible holding 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 us to entertain him with our talk a thing very difficult in the state of our relations and again break forth in pitiable for his own land and friends or into singing this is one of the melancholy airs of my native land he would say you may think it strange to see a soldier weep and indeed it is to make a near friend of	38
i had a good before in my and but for the man s death which me shame to me that must confess it i see not how anyone is to be 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 you not so very long but when we are alone is never done with the singing of your praises she looked up at him a little wild at that and a 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 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 of an errand and bid her attend to it i do not see you should be gone 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 my mind for what should follow the door had scarce closed behind her departure when the man leaned back in his chair and addressed me with a good affectation of only the one thing betrayed him and that was his face which suddenly shone all over with fine points of sweat i am rather glad to have a word alone with you says he because in our first interview there were some expressions you 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 but my dear david this world is a place as who should know it better than myself who have lived ever since the days of my late departed father god him in a perfect of we have to face to that you and me have to consider of that we have to consider of that and he his head like a minister in a pulpit v to what effect mr said i i would be obliged to you if you would approach your point ay ay says he laughing like your character indeed and what i most admire in it but the point my worthy fellow is sometimes in a 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 you in the unfortunate circumstances what could you do else deed and i cannot tell i thank you for that said i pretty close upon my guard i have besides studied your character he went on your talents are fair you seem to have a moderate which does no harm and one thing with another i am very happy to have to announce to you that i have decided on the latter of the two ways open i am afraid i am dull said l what ways are these he bent his brows upon me and his legs why sir says he i think i need scarce describe them to a gentleman of your condition either that i should cut your throat or that you should marry my daughter you are pleased to be quite plain at last said i and i believe i have been plain from the beginning cries he i am a careful parent mr but i thank god a patient and a man there is many a father sir that would have you at once either to the altar or the field my esteem for your character mr 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 at a gentleman in the same chamber with yourself and you his best why very true says he with an immediate change and you must excuse the of a parent i you then i continued for i will take no note of your other alternative which perhaps it was a pity you let fall i understand you rather to offer me encouragement in case i should desire to apply for your daughter s hand it is not possible to express my meaning better said he and i see we shall do well together that remains to be yet seen said i but so much i need make no secret of that i bear the lady you refer to the most tender affection and i could not fancy even in a dream a better fortune than to get her i was sure of it i felt certain of you david he cried and reached out his hand to me i put it by you go too fast mr said i there conditions to be made and there is a difficulty in the path which i see not entirely how we shall come over i have told you that upon my side there is no objection to the marriage but i have good reason to believe there will be much on the young lady s v this is all beside the mark says he i will engage for her acceptance i think you forget mr d i that even in dealing with myself you have been betrayed into two three 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	38
promised me that simply well said i this that i have got to say is very difficult and i know very well i have no right to be saying it after what passed between the two of us last friday i have no manner of right we have got so up and all by my fault that i know very well the least i could do is just to hold my tongue which was what i intended fully and there was nothing further from my thoughts than to have troubled you again but my dear it has become merely necessary and no way by it you see this estate of mine has fallen in which makes of me rather a better match and the the business would not have quite the same ridiculous like appearance that it would before besides which it s supposed that our affairs have got so much up as i was saying that it would be better to let them be the way they in my view this part of the thing is vastly 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 in which i am left alone town before i think we did pretty well together if you would look back my dear i will look neither back nor forward she interrupted tell me the one thing this is my father s doing he of it said l he approved that i should ask your hand in marriage and was going on again with somewhat more of an appeal upon her feelings but she marked me not and struck into the midst he told you to she cried it is no sense denying it you said yourself that there was nothing farther from your thoughts he told you to he spoke of it the first if that is what you mean i began she was walking ever the faster and looking fair in front of her but at this she made a little noise in her head and i thought she would have run without which i went on after what you said last friday would never have been so troublesome as make the offer but when he as good as asked me what was i to do she stopped and turned round upon me well it is refused at all events she cried and there will be an end of that and she began again to walk forward i suppose i could expect no better said i but i think you might try to be a uttle kind to me for the last end of it i see not why you should be i have loved you very well no harm that i should call you so for the last time i have done the best that i could manage i am trying the same still and only vexed that i can do no better it is a strange thing to me that you can take any pleasure to be hard to me i am not of you she said i am thinking of that man my father well and that way too said i i can be of use to you that way too i will have to be it is very needful my dear that we should consult about your father for the way this talk has gone an angry man will be james more she stopped again it is because i am disgraced she asked that is what ho is thinking i replied but i have told you already to make of it it will be all one to me she cried i prefer to be disgraced i did not know very well what to answer and stood silent there seemed to be something working in her bosom after that last cry presently she broke out and what is the meaning of all this why is all this shame on my head how could you dare it david my dear said i what else was i to do i am not your dear she said and i defy you to be calling me these words i am not thinking of my words said i my heart for you miss 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 in which i am left alone when we two get home take my word for it it will need the two of us to make this matter end in peace ay said she there sprang a patch of red in either of her cheeks was he for fighting you said she well ho was that said i she gave a dreadful kind of laugh at all events it is complete she cried and then turning on me my father and i are a fine pair said she but i am thanking the good god there will be somebody worse than what we are i am thanking the good god that he has let me see you so there will never be the girl made that would not scorn you i had borne a good deal pretty patiently but this was over the mark you have no right to speak to me like that said l what have i done but to be good to you or try to be and here is my it is too much she kept looking at me with a hateful coward said she the word in your throat and in your father s i cried i have dared him this day already in your interest i will dare him	38
again the nasty pole cat little i care which of us should fall come said i back to the house with us let us be done with it let me be done with the whole crew of you you will see what you think when i am dead she shook her head at me with that same smile i could have struck her for o smile away i cried i have seen your father smile on the wrong side this day not that i mean he was afraid of course i added hastily but he preferred the other way of it what is this she asked when i offered to draw with him said i you offered to draw upon james more she cried and i did so said i and found him backward enough or how would we be here there is a meaning upon this said she what is it you are meaning he was to make you take me i replied and i would not have it i said you should be free and i must speak with you alone little i supposed it would be such a speaking and if i refuse says he then it come to the throat cutting y says i for i will no more have a husband forced on that young lady than what i have a wife forced upon these were my words they were a friend s words have i been paid for them now you have refused me of your own clear free will and there lives no father in the or out of them that can force on this marriage i will see that your wishes are respected i will make the same my business as i have all through but i think you might have that decency as to affect some gratitude deed and i thought you knew me better i have not behaved quite well to you but that was weakness and to think me a coward and such a coward as that o my there was a for the last of it how would i guess she cried this is a dreadful business me and mine she gave a kind of wretched cry at the word me and mine are in which i am left alone not fit to speak to you could be kneeling down to you in the street i could be kissing your hands for your forgiveness i will keep the kisses i have got from you already cried i i will keep the ones i wanted and that were worth i will not be kissed in what can you be thinking of this miserable girl says she what i am trying to tell you all this while said i that you had best leave me alone whom you can make no more unhappy if you tried and turn your attention to james more your father with whom you are like to have a queer to wind 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 ho pay she turned and began to go home and i to accompany her at which she stopped i will be going alone she said it is alone i must be seeing him some uttle while i raged about the streets and told myself i was the worst used lad in anger choked me it was all very well for me to breathe deep it seemed there was not air enough about den to supply me and i thought i would have burst like a man at the bottom of the sea i and laughed at myself at a street comer a minute together laughing out loud so that a passenger looked at me which brought me to myself well i thought i have been a and a and a soft 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 m the beginning and will be so to the end god knows i was happy enough before ever i saw her god knows i can be happy enough again when i have seen the last of her that seemed to me the chief to see them go i upon the idea fiercely and presently slipped on in a kind of to consider how very poorly they were like to fare when was no longer by to be their milk cow at which to my own very great surprise the disposition of my mind turned bottom up i was still angry i still hated her and yet i thought i owed it to myself that she should suffer nothing this carried me home again at once where i found the drawn out and ready fastened by the door and the father and daughter with every mark upon them of a recent 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 very well have been followed by a blow it was a hint that was more contemptuous than a command and i was surprised to see james more accept it it was plain he had had a master talking to and i could see there must be more of the devil in the girl than i had guessed in which i am left alone and more good humour about the man than i had given him the credit of he began at least calling me mr and plainly speaking from a lesson	38
despair for there was the corner in a knot and cast down by itself in another part of the floor but when i argued with myself i grew more hopeful she had cut that comer off in some childish that was tender that she had cast it away again was little to be wondered at and i was inclined to dwell more up i the first upon the second and to be more pleased that she had ever conceived the idea of that than concerned because she had flung it from her in an hour of natural resentment chapter we meet in altogether then i was scare so miserable the next days but what i had many hopeful and happy threw myself with a good deal of upon my studies and made out to endure the till should arrive or i might hear word of 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 in from which place james shortly after started alone upon a private mission this was to england and to see lord 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 with the 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 he had been so careful as to prepare it beforehand and leave it with to be despatched the fact of our correspondence aroused her suspicions and he was no sooner gone than she had burst the seal what i received began accordingly in the writing of james more my dear sir tour esteemed came to hand and i have to acknowledge the according to agreement w it be all f expended on my daughter who is well and desires to be remembered to her dear friend i find her in rather a melancholy disposition but trust in the mercy of god to see her re established our manner of life is very much alone but we solace ourselves with the melancholy tunes of our native mountains and by walking upon 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 i have found employment here in the ha of a french nobleman where my experience is valued but my dear sir the wages are so exceedingly that i would be ashamed to mention them which makes your the more necessary to my daughter s comfort though i the sight of old friends would be still better my dear sir your affectionate obedient servant james below it began again in the hand of do not bo believing him it is all lies together not only did she add this but i think she must have come near the letter for it came long after date and was closely followed by the third in the time them had arrived and made another life to me with his merry conversation i had been presented to his cousin of the dutch a man that drank more than i could have thought possible and was not otherwise of interest i had been entertained to many jovial dinners and given some myself all with no great change upon my sorrow and we two by which i mean and myself and not at all the cousin had discussed a good deal the nature of my relations with we meet in james more and his daughter i was naturally to give particulars and this disposition was not anyway lessened by the nature of s upon those i gave i make head nor tail of it he would say but it sticks in my mind made a of yourself there s few people that has had more experience than and i can never call to mind to have heard tell of a like this one of yours the way that you tell it the thing s fair impossible ye must have made a terrible of the business david there are that i am of the same mind said i the strange thing is that ye seem to have a kind of a fancy for her too i said the biggest kind said i and i think i ll take it to my grave with me well ye beat me whatever he would conclude i showed him the letter with s and here again he cried impossible to deny a kind of decency to this and sense as for james more the man s as as a drum he s just a and a words though i ll can never deny that he fought reasonably well at and it s true what he says here about the five wounds but the loss of him is that the man s ye see said i it goes against the grain with me to leave the maid in such poor hands ye find poorer he admitted but what are ye to do with it it s this way about a man and a woman yo see the have got no kind of reason to them either they like the man and then a goes fine or else they just him and ye may spare your breath ye can do there s just the two sets of them that would sell their coats for ye and them that never look the road ye re oa that s a that there is to women and you seem to be such a that yo tell the the well and i m afraid that s true for me said i and yet there s easier cried i could easy learn ye the science of the thing but ye seem to me to be bom blind and	38
there s where the comes in and can you no help me i asked you that s so clever at the trade ye see david i here said he i m like a field that has but blind men for and and what would he ken but it sticks in my mind that ye u have made some kind of and if i was you i would have a try at her again would ye so man said i i would e en t says he the third letter came to my hand while we deep in some such talk and it will bo seen how pat it fell to the occasion james professed to be in concern upon his daughter s health which i was never better in kind expressions to myself and finally proposed that i should visit them at we meet in you will now be enjoying the society of my old comrade mr lie wrote why not accompany him so far in his return to france i have something very particular for mr s ear and at any rate i would be pleased to meet in with an old and one so as 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 the french nobleman has proved a person of the most filthy of character and i have been to leave the you will find us in consequence a little poorly lodged in the of a man on the but the situation is and i make no doubt but we might spend some very pleasant days when mr and i could recall our services and you and my daughter divert yourselves in a manner more your age i beg at least that mr would come here my business with him opens a very wide door what does the man want with me cried when he had read what he wants with you is clear enough it s but what can he want with it ll be just an excuse said l 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 says him and me were never ways pack we used to at like a pair of something for my car he i ll maybe have something for his hinder end before we re through with it i m thinking it would be a kind of a to gang and see what hell be after that i could see your then what say ye will yo ride with you may be sure i was not backward and s running towards an end we set forth presently upon this joint adventure it was near dark of a january day when we rode at last into the town of left our horses at the post and found a guide to 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 which we tor a while then turned into a dark lane and presently found ourselves in the night among deep sand where we could hear a 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 us when we came to the top of a small and there appeared out of the darkness a dim light in a window d says the guide his lips an lonely bit said he and i thought by his tone he was not wholly pleased a little after and we stood in the lower of that house which was au in the one apartment with a stair leading to the chambers at the side benches and tables by the wall the cooking fire at the one end of it and shelves of bottles and the cellar trap at the v e meet in other here who was an ill looking big man told us the gentleman was gone abroad he knew not where but the young lady was above and he would call her down to us i took from my breast that wanting the comer and knotted it about my throat i could hear my heart go and patting me on the shoulder with some of his expressions i could scarce refrain from a sharp word but the time was not long to wait i heard her step pass overhead and saw her on the stair this she descended very quietly and greeted me with a pale face and a certain seeming of earnestness or uneasiness in her manner that extremely dashed me my father james more will be here soon he will be very pleased to see you she said and then of a sudden her face her eyes lightened the speech stopped upon her lips and i made sure she had observed the it was only for a breath that she was but it was with a new animation that she turned to welcome and you will be his friend 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 holding her hand in his and her and so this is the young lady at the last of it david ye re an awful poor hand of a description i do not know that ever i heard him speak so straight to people s hearts the sound of his voice was like song what will he have been describing me she cried little else of it since i ever came out of	38
france says he a bit of a one night in scotland in a of wood by but cheer up my dear i ye re 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 to here i m uke a at his heels and whatever he v for i ve got to care for too and by the holy aim they ve got to care for me so now you can see what way you stand with and ye ll find ye u hardly lose on the he s no very my dear but he s to them he loves i thank you with my heart for your good words said she i have that honour for a brave honest man that i cannot find any to be answering with using travellers freedom we spared to wait for james more and sat down to meat we had sit by him and wait upon his wants he made her drink first out of his glass he surrounded her with continual kind 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 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 we meet in of life but in own way a great deal of natural ability besides as for she seemed quite carried away her laugh was like a peal of bells her face gay as a may morning ax i although i was very well pleased yet i was a little sad also and thought myself a dull character in comparison of my friend and very unfit to come into a young maid s life and perhaps her gaiety but if that was like to be my part i found at least that 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 to see so much devotion as it used to be changed into the very sickness of hate of james more it is unnecessary to say much you know the man already what there was to know of him and i am weary of writing out his lies enough that he drank a great deal and told us very little that was to any possible purpose as for the business with that was to be reserved for the morrow and his private hearing it was the more easy to be put off because and were pretty weary with our day s ride and sat not very late after we were soon alone in a chamber where we were to make shift with a single bed looked on mo with a queer smile ye ass ho what do ye mean by that i cried mean what do i mean it s david man says he that you should be so mortal again i begged him to speak out well it s this of it said he i told ye there were the two kinds of women them that would sell their for ye and the others just you try for my man but what s that at your i told him i it was something said he nor would he say another word though i him long with chapter xxx the letter from the ship daylight showed us how solitary the inn stood it was plainly hard upon the sea yet out of all view of it and beset on every side with hills of sand there was indeed only one thing in the nature of a prospect where there stood out over a the two sails of a 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 scarce any road came by there but a number of travelled among the in all directions up to mr 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 frequented it political agents and persons bound across the water there to await their passages and i there was worse behind for a whole family might have been in that house and nobody the wiser i slept little and iu long ere it was day i had slipped from beside my and was warming myself at the fire or walking to and fro before the door dawn broke mighty 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 of the machinery and by half past eight of the day began to sing in the house at this i would have cast my hat in the air and i thought this dreary desert	38
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 it seemed there was trouble the sails of the as they came up and went down over the hill were like persons and outside of all fancy it was surely a strange neighbourhood and house for a young lady to be brought to dwell in at breakfast which we took late it was manifest that james more was in some danger or perplexity manifest that was alive to the same and watched him close and this appearance of 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 to a resolve and 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 meanwhile he carried his daughter aside to the far end of the room where he seemed to speak gather earnestly and she to listen without much i am caring less and less about thi man james said there s something no right with thi the letter the ship man and i wonder but what would give an eye to him this day i would like fine to see yon french nobleman and i you could find an employ to and that would be to at the for some news of your affair just tell it to her plainly tell her ye re a ass at the off set and then if i were you and ye could do it i would just to her i was in some kind of a a likes that i lee i do it says i mocking him the more fool you says he then yell can tell her that i recommended it that u set her to the laughing and i wonder but what that was the next best but see to the pair of them if i feel just sure of the and that she was awful pleased and chief with i would think there was kind of about yon and is she so pleased with ye then i asked she thinks a heap of me says he and i m no like you i m one that can tell that she does she thinks a heap of and i m thinking a good deal of him and with your permission i ll be getting a the so that i can see what way james goes one after another went till i was left alone beside the breakfast table james to him 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 it for that and bent my mind to her to an interview before the men returned upon the whole the best appeared to me to do like if i was out of view among the sand hills the fine morning would 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 of a before she appeared at the inn door looked here and there and seeing nobody set out by a path that led directly 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 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 s and the 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 what should an english ship be doing so near in to france why was brought into her neighbourhood and that in a place so far from any hope of rescue and was it by accident or by design that the daughter of james more should walk that day to the presently i came forth behind her in the front of the sand hills and above the beach it was here long and solitary with a man o war s boat drawn up about the middle of the prospect and au the from the ship officer in charge and pacing the sands like one who waited i sat immediately down where the rough grass a good deal covered me and looked for what should went straight to the boat the officer met her with they had ten words together i saw a letter changing hands and there was returning at the same time as if this were all her business on the continent the boat off and was headed for the but i observed the officer to remain behind and disappear among the i liked the business little and the more i considered of it liked it l ss was it the officer was seeking or 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 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	38
