e ourselves with the melancholy tunes of our native mountains,
and by walking up the margin of the sea that lies next to Scotland.
It was better days with me when I lay with five wounds upon my body
on the field of Gladsmuir. I have found employment here in the
haras of a French nobleman, where my experience is valued. But, my
dear Sir, the wages are so exceedingly unsuitable that I would be
ashamed to mention them, which makes your remittances the more
necessary to my daughter's comfort, though I daresay the sight of
old friends would be still better.
"My dear Sir,
"Your affectionate, obedient servant,
"JAMES MACGREGOR DRUMMOND."
Below it began again in the hand of Catriona:-
"Do not be believing him, it is all lies together,--C. M. D."
Not only did she add this postscript, but I think she must have
come near suppressing the letter; for it came long after date, and
was closely followed by the third. In the time betwixt them, Alan
had arrived, and made another life to me with his merry
conversation; I had been presented to his cousin of the Scots-
Dutch, a man that drank more than I could have thought possible and
was not otherwise of interest; I had been entertained to many
jovial dinners and given some myself, all with no great change upon
my sorrow; and we two (by which I mean Alan and myself, and not at
all the cousin) had discussed a good deal the nature of my
relations with James More and his daughter. I was naturally
diffident to give particulars; and this disposition was not anyway
lessened by the nature of Alan's commentary upon those I gave.
"I cannae make heed nor tail of it," he would say, "but it sticks
in my mind ye've made a gowk of yourself. There's few people that
has had more experience than Alan Breck: and I can never call to
mind to have heard tell of a lassie like this one of yours. The
way that you tell it, the thing's fair impossible. Ye must have
made a terrible hash of the business, David."
"There are whiles that I am of the same mind," said I.
"The strange thing is that ye seem to have a kind of fancy for her
too!" said Alan.
"The biggest kind, Alan," said I, "and I think I'll take it to my
grave with me."
"Well, ye beat me, whatever!" he would conclude.
I showed him the letter with Catriona's postscript. "And here
again!" he cried. "Impossible to deny a kind of decency to this
Catriona, and sense forby! As for James More, the man's as boss as
a drum; he's just a wame and a wheen words; though I'll can never
deny that he fought reasonably well at Gladsmuir, and it's true
what he says here about the five wounds. But the loss of him is
that the man's boss."
"Ye see, Alan," said I, "it goes against the grain with me to leave
the maid in such poor hands."
"Ye couldnae weel find poorer," he admitted. "But what are ye to
do with it? It's this way about a man and a woman, ye see, Davie:
The weemenfolk have got no kind of reason to them. Either they
like the man, and then a' goes fine; or else they just detest him,
and ye may spare your breath--ye can do naething. There's just the
two sets of them--them that would sell their coats for ye, and them
that never look the road ye're on. That's a' that there is to
women; and you seem to be such a gomeral that ye cannae tell the
tane frae the tither."
"Well, and I'm afraid that's true for me," said I.
"And yet there's naething easier!" cried Alan. "I could easy learn
ye the science of the thing; but ye seem to me to be born blind,
and there's where the deefficulty comes in."
"And can YOU no help me?" I asked, "you that are so clever at the
trade?"
"Ye see, David, I wasnae here," said he. "I'm like a field officer
that has naebody but blind men for scouts and eclaireurs; and what
would he ken? But it sticks in my mind that ye'll have made some
kind of bauchle; and if I was you I would have a try at her again."
"Would ye so, man Alan?" said I.