swallowed up and i rose to my feet and stood waiting her in a of hope i gave her good morning as she came up which she returned with a good deal of composure will you forgive my having followed you said i i know you are always meaning kindly she replied and then with a little outburst but why will you be sending money to that man it must not be i sent it for him said i but for you as you know well x and you have no right to be sending it to either one of us said she david it is not right it is not it is all wrong said i and i pray god j he will help this dull fellow if it be at au possible to make it better this is no kind of life for you to lead and i ask your pardon for the word but yon man is no fit father to take care of do not be speaking of him even was her cry and i need speak of him no more it is not of him that i am thinking o be sure of that says i i think of the one thing i have been alone now this long time in and when i was by way of at my studies still i was thinking of that next came and i went among soldier men to their big dinners and still i had the same thought and it was the same before when i had her there beside me do you see this at my throat you cut a comer from it once and then cast it from you they re colours now i wear them in my heart my dear i cannot be wanting you o try to put up with me i stepped before her so as to her walking oa try to put up with me i was saying try and bear me with a little still she had never the word and a fear began to rise in me like a fear of death i cried gazing on her hard is it a mistake again am i quite lost she raised her face to me do you want me truly said she and scarce could hear her say it the letter from the ship i do that said l q sure you it i do that i have nothing left to give or to keep back said she i was all yours from the first day if you would have had a gift of me she said this was on the summit of a the place was windy and conspicuous we were to be seen there even from the english ship but i down before her in the sand and embraced her knees and burst into that storm of weeping that i thought it must have broken ine all thought was wholly beaten from my mind by the of my i knew hot where i was i had forgot why i was happy only i knew she stooped and i felt her cherish me to her and bosom and heard her words out of a whirl she was saying is this what you think of me is it so that you were caring for poor me o with that she wept also and our tears were in a perfect 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 these by and the sails as they over the were like a tune of music i know not how much longer we might have continued to forget all else besides ourselves had i not chanced upon a reference to her father which brought us to reality x 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 httle friend now you are mine altogether mine for good my little mend and that man s no longer at all there came a sudden whiteness in her face she her hands from mine take me away from him she cried there s something wrong he s not 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 this word be saying and she held the letter forth my mind me it will be some ill to open it open it and see i took it and looked at it and shook my head no said i it goes against me i cannot open a man s letter not to save your friend she cried i tell said i i think not if i was only sure and you have but to break the seal said she i it said i but the thing goes against mo give it here said she and i will open it myself nor you neither said i you least of all it concerns your father and his honour dear which wo are both no question but the place is dangerous like and the english ship being here and your father having word from it and yon officer that stayed ashore he would not be alone either there the letter from the ship must be more along with him i we are upon this minute ay no doubt the letter should be opened but somehow not by you nor me i was about thus far with it and my spirit very much overcome with a sense of danger and	38
hidden enemies when i come back again from following james and walking by himself among the sand hills he was in his soldier s coat of course and mighty fine but i could not avoid to shudder when i thought how little that jacket would avail him if he were once caught and flung in a and carried on board of the a a rebel and now a condemned murderer there said i there is the man that has the best right to open it or not as he thinks fit with which i called upon his name and we both stood up to be a mark for him if it is so if it be more disgrace will you can bear it she asked looking upon me with a burning eye i was asked something of the same question when i had seen you but the once said i what do you think i answered that if i you as i thought i and o but i like you better i would marry you at his gallows foot the blood rose in her face she came close up and pressed upon me holding my hand and it was so that we awaited he came with one of his queer smiles what was i telling ye david says he there is a time for all things said i and this time is serious how have you sped you can speak out plain before this friend of ours i have been upon a errand said he i doubt we have done better than you then said i and at least here is a great deal of matter that you must judge of do you see that i went on pointing to the ship that is the captain i should ken her too says i had enough with her when she was stationed in the forth but what the man to come so close i will tell you why he came there first said i it was to bring this letter to james more why he stops here now that it s delivered what it s likely to be about why there s an hiding in the and whether or not it s probable that he s i would rather you considered for yourself a letter to james more said he the same said i well and i can tell ye more than that said for last night when you were fast asleep i heard the man with some one in the french and then the door of that inn to be opened and shut cried i you slept all night and i am here to prove it ay but i would never trust whether he was asleep or waking says he but the business looks bad let s see the letter i gave it him said he ye ll have to excuse me my dear but there s nothing less than my fine bones upon the cast of it and i ll have to break this seal it is my wish said the letter from the ship he opened it glanced it through and flung his hand in the air the says he add crammed the paper in his pocket here let s get our things this place is fair death to ine and he began to walk towards the inn it was that spoke the first he has sold you she asked sold me my dear said but thanks to you and til can him yet just let me win upon my horse he added must come with us said i she can have no more traffic with that she and i are to be married at which she pressed my hand to her side are ye there with it says looking back the best day s work that ever either of ye did yet and i m bound to say my ye make a real the way that he was following brought us close in by the where i was aware of a man in seaman s trousers who seemed to be from behind it only of course we took him in the rear see r said i said he this is my affairs the man was no doubt a little by the of the mill and we got up close before noticed then he turned and we saw he was a bi fellow with a mahogany i think sir says that you speak the english says he with an incredible bad accent s j r v m cries iti i him is i v the ye here s a boot to your english and him before he he dealt the him his nose then he stood with a smile him scramble to his feet and off into the bat it s high time i ms clear of these empty said and continued at tc and we still to the back door of s it chanced that as we bj the one door we came to face with james more by the other here said i to quick yon and make this is no fit scene for you in the meanwhile james and 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 her turn and glance at them again though without pausing indeed they were worth looking at wore as they met one of his best appearances of c and friendliness j et with something warlike so that james danger off the man as folk smell fire in a house and stood prepared for accidents time pressed s situation in that solitary place and his enemies about him might have it made no change in him and it was in his old spirit of mockery and that he began the interview the letter from the ship a good day to ye again mr said he what	38
ll yon business of yours be just about why the thing being private and rather of a story says james i think it will keep very well till we have i m none so sure of that said it sticks in my mind it s either now or never for the fact is me and mr here have gotten a line and we re thinking of the road i saw a little surprise in james s eye but he held himself stoutly i have but the one word to say to cure you of that said he and that is the name of my business say it then says minds for it is a matter that would make us both rich men said james do ye tell me that cries i do sir said james the plain fact is that it is s treasure no cried have ye got word of it i ken the place mr and can take you there said james this crowns all says well and i m glad i came to and so this was your business was it i m thinking that is the business sir says well well says and then in the same tone of interest it has to do with the then he asked with what says james or the lad that i have just kicked the bottom of behind yon pursued hut man have done with your i have s letter here in my you re by with it james you can never show your face again with folk james was taken all with it he stood a second motionless and white then swelled with the living anger do you talk to me he roared out ye glee d swine cried and hit him a sounding on the mouth and the next wink of time their blades together at the first sound of the bare steel i instinctively leaped back from the the next i saw james a thrust so nearly that i thought him killed and it up in my mind that this was the girl s father and in a manner almost my own and i drew and ran in to them keep back are ye damn ye keep back roared your blood be on your ain held then i beat their blades down twice i was knocked against the wall i was back again them they took ho heed of me thrusting at each other like two i can never think how i avoided being myself or one of these two and the whole business turned about me uke a piece of a dream in the midst of which i heard a great cry from the stair and sprang the letter from the ship before her father in the same moment the point of my sword something yielding it came back to me i saw the blood flow on the girl s and stood sick will you be killing him before my eyes and me his daughter after au she cried my dear i have done with him said and went and sat on a table with his arms crossed and the sword naked in his hand awhile she stood before the man panting with big eyes then swung suddenly about and faced him was her word take your shame out of my sight leave me with clean folk i am a daughter of shame of the sons of it was said so much passion as awoke me from the horror of my own sword the two stood facing she with the red stain on her 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 himself to a air why says he his sword though still with a bright eye on if this is over i will but get my there goes no out of this place except with me says sir cries james james more says this lady daughter of yours is to marry my friend upon the which account i let you pack with a but take you my advice of it and get that out of harm s way or late little as you suppose it there are to my temper bo damned sir but ray money s there said james i m vexed about that too says with his funny face but now ye see it s mines and then i with more gravity be you advised james more i you leave this house james seemed to cast about for a moment in his i mind but it s to be thought he had enough of s for he suddenly put off his hat to us and with a face like one of the damned bade us farewell in a series with which he was gone at the same time a spell was lifted from ma i cried it was me it was my sword are ye much hurt i know it i am loving you for the pain of it it was done defending that bad man my father see she said and showed me a bleeding scratch see you have made a man of me now i will carry a wound like an old soldier joy that she should be so uttle hurt and the love of her brave nature transported me i embraced her i kissed the wound and am i to be out of the kissing me that never lost a chance says and putting me aside and taking by either shoulder my dear he said you re a true daughter of by all accounts he was a very fine man and he may be proud of you if ever i was to get married it s the of you i would be seeking for a mother to my sons and i bear a king s name and speak the truth the from the ship he said it with	38
a serious beat of admiration that was honey to the girl and through her to me it seemed to wipe us clean of all james more s and the next moment he was just himself again and now by your leave my said he this is a very but be a thing nearer to the gallows than he s caring for and i think this is a grand place to be leaving the word recalled us to some wisdom ran upstairs and returned with our saddle bags and james more s i picked up s bundle where she had dropped it on the stair and we were setting forth out of that dangerous house when stopped the way with cries and 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 had sat among his dinner things james more had fled here i cried pay yourself and flung him down some d 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 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 its hands wore the sails of the turning gave but the one glance and laid himself do vn to run he carried a great weight in james more s but i think he would as soon have lost his life as cast away that which was his revenge and he ran so that i was distressed to follow him and and to see the girl bounding at my side as soon as we appeared they cast off all disguise upon the other side aud the pursued us with shouts and view we had a start of some two hundred yards and they were but l 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 p 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 was still far and when we over a and found a c of the garrison marching on the other side on some i could very well understand the word that had he stopped running at once and at his brow they re a real folk the french nation says he conclusion no sooner were we safe within the walls of than we held a very necessary council of war on our position we had taken a daughter from her father at the sword s point any judge would give her back to him at once and by all clap me and into jail and though we had an argument upon our side in captain s letter neither 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 of who would be very willing to help his on the one hand and not at all anxious to james upon the other we made but a slow journey of it up for was not so good at the riding as the running and had scarce sat in a saddle since the five but we made it out at last reached paris early of a sabbath morning and made all speed imder s guidance to find he was finely lodged and lived in a good style having a on the fund as well as private means greeted 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 liim 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 i this is a most letter but for all that gentlemen i cannot see what we would want to it public for it s an ill bird that his own nest and we are all folk and all upon this we were all agreed save perhaps and still more upon the question of our marriage which took in his own hands as though there had been no such person as james more and gave away with very pretty manners and agreeable compliments in french it was not till all was over and our drunk that he told us james was in that city whither he had preceded us some days and where he now lay sick and uke to die i thought i saw by my wife s face what way her inclination pointed and let us go see him then said i if it is your pleasure said these were early days he was lodged in the same quarter of the city with his chief in a great house upon a corner and we were guided up to the garret where ho lay by the sound of it seemed ho had just borrowed a set of them from 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 conclusion laughing he lay propped in a the first look of him i saw he was upon his	38
ou are still as when first i saw as when i last addressed you in the venerable city which i must always l i 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 ix the north with the sound of laughter and tears to cast me out in the end as by a sudden on those ultimate islands and i admire and bow my head before the romance of destiny ill s ad contents i thb lord advocate i a on horseback n writer in iv lord advocate v in the advocate s house the master of vn i make a t in honour the m ix the on fire x the red headed man xi the wood bt on the march again with sands xiv the bass xv black s of xvi the missing witness the memorial xviii the tee d ball xix i am much in the hands of the ladies xx i continue to move in good society viii contents l act n father and daughter xxi the into holland xxii in holland xxiv full story of a op xxv the return of more xxvi the a in which i am left alone we meet in xxx the letter from the ship conclusion list of illustrations me of her which were taking what did i asked you where the said he the brought me mt meat and a drop and a candle to eat it by about there hb sat a fat white of a man there is nothing here to be viewed but naked spite and up she stood on the and held by a stay you tell me she is here said he again back i are ye l art i the lord advocate i a ok thb ih day of august about two in the afternoon i came foi th of the british linen 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 so late as i was like a by the 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 try rang to day i was heir to my position in life a landed a bank porter by me carrying my gold in my pocket and in the words of the saying the ball directly at my foot there were two circumstances that me as last to much sail the first was the yery difficult i david and deadly i had still to handle the the place that i was in the tall black city and the numbers and and noise of so many folk made a new world for me after the the sea sands and the still sides that i had frequented up to then the throng of the citizens in particular abashed me s son was short and small in the his clothes scarce held on me and it was plain i was ill qualified to in the front of a bank porter it was plain if i did so i should but set folk laughing and what was worse in my case set them asking questions so that i to come by some clothes of my own and in the meanwhile to walk by the porter s side and put my hand on his arm as though we were a pair of friends at a merchant s in the i had myself fitted out none too fine for i had no idea to appear like a beggar on horseback but comely and ble so that servants should respect me thence to an s where i got a plain sword to suit with my degree in life i felt safer with the weapon though for one so ignorant of defence it might be called an added danger the porter who was naturally a man of some experience judged my to be well chosen said he plain as for the doubt it sits wi your conspicuous david s degree bnt an i had been j m i would my better gates than that and proposed i should bay winter from a wife in the back that was a of his own and made them bat i had other matters on my hand more pressing here i was in this old black city which was for all the world like a rabbit not only by the number of its bnt the 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 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 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 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 and i knew from tales of mr 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	38
me by said i she said you are a friend to the i would not like to deceive you either said i i know very little of the and less of james more and his doings but since the while i have been stand ing in this close i seem to know something of and if yon wiu just sa a friend to miss i will see yon are the less cheated the one cannot be without the other said she i will even try said i and what will yon be thinking of myself p she to be holding my hand to the first stranger i i am thinking nothing but that you are a good daughter said l i must not be without t she said where is it you stop to tell the truth i am stopping nowhere yet said i being not full three hours in the city but if yoa will give me your direction i will be so bold as come seeking my sixpence for myself will i can trust you for that she asked you have little fear said i james more could not bear it else said she i stop beyond the village of dean on the north side of the water with mrs of 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 said i and the remembrance of rolling in again upon my mind i made haste to say farewell i could not but think even as i did so that we had made extraordinary free upon short acquaintance and that a really wise young lady would have shown herself is move backward i think it was the bank porter pint me from this train of thought i ye had been a lad of some kind o be began shooting his lips ye re no likely to gang far this gate a and his s parted eh but ye re a green he cried an a np wi i u yon dare to speak of the young lady i began i he cried hand ns and safe ns what ca a the s o han it s seen ye re no yery in a clap of anger took me here said i lead me where i told yon and keep your month shut he did not wholly obey me for though he no more addressed me directly he sang at me as he went in a yery impudent manner of and with an ex ill and ear ab lee the street her did she a look her to see her and we re a east and we re a we ie a east and lee it thb mb the writer dwelt at the top of the longest stair that ever set a hand to flights of it no less and when i had come to his door and a clerk had opened it and told me his master was within i had scarce breath enough to send my porter packing east and wi said i took the money bag out of his hands and followed the clerk in the room an with the clerk s chair at a table spread with law papers in the inner ber which opened from it a little brisk man sat on a deed from which he scarce raised his eyes upon 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 what should pass between us i asked if he was mr charles the writer the same says he and if the question is equally fair who may you be yourself you heard tell of my name nor of me is said i but i bring a token from a friend that yon know well that you know well i repeated ng my but maybe are not just so keen to hear from at this present being and the bits of business that i have to to you are rather in the nature of being confidential in short i would like to think we were quite private he rose without more words casting down bis paper like a man ill pleased sent forth his clerk of an errand and shut to the house door behind him now sir said he returning speak out your mind and fear nothing though before you begin he cries out i tell you mine me i i tell you beforehand ye re either a or a sent ye a good name it is and one it would my father s son to lightly but i begin to at the sound of it my name is called said i david of as for him that sent me i will let his token speak and i showed the silver button put it in your pocket sir cries he ye need name no names the s i ken the button of him i and de il t i where is he now p i told him i knew not where 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 david ii a been always my opinion that i would hang hi a tow for this family of mine he cried and i i believe the day s come now i get a ship for him he i and who s to pay for it p the man s that is my part of the affair mr said l here is a bag of good money and if more be wanted more is to be had where it came	38
from i needn t ask your politics said he ye need not said i smiling for fm as b a as grows stop a bit stop a bit says mr all this a p then why are you here with s button and what kind of a black foot is this that i find ye out in mr here is a rebel and an accused murderer with two hundred pounds on his life and ye ask me to in his business and then tell me ye re a i i have no mind of any such before though i ve plenty of them he s a 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 accused i hear you say so said more than yon are to hear me say so before long said l is innocent and so is james oh says he the two cases hang together tt is out james can never be in i i told him briefly of mj with of the accident that brought me present at the and the passages of onr escape among the and my recovery of my estate so sir you have now the whole train of these i went on and can see for how i come to be so much mingled up with the affairs of family and friends which for all of our i wish had been and less bloody you can see for too that i have certain pieces of business which were scarcely fit to lay before a lawyer chosen at random no more remains bnt to ask if you will undertake my service i have no great to it but as you do with s button the choice is scarcely left me said he what are your instructions he added and took up his pen the first point is to forth of this country said i but i need be repeating that i am little likely to forget it said the next thing is the bit money i am owing to i went on it would be ill for me to find a but that should be no stick to you it was two pounds five shillings and three sterling he noted it then said i there s a mr a and missionary in that i would like david well to get into the hands of and a i bay yon keep with friends in so near by it s a job you doubtless with the other how are we to say f he asked i was thinking of two pounds said i two said he then there s the in said l her that helped and me across the forth i was thinking if i could get her a good day gown such as she could wear with decency in her degree it would be an ease to my conscience for the mere truth is we owe her our two lives i am glad to see you are mr says he making his notes i would think shame to be otherwise the first day of my fortune said i and now if you will the and your own proper charges i would be glad to know if i could get some spending money back it s not that i grudge the whole of it to get safe it s not that i lack more but having drawn so much the one day i think it would have a very ill appearance if i was back again seeking the next only be sure you have enough i added for i am very to meet with you again well and i m pleased to see you cautious too said the writer but i think ye take a risk to lay m considerable a sum at my discretion he said this with a plain sneer ni have to run the hazard i and there s another service i would ask and that s ta direct me to a lodging for i haye no roof to my head bat it 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 te 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 with that he ken of your existence i saw i had got to the wrong side of the there s a coming for him then said i for he ll have to learn of it on the deaf side of hia head no later than to morrow when i call on him when ye call on him i repeated mr am i or are you what takes ye near the advocate just to give myself up said l mr he cried are ye making a mock of me no sir said i though i think you have allowed yourself some such freedom with myself but i give you to understand once and for all that i am in no spirit nor yet me says and i give you to if that s to be the word that i like of your behaviour less and less you come here ta d me with all sorts of which will pat me in a train of yery doubtful acts and bring me among very 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 i s button here or s button there the quarters of bribe me further in i would take it with a little more temper said i and perhaps we can what you object to i can see no way for it but	38
to give myself up but perhaps you can see another and if you could i could deny but what i would be rather relieved for i think my traffic with his 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 save s character what s left of it and james s neck which is the more immediate he was silent for a breathing space and then my man said he never be allowed to give such evidence well have to see about that said i i m stiff when i like ye cried it s james they want james has got to hang too if they could catch him but james whatever go near the with any such business and you ll see t hell find a way to ye i think better of the advocate than that said l david si the ad o ate be damned i cries he it s the man i have the whole of them on back and so will the advocate too poor body i if je cannot see where ye stand i if there s no fair way to stop your there s a foul one gaping they can put ye in the dock do ye no see that he cried and me with one finger in the leg ay said i i was told that same no further back than this morning by another lawyer and who was he asked he spoke sense at i told i must be excused from him for he was a decent stout old and had little mind to be mixed up in such affairs i think all the world seems to be mixed up in it cries but what said you i told him what had passed between and myself before the house of well and so ye will hang said he tell hang beside james there s your fortune told i hope better of it yet than that said i but i could deny there was a risk says he and then sat silent again i ought to thank you for your to my friends to whom you show a very good spirit he says if you haye the strength to stand by it but i warn you that you re deep i wouldn t put myself in your david me a bom i for ad the that oyer there were since ay i many bat to be tried in court before a jury and a and that in a country and upon a quarrel think what like of me if a beyond me a different way of thinking i suppose said i i was up to this one by my father before me glory to his bones i he has left a decent son to hia name says he yet i would not have you judge m over sorely my case is hard see sir i ye tell me ye re a i wonder what i am no ta be sure i be just that but in your ear man fm maybe no very keen on the other side is that a fact cried l it s what i would think of a man of your intelligence none of your cries 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 i he does very well for me across the water i m a lawyer ye see fond of my books and my bottle a good a well drawn deed a crack in the parliament house with other lawyer bodies and perhaps a turn at the on a saturday at e en where do ye come in with your and i it a haye of the little he man i and yet fm bom and when the pipes who but me has to dance f the and the name that goes by all it s just what yon said yourself my father learned it to me and a trade i have of it treason and and the of them oat and in and the french weary fall it i and the through of the and their a sorrow of their i here have i been moving one for young my cousin claimed the estate under the marriage contract a estate i i told them it was nonsense they cared i and there was i behind a that liked the business as little as myself for it was fair ruin to the pair of us a black mark on our dies like folk s names upon their i and what can i do p i m a ye see and must for my and family then no later by than yesterday there was one of our lads carried to the what for i ken fine act of for king and you ll see he ll whistle me in to be his lawyer and there ll be another black mark on my ter i i tell you fair if i but the of a hebrew word from the of it be but i would fling the whole thing up and minister i t david it a hard position said l hard i cries ha and that s makes me think so much of ye yon that s no to stick your head so deep in business and for i do not know unless it was the sense of duty i hope it will be that said l well says he it s a grand quality but here is my clerk back and by your e well pick a bit of dinner all the three of us when that s done ih you the direction of a very decent m n that be very fain to have you	38
for a and iii fill your pockets to ye out of your ain bag for this business ii not be near as dear as ye suppose not the ship part of it i made him a sign that his clerk was within hear ing ye mind for cries he a too and has oat more french and than what he has hairs upon his face why it s that that branch of my affairs who wiu we have now rob for across the water be in the replied bob i saw the other day but it seems he s wanting the ship then there ll be but i m none so sure of i ve seen him col with some queer acquaintances and if david it was anybody important i would give tain uie go by the head s worth two hundred pounds said that ll no be cried the clerk just said his master weary winds that s cried robin iii try then be the best it seems it s quite a big business i mr there s no end to it said there was a name your clerk mentioned i went on that must be my man i think of the would you set your trust on him he behave very well to you and said mr but my mind of the man in general is rather otherwise if he had taken on board his ship on an agreement it s my notion he would have a just dealer how say ye rob no more honest in the trade than said the clerk i would to s word ay if it was the or he added and it was him that brought the doctor t asked the master he was the very man said the clerk and i think he took the doctor back p says trust to david ay with his fall cried it seems it s hard to ken folk said l that was just what i forgot when ye in i says the writer this must have reference to dr oo his chapter m x go to thb next mornings i no sooner awake in my new ig than i was up and into clothes and no sooner the breakfast swallowed than i was forth on my i hope was for james was like to be a more affair and i not bnt think that enterprise might cost me dear even as 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 np so many and hard trials to be rich to be recognised to wear city clothes and a sword to my side all to commit mere suicide at the last end of it and the worst kind of suicide besides which is to get hanged at the king s charges what was i doing it for i asked as i went down the high street and out north by first i said it was to save james 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 david son whether james died in his bed or from a he was s cousin to be sure but so far as regarded the best thing would be to lie low and let the and his grace of and the pick the bones of his their own way not could i forget that while we were all in the pot together james had shown no such particular anxiety whether for or me next it came upon me i was acting for the sake of justice and i thought that a fine word and reasoned it out that since we dwelt in at some discomfort to each one of us the main thing of all must still be and the of any innocent man a wound upon the whole community next again it was the of the brethren that gave me a turn of his argument bid me think shame for pretending myself concerned in these high matters and told me i was but a tain child who had spoken big words to and to and held myself bound upon my vanity to make good that 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 or the s officer and be recognised and dragged into the murder by the heels and no doubt in case i could manage my declaration with success i should breathe more free for after bat when i looked this argument full in the ce 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 haye talked so much and then do nothing it s lucky for james of the that i have boasted beforehand and none so for myself because now to do right i haye the name of a gentleman and the means of one it would be a poor that i was wanting in the essence and then i thought was a pagan spirit and said a prayer in to myself asking for what courage i might lack and that i might go straight to my duty like a soldier to battle and come off again as so many do this train of reasoning brought me to a more complexion though it was	38
far from closing up my sense of the dangers that surrounded me nor of how yery apt i was if i went on to 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 me a feeling of the autumn and the dead and dead folks bodies in their it seemed the was in it if i was to die in that tide of my fortunes and for other folks affairs on the top of the hill though it was not the customary time of year for that some children were crying and running with their these toys appeared yery plain against the david b sky i remarked a great one on the wind to a hi and then plump among the and i thought to myself at sight of it there goes my way lay over s hill and through an end of a on the among fields there was a of in it went from house to house bees in the gardens the neighbours that i saw at the talked in a strange tongue and i found out later that this was a village where the french wrought for the linen company here i got a fresh direction for my destination and a little beyond on the came by a and two men hanged in chains they were dipped in tar as the manner is the wind span them the chains and the birds hung about the jumping 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 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 and who are these two mother f i asked and pointed to the a blessing on your precious face i she cried mine just o my old my t ti david what did they for p i on just for the cause said she i to them the way that it would end no and there are for t they took it f a be to ay i said i to myself and not to the and did they come to such a figure for so poor a n a this is to lose all indeed s your f says she and let me your weird to ye no mother said i i see far enough the way i am if s an thing to see too far in front i read it in your she said there s a that has een and there s a man in a coat and a big man in a wig and there s the shadow of the joe that lies across your path s your and let it to ye the two chance shots that seemed to point at and the daughter of james more struck me hard and i fled from the creature casting her a which she continued to sit and play with under the moving shadows of the hanged my way down the of walk would have been more pleasant to me but for this encounter the old ran among fields the like of them gallows david i had never been for of i pleased besides to be so far in the still bat the of the in my head t and the and of the old witch and the thought of the dead men rode my spirits to hang on a gallows that seemed a hard case and whether a man came to hang there for two shillings or as mr had it from the sense of duty once he was and and hung np the difference seemed small there might david hang and other lads pass on their errands and think light of him and old sit at leg foot and their fort and the dean maids go by and look to the other side and hold a nose i saw them plain and they had grey eyes and their upon their heads were of the colours i was thus in the poorest of spirits though still resolved when i came in view of a pleasant house set by the among some brave young woods the s horse was standing 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 but much of a he greeted me at first pretty well and when he had read s letter placed himself at my disposal and what is it cousin david p says he it appears that we are cousins what is this that i do for a word to that is easily bat what be the word mr said i if i were to tell you my whole story the way it fell out it s my opinion and it was s before me that yoa would be very little made up with it i am sorry to hear this of you says he i must not take that at your hands mr said i i have nothing to my to make m or you for me but just the common f mankind the guilt of adam s first sin the want of original 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 to reproach myself with and my difficulties hare befallen me yery much against my will and by all that i can	38
see without my my trouble is to haye become dipped in a political which it is judged yoa would be to avoid a knowledge of why very well mr david he replied i am pleased to see you are all that represented and for what you say of political you do me no more than justice it is my study to be beyond and indeed outside the field of it the my david is says be how if i am to of the matter i can very well assist yon p why sir said i i propose you should write to bis that i am a young man of reasonable good family and of good means both of which i to be the case i have s word for it said mr and i count that a against all deadly to which you might add if you will take my word for so much that i am a good loyal to king george and so brought up i went on none of which will do yon any harm said mn then yon might go on to say that i sought his on a matter of great moment connected with his majesty s service and the administration of justice suggested as i am not to hear the matter says the i will not take upon myself to its weight great moment therefore falls and moment along with it for the rest i might express myself much as you propose and then sir said i and rubbed my neck a little with my thumb then i would be very desirous if you could slip in a word that might perhaps tell for my protection protection says he for your protection p here is a phrase that somewhat me if the david matter be so i own i would be a to in i believe i could indicate in two words where the thing sticks said l perhaps that would be the best said he well it s the murder said i he held up both the hands i cried he i thought by the expression of his face and voice that i had lost my let me explain i began i thank you kindly i will hear no more of it says he i decline in to hear more of it for your name s sake and s and perhaps a little for your own i will do what i can to help you but i will hear no more upon the facts and it is my first clear duty to warn you these are deep waters mr david and you are a young man be cautious and think twice it is to be supposed i will have thought oftener than that mr said i and i will direct your attention again to s letter where i hope and believe he has his approval of that which i design well well said he and then again well well i i will do what i can for you he took a pen and paper sat awhile in thought and began to write with much consideration i understand thai david of what you hare in mind f ha asked presently after some discussion sir he bade me to go ward in god s name said i that is the name to go in said mr and resumed his writing presently he signed re read what he had written and addressed me again now here mr david said he is a letter of introduction which i will seal without closing and give into your hands open as the form requires but since i am acting in the dark i will just read it to you so that may see if it will secure your end mt lord this is to bring to your notice mj and cousin david of a young of descent and good estate he has enjoyed the more valuable advantages of a training and his principles are all that your can desire i am not in mr 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 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 ful anxiety the event of his success or failure whereupon continued mr i hate myself with the usual compliments yon observe i have said some of your friends i hope you can justify my p perfectly sir my purpose is known and approved by more than one said l and your letter which i take a to thank you f or is all i have hoped it was all i oat said he and from what i know of the matter you design to in i can only pray ood that it may prove sufficient chapter iv advocate kept me to a meal for the honour of the roof he said and i believe i made the better speed on my i had no thought but to be done with the next stage and have myself committed to a person 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 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 science at first i read for the little cabinet where i was left contained	38
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 david being lighted but a of a window i was at last obliged to from this as it was and pass the rest of my time of waiting in a the sound of people talking in a the pleasant note of a and once the of a lady singing bore me a kind of company i do not know the 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 is anybody there p he asked who is that p i am bearer of a letter from the of to the lord said i haye you been here long p he asked i would not like to hazard an estimate of how many hours said i it is the first i hear of it he replied with a the lads must haye forgotten you but you are in the bit at last for i am so saying he passed before me into the next room whither upon his sign i followed him and where he lit a candle and took his place before a business table it was a long room of a good proportion wholly lined with books that small spark of light in a comer struck out the man s handsome person and strong face he was flushed his eye watered and sparkled david and before he sat down i observed him to sway back and forth no doubt he had been liberally but his mind and tongue were under full control sir sit ye down said he and let us see s letter he glanced it through in the beginning carelessly looking up and bowing when he came to my name bat at the last words i thought i observed his attention to 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 and was come fairly oil the field of battle i am pleased to make your acquaintance mr four he said when he had done let me offer a glass of under your favour my lord i think it would be fair on me said i i have come here as the let ter will have mentioned on a business of some gravity to myself and as i am little used with wine i might be the sooner affected you shall be the judge said he but if you will permit i believe i will even have the bottle in myself he touched a bell and the 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 t in what way can i serve you f david i should perhaps begin bj telling yon my lord that i am here at your own pressing in said i yon have the advantage of me somewhere said he for i profess i think i never heard of you before this evening right my lord the name is indeed new to you said l and yet you have been for some time ex to make my acquaintance and have declared the same in public i wish you would afford me a due says he i am no daniel it will perhaps serve for such said i that if i was in a humour which is far from the case i believe i might lay a claim on your for two hundred pounds in what sense p he inquired in the sense of rewards offered for my person said i he thrust away his glass once and for all and sat straight up in the chair where he had been previously what am i to understand said he strong lad of about eighteen i quoted speaks like a and has no beard i recognise those words said he which if you have come here with any ill judged intention of amusing yourself are like to prove extremely to your safety david my purpose in this i replied is entirely as serious as life and death and you have understood me i am the boy who was speaking with when he was i can only suppose seeing you here that you to be innocent said he the is clear i said i am a yery loyal subject to king george but if i had anything to reproach myself with i would haye had more discretion than to walk into your den i am glad of that said he this horrid crime mr is of a which cannot permit any blood has been it has been shed in direct opposition to his majesty and our whole frame of laws by those who are their known and public i take a yery high sense of this i will not deny that i consider the crime as directly personal to his majesty and unfortunately my lord i added a little directly personal to another great personage who may be nameless if you mean anything by those words i must tell you i consider them unfit for a good subject and were they spoke publicly i should make it my business to take note of them said he you do not appear to me to recognise the of your situation or you would be more careful not to the same by words which upon the purity of justice david in and in my poor is no re of persons you give me too great a share in my own my lord said i i did but repeat the common talk of the which i have heard and from men of all opinions as i came along	38
when yon are come to more yon will understand talk is not to be listened to how less repeated says the advocate bat i yon of an ill intention that nobleman whom we all honour and who has indeed been wounded in a near place by the late sits too high to be reached by these the of 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 functions and the service of his majesty and i could wish that all hands in this ill age were equally clean of family but from the accident that this is a who has fallen martyr to his duty as who else but the have ever put themselves fore most on that path i may say it who am no and that the chief of that great house happens for all our advantages to be the present head of the col of justice small minds and tongues are set in in the and i find a young gentleman like mr so ill as to make himself their echo so much he spoke with a delivery as if in court and then david 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 the same rom your said l ay true says the advocate but you see yoa to me well recommended there is a good honest name to this letter b js he picking it up a moment from the table and extra mr 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 con science in what remains to be held of our interview i tell you it may remain between ourselves meaning how i asked why i mean it thus mr said he that if you give satisfaction no soul need know so much as that you visited my house and you may observe that i do not even call mv clerk i saw what way he was driving i suppose it is needless anyone should be informed upon my visit said i though the precise nature of my gains by that i cannot see i am not at all ashamed of coming here and have no cause to be says he nor yet if you are careful to fear the consequences david my said i speaking under your han i am not easy to be frightened and i am i do not seek to frighten yon says he bnt to the and let me warn yoa to nothing beyond the questions i shall ask yon it may consist very immediately with your safety i have a great discretion it is true but there are bounds to if i shall try to follow your s advice said l 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 at the moment of the fatal shot he began was this by accident by accident said i how came you in speech with f lie asked i was inquiring my way of him to i replied i observed he did not write this answer down h m true said he i had forgotten that and do you know mr i would dwell if i were yon as little as might be on your relations with these it might be found to our business i am not yet inclined to regard these matters as essential i had thought my lord that all points of fact were material in such a case said i you forget we are now trying these he david replied with great if we should come to be yoa it will be different and i shall press these very questions that i am now willing to glide upon but to resume i have it hero in mr s that you ran up the how came that immediately my lord and the cause was my seeing of the murderer you saw him then as plain as i see your though not so near hand tou know him i should know him again in your pursuit you were not so fortunate ao to overtake him i was was he alone he was alone there was no one else in that neighbourhood f was not far off in a piece of a wood the laid his pen down i think we are playing at cross purposes said he which you will find to prove a very ill amusement for yourself i content myself with following your s advice and answering what i am asked said i be so wise as to yourself in time said he i use you with the most anxious tenderness which seem to appreciate and which unless yon be more careful may prove to be in i do appreciate your tenderness but conceive it to be mistaken i replied with something of a for i saw we were come to at last i am here to lay before yon certain information by which i shall convince yon had no hand whatever in the killing of the advocate appeared for a moment at a stick sitting with lips and his eyes npon me like an angry cat mr he said at last i tell you 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	38
persons f these are that weigh with me and that i hope will weigh no less with your self mr as a lover of your country good and religious truth you deal with me very frankly and i thank you for it said i i will try on my side to be no less honest i believe your policy to be sound i believe these deep duties may lie upon your i believe yon may have laid them on your conscience when you took the oaths of the high which yon david hold bat for me who am a plain r a man yet the plain 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 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 if this be wilful blindness that he may me before too late he had heard me motionless and stood so a while longer this is an obstacle says he aloud but to himself and how is your to dispose of i asked if i wished he you know that you might sleep in my lord says i i hare slept in worse places well my boy said he there is one thing appears plainly from our interview that i may rely on your pledged word give me your honour that you will be wholly secret not only on what has passed to night but in the matter of the case and i let you go free i will give it till to morrow or any other near day that you may please to set said l i would not be thought too but if i gave the promise without your would have attained his end i had bo thought to you said i am sore of that said i let me see he to ii the sabbath to me on monday by eight ia the mornings and give me promise until freely given my lord said i add with r ard to what has fallen from yourself i give it tor as long as it shall please to spare your days you will observe be said that ave made no employment of it was like your s nobility i id l yet i am not altogether so dull but what i can perceive the nature of those you have not uttered well said he good night to you may you sleep well for i think it is more than i am like to do with that he sighed took up a and gave me conveyance as far as the street v the advocate s next day sabbath august i had don i had long looked forward to to hear some of the famous all well known to me already by the report of mr alas i and i might just as well have been at and sitting under mr s worthy self i the turmoil of my thoughts which dwelt on the interview with me from all attention i was indeed much less impressed by the reasoning of the than by the spectacle of the thronged tion in the churches like what i imagined of a theatre or in my then disposition of an of trial above all at the west with its three of galleries where i went in the vain hope that i might see miss on the monday i me for the first time to a 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 david and her there was never a sign of them bat i was no sooner shown into the cabinet or where i had spent so al a time npon the saturday i was aware of the tall e of james more in a comer he seemed a prey to a painful uneasiness reach ing forth his feet and hands and his eyes hero 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 him give you a good morning sir said i and a good morning to you sir said he you bide with p i asked i do sir and i pray your business with that gentle man 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 bo sir but times change it was not so when the word was in the scale young gentleman and the of the soldier might sustain themselves there came a kind of out of the man that raised my strangely well mr said i i understand the thing for a soldier is to be silent and the first of his never to complain david 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 i have shown my face and told my name too often in the of my enemies i must not wonder if both should be known to many that i know not that you know not in the least sir said i nor yet anybody else but the name i am called if you care to hear it is it is a good	38
to consult a 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 master of and chief of l e great i knew be had led his men in david the i knew his father s head my old that fox of the to have fallen on the block for that offence the lands of the family to have been seized and their nobility i not conceive what he should be doing in grant s i not conceive that he had been called to the bar had eaten all his principles and was now favour with the government even to the extent of acting advocate in the murder well mr said he what is all this i hear of ye it would not become me to said i but if the advocate was your authority he is fully possessed of my opinions i may tell you i am engaged in the case he went on i am to appear under and from my study of the i can assure you your opinions are the guilt of is manifest and your testimony in which you admit you saw him on the hill at the very moment will his hanging it will be rather ill to hang him till you catch him i observed and for other matters i very willingly leave you to your own impressions the duke has been informed he went on i have just come from his grace and he expressed himself before me with an honest freedom like the great nobleman he is he spoke of you by name mr david and declared bis beforehand in case yoa 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 i you know something of my name and and the example and lamented end of my late father to ay nothing of my own well i have made my peace with that good duke he has for me with our friend and here i am with my foot in the again and some of the responsibility shared into my hand of king george s enemies and the late daring aud insult to his majesty doubtless a proud position for your father s son says i he his bald eyebrows at me tou are pleased to make experiments in the 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 in the beginning will do more than ten years the is now at your command choose what you will to be advanced in the duke will watch upon you with the affectionate disposition of a father i am thinking that i lack the of the son says i and do you really suppose sir that the whole of this country is to be suffered to trip np and turn ble down for an ill 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 i do you suppose it is for my pleasure that i put myself in the highly position of a man that i have drawn the sword alongside of the choice is not left me but i thinks sir that you your choice when you mixed in with that unnatural rebellion i remarked my case is happily otherwise i am a true man and can look either the duke or king george in the face without concern is it so the wind sits says he i protest you are fallen in the worst sort of error has been hitherto so he tells me as not to combat your but you must not think they are not looked upon with strong suspicion tou say you are innocent my dear sir the facts declare you guilty i was waiting for you there said i the evidence of your flight after the completion of the your long course of my good young man said mr hero is enough evidence to hang a let be a david i i shall be upon that trial my voice shall be raised i shall then speak much otherwise from what i do to day and far less to your gratification little as yon like it now i ah you look white i cries he i david the key of your impudent heart ton look your eyes mr david i you see the grave and the gallows nearer by than you had fancied i own to a natural weakness said i i think no shame for that shame i was going on shame waits for you on the he broke where i shall but be with my lord your father said l but not so he cried and you do not yet see to the 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 pieces your personal part in it the treacherous one of hold ing the poor wretch in talk your a pack of ragged and it can be shown my great mr it can be shown and it 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 my evidence and it shall appear that you a young man of education let yourself be to this	38
ye re damned ye ll have to win over that lad ye u have to your back bone and think a less of your dainty self and yell have to try to find out that women folk are but that can never be to your last day ken no more of women folk than what i do of sow i had never been used with such expressions from a lady s tongue the only two ladies i had known mrs and my mother being most devout and most particular women and i suppose my amazement must have been depicted in my countenance for mrs 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 my dear i think well have to make a match of it if it was to see the and now she went on there s no manner of service in your 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 that i have nobody but myself to look after my reputation and have been long enough alone with a youth and come back another day for your i she cried after me as i left my this lady gave my david a boldness they had otherwise wanted for two days the image of had mixed in all m j meditations she made their background so that i scarce enjoyed my own company without a of her in a comer of my mind but now she came immediately near i seemed to touch her whom i had never touched bnt 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 desert where men go as soldiers on a march following their duty with what constancy they have and alone there to ofl er 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 business i had yet to take my part of service in a place where all must serve i had yet to learn and know and prove myself a man and i had so much sense as blush that i should be already tempted with these further on and delights and duties my education spoke home to me sharply i was never brought up on sugar but on the hard food of the truth i knew that he was quite unfit to be a husband who was not prepared to be a father also and for a boy like me to play the father was a mere derision when i was in the midst of these thoughts and david half back to town i 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 hut nothing to say first and remembering how tongue tied i had been that morning at the advocate i made sure that i would find myself struck dumb but when she came up my fears fled away not the consciousness of what i had been privately thinking least and i found i could talk with her as easily and as i might with she cried you have been seeking your six pence did you get it i told her no but now i had met with her my walk was not in vain though i have seen you to day already said i and told her where and when i did not see you she said my eyes are big but there are better than mine at seeing far only i heard singing in the house that was miss grant i eldest and tho they say they are all beautiful said she they think the same of you miss i replied and were all crowding to the window to observe you it is a pity about my being so blind said she or i might have seen them too and you were in house you must have been having the fine time with e fine and the pretty ladies t it david there is just where you are wrong said i for i was as uncouth as a sea fish upon the of a tain the truth is that i am better fitted to go about with men than pretty ladies well i would think so too at all i said she at which we both of us laughed it is a strange thing now said l i am not the least afraid with you yet i could have run from the miss and i was afraid of your cousin too i think any man will be afraid of her cried my father is afraid of her himself the name of her father brought me to a stop i looked at her as she walked by my side i recalled the man and the little i knew and the much i guessed of him and comparing the one with the other felt like a traitor to be silent speaking of which said i i met your father no later than this morning did you she cried with a voice of joy that seemed to mock at me you saw james more p yoa will have spoken with him then i did even that said i then i think things went the worst way for me thai was possible she gave me a look of mere gratitude ah thank you for that i says she you thank me for very little said i and then stopped but it seemed when i was holding	38
m david something at least had to come out i spoke rather ill him said i i did not like him very much i spoke him rather ill and he was i think you had little to do then and less to tell it to his daughter she cried out but those that do not and cherish him i will not know i will take the freedom of a word yet said i beginning to tremble perhaps neither your father nor i are in the best of good spirits at s i we both have anxious business there for it s a dangerous house i was sorry for him too and spoke to him the fit t if i could but haye spoken the wiser and for one thing in my opinion you will soon find that his affairs are mending it not be through your friendship i am think ing said she and he is much made up to you for your sorrow miss cried i i am alone in this world and i am not wondering at that said she 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 ol i know that what i said mast hurt yon and i knew it then it would have been easy to have spoken smooth easy to lie to you j can you not think how i was tempted to the same cannot you see the of my heart shine out p i think here is a great deal of work mr she i think we will have met bat the and will can part like gentle folk let me have one to believe in me i i pleaded i bear it else the whole world is against me how am i to go through with my dreadful fate p if there s to be none to believe in me i cannot do it the man must just die for i cannot do it she had still looked straight in front of her head in air but at mj words or the tone of my voice she came to a stop what is this you she asked what are you talking off 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 yon desert the poor soul they have tried all ways with me they have sought to bribe me they offered me hills and valleys and to day that hound told me how i stood and to what a length he would go to butcher and disgrace me i am to be brought in a party to the murder i am to have held in talk for money and old clothes i am to be killed and if this is the way i am to fall and me scarce a man if this is the story to be told of me in all scotland if you are to believe it too and my name is to be nothing but a by w how can i go through with it david the thing s not i s more than a man has in his heart i poured mj words out in a one npon the other and when i stopped i found her gazing on me with a startled face i it is the murder she said softly but with a very deep surprise i had back to bear her company and we were now come near the head of the dean at this word i stepped in front of her like one suddenly distracted for god s sake i i cried for god s sake what is this that i have done and carried my fists to my temples vi i o made me do it sure i am to say these things t in the name of heaven what you now she cried i my honour i groaned i gave my honour and now i have broke it i i am asking you what it is she said was it these things you should not have spoken p and do you think have no honour then p or that i am one that would betray a friend i hold up my right hand to you and swear i knew you would be true said i if s me it s here i that stood but this morning and 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 talk there is one thing clear upon our interview says he that i can rely on your pledged word where is my word now p who could believe me now f could not believe me i am clean fallen down i had best die i ah this i said with a weeping voice but i had no tears in my body my heart is sore for 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 i men who go about to and to destroy you i i this is no time to look up i do you not think i will be admiring you like a great hero of the good and you a boy not much older than myself and because you said a word too much in a friend s ear that would die ere she betrayed you to make such a matter it is one thing that we must both forget said i looking at her hang dog is this	38
true of it p would ye trust me yet p will you not believe the tears upon my face p she cried it is the world i am thinking of you mr david let them hang you i will never forget i will grow old and still remember you i think it is great to die so i will envy you that gallows and maybe all this while i am but a child with said i maybe they but make a of me david it is i must know she said i hear the whole the harm is done at all events and i must bear the whole i had sat down on the where she took a place beside me and i told her all that matter as i have written it my t her father s dealing being alone well she said had finished you are a barely and i never would have thought that same i and i think yon are in peril too i to think upon that man i for his life and the dirty money to be dealing in such traffic i 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 i says she look at the sun i it was already dipping towards the 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 at a change house and the better part of that night walked by myself in the fields and had such a sense of s presence that i seemed to bear her in my arms chapter the the next day august th i kept my appointment at the s in a coat that i had made to my own measure and was but newly ready says you are very fine today my are to ha e a fine i take that kind of you i take that kind of you mr david we shall do very well yet and i your troubles are nearly at an end you have news for me cried l beyond anticipation he replied tour is after all to be received and you may go if yon in my company to the trial which is to be held at thursday i was too much amazed to find words in the meanwhile he continued though i will not ask you to renew your pledge i must caution you strictly to be to morrow your must be taken and outside of that do you know i think least said will be mended i shall try to go said l i it k yourself that i must thank for this crowning mercy mm thi r david and i do thank you gratefully after yesterday my lord this is like the doors of heaven i cannot find it in my heart to get the thing believed ah but yon must try and manage yon must try and manage to believe it says he soothing like and i am very glad to hear your acknowledgment of tion for i think you may be able to repay me very shortly he or even now the matter is changed your testimony which i shall not trouble you for to day will doubtless alter the complexion of the case for all concerned and this makes it less delicate for me to enter with you on a side issue my lord i interrupted excuse me for interrupt g yon but how has this been brought about p the obstacles you told me of on saturday appeared even to me to be quite how has it been con my dear mr david said he it would never do for me to even to you as you say the of the government and you must content yourself if yon please with the gross he smiled upon me like a father as he spoke playing the while with a new pen it was impossible there could be any shadow of deception in the man yet when he drew to him a sheet of paper dipped his pen among the ink and began again to address me i was somehow not so certain and fell instinctively into an attitude of guard david there is a point i wish to touch 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 upon the hill a did my lord said i this was immediately after the murder at was did you speak to him you had known him before i think p says my lord carelessly cannot guess your reason for so thinking my lord i replied but such is the fact and when did you part with him again said he i reserve my answer said i the question will be put to me at the mr 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 it appears you suppose you can protect and you talk to me of your gratitude which i think if yon push me is not ill deserved there are a gi eat many differ ent considerations all pointing same way and i will never be persuaded that you could not help if yoa to put salt on s tail david my lord said i i yoa my word i do not so as guess where is he paused a breath nor how he might be found p he asked i sat before him like a	38
log of wood and so much for your gratitude mr david be 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 and in the meantime my must be waiting you they will never forgive me if i detain their into the hands of these graces i was accordingly offered up and found them dressed beyond what i had thought possible and looking fair as a 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 for one moment the red head of of the tom the son of the next mo ment he was gone again nor could i see so much as the skirt tail of upon whom i naturally supposed him to be then attending my three led me out by and the field links whence a path carried us to hope park a beautiful laid with gravel walks furnished with seats and and by a keeper david the way there was a little the two younger affected an air of genteel weariness that me 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 of eight or ten young gentle men some of them officers the rest chiefly who crowded to attend upon these beauties and though i was presented to all of them in yery 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 they would have shown me quite as much of both some of the set up to be wits and some of the soldiers to be and i could not tell which of these extremes annoyed me most ah had a manner of handling their swords and coat skirts for the which in mere black envy i could have kicked them from that park i upon their side they me extremely the fine company in which i bad arrived and altogether i had soon fallen behind and stepped stiffly in the rear of all that merriment with my own thoughts from these i was recalled by one of the officers tenant a boy asking if my name was not i told him it was not kindly for his manner waa scant civil ha says he and then repeating it i am afraid yon do not like my name sir says i annoyed with myself to be annoyed with such a fellow no says he but i thinking i not you to make a practice of that sir says i i feel sure you not find it to agree with you you hear where the p said he i asked him what he could possibly mean and he answered with a laugh that he thought i must haye found the in the same place and swallowed it there could be no mistake about this and my cheek burned before i went about to put 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 than the fashion of his countenance changed tou i cries he and hit me a on the jaw with mb fist david i paid him as good or better on the return whereupon he stepped a little back and took off his hat to me enough i think says he i will be the offended for who heard of such as tell a that is the king s he speak s english p we have swords at our 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 to himself about 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 him it was manifest he had come pre 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 manifest enough that i should be the one to fall in our encounter as we came into that rough rocky desert of the king s park i was tempted half a dozen times to take to my heels and run for it so was i to show my ignorance in 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 was still an improvement on the gallows i considered be david that by the 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 and certainly with no more hope we went about the end of the long and came into the hunter s here on a piece of fair turf my adversary drew there was nobody there	38
to see us but some birds and no resource for me but to follow bis example and stand on guard with the best face i could display it seems it was not good enough for mr who some flaw in my paused looked upon me sharply and came off and on and me with is blade in the air as i had seen no such proceedings from and was besides a good deal affected with the of death i grew quite bewildered stood helpless and could have longed to run away fat her cries the lieutenant and suddenly engaging he the sword out of my grasp and sent it flying far among the rushes twice was this repeated and the third time when i brought back my weapon i found he had returned his own to the and stood awaiting mc with a face of some anger and his hands clasped under his skirt david pe if i touch yon he cried and asked me bitterly what right i had to stand np before when i did not know the back of a sword from the front of it i answered that was the fault of my 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 myself and as a lions but to stand up there and you ken of fence i the way that you did i declare it was me and i am sorry for the though i declare i your own was the elder brother and my still sings with it and i declare if i had what way it i would not put a hand to such a piece of that is handsomely said i replied and i am sure you will not stand up a second time to be the actor for my private enemies indeed no our said he and i think i was used extremely myself to be set up to with an wife or all the same as a and i will tell the master so and him by cot himself and if you knew the nature of mr s quarrel with me said i you would be yet the more to be mingled up with such affairs he swore he could well believe it that all the david were made of the same meal and the devil was the miller that that then suddenly shaking me by the hand he i was a pretty fellow after all that it was a thousand i had been neglected and that if he could find the time he would give an eye himself to have me educated you can do me a better service than even what you propose said i and when he had asked its nature come with me to the house of one of my enemies and testify how i have carried myself this day i told him that will be the true service for though he has sent me a gallant adversary for the first in mr s mind is merely murder there will be a second and then a third and by what yon have seen of my cleverness with the cold steel you can judge for yourself what is like to be and i would not like it myself if i was no more of a man than what you i he cried but i will da you right lead on if i had walked slowly on the way into that accursed park my heels were light enough on the way out they kept time to a very good old air that is as ancient a the bible and the words of it are surely the 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 we went through the up the gate in by the and straight to david s door talking as we came and arranging details of oar affair the footman owned his master was at home but declared him engaged with other gentlemen on private business and his door forbidden my business is but for three minutes and it cannot wait said i you may say it is by no means private and i shall be glad to haye some witnesses as the man departed unwillingly enough upon this errand we made so bold as to follow him to the whence i could hear for a while the murmuring of several voices in the room within the is they were three at the one table and mr of and as they were met in consultation on the very business of the murder they were a little disturbed at my appearance but decided to receive me well well mr and what brings you here again and who is this you bring with you p says as for he looked before him on the table he is here to bear a little testimony in my favour my lord which i think it very needful you should hear said i and turned to i have only to say this said the lieutenant that i stood up this day with in the hunter s which i am now sorry for and he behaved himself as pretty as a could ask it and i have respects for he added david i yon for your honest said l made his bow to the company and left the chamber as we had agreed upon before what have i to do with this says i will tell in two words said l i hare brought this gentleman a king s to do me so much justice now i think my character is covered and until a certain date which your can yery well supply it will	38
be quite in tain to despatch against me any more officers i will not consent to fight my way through the garrison of the castle the veins swelled on s brow and he regarded me with fury i think the devil this dog of a lad between my legs he cried and then turning fiercely on his neighbour this is some of your work he said i spy your hand in the business and let me tell you i resent it it is when we are agreed upon one expedient to follow another in the dark you are to me what i you let me send this lad to the place with my very daughters and because i let drop a word to you sir keep your to yourself was deadly pale i will be a kick ball between you and the duke no longer he exclaimed either come to an agreement or come to a differ and have it out among yourselves but i will no longer and carry and get your contrary instructions and david be blamed by for if i were to tell yoa what i think of all your business it would make your head sing bat had preserved his temper and now smoothly and in the meantime says he i think we should tell mr that his character for 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 ity to pack me from the house chapter k the ok i left that afternoon i was for the first time angry the 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 against my life by the hands of the soldier but as appeared from his m language himself had some design in operation i my enemies with all the king s authority behind him and the with the power of the west and the interest by their side to help them with so great a force in the north and the whole of old and and when i remembered james more and the red head of the son of i thought there was perhaps a fourth in the and what remained of bob boy s old desperate of would be against me with the others one thing was requisite some strong friend or wise the country must be full of such both to support me or and the duke and had not been for and it made me rage to think that i might against my in the street and be no wiser and then like an answer a gentleman against me going by gave me a meaning look and tamed into a close i knew him with the tail of my eye it was the writer and blessing my good fortune tamed in to follow him as soon as i had entered the close i saw him standing in the month of a stair where he made me a signal and immediately vanished seven np there he was again in a door the which he locked behind as after we had entered the was with not a stick of indeed it was one of which had the letting in his hands well have to sit upon the floor said lie but we re safe here for the time being and i ve been ing to see ye mr how s it with p i asked said he him np at sands to morrow wednesday he was keen to say good by to ye bat the way that things were going i was feared the pair of ye was maybe best and that brings me to the essential how does your ness speed why said i i was told only this morning that my testimony was accepted and i was to travel to lo with the advocate no less david cried fu never that i have maybe a of my own i but i like fine to hear reasons well i tell ye fairly i m horn mad cries if my one hand could pull their down i would pluck it like a rotten apple i m for and for james of the and of course it s my duty to defend my for his life hear how it goes with me and leave the judgment of it to yourself the first thing they have to do is ta get rid of they bring in james as art and part until they ve brought in first as principal s sound law they could never put the cart before the horse and how are they to bring in till they catch him says i ah but there is a way to that said he sound law too it would be a thing if by the escape of one ill another to go and the is to summon the principal and put him to for the non now there s four places where a person can be summoned at his dwelling house at a place where he has resided forty days at the head of the where he ordinarily or lastly if there be ground to think him forth of scotland at the cross of and shore of for days the purpose of last is evident upon its being that ont going ships may have time to news of the action and the be something other than a form now take the case of he has no that i could hear of i would be obliged if anyone would show me where he has lived forty days together since the there is no where he whether ordinarily or if he has a at ally which i it must be with his regiment	38
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 for where then and what way should he be summoned i ask it at yourself a you have given the very words said l here at the cross and at the pier and shore of for days ye re a lawyer than cries the writer he has had summoned once that was on the twenty fifth the day that we first met once and done with it and where where but at the cross of the head of the a word in your ear mr they re not seeking what do you i cried seeking by the best that i can make of it said he not to find him in my poor thought they think david perhaps he might set np a fair defence upon the back of which james the man they re after might climb out this is not a case ye see a con yet i can tell yon asked after keenly said i when i come to think of i he was something of the easiest put by see that i says he but there i i may be right or wrong that s at the best and let me get to my facts again it comes to my ears that james and the witnesses the witnesses mr i lay in close and in the military prison at fort william none allowed in to them nor they to write the witnesses mr heard ye ever the match of that i assure ye no old crooked of the gang ever the law more if clean in the two eyes of the act of parliament of imprisonment no sooner did i get the news than i the lord justice i have his word to day there s law for ye i here s justice i he put a paper in my hand that same mouthed false faced paper that was printed since in the by a for as the title says of james s poor widow and five children see said he couldn t dare to refuse me access to my so he the command ing officer to let me in i the lord david justice of scotland 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 here and fort william there would follow a fresh delay till i got fresh authority and they had the officer military man ignorant of the law and that i ken the cant of it then the journey a third time and there we should be on the immediate heels of the trial before i had received my first instruction am i not right to call this a conspiracy it will bear that colour said l and 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 be as free as the lord justice him self see read for the rest refuses to give any orders to of who are not accused as having done anything contrary to the duties of their office anything contrary i i and the act of seventeen i mr this makes my heart to burst the is on fire inside my and the plain english of that phrase said i is that the witnesses are still to lie in prison and you are not to see them and i am not to see them until when the david court bet i cries he and then to hear npon the anxious of his office and the great afforded the defence but iii them there mr david i have a plan to the witnesses npon the road and see if i get a little of justice out of the military man ignorant of the law that shall command the party it waa it was actually on the near and by the of a soldier officer that mr first saw the witnesses npon the case there is nothing that would surprise me in this business i remarked fu surprise you ere fm done cries he do ye see this producing a print still wet from the press this is the see there s s name to the list of witnesses and i find no word of any but here is not the question who do ye think paid for the of this paper i suppose it would likely be king george said i but it happens it was me i he cried not but it was printed by and for themselves for the and the and yon thief of the black midnight but could win to get a copy no i was to go to my defence i was to hear the charges for the first time in court the jury is not this against the law i asked i cannot say so much he replied it was a david favour and so constantly rendered till this business that the law has never looked to it and now admire the hand of providence i a stranger is in s house a proof on the floor it up and carries it to me of all things it was just this whereupon i had it set again printed at the expense of the defence heard ever man the like of it and here it is for anybody the secret out all may see it now but how do you think i would enjoy this that has the life of my on my conscience i think	38
you would enjoy it ill said l and now you see how it is he concluded and why when you tell me your evidence is to be let in i laugh aloud in your face it was now my turn i laid before him in brief mr s threats and offers and the whole incident of the with the subsequent scene at s of my first talk according to promise i said nothing nor indeed was it necessary all the time i was talking nodded his head like a mechanical figure and no sooner had my voice ceased than he opened his mouth and gave me his opinion in two words dwelling strong on both of them disappear yourself said he i do not take you said i then i ll carry you there said he by my view of it you re to disappear whatever that s outside david debate the is not without some of a remainder has wrung your life safe out of and the duke he has refused to put you on your trial and refused to have you killed and there is the to their ill words together for 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 tm in bitter error if ye re not to be and carried away like the lady bet me what you please there was their expedient i you make me think said i and told him of the whistle and the red headed wherever james more is there s one big rogue be on that said he his father was none so iu a man though a on the wrong side of the law and no friend to my family that i should waste my breath to be defending him i but as for james he s a and a i like the appearing of this red headed as little as yourself it looks i it smells bad it was old that managed the lady affair if young is to handle yours it ll be all in the family james more in prison for p the same offence his men haye had practice in the business he ll be to lend them to be s instruments and the next thing well be hearing james will have made his peace of else he ll haye escaped and be in or david ye make a strong case i admitted and what i want he is that yoa disappear 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 that your evidence is worth so very great a measure of both risk and i will tell you one thing said l i saw the murderer and it was not then by god my cousin s saved cried tou 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 u want it ere ye re through go straight this close there s a way out by there to the and by my will of it i see no more of till the clash is over where am i to go then p i inquired and i wish that i tell ye i says he but all the places that i could send ye to would be just the places they would seek no ye must for yourself and god be your guiding five days before the trial september the sixteen get word to me at the king arms in and if ye ve managed for yourself as long as that see that ye reach one thing more said l i no see he seemed i would you said he but i can never deny that extremely keen of it and is to lie this night by on if yon re sure that you re not followed mr but make sure of that lie in a good place and watch your road for a clear hour before ye risk it it would be a dreadful business if both you and him was to i chapter x thb bed it was about half past three when i came m the dean was where i wanted to go since there and the 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 to my con science 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 and lay waiting after a while a man went by that looked to be a but i had never seen him till that hour presently after came of the red head the next to go past was a miller s cart and after that nothing out manifest country people here was enough to have turned the most from his purpose but my inclination ran too strong the other way i argued it out that if was on that road it was the right road to find him in leading david to his chiefs daughter as for the other high if i was to be startled off by i saw i would scarce reach anywhere and having satisfied myself with this debate i made the better speed of it and came a uttle after four to mrs s both ladies were within the house and upon my them together by the open door	38
i plucked off my hat and said here was a lad come seeking which i thought might please the 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 by daylight to at the whom she knew to be the for 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 at least i was not so much ao as she thought and it was plain enough even to my wits that she was bent to hammer up a match between her cousin and a boy that wa something of a in had better take his with us oat says she sun and tell the and for the little while we were alone was at a good deal of pains to flatter me always cleverly david with the of a still me but with a turn that should rather me in my own opinion when returned the design became if possible more and she showed off the girl s advantages like a with a horse my face that she should think me so now i would fancy the girl waa being innocently made a show of and then i could have beaten the old wife with a and now that perhaps these two had set their heads together to me and at that i sat and them like the very image of ill will at last the had a better device which was to the pair of us alone when my suspicions are anyway roused it is sometimes a little the wrong side of easy to them but though i knew what breed she was of and that was a breed of thieves i could never look in s face and her i must not ask says she eagerly the same moment we were left alone ah but to day i can talk with a free conscience i replied i am lightened of ray pledge and indeed after what has come and gone since morning i would not have renewed it were it asked tell me she said my cousin will not be so long so i told her the tale of the lieutenant from the first step to the last of it making it as as indeed was matter of mirth in that i think you will be as little fitted for the men as for the pretty ladies after all i says she when i had done bnt what was your father that he could not learn yon to draw the sword it is most i have not heard the match of that in anyone tf it is most at least said i and i think my father honest man i must haye been to learn me latin in the place of it bnt yon see i do the best i can and just stand up like lot s wife and let them hammer at me do you know what makes me smile said she well it is this i am made this way that i should haye 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 oyer me that i am only a girl at all and cannot hold a sword or one good blow and then i haye to twist my story round about so that the fighting is to stop and yet me haye the best of it just like you and the lieutenant and i am the boy that makes the fine speeches all through like mr you are a maid said i well i know it is good to and spin and to make she said but if you were to do david nothing else in the great world i think yon will yourself it is a business and it is not that i want to i think did ever yon kill anyone f that i hare as it chances two no less and me still a lad that should be at the college said l bat yet in the look i take no shame for it bnt how did you feel then after she asked deed i sat down and like a said i i know that too she i feel where these tears should come from and at any rate i would not wish to kill only to be that put her arm through the of the bolt where it was broken that is my chief hero would yon not love to die so for your king p she asked said i my affection for my king god bless the 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 she said the right mind of a man i only you must learn arms i would not like to have a friend that cannot strike but it will not haye 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 to me for i am about as with the pistols as i am with the sword so then she drew from me the story of our battle david in the i had omitted in my first of mj affairs said she yon are brave and your friend i admire and love him well and i think any one said i he has his faults like other folk but he is brave and and kind god bless him i	38
and walked at a stiff pace to where i came from the path lay close by the where i had remarked the head the cover came to the and as i passed i was all strung up to meet and to resist an no such thing i went by with and at that fear increased npon me it was still day indeed bnt the place exceeding solitary if my had let slip that fair occasion i could but judge they aimed at something more than david the lives of and james weighed upon my spirit with the weight of two grown was yet in the garden walking by herself said i you see me back again with a changed face said she i carry two men s lives besides my own said l it would be a sin and a 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 to harm i could tell you one that would be liking it less and will like little enough to hear you talking at this very same time she cried what have i done at all events you i you are not alone i replied but since i went off i have been dogged again and i can give you david the name of him that follows me it is ci your man or your father s to be you are mistaken there she said with a white face is in on errands from my father it is what i fear said i the last of it but for his being in i think i can show you another of that for sure you have some signal a signal of need such as would bring him to your help if he was anywhere within the reach of ears and legs why how will you know that says she by means of a god to me when i was born and the name they call it by is common sense said i oblige me so far as to make your signal and i will show you the red head of 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 of set her fingers to her lips and whistled once with an exceeding clear strong mounting note as full as a 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 i pointed in that direction with a smile and presently leaped into the garden his eyes burned and he had a black david knife as they call it on the side naked in his hand but seeing me beside his mistress stood like a man he has come call said i judge how near he was to or what was the nature of your father s errands ask himself if i am to lose my life or the lives of those that hang by me through the means of your let me go where i have to go with my eyes open she addressed him in the s anxious civility in that particular i could have laughed out loud for bitterness here sure in the midst of these suspicions was the hour she should have stuck by english twice or thrice they spoke together and i could make out that for all his was an man then she turned to me he it is not she said said i do you believe the man yourself she made a gesture like wringing the hands how will i can know she cried but i must find some means to know said l i cannot continue to go round in the black night with two men s lives at my i 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 ever haye fallen between me and you no kind of talk my heart is sick with it see keep him here till two of the mornings and i care not him with that they spoke together once more in the he says he has james more my father s errand said she she was than ever and her faltered as she said it it is pretty plain now said i and may god forgive the wicked i 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 what am i to do she cried could i go against my father s orders and him in prison in the danger of his life p but perhaps we go too fast said i this may be a lie too he may have no right orders all may be contrived by and your father knowing nothing she burst out weeping between the pair of us and my heart smote me hard for i thought this girl was in a dreadful situation here said i keep him but the one hour and i ll chance it and say god bless you she put out her hand to me i be one good word she sobbed the fall then said i keeping her hand in mine three of it my i the fall i she said and cried on her to forgive her i thought it no lit place for me and fled xi wood bt i no time but down the and and as hard as i it was s to lie every night between twelve and two mn	38
a bit of wood by east of silver mills and by the mill this i found easy enough where it grew on a steep with the mill 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 it was not to be supposed that 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 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 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 f and how would i like that t david i mm up with tbe west end of that wood when these two considerations me like a my feet stopped of themselves and my heart along with them what wild game is this that i have been playing p thought i and tamed instantly upon my heels to go elsewhere this brought my face to the path came past the village with a but all plainly visible and or there was nobody stirring here was my advantage here was just such a as had me to profit by and i ran by the side of the mill fetched about beyond the east comer of the wood through the midst of it and returned to the west 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 the images and distances of things were mingled and observation began to be all that time not a foot of man had come east from and the few that had gone west were honest and their wives upon the road to bed if i were by the most cunning in europe i david judged it vas beyond the course of nature they have any jealousy of where i was and going a further home into the wood i lay down to wait for 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 a little in the wood all round there was a stillness of the try and as i lay r on my back the next three or four hours i had a fine occasion to review my conduct two things became plain to me first that i had had no right to go that day to dean and gone there had now no right to be lying where i was this where 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 to that same night how i had of the two lives i carried and had thus forced her to her father s and how i was here exposing them again it seemed m a good conscience is eight parts of courage no sooner had i lost conceit of my behaviour than i seemed to stand amidst a throng of terrors of a den i sat up how if i went now to caught him as i still easily might before he slept and made a full submission who could blame me f david the writer i had bnt to say that i was followed of getting clear and so gave in not 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 after all and truly none of mine swim clear of the murder get forth out of of all the and all the and in the land and to my own mind and be able to enjoy and to improve my fortunes and devote some hours of my youth to which would be surely a more suitable occupation than to hide and run and be followed like a hunted thief and begin over again the dreadful miseries of my escape with at first i thought no shame of this 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 of spirits back to my late and that again to the common old public sin of self indulgence instantly the text came in my head how can satan cast out satan f what i thought i had by self indulgence and the following of pleasant paths and the of a young maid cast myself wholly out of conceit with my own character and the lives of james and and i was to seek the way out by the same road as i had david entered in p no the hurt that had been bj must be by self denial the flesh i had must be i looked about me for that course which i least liked to follow this was to leave the wood without waiting to see and go forth again alone in the dark and m the midst of my perplexed	38
and dangerous fortunes i have been the more careful to 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 and even in and religion room for common sense it was already close on s hour and the moon was down if i left as i could not very decently whistle to my to follow me they might miss me in the dark and tack themselves to 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 other safety in a course of self indulgence to have them again and now on a mere design of penance would have been scarce rational accord i had scarce risen from my place ere i sat down again but already in a different frame of spirits and equally at my past weakness and rejoicing in my present composure presently after came a in the putting my mouth near down to the ground i whistled a note or two of s air an answer came in the like david guarded tone and we had together in dark is this yon at last p be whispered just myself said i ood man but ive been to see ye i he i ve had the longest kind of a time a day i ve had my dwelling into the inside of a of hay where i see the of my ten fingers and then two of it waiting here for yon and yon never coming t and ye re none too soon the way it with me to sail the mom i the mom p what am i saying p the day i mean ay man the day said l past twelve now and ye sail the day be a long road yon have before yon well have a long crack of it first said he well indeed and i have a good deal it will be yon to hear said i and i told him what making rather a of it bat clear 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 ns could see the other was extraordinary friendly to my heart ay ye re a queer character says he when i had done a queer after a and i have no mind of meeting with the like of ye as for your david story is a like so fu the less of him and i he was the best friend ye had if ye could only him bat and james more are my ain kind of cattle and them the name that they the black de was father to the a body that and as for the i never could the of them since i on two feet i the nose of one i mind when i was still so on my legs that i npon the top of a proud man was my father that day ck d rest him and i think he had the cause ill never can deny but what was something of a he added but as for james more the de il guide him for me i one thing we have to consider said l was right or wrong f is it only me they re after or the pair of us and what s your ain opinion you that s a man of so much experience said ha it passes me said i and me too says do ye think this would keep tier word to ye p he asked i do that said l well there s telling said he and any way that s over and done hell be joined to the rest of them how many would ye think there would be of them p i asked david x b that depends said if it was only you tliey would likely send two three lively brisk young and if they thought that i was to appear in the employ i ten or twelve said he it was no use i gave a little crack of laughter and i think your own two eyes will have seen me drive that number or the double of it nearer hand i cries he it matters the less said i because i am well rid of them for this time doubt that s your opinion said he but i be the least surprised if they were this wood ye see david man they ll be folk be some i m thinking and some of the and i would never but what the both of them and the in especial were clever experienced persons a man little till he s driven a of neat cattle say ten miles through a throng country and the black soldiers maybe at his tail it s there that i learned a great part of my penetration and ye need tell me it s better than war which is the next best however though generally rather a of a business now the or have had grand practice no doubt that s a branch of education that was out with me said l and i can see the marks of it upon ye but that s the strange thing yon david folk of the college ye re ignorant and ye see t s me for my and hebrew but man i ken that i ken them there s the differ of it now here s yon ye lie on your a in the of this wood and ye tell me that ye e off these and why because i see them says yon ye that s their take the worst of ity said i and what are we to do i am	38
thinking of that same said he we might it be greatly to my taste and that i see reasons against it first it s now dark and it s possible we might give them the clean slip if we keep together we make but the ae line of it if wo gang separate we make of them the more to in npon some of these gentry of yours and then second if they keep the track of us it may come to a for it yet and then i ll confess i would be to have you at my 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 and hold away east for where fm to find my ship it ll be like old days while it lasts and come the time well have to think what you should be doing i m to leave ye here wanting me david have with ye then i says l do ye gang where you were stopping de il a fear i said they were good folks to me bat i think they would be a good deal disappointed if they saw my face again for the way times go i what ye call a guest which makes me the for your company mr david of the and set ye up for leave aside cracks here in the wood with i have scarce said black or white the day we parted at with which he rose from his place and we began to quietly eastward through the wood chapter ok the with it was likely between one and two the moon as i said was down a wind a heavy of had set in suddenly from the west and we began onr 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 thence through and beside my old acquaintance the of the two thieves a little beyond we made a useful which was a light in an upper window of by this but a good deal at random and with some of the harvest and stumbling and falling down upon the banks we made our way across country and won forth at last upon the that they call the here under a bush of we lay down the remainder of that m ht and the day called us about beautiful morning it the high wind still blowing strong but the clouds all blown away to was already sitting up and smiling to himself it was my first of my friend we were parted and i looked upon him with enjoyment he had still the same big great coat on his back but what was new he had now a pair of boot drawn above the knee doubtless these wi intended for disguise but as the day promised to be warm he made a most figure well said he is this no a 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 and while you were there and sleeping i have done a thing that maybe i do over seldom and what was that p said i just said my prayers said he and where are my gentry as ye call them p i asked says he and the short and the long of it is that we must take our chance of them with your foot forth fortune once again of it i and a walk we are like to have so we went east by the beach of the sea towards where the salt were smoking in by the mouth ko doubt there was f by ordinary of morning sun on arthur ii seat and the green and the of day appeared to set among i fed like a says he to be leaving land on a day like this it sticks in my head i would maybe like it better to stay here and ay bat ye said i no bnt what france is a good place too he explained bat it s some way no the same i believe bat it s no scotland i like it fine when i m there man yet i kind of weary for and the if that s all yon have to complain of it s no great affair said l and it sets me ill to be complaining said he and me bat new oat of yon de il s hay and so yoa were weary of year p i asked weary s word for it said he i m not just precisely a man s easily cast down bat i do better with air and the lift above my head i m like the black t that better to hear the sing than the mouse and yon place ye see was a very place to hide in as i m free to own was pit from dawn to there were days or nights for how would i tell one from other p that seemed to me as long as a long winter how did you know the hour to bide your f i asked the brought me my meat and a drop i b m f brandy and a to eat it by about said he so when i had swallowed a bit it be time to be getting to the wood there i lay and wearied for ye sore says he laying his hand on my shoulder and guessed when the two hours be about by unless would come and tell me on his watch and then back to the na it was a employ and praise the lord that i hare through	38
though they were building there at mrs s it seemed a desert like back going town about half full of ruined houses but the ale house was clean and who was now in a glowing heat must indulge himself with a bottle of ale and carry on to the new with the old story of the cold upon his only now the symptoms were all different david i sat listening and it came in my mind that i had ever heard him address three serious words to any woman but he was always and and making a mock of them and yet brought to that business a remarkable degree of energy and interest something to this effect i remarked to him when the good wife as chanced was called away what do ye want says he a man should aye put his best foot with the he should aye give them a bit of a story to divert them the poor i it s what ye should learn to attend to ye should get the principles it s like a trade now if this had been a young or ways she would never have heard tell of my stomach but they re too old to be seeking they a set up to be what do i ken p they ll be just the way god made them i suppose but i think a man would be a that give his attention to the same and here the coming back he turned from me as if with impatience to renew their former con the lady had some while before from s stomach to the case of a of her own in whose last sickness and she was describing at extraordinary length sometimes it was merely dull sometimes both dull and awful for she talked with the was that i fell in a deep muse looking forth of the window on the road david md marking what i saw presently had any been looking they might have seen me to start we pit a to his feet the was saying and a to his and we him and water of and fine clean of for the sir says i cutting very quietly in there s a friend of mine gone by the is that e en replies as though it were a thing of small account and then ye were saying says he and the al wife went on presently he paid her with a half crown piece and she must go forth after the change was it him with the red head asked ye have it said i what did i tell you in the he cried and yet if s strange he should be here too was he his lane p his lee lane for what i could see said l did he gang by p he asked straight by said i and looked neither to the light nor left and that s yet said it sticks in my mind that we should be stirring but wh ne to p t i this is old days fairly ha there is one big differ though said i that we have money in our pockets david and another big differ mr says hb that now we have dogs at our tail they re on the scent they re in full cry david if a a bad business and be damned to if and he sat thinking hard with a look of his that i knew well tm saying says he when the returned have ye a back road out of this change house f she told him there was and where it led to then sir says he to me i think that will be the shortest road for us and here s good bye to ye my woman and no forget then of the water we went out by way of the woman s yard and up a lane among fields 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 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 friendly man that suffered with the stomach poor body i and was real ta en up about the man david try and learn to have some kind of intelligence i ni try said l and now for him of the red head hei was he fast or slow david and between said l ko kind of a hurry about the man p he never a sign of it said i i said it looks queer we saw nothing of them this morning on the he s passed us by he seem to be looking and yet here he is on our road i i begin to take a notion i think if a no you they re seeking i think if me and i think they ken fine where they re they ken p i asked i think s sold him or his mate some part of the or else s clerk which would be a pity too says and if you me for just my inward private conviction i think there l be heads cracked on sands i cried if you re at all right be folk there and to spare it ll be small service to crack heads it would aye be a satisfaction though says but bide a bit bide a bit i m thinking and thanks to this wind i believe i ve stiu a chance of it if s this way i m no with this man till the comes but says he can get a ut of a wind out of the west ru le	38
there long or that he says and lie to for ye behind the isle of now if your the david ihey ken the time do ye see me p thanks to cope and other led coat i ken this country like the back of my hand and if ye re ready for another bit run with well can cast back and come down to the again by if the ship s there well try and get on board of her if she s no there have to get back to my weary bat either way of it i think we will your gentry whistling on their i believe there s some chance in ity said i have on with ye chapter bands i did not profit bj s as be bad done by his under general cope for i can scarce ted what way we went it is my excuse that we exceeding fast some part we ran some trotted and the rest walked at a of a pace twice while we were at top speed we ran against f but though we into the first from round a comer was as ready as a loaded ye seen my horse he gasped man i seen horse the day replied the and spared the time to explain to him that we were ride and tie that our had escaped and it was feared he had gone home to 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 tell the truth he observed to myself as we went on again should be aye u to an honest handy lee them if folk david ken what ye re doing the re terrible taken up with it bat if they think they ken they care for it than what i do for we had first made inland so our road came in the end to lie very near due north the old of lady for a on the left on the right the top of the law and it was thus we struck the shore again not far from from west to there runs a string of four small the lamb and notable by their of size and shape is the most particular being a strange grey of two 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 there is a good in winds and there from a far way off we could see the riding the shore in face of these is altogether waste here is no dwelling of man and scarce any passage or at most of vagabond children running al their play is a small place on the far side ol the the folk of go to their business the inland fields and those of north straight to the sea fishing from their haven so that few parts of the coast are but i mind as we crawled upon our into that of heights and hollows keeping a bright eye upon all sides and our david s hearts at our ribs there was such a shining of the san and the sea a stir of the wind in the bent grass and such a bustle of down and up flying that the desert seemed to me like a place alive so doubt it was in all ways well chosen for a secret if the secret had been kept and even now that it was oat and the place watched we were able to creep to the front of the where they look down immediately on the and sea but here came to a full stop said he this is a passage i as long as we lie here we re safe but fm nearer to my ship or the coast of france and as soon as we stand up and signal the it s another matter for where will your gentry be think ye maybe they re no come yet said i and even if they are there s one clear matter in our favour they ll be all arranged to take us that s true but they l have arranged for our coming from the east and here we are upon their west ay says i wish we were in some force and this was a battle we would have them i but it and the way it is is a thing less inspiring to i time flies said i i ken that said i ken else as the french folk say bat this is a case of or tails i if i could bat ken where gentry were said i this is no like got to be now or this is no me he sang with a face shame and droll ery neither yoa nor me he neither a nor tub na man neither a nor me and then of a he stood straight np where he was and with a handkerchief flying in his right hand marched down npon the beach i stood np myself bnt lingered behind him the to the east his appearance was at first marked not expecting him so early and gentry watching on the other side then they awoke on board the and it seemed they had all in readiness for there was scarce a second s bustle on the deck before we saw a put round her stem and begin to pull lively for the coast almost at the same moment of time and perhaps half a mile away towards ness the figure of a man appeared for a upon a waving with his arms and though he was gone again in the same the in that part continued a little longer to wild	38
see the three huge towers and broken of that old chief place of the bed the horse was in the bottom of the ditch to and i was led within and forth into the court and thence into a tumble down stone hall here my built a brisk fire in midst of the pavement for there was a chill in the night my hands were i was set by the wall in the inner end and the having produced provisions i was given bread and a of french brandy this done i was left once more alone with my three they sat close by the fire drinking and talking the wind blew in by the cast about the smoke and flames and sang in the tops of the towers i could hear the sea under the and my mind being reassured as to my life and my body and spirits wearied with the day s employment i turned one side and i had no means of at what hour i only the moon was down and the fire low my feet were now and i was carried through the ruins and down the cliff side by a path to where i found a s boat in a haven of the rocks this i was had on board of and we began to put f from ihe in a fine chapter xiv the bass i had no 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 s the twenty if i were to be exposed a second time to that same former danger of the i judged it must turn ill with me there was no second and no second and spare yard to be expected now and i saw myself tobacco the whip s lash the chilled me the air was sharp upon the water the of the boat with a cold dew and i shivered in my place beside the this was the dark man whom i have called hitherto the his name was ordinarily called black feeling the thrill of my shiver he very kindly handed me a rough jacket full of fish scales with which i was glad to cover myself i thank you for this kindness said i and will make so free as to repay it with a warning ton take a high responsibility in this affair you are not like david these ignorant but know what the law is and the risks of those that break it i am no exactly what e would ca an for the law says he at the best of times bat in this business i act with a good what are you going to do with me p i asked harm said he harm yell strong fm thinking ye ll be there began to fall a on the of the sea little of pink and like coals of slow fire came in the east and at the same time the awakened and began crying about the top of the bass it is just the one of rock as everybody knows but great enough to a city from the sea was extremely little but there went a hollow round the base of it with the growing of the dawn i could see it clearer and clearer the straight painted with like a morning frost the sloping top of it green with grass the of white that cried about the sides and the black broken buildings of the prison sitting close on the sea s edge at the sight the truth came in upon me in a clap if there you re taking me i i cried just to the bass said he the were afore ye and i if ye have come so fairly by your but none dwells there now i cried the place is long a david be the a then the day coming slowly brighter i observed on the among the big stones with which their boats several and baskets and a ion of all these were discharged npon the myself and my three 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 pins echoing from the cliffs and left us in our singular was the as i would call him of the bass being at once the shepherd and the of that small and rich estate he had to mind the dozen or so of sheep that fed and on the grass of the sloping part of it like beasts the roof of a cathedral he had charge besides of the that in the and from these an extraordinary income is derived the young are dainty eating as much as two shillings a piece being a common price and paid willingly by even the grown birds are valuable for their oil and feathers and a part of the minister s of north is paid to this day in which makes it in some folks eyes a parish to be to perform these several as well as to protect the from had frequent david id deep and pass days together on the and we found the man at home there like a farmer in his stead log bidding ns all some of the a matter in which i made haste to bear a hand he led as in by a locked gate which was the only admission to the island and the of the fortress to the s there we saw by the ashes in the chimney and a standing bed place in one comer that he made his this bed he now offered me o use saying he sup posed i would set np to be gentry has nothing to do with where i lie said l i bless gk	38
d i have lain hard ere now and can do the same again with while i am here mr if that be your name i will do my part and take my place beside the rest of you and i ask you on the other hand to spare me your mockery which i own i like ol he grumbled a little at this speech but seemed upon reflection to it indeed he was a long headed sensible man and a good and read daily in a pocket bible and was both able and eager to seriously on religion leaning more than a little towards the extremes his morals were of a more doubtful colour i found he was deep in the free trade and used the ruins of for a of as for a i de be the life of one at half a bat that part of the coast of is to this day m wild a place and the there as rough a crew as any in scotland one incident of my imprisonment is made memorable by a consequence it had long after there was a at this time stationed in the the it chanced she was in the month of september between and 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 and satan s bush famous dangers of that coast and presently after got her boat again she came before the wind and was headed directly for the bass this was yery troublesome to and the the whole business of my wa designed for and here with a navy captain perhaps ashore it looked to become public enough if it were nothing worse i was in a of one i am no to fall upon so many and was far from sure that a was the least likely to improve my condition all which considered i gave my of good behaviour and obedience and was 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 came straight on till i thought she would have struck and we looking down could see the ship s company at their david and hear the singing at the lead then she suddenly wore and let fly a of i know not how many great guns the rock was shaken with the thunder of the sounds the smoke flowed over our heads and the rose in number beyond or to hear their screaming and to see the ling of their wings made a most curiosity and i suppose it was after this somewhat childish pleasure that 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 of that ship by which i ever after knew it miles away and this was a means under providence of my from a friend a great calamity and on himself a sensible disappointment all the time of my stay on the rock we lived well we had small ale and brandy and of which we made our night and morning at times a boat came from the and brought us a quarter of mutton for the sheep upon the rock we must not touch these being specially fed to market the were unfortunately out of season and we let them be we ourselves and yet more often made the to fish for us observing one when he had made a capture and soaring him from his prey ere he had swallowed it the strange nature of this place and the with which it held me busy and amused david escape being impossible i was allowed my liberty and continually the surface of the isle it might support the foot of man the old garden of the prison was still to be observed with flowers and pot running wild and some ripe on a bush a little lower stood a chapel or a 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 with cattle thieves was a place full of history both human and divine i thought it strange bo many saints and should have gone by there so recently and left not so much as a leaf out of their or a name carved upon the wall while the rough soldier lads that mounted guard upon the battle ments had filled the neighbourhood with their toes broken tobacco pipes for the most part and that in a surprising plenty but also metal buttons from their coats there were times when i thought i could haye heard the pious sound of out of the and seen the soldiers tramp the with their pipes and the dawn rising behind them out of the north sea no doubt it was a good deal and his tales that put these fancies in my head he was well acquainted with the story of the rock in au particulars down to the names of private soldiers father having served there in that same david he was ted besides with a natural genius for tion so that the people seemed to speak and the things to be done before face this gift of his and my to listen brought us the more close together i could not honestly deny but what i liked him i soon saw t t 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 in early days we made a friendly pair to be a prisoner and his i should trifle with my conscience if i pretended my stay upon the bass	38
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 on them like stolen waters at other times my thoughts were very different i recalled how strong i had expressed myself both to and to i reflected that my upon the bass in view of a great part of the of and was a thing i should be thought more likely to hare invented than endured and in the eyes of these two gentlemen at least i must pass for a and a coward now i would take this lightly tell myself that so david long as i stood well with the opinion of the rest of man was bat and water and thence pass off into those meditations of a lover which are so delightful to himself and must always appear so idle to a reader but anon the fear would take me otherwise i would be shaken with a perfect panic of self esteem and these supposed hard judgments appear an injustice impossible to be supported with that another train of thought would be presented and i had scarce begun to be con about men s judgments of myself than i was haunted with the remembrance of james in his and the 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 and to amuse my self reproaches that i would set the more particularly to win the good side of at last when we two were alone on the summit of the rock on a bright morning i put in some hint about a bribe he looked at me cast back his head and laughed out loud ay you re funny mr said i but perhaps if you glance an eye upon that paper you may change your note the stupid had taken from me at the time of my nothing but hard money and the david paper i now showed was an acknowledgment from the british linen company for a considerable sum he read it and ye re ill said he i thought that would maybe vary your opinions said i i said he it me ye can bribe but no to be we ll see about that yet awhile says i and first i ll show you that i know what i am talking you have orders to detain me here till thursday st september ye re no a wrong either says fm to let ye gang bar orders on saturday the rd i could not but feel there was something extremely in this arrangement that i was to precisely in time to be too late would cast the more on my tale if i were minded to tell one and this me to fighting point now then yon that 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 haye 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 p to be by some ragged john on doth carried to a of old stones that is now neither fort nor whatever it once was bnt the s lodge of the bass and set free again september d as secretly as i was first arrested does that sound like law to you or does it sound like justice p or does it not sound honestly like a piece of some low dirty of which the folk that with it are ashamed p i ye it looks says and the folk sound and true blue i would seen them and or i would have set hand to if the master of be a says i and a grand i ken by him said he i wi no be that be dealing with said i ah but ni no tell ye that said little need when i ken was my retort there s just the ae thing ye can be fairly sure of says and that is that try as ye please i m no dealing wi nor yet i goin to he added well i see i ll have to be speak out plain david yon i replied and i told him so as i thought needful of the facts he heard me out with serious interest and when i had done seemed to consider a little with himself said he at last i deal with the naked hand it s a queer tale and no vary creditable the way you tell it and tm far that is other than the way that ye believe it as for yourself ye seems to me rather a like young man but me s and see perhaps a bit further in the job than what ye can and here is the clear and plain to ye there l be to if i keep ye here far that i think yell be a better by it be to the just ae a i on the hand it would be considerable to me if i would let you free as a an honest to you and an anxious to my ain el the plain fact is that i think ye just hare to bide here wi au the said i laying my hand	38
upon his knee this s innocent ay if a about that said he but ye see in this the way god made it we just get a that we want xv s tale of i hate jet said little of the they were all three of the followers of james more which bound the very tight about their master s neck all understood a word or two of english but 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 con opinion they were simple creatures showed much more courtesy than might have been expected from their and their appearance and fell to be like three servants for and myself dwelling in that isolated place in the old falling ruins of a prison and among endless strange sounds of the sea and the sea birds i thought i perceived in them early the effects of superstitious fear when there was nothing doing they would either lie and sleep for which their appetite appeared or would entertain the with stories which seemed always of a strain if neither of these delights were within reach if perhaps two were david keeping and the third could find no means to follow their example i would see him sit and listen and look about him in a of uneasiness starting his face his hands clutched a man strung uke a bow the nature of these fears i had never an oc to find out but the sight of them was catching and the nature of the place that we were in favourable to i can find no word for it in the english but had an expression for it in the from which he never varied ay he would say an place the bass it is so i always think of it it was an place by night by day and these were sounds of the calling of the and the 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 d of armies dreadful but merry to hear and it was in the calm days that a man could himself with listening not a only as i several times on myself so many still hollow noises haunted and in the of the rock this brings me to a story i heard and a scene i took part in which quite changed our terms of living and bad a great effect on my departure it chanced one night i fell in a muse beside the fire and that little air of s coming back to my memory began id david to whistle a hand was laid npon my arm and ih of bade me to stop for it was not not p i asked how can that be na said he it will be made by a and her wanting ta npon his body well said i there can be no here for it s not likely they would to frighten ay says is that what ye think of it but i ll can tell ye there s been nor here what s than said i said he or a at the least of it and that s a queer tale too he added and if ye would like tell it ye to be sure we were all of the one mind and even the that had the least english of the three set himself to listen with all his might the tale of my peace to his was a wild lad in his young days wi little wisdom and a learned f of my acquaintance s air it has been printed it seems in s wed vol ii p upon examination it would really seem as if miss grant s see chapter v fit with a little to the notes in question david less grace he was fond of a and fond of a glass and fond of a ran dan but i could never hear tell that he was use for honest employment ae thing to he at last for a and was in the garrison of this fort which was the first way that of the to set foot upon the bass sorrow npon that service i the governor his ain ale it seems it was the conceivable the rock was the shore with the thing was ill guided and there were when they bat to fish and shoot for their diet to crown a was the days of the persecution the were all wi and the of the of which it worthy and though carried a there a single and liked a and a glass as i was the mind of the man was just than set with his position he had of the glory of the there were when his to see the lord s and shame covered him that he should be a or carrying a in so black a business there were nights of it when he was here on the place a the o winter maybe in the wa s and he would hear o the prisoners strike up a and the rest join in and the blessed sounds rising from the different or i would say so that this in the sea was like a of david n black shame was on his his sins up before him as the bass and above a that chief sin that he have a hand in and at christ s bnt the truth is that he resisted the spirit day there were the rousing companions and his in days npon the bass a man of god the prophet was his name haye heard tell of prophet there was never the of him and a question wi if there ever was	38
een had a knife he the steel glitter and it seemed the about for did the steel in the sun than he the ae but like a body and ed about the of the and him and as as that thing was ne s upon his and they d him up like a on the a of brandy which he went never without him to his mind or what was left of it up he sat bin to the boat sure of the boat man he cries or yon hi have it says he the lads stored at an tried to him to be quiet but would satisfy till o them had on to stand on the boat the if he was for down again na says he and you nor me says he and as sane as i can win to stand on my feet well be this o sure time was lost that was for before they won to was in a crying fever he lay a the and was kind as come for him but ted david i folk afterwards that time near the house the fever had i for that but what i ken the best that was the end of it it was about this time o the year my was out at the white fishing and like a i but to gang wi him we had a grand take i mind and the way that the fish lay us near in by the bass we wi boat that to a man in he s no or ye could at what s yon on the bass p says he on the bass says ay says on the green side o t kind of a thing says there be on the bass but just the sheep it looks like a body who was nearer in a body i says we and we of us that for there was boat that could have a man and the key o the prison hung my s at in the press bed we the boats for company and in nearer hand had a for he had been a sailor and the captain of a and had lost her on the sands of and when we took the david to it bare there was a man he was in a o green a below the a by his lee lane and and and danced like a at a it s and passed the i to ay it s him says or in the likeness o him says is the differ de il or try the gun at him he and up a piece that he aye carried for was a notable famous shot in all that country hand your hand says we see clearer first says he or this may be a dear day s to the of us says this is the lord s judgments surely and be damned to it i says he maybe ay and maybe no says my worthy man i but have you a mind of the that i think yell have wi before says he this was true and was a thing bet says he and what would be your way of it ou just this says let me that has the boat gang back to north and let you bide here and keep an eye on if i find i ll join ye and the of ns d haye a wi him but if s at up the flag at the harbour and je can thing wi the gun it was agreed between them i was a an in s boat i i would see the best of the employ my a to pit in his gun wi the bein again and then the ae boat set for north an the lay it was and watched the thing on the a the time we lay there it and and and span like a and we could hear it as it span i seen the that would and dance a winter s and still be and dancing when the winter s day in but there would be folk there to them company and the lads to egg them on and this thing was its lee lane and there would be a his in the and this thing had music but the of the and the were bits o young things wi the life and in their members and this was a fat man and him fa n m the o years say what ye like i say what i it was joy was in the creature s heart the joy o hell i joy whatever a time i hare why and should david ell are their dear and be t wives or men and then i mind npon dancing a they by his lane in the black glory of bis heart they bam for it in hell but they have a grand time here of it whatever i and the lord us i at the hinder end we saw the flag ap to the mast the harbour rocks that was a waited for he up wi the gun took a aim an d the there a bang and then ae the bass and there were we our een and at like folk for wi the bang and the the thing had clean disappeared the sun the blew and there was the bare the wonder had been and flinging but ae second the hale way i roared and wi the terror of that the folk were better there was little said in 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 us it seems they had fund in of his the and smiling ae lad they sent to the flag and the rest abode there in the s house you may be sure they liked it little but	38
to succeed to the possession of my spirits the st the day set for the trial i passed in such misery of mind as i can scarce recall to haye endured perhaps upon isle only much of the time i lay on a side sleep and waking my body motionless my mind fuu of thoughts sometimes i slept indeed but the court house of 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 seemed to me but i paid him little heed verily my bread was bitter to me and my days a early the next morning friday nd a boat came with and placed a packet in my hand the was without address but sealed with a gk ment seal it enclosed two notes mr can now see for himself it is too late to his conduct will be 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 if thai person could be found the seal which served instead of signature was to a separate sheet on which there was no scratch of writing and i had to confess that so far my knew what they were doing and to as well as i was able the threat that peeped under the promise but the second was by far the more ing it was in a lady s hand of writ is informed a friend him and her eyes were of the grey it ran and seemed ao extraordinary a piece to come to my hands at such a moment and under cover of a government seal that i stupid s grey eyes shone in my i thought with a bound of pleasure she must be the friend but who should the writer be to have her thus enclosed with s and of all wonders why was it thought needful to me this pleasing but most intelligence upon the bass for the writer i could hit upon none possible except miss grant her family i remembered had remarked on s eyes and even named her for their colour and she herself had been much in the habit to address me with a broad by way of a i supposed at my 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 have permitted her at all in an affair so secret or david her like go in the same with his own bat even here i had a glimmering for first of all there was something rather alarming the young lady and papa might be more her than i knew and second there was the man s policy to be remembered how his conduct had been continually mingled with caresses and he had scarce in the midst of so much laid aside a mask of friendship he must that my imprisonment had me perhaps this little friendly message was intended to my i will be honest and i think it did i felt a sudden warmth towards that miss that she should stoop to so much interest in my affairs the up of me of itself to and more cowardly counsels if the knew of her and of 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 spread in the sight of any fowl the scripture says well fowls must be wiser than folk for i thought i the policy and yet fell in with it i was in this frame my heart beating the grey eyes plain before me like two stars when broke in upon my musing i see ye gotten news said he i found him looking in my face with that there came before me like a of james and the court of and my mind tamed at a door upon its hinges trials i reflected sometimes draw out longer than is looked for even if i came to too late something might yet be attempted in the interests of james and in those of my own character the best would be accomplished in a moment it seemed without thought i had a plan said i is it still to be to morrow p he told me nothing was changed was anything said about the hour f i asked he told me it was to be two o clock and about the place i pursued place p says the place tm to be landed at said l he owned there was nothing as to that very well then i said this shall be mine to arrange the wind is in the east my road lies west keep your boat i hire it let us work up the forth all day and land me at two o clock to morrow at the we ll can have reached ye he cried ye would try in after a i just that says i ye re ill to beat says he and i kind o sorry for ye a day yesterday he added ye see i was never entirely sure till then which way of it ye really david here was a to a lame horse i a word in your ear l this plan f mine has another advantage yet we can leave these behind ns on the rock and one of boats from the can bring them off tomorrow yon has a queer eye when he regards you maybe if i was once out of the gate there might be knives again these red are and if there should come to be any question here is four	38
excuse our lives were in danger by these savages being 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 says i with a smile i think it was very chosen the truth is i have for says nor he for me i m thinking and i would like ill to come to my hands wi the man wiu make a better hand of it with the cattle for this man came from where the is still spoken ay ay says can deal with them the best and i the i think of it the less i see what way we would be required the place ay they had forgot the place eh ye re a when ye ike that fm ye my life he added with more solemnity and offered me his hand upon the whereupon with scarce more words we stepped on board the boat cast off and set the ing the were then busy upon breakfast for the was their usual part but one of them stepping to the our flight was observed before we were twenty from the rock and the three of them ran about the ruins and the shelf for all the world like about a broken nest 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 iu almost the same moment into the wind and sunshine the sail filled the boat to the and we swept immediately beyond sound of the men s to what terrors they endured upon the rock where they were now deserted without the countenance of any person or so much as the protection of a bible no limit can be set nor had they any brandy left to be their consolation for even in the haste and secrecy of our departure had managed to remove it it was our first care to set ashore in a by the so that the of our might be duly seen to the next day wc kept away up the breeze which was then spirited swiftly declined but never wholly failed ns all day we kept moving though often not much more and it was after dark ere we were up with the queens to keep the letter of s engagement et david what was left of it i must remain on board bat i thought do harm to communicate with the shore in writing on s cover where the ment seal must have a good deal surprised my i writ by the boat s lantern a few necessary words and carried them to in about an hour he came aboard again with a purse of money and the assurance that a good horse should be standing for me by two to morrow at pool this done and the boat riding by stone anchor we lay down to sleep under the sail we were in the pool the next day long ere two and there was nothing left for me but sit and wait i felt little alacrity upon my errand i would have been glad of any 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 and i could see a man walking it to and fro till i should land which vastly swelled my impatience ran the moment of my very fine showing himself a man of his bare word but scarce serving his with a heaped measure and by about fifty seconds after two i was in the saddle and on the full stretch for in a little more than an hour i had passed that town and was already mounting water side when the weather broke in a small tempest the rain blinded me the wind had nearly me from the saddle an david the first of the night me m a ness still some way east of not sore ol my direction and mounted on a horse that began already to be weary in the press of my hurry and to be spared the delay and of a guide i had followed so far as it was possible for any the line of my journey with this i did with open eyes 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 haye been about 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 where i had wandered in the interval the horse could tell i know we were twice down and once over the saddle and for a moment carried away in a roaring bum and rider were up to the eyes from i had news of the trial in all these regions with interest news of it spread from 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 to the monday under the spur of this intelligence i would not sit to eat but having agreed to be my guide took the road again on foot with the piece in my hand and as i went brought with a of and a band lantern which last enlightened ns so long as we could find houses where to it for the thing and blew oat with the more part of the night we walked among sheets of rain and day found ns on the mountains hard by we a hut on a bum side where we got a bite	38
fell to the subject in hand i made a short of my and and was then examined david and re examined upon the of the murder it will be remembered this was the first time i had bad my say oat or the matter at all handled among lawyers and the was very to the others and i must own to myself to sum np said yon that was on the spot yon have heard him against 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 perhaps immediately assisting in the act you show him besides at the risk of his own liberty the criminal s escape and the rest of your testimony so far as the least material depends on the bare word of or of james the two accused in short you do not at all break but only by one personage the chain that our to the murderer nd i need scarcely say that the introduction of a third rather that appearance of a conspiracy which has been our stumbling block from the beginning i am of the same opinion said miller i think we may all be very much obliged to for taking a most uncomfortable witness out of our way and chiefly i think mr himself might be obliged for you talk of a third but mr in my view has very much the appearance of a fourth david allow me interposed the writer there is another view here we have a witness never whether material or not a witness in this by that old lawless crew of the and for near upon a month in a of old cold rains on the bass move that and see what dirt you fling on the proceedings this is a tale to make the world ring with i it would be strange with such a grip as this if we squeeze out a pardon for my and suppose we took up mr s cause to morrow f said hall i am much deceived or we should find so many 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 orange the woman was still in my friend mr hope of did what was possible and how did he he never got a warrant well it ll be the same now the same weapons will be used this is a scene gentlemen of the hatred of the name which i have the honor to bear in high quarters there is nothing here to be viewed but naked spite and you may be sure this was to touch a welcome topic and i sat for some time in the midst of my learned david almost with their talk but extremely little the wiser for its purport the writer was led into some hot expressions must take him up and set him right the rest joined in on different sides but all pretty noisy the duke of was beaten like a blanket king george came in for a few in the by going and a great deal of rather elaborate defence and there was only one that seemed to be forgotten and that was james of the through all this mr miller sat quiet he was a slip of an gentleman ruddy and twinkling he spoke jn a smooth rich with an infinite effect of 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 and his chin out he seemed the mere picture of a merry sly ness it was plain he had a word to say and waited for the fit occasion it came presently had wound up one of his speeches with some expression of their duty to their his brother was pleased i suppose with the transition he took the table in confidence with a gesture and a look that suggests to me a consideration which seems overlooked said be the interest of our goes certainly before all but the world does not come to an end with james he cocked his eye k david i might upon a mr george brown a mr thomas miller and a mr david mr david has a very good ground of complaint and i think gentlemen if his story was properly red out i think there would be a number of on the green the whole table turned to him with a common move ment properly handled and carefully red out his is a story that could scarcely fail to have some consequence he continued the whole administration of justice from its highest of downward would be totally 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 s would be a remarkable cause to appear in he added well there they all were started on another hare mr 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 whose testimony if it could be obtained could prove certainly fatal and miller highly approved of the attempt we have here before us a roast said he here is cut and come again for all and all licked their lips the other was already near the david nd the writer was oat of tbe body delight smelling vengeance on his the gentlemen cried	38
he charging hia glass here is to miller his legal abilities are known to all his this bowl in front of ns is here to speak for bat when it comes to the i cries he and the glass ay bat 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 s cause but guided mr tenderly guided it shall prove a peaceful revolution and if the damned get their ears rubbed what care i cries 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 in these old but it was not my view to have undergone so many sorrows for the advancement of miller or to make a revolution in the parliament house and i interposed accordingly with as much simplicity of manner as i could assume i have to thank you gentlemen for your advice said i and now i would like by your leave to set yon two or three questions there is one thing that has fallen rather on one side for instance will this cause do any good to our friend james of the p david s they seemed all a hair set back and gave answers but practically in one point that james had now no hope bat in the king s mercy to proceed then said i will it do any good to scotland we have a saying that it is an ill bird that his own nest i remember hearing we had a riot in when i was an infant child which gave occasion to the late to call this country barbarous and i always understood that we had rather lost than gained by that then came the year forty five which made scotland to be talked of everywhere but i never heard it said we had anyway gained by the five and now we come to this cause of mr s as you call it miller tells us historical writers are to date from it and i would not wonder it is only my fear they would date from it as a period of calamity and public reproach the miller had already smelt where i was travelling to and made haste to get on the same road forcibly put mr says he a observe sir we have next to ask ourselves if it will be good for king george i pursued miller appears pretty easy upon this but i doubt you will scarce be able to pull down the house from under him without ills majesty coming by a knock or two one of which night easily prove fatal i gave them a chance to answer but none volunteered david ot for whom the case was to be profitable i went on miller gave ns 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 be i not the least back in this affair while there was life to be saved bnt i own i thought myself extremely and i own i think it be a pity for a young man with some idea of coming to the bar to upon himself the character of a turbulent 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 addressed the characters of these high officers sheltered from the public and myself kept out of a position which i think ruin for me j they all sat and gazed into their glasses and i could see they found my attitude on the affair but miller was ready at all events if i may be allowed to put our young friend s notion in more formal shape says he i understand him to propose that we should the fact of his 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 to help our perhaps his majesty would have the goodness to feel a gratitude to all concerned in such a memorial might be into an expression of a delicate loyalty and i think in the 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 if you please pursued miller and i think it might very be signed by the five of us here present as for the condemned man it can do none of us any harm at least says heaving another sigh for he had seen himself lord the last ten minutes thereupon they set themselves not very to the memorial a process in the course of which they soon caught fire and i had no more but to sit looking on and answer an occasional question the paper was very well expressed beginning with a of the facts about myself the reward offered for my apprehension my surrender the pressure brought to bear upon me my and my at in time to be too late going on to explain the reasons of loyalty and public interest for which it was agreed to any right of action and winding up with a forcible appeal to the king s mercy on behalf of james i was a good deal sacrificed and rather represented in the light of a of a fellow whom david my of lawyers had restrained with difficulty from extremes but i let it pass and made but the one that i should be described as ready	38
to deliver my own evidence and that of others before any commission of inquiry and the one demand that i should be immediately furnished with a copy and this is a veiy confidential document said he and my position towards 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 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 by his side and if there should hang any over our proceedings i think i might very well awake in not finding any very ready answer to these considerations my company of were at the last persuaded to consent and made only this condition that i was to lay the paper before with the express compliments of all concerned the advocate was at the castle dining with his by the hand of one of s servants i david sent him a asking for an interview and 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 jet i was not so but what i some in the hall and not so stupid but what i could gather he was prepared to arrest me there and then should it appear advisable so mr david this is you said he where i fear i am not welcome my lord said i and i would like before i go further to express my sense of your s continued good offices even should they now cease i have heard of your gratitude before he replied 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 foundation not now my lord i think said i and if your will but glance an eye along this you will perhaps think as i do he read it through frowning heavily then turned back to one part and another which he seemed to weigh and compare the effect of his face a little lightened this is not so bad but what it might be worse said he though i am still likely to pay dear for my acquaintance with mr david david for your indulgence to that unlucky young man my lord said i he still the paper and all the while his spirits seemed to mend and to whom am i indebted for this p he asked presently other counsels must have been discussed i think who was it proposed this private method 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 i think they were on the point of sharing out the different law our friend mr was to be taken in upon some composition smiled these are our friends said he and what were your reasons for mr david i told them without concealment expressing how ever with more force and volume those which regarded himself you do me no more than justice said he i have fought as hard in your interest as you have fought david against mine and how came yon here to day p he asked as the case drew ont i began to grow had the period so fine and i was expecting yon to morrow bat to day i dreamed of it i was not of going to betray i suspect there is some yery weary cattle by the road said i if i had known yon were a yon should haye tasted longer of the bass says he speaking of which my lord i return your letter and i him the in the hand there was the also with the seal said he i haye it not said i it bore naught but the address and could not compromise a cat the second i haye and with your permission i desire to keep it i thought he a little but he said nothing to the point to morrow he resumed our business here is to be finished and i proceed by i would be yery glad to haye you of my party mr my lord i began i do not deny it will be of to me he interrupted i desire that when we shall come to you should alight at my house you haye yery warm friends in the miss who will be to haye you to if yon think david i have been of use to yon you can thus me and bo far from may reap some advantage by the way it is not eveiy strange young man who is presented in society by the king s advocate often enough already in our brief relations this gentleman had caused my head to spin no doubt but what for a moment he did so again now here was the old fiction still maintained of my particular favour his daughters one of whom had been so good as laugh at me while the other two had scarce to remark the fact of my existence and now i was to ride with my lord to i was to dwell with him in i was to be brought	38
ran then up and the duke and on his i it as a sensible that i would sup an my with the of of my aversion james was as fairly as though the duke had got a piece and stalked him so much of course i knew but others knew not so much and were more affected by the 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 who had struck into the midst of 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 ed with an that had disgraced and even the david proceedings one witness was never called his name indeed was printed where may still be seen on the fourth page of the list james james more late tenant in and his had been taken as the manner is in writing he had remembered or invented ood help him matter which was lead in james 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 exposing the man himself to the perils of cross examination and the way it was brought about was a matter of surprise to all for the paper was handed round like a curiosity in court passed through the jury box where it did its work and disappeared again as though by accident before it reached the counsel for the prisoner this was counted a most device and that the name of james more should be mingled up with it filled me with shame for and concern for myself the following day and i with a considerable company set ont for where to my impatience we continued to linger some time in a mixture of pleasure and i lodged with my lord with whom i was encouraged to familiarity had my place at 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 david it must be owned the 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 whether by their birth or talents and who among them all had shown clean hands as for the and i had seen their self seeking i never again respect them was the best yet he had me had spared me rather when others had it in their minds to murder me bnt the blood of james lay at his door and i thought his present with myself a thing below pardon that he should affect to find pleasure ill my discourse almost surprised me out of my patience i would sit and watch him with a kind c a slow fire of anger in my ah 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 foul injustice and i think he was at once far more sincere and a far more artful than i supposed but i had some warrant for my incredulity in the of that court of young that hung about him in the hope of patronage the sudden favour of a lad not previously heard of troubled them at first out of measure but two were not gone by before i found myself surrounded with flattery and attention i was the same young man and neither david better nor that they had rejected a month before and now there was no too fine for me i the same do i say it was not so and the 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 green and called me the tee d i was told i was now one of themselves i was to taste of their soft who had already made my own experience of the of the outer and the one to whom i had been presented in hope park was so assured as even to remind me of that meeting i told him i had not the pleasure of remembering it why sat i he it was miss grant herself presented me my is so and so it may very well be sir said i but i have kept no mind of it at which he and in the midst of the disgust that commonly my spirits i had a of pleasure but i have not patience to dwell upon that time at length when i was in company with these young politics i was borne down with shame for myself and y own plain ways and scorn for them and their of the two evils i thought to be the least and while i was always as stiff as to the young i made rather a a ball placed upon a little mound for convenience of striking david of my hard feelings towards the advocate and was in old mr s word to the him self commented on the difference and bid me be more of my age and make friends with my young comrades i told him i was slow of making friends i will take the word back said he but there is a thing as fair e en and fair day mr david these are the same young men with whom you are to pass your days and get through life your has a look of	38
and unless you can assume a little more lightness of manner i fear you will meet difficulties in the path it will be an ill job to make a silk purse of a sow s ear said l on the morning of october st i was awakened by the in of an express and getting to my window almost before he had dismounted i saw the messenger had ridden hard after i was called to where he was sitting in his and with his letters around him mr david said he i have a piece of news for it concerns some friends of yours of whom i think you are a little ashamed for you have never referred to their existence i suppose i i 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 f she crops up from every side the government of scotland appears unable to for mistress drum which was somewhat the case no great while back with a certain mr david should not these make a good match her first in politics but i must not tell you that story the author have decided you are to hear it otherwise and from a this new example is more serious however and i am afraid i must alarm you with the intelligence that she is now in prison i cried out tes said he the little lady is in prison but i would not have you to despair unless you with your friends and shall procure my she is to suffer nothing but what has she done p what is her offence i cried it might be almost a high treason he returned for she has broke the king s castle of the lady is much my friend i said i know you would not work me if the thing were serious and yet it is serious in a sense said he for this rogue of a or as we may call her has set adrift again upon the world that very doubtful character her papa here was one of my justified james again at liberty he had lent his men to keep me a prisoner he had his in the case and the same no matter bj what had been employed to influence the came his reward and he was free it might please the to give to it the colour of an escape but i knew better i knew it was the fulfilment of a bargain the same course of thought me of the least alarm for she might be thought to haye broke prison for her father she might have so herself but the chief hand iu the whole business was that of and i was so far from letting her come to punishment he would not suffer her to be tried whereupon thus came out of me the not yery ah i i was expecting that you haye at times a great deal of discretion too i says and what is my lord pleased to mean by that f i asked i was just he replied that being so as draw these you should not be enough to keep them to yourself but i think yon would like to hear the details of the affair i haye two and the least official is the more fun and tax the more entertaining being from the pen of my eldest daughter here is all the town with a fine piece of work she writes and what would make the thing more noted if it only known the is of his my papa i am sure your heart is too much in your duty if it were nothing else to haye forgotten grey eyes what does she do but get a broad hat with the open a long hairy like man s and a big her coats up to two pair of boot upon her legs take a pair of in her hand and off to the here she gives herself ont to be a f in the employ of james more and gets admitted to his cell the lieutenant who seems to have been full of making sport among his soldiers of the s great coat presently tbey hear and the sound of blows inside out flies the his coat flying the of his hat beat about his face and the lieutenant and his soldiers mock at him as he runs off they laughed not so hearty the next time they had occasion to visit the cell and found nobody but a tall pretty grey eyed in the female habit as for the he was over the hills and it s thought that poor scotland will have to console herself without him i drank s health this night in public indeed the whole town her and i think the would wear bits of her in their button holes if they could only get them i ould have gone to visit her in prison too only i patched shoes f david s in time i was papa s daughter so i wrote her a instead which i to the faithful and i hope yon will admit i can be political when i please the same faithful is to despatch this letter by the express along with those of the so that you may hear tom fool in company with solomon talking of do tell i would i could see the face of him at the thought of a long legged in such a i to say nothing of the of your affectionate daughter and his respectful friend so my rascal signs herself i continued and you see mr david it is quite true what i tell you that my regard you with the most affectionate the is much obliged said i and was not this prettily done	38
he went on is not this maid a piece of a heroine p i was always sure she had a great heart said l and i she guessed nothing but i beg pardon this is to tread upon forbidden subjects i will go she did not he returned quite openly i will go she thought she was flying straight into king george s face of and the thought of lying in moved me strangely i could see that even admired and could not his lips smiling when he considered her behaviour as for miss for all her ill habit el i david her admiration shone oat plain a kind at a heat came on me i am not s daughter i began that i know of i he put in smiling i speak like a fool said i or rather i wrong it would doubtless be unwise in mistress grant to go to her in prison but for me i think i would look like a half hearted friend if i did not fly there instantly so ho mr david says he i thought that yon and i were in a bargain my lord i said when i made that bargain i was a good deal affected by your goodness but never can deny that i was moved besides by my own interest there was self seeking in my heart and i think shame of it now it may be for your s safety to say this fashions is your friend and say it then i ll never contradict yon but as for your patronage i give it all back i ask bnt the one thing let me go and give me a pass to see her in her prison he looked at me with a hard eye you put the cart before the horse i think says he that which i had given was a portion of my liking which year nature does not seem to have remarked but for my patronage it is not given nor to be is it yet offered he paused a bit and i warn do not know yourself he added youth is m david b hasty season jou will think better of au this a year well and i would like to be that kind of i i cried i haye seen too much of the other party in these young that npon your and are even at the pains to on me and i have seen it in the old ones also they are all for by ends the whole of them i it s this that makes me seem to your s liking why would i think that you would like me but ye told me yourself ye had an interest i stopped at this confounded that i had run so far he was observing me with a face my lord i ask your pardon i resumed i have nothing in my ts but a rough country tongue i think it would be only decent like if i would go to see my friend in her but i m owing you my life i ll never forget that and if it s for your s good here i ll stay that s barely gratitude this might have been reached in fewer words says grimly it is easy and it is at times gracious to say a plain ay ah but my lord i think ye take me not yet entirely cried i for your sake for my life safe and the kindness that ye say ye bear to me for these consent but not for any good that might be ing to myself if i stand aside when this young maid david ib in her trial it s a thing i will be by i will lose by it i will never gain i would rather make a wholly than to l 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 look at moon by a you would see david there i but you shall have your way of it i will ask at you one service and then set yoa free my clerks are be so good as copy me these few pages says he visibly among some huge rolls of 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 you would find yourself to ride much easier without it perhaps not just entirely in the same direction though my lord says i and yon shall have the last word too i cries he gaily indeed he had some cause for gaiety having now found the means to gain his purpose to lessen the weight of the memorial or to have a answer at his hand he desired i should appear publicly in the character of his intimate but if i were to appear with the as a visitor to in her prison the world would scarce to draw conclusions and li he true nature of james escape must become evident to all this was the little problem i had set him of a sudden and to which he had so briskly found an answer i was to be in by that job of which in mere outward decency i could not well refuse and during these hours of my employment was privately got rid of i think shame to write of this man that loaded me with so many he was kind to me as any father yet i ever thought him as false as a cracked bell chapter xix i am much ik the of the the was a weary business the more so as i very early there was no sort of in the matters treated and began	38
very early to consider my employment a pretext i had no sooner finished than i got to horse used what remained of day light to the best purpose and being at last fairly slept in a house by water side i was in the saddle again before the day and the were just opening when i in by the west bow and drew up a smoking horse at my lord advocate s door i had a written word for my lord s private hand that was thought to be in all his secrets a worthy little plain man all fat and snuff and him i found already at his desk and already with in the same where i with james more he read the note through like a chapter in his h m says he ye come a thing hand mr the bird s we her out miss is set free i cried i said he what would we keep her for ye ken p to made a steer about the would pleased and where ll she be now says i i says with a shrug she l have gone home to lady vm thinking said i be it said he then i ll gang there straight says l but yell be for a bite or ye go said he neither bite nor sup said i i had a good of milk in by says but ye u can leave your horse here and your bags for it seems we re to have your up put na na said i s would never be the thing for me this day of all days speaking somewhat broad i had been led by imitation into an accent much more than i was usually careful to a good deal broader indeed than i have written it down and i was the more ashamed when another voice joined in behind me with a scrap of a ballad saddle me the black ae saddle and for i will down the slack and a to see my s mare to go david the young lady when i turned to her stood in morning gown and her hands in the same if to hold me at a distance yet i could not bnt think there was kindness in the eye with which she saw me my best respects to yon mistress grant said i bowing the like to yourself mr david she replied with a deep courtesy and i beg to remind you of an old saw that meat and mass never man the mass i cannot afford you for we are all good but the meat i press on your attention and i would not wonder but i could find something for your private ear that would be worth the stopping for mistress grant said i i believe i am already your for some merry words and i think they were kind on a piece of paper paper says she and made a droll face which was likewise wondrous beautiful as of one trying to remember or else i am the more deceived i went on but to be sure we shall have the time to speak of these since your father is so good as to make me for a while your and the you at this time only for the favour of his liberty tou give yourself hard names said she mr and i would be to take harder at your clever pen says i once more i have to admire the discretion of b men folk she replied but if you will not eat off with yon at once you will be back the sooner for yon go on a errand off with you mr david continued opening the door he has on his grey he the gate and the ready i he would neither n r stay far he was seeking his i did not wait to be twice and did justice to hiss grant s on the way to dean old lady walked there alone in the garden in her hat and and having a mounted of some black wood to lean upon as i alighted from my horse and drew near to her with i could see the blood come in her face and her head fling into the air like what i had of em presses what brings you to my poor door she cried speaking high through her nose i cannot bar it the 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 and a there is and that s the worst of it yet i she added partly to herself i was extremely put out at this reception and the last remark which seemed like a wife s left me near hand speechless beard david i i hare fallen under 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 her hand shaking on her staff this cows all i she cried ye come to me to for her i would ood i she is not here p i cried she threw up her chin and made a step and a at me so that i fell back out upon your throat she cried what i ye come and at me she s in ye took her to that s all there is to it and of a the beings ever i beheld in to think it should be you i ye if i had a male left to my name i would have your till ye i thought it not good to delay longer in that place because i remarked her passion to be rising as i turned to the horse post she even followed me and i make no shame to confess that i rode	38
away with the one on and for the other as i knew no other quarter where i could push my inquiries there was nothing left me but to return to the advocate s i was well received by the four ladies who were now in com any together and must give the news of and what word went in the west country at the most length and with great david weariness to while all the time that young lady with whom i so desired to be alone again me and seemed to find pleasure in the sight of my impatience at last after i had en a meal with them and was come near the point of appealing for an interview before her aunt she went and stood by the music case and picking out a tune sang to it on a high key he that will when he may when he will he shall have nay but this was the end of her 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 that she was dressed to the and appeared extraordinary handsome now mr david sit ye down here and let us two handed crack said she for i have much ta tell you and it appears besides that i have been unjust to your good taste in what manner mistress grant i asked i trust i haye never seemed to fail in due respect i will be your mr david said she your respect whether to yourself or your poor has been always and most fortunately beyond imitation but that is by the question yon got a note from me she asked i was so bold as to suppose so upon i and it was kindly thought upon it must have surprised you said she david but us begin with the beginning yon have not perhaps forgot a day when you were so kind as to escort three yery tedious 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 said i overcome with confusion at the memory you are only to consider i am quite unused with the society of ladies i will say the less about the grammar then she replied but how came you to desert your charge he has thrown her out overboard his ain dear she and his ain dear and her two sisters had to home by like a string of green it seems you returned to my papa s where you showed yourself excessively martial and then on to unknown with an eye it appears to the bass being perhaps more to your mind than through au this there was something indulgent in the lady s eye which made me suppose there might be better coming you take a pleasure to torment me said i and i make a very 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 of david do yon call her by that name to her face mr she asked in and i am not very i stammered i would not do so in any case to strangers said miss grant and why are you so much in the affairs of this young lady p i heard she was in prison said l well and now you hear that she is out of it she replied and what more would you have she has no need of any further champion i may have the greater need of her ma am this is better i says miss but look me fairly in the face am i not than she i would be the last to be denying it said l there is not your in all scotland well here you hare the pick of the two at your hand and must needs speak of the other said she this is the way to please the ladies mr but mistress said i there are surely other things besides mere beauty by which i am to understand that i am no better than i should be perhaps she asked by which you will please understand that i am like the cock in the in the fable book said i i ee the jewel and i like fine to see it too but i hare more need of the com david r she cried there is a well said at last and i will reward yon for it with my story that same night of your desertion i late from a friend s where i was admired whatever yon may think of it and wh t i hear but that a in a screen desired to speak with me p she had been there an or better said the servant and she in to herself as she sat waiting i went to her direct she rose as i in and i knew her at a look eyes i says i to myself but was more wise than to let on you will be miss grant last t she says rising and looking at me hard and ol ay it was true he said you are at all events the way god made me my dear i said but would be and obliged if ye could tell me what brought you here at such a time of the night lady she said we are we are both come of the blood of the sons of my dear i replied think no more of or his sons than what i do of a you have a better argument in these tears upon	38
in such 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 your conversation she shall hear just so much as i think convenient for a maid of her age and believe me you will be in that way much better served than you could serve yourself for i will keep the big feet out of the you know where she is then i exclaimed that i do mr david and will tell she david b why that well she said i am a good friend as you will boon discover and the chief of those that i am a friend to is my papa i assure you you will never heat nor melt me out of that so you may spare me your sheep s eyes and adieu to your david for the now but there is yet one thing more i cried there is one thing that must be stopped being mere ruin to herself and to me too well she said be brief i have spent half the lay on you already my lady believes i began she she thinks that i 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 me she was struggling rather with mirth a notion in which i was altogether confirmed by the shaking of her voice as she replied i will take up the defence of your reputation said she you may leave it in my hands and with that she withdrew out of the n xi i to in good exactly two months i remained a in s family where i my with the bench the bar and the flower of company yoa are not to suppose my was neglected on the contrary i was kept extremely busy i studied the french so as to be more prepared to go to i set myself to the and wrought hard sometimes three hours in the day with notable at the suggestion of my cousin who was an apt 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 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 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 were all earnestly re ordered and the most trifling circumstance such as where i should tie my hair or the colour of my ribbon among the three like a thing of weight one way with david no doubt i was a good deal improved to look and acquired a bit of a air that would have surprised the good folks at the two younger were very willing to a point of my because t was in the line of their chief thoughts i 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 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 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 bo far as the advocate s continual affairs permitted when we were put in a good frame by the of the exercise the 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 with my voyage and battle in the wanderings in the etc david and from the interest they found in my sprang the circumstance of a we made a little later on a day when the courts were not and of which i will tell a trifle more at length we took horse early and passed first by the house of where it stood in a great field of white frost for it was yet early in the day here alighted down e me his horse and 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 sitting within in the cold kitchen there is my home said i and my family poor david said miss grant what passed during the visit i have never heard but it would doubtless not be very agreeable to for when the advocate came forth again his face was dark i think you will soon be the indeed mr 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 the place in fancy with and a terrace much as i have since carried out in fact thence we pushed to the where gave us a good welcome being indeed out of the david body to so great a here the was so good as to go fully over my	38
make and take long risks and the 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 and grateful to him for his attention he was hanged and behold when i met mr in the i was fain to pull off my to him like a good little boy before his he had been hanged by fraud and violence and the world along and there was not a of difference and the of that horrid plot were decent kind respectable fathers of families who went to and took the i 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 any temptations to take part in it again a p co quiet private path was that which i was l to walk in when i might keep my head out of david way of dangers and my god science out of the road of temptation for npon a it i had not done so after all but with the greatest possible amount of big speech and preparation had accomplished nothing the th of the same month a ship was advertised to sail from and i was suddenly recommended to make up my for to i could of course say nothing for i had already been a long while on his house and table bat with his daughter i was more open my fate that i should be sent out of the country and assuring her unless she should bring me to farewell with i would refuse at the last hour have i not given you my advice she asked i know you have said i and i know how much i am to you already and that i am to obey your orders but you must confess you are something too merry a at times to to entirely i will tell you then said she be you on board at nine o clock the ship does not sail before keep your boat alongside and if you are not pleased with my when i shall send them you can come ashore again and seek for yourself since i could make no more of her i was fain to content with this trust david the day came round at last when she and i were to separate we had been extremely intimate and familiar i was in her debt and what way we were to part was a thing that pat me from my sleep like the rails i was to give to the domestic servants i knew she considered me too backward and rather desired to rise in her opinion on that head besides which after so much affection shown and i believe felt upon both sides it would have looked cold like to be 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 said she i cannot call to mind that i had given you any right to presume on our i stood before her like a stopped clock and knew not what to think far less to say when of a sudden she cast her arms about my neck and kissed me with the best will in the world you i she cried did you think that i would let us part like strangers because i can never keep my gravity at you five on end you must not dream i do not love you very well am all love and laughter every time i cast an eye on you and now i will give you an advice to conclude your education which you will have need of before its very long never ash women folk they re v bound to answer no god never made the that could resist the temptation supposed by to be the curse of eve because she did not it when the devil offered her the apple her daughters can say nothing else since i am so soon to lose my professor i began this is gallant indeed says she i would put the one question i went on may i ask a to marry me f you think you could not marry her without p she asked or else get her to offer p you see you cannot be serious said l i shall be very serious in one thing david she i shall always be your friend as i got to my horse the next the ladies were all at the same window whence we had once looked down on and all cried farewell and waved their pocket as i rode away one out of the four i knew was truly sorry and at the thought of that and how i had come to the door three months ago for the first time sorrow and gratitude made a confusion in my mind n father and chapter xxi thb voyage thb ship lay at a single anchor well outside the pier of so that all we passengers must come to it by the means of this was very little troublesome for the reason that the day was a 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 of her stood high and bright in a sunshine like the flickering of a fire she proved to be a very merchant but somewhat blunt in the bows and extraordinary deep with salt salmon and fine white linen stockings for the dutch upon my coming on board the captain welcomed me one sang out of i believe a very hearty friendly of a man but	38
yourself he would have died first and for the sake of all your i will be asking you to pardon my father and family for that same mistake said i what that mistake was i do not care to know i know but the one thing that you went to and begged my life upon your knees i ken weu it was for your father that you went but when you were there you pleaded for me also it is a thing i speak of there are two things i cannot think of in to 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 speak more we two of pardon or we stood after that silent 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 oat 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 and all engaged in the same adventure into high germany one was a returning the rest worthy merchants wives to the charge of one of whom was recommended mrs for that was her name was by great good fortune heavily by the sea and lay day and night on the broad of her back we were besides the only creatures at all young on board the rose except a white faced boy that did my old duty to attend upon the table and it came about that and i were left almost entirely to ourselves we had the next seats together at the table where i waited on her with pleasure on deck i made her a soft place with david b my cloak and tlie 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 sea we sat there only now and again walking to and fro for warmth from the first of the till eight or nine at night under the clear stars the merchants or captain sang would sometimes glance and smile upon ns or pass a merry word or two and give the go by again but the most part of the time they were deep in and and linen or in of the 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 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 with each other i laid aside my high english what little there was of it and forgot to make my bows and 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 she would tell me old wives tales of which she had a wonderful variety many of them from my friend red headed she told them very pretty and they were pretty enough childish tales but david the pleasure to myself was in the sound of her voice the thought that she was telling and i listening again we sit entirely silent not with a look and 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 yery sure that 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 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 spirits and i thought she walked like a young deer and stood like a 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 of what joys i had and would venture nothing on a hazard what we spoke was usually of ourselves or of each other so that if anyone had been at so much pains as us he must have supposed us the most persons in the world it 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 david 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 then we remarked upon the strangeness of that circumstance that friends in the beginning as if they were there for time and yet each had been alive a good while losing time with other people it is not much that i have done said she and i could be telling you the five of it in two three words it is only a girl i am and what can befall a girl at all events but i went with the in the	38
year the men marched with swords and and some of them in in the same set of they were not backward at the marching i can teu you and there were gentlemen from the low country with their tenants mounted and trumpets to sound and there was a grand of war pipes i rode on a little horse on the right hand of my father james more and of himself and here is one fine thing that i remember that kissed me in the face because says he my you are the only lady of the that has come out and me a little maid of maybe twelve years old i i saw prince too and the blue eyes of he was pretty indeed i i had his hand to kiss in i david the of the army well these were the good days but it is all like a dream that i have seen and then awakened it went what way you very well know and these were the worst days of all when the red coat were oat and my father and my lay in the hill and i was to be carrying them their meat in the middle night or at the short side of day when the 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 hare been with a but they say a maid goes safe there was my uncle s marriage and that was a dreadful affair beyond all was that woman s name and she had me in the room with her that night at the night we took her from her friends in the old ancient manner she would and she wouldn t she was for marrying bob the one minute and the next she would be for none of him i will never have seen such a creature of a woman surely all there was of her would tell her ay or no well she was a widow and i can never be thinking a widow a good woman says i how do you make out that p i do not know said she i am only telling you the seeming in my heart and then to marry a new man i but that was her and she was married again upon my uncle and went with him awhile to and market and then wearied or else her david friends got 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 haye never thought 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 as well as me and through all you had no friends said l no said she i have been pretty chief with two three on the but not to call it friends well mine is a plain tale said i i never had a friend to my name till i met in with you and that brave mr she asked yes i was foi getting him i but he is a man and that is very different i would think so said she yes it is quite different and then there was one other said l i once thought i had a friend but it proved a disappointment she asked me who she was p 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 to a merchant s house that was his second cousin once removed and wrote me two three times by david the and then he found new and i might write till i was tired he took no notice eh it took me a long while to forgive the world there is not anything more bitter than to lose a fancied friend then she began to question me close upon his and character for we were each a great deal concerned in all that touched the other till at last in a very hour i minded of his letters and went and fetched the bundle from the cabin here are his letters said i and all the that ever i got that will be the last i ll can tell of myself you know the lave as well as i do will you let me read them then says she i told her if she would be at the pains and she bade me go away and she would read them from the one end to the other now in this bundle that i gave her there were packed together not only all the letters of my false friend but one or two of mr when he was in town at the assembly and to make a complete roll of all that ever was written to me a little word and the two i had received from miss grant one when i was on the bass and one on board that ship but of these last i had no particular mind at the moment i was in that state of to the thought of my friend that it mattered not what i did nor david whether i was in her or out of it i had her like some kind of a noble fever that in my bosom by night and by day and whether i was waking or asleep so it that after i was come into the fore part of the ship where the broad bows into the i was in no such to return as you might fancy rather prolonged my absence	38

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.