It was
impossible to chase after the Gebbies into the High Germany, and we
had no other acquaintance to fall back upon but Captain Sang
himself. It was the more gratifying to find the man friendly and
wishful to assist. He made it a small affair to find some good
plain family of merchants, where Catriona might harbour till the
Rose was loaden; declared he would then blithely carry her back to
Leith for nothing and see her safe in the hands of Mr. Gregory; and
in the meanwhile carried us to a late ordinary for the meal we
stood in need of. He seemed extremely friendly, as I say, but what
surprised me a good deal, rather boisterous in the bargain; and the
cause of this was soon to appear. For at the ordinary, calling for
Rhenish wine and drinking of it deep, he soon became unutterably
tipsy. In this case, as too common with all men, but especially
with those of his rough trade, what little sense or manners he
possessed deserted him; and he behaved himself so scandalous to the
young lady, jesting most ill-favouredly at the figure she had made
on the ship's rail, that I had no resource but carry her suddenly
away.
She came out of the ordinary clinging to me close. "Take me away,
David," she said. "YOU keep me. I am not afraid with you."
"And have no cause, my little friend!" cried I, and could have
found it in my heart to weep.
"Where will you be taking me?" she said again. "Don't leave me at
all events--never leave me."
"Where am I taking you to?" says I stopping, for I had been staving
on ahead in mere blindness. "I must stop and think. But I'll not
leave you, Catriona; the Lord do so to me, and more also, if I
should fail or fash you."
She crept close into me by way of a reply.
"Here," I said, "is the stillest place we have hit on yet in this
busy byke of a city. Let us sit down here under yon tree and
consider of our course."
That tree (which I am little like to forget) stood hard by the
harbour side. It was like a black night, but lights were in the
houses, and nearer hand in the quiet ships; there was a shining of
the city on the one hand, and a buzz hung over it of many thousands
walking and talking; on the other, it was dark and the water
bubbled on the sides. I spread my cloak upon a builder's stone,
and made her sit there; she would have kept her hold upon me, for
she still shook with the late affronts; but I wanted to think
clear, disengaged myself, and paced to and fro before her, in the
manner of what we call a smuggler's walk, belabouring my brains for
any remedy. By the course of these scattering thoughts I was
brought suddenly face to face with a remembrance that, in the heat
and haste of our departure, I had left Captain Sang to pay the
ordinary. At this I began to laugh out loud, for I thought the man
well served; and at the same time, by an instinctive movement,
carried my hand to the pocket where my money was. I suppose it was
in the lane where the women jostled us; but there is only the one
thing certain, that my purse was gone.
"You will have thought of something good," said she, observing me
to pause.
At the pinch we were in, my mind became suddenly clear as a
perspective glass, and I saw there was no choice of methods. I had
not one doit of coin, but in my pocket-book I had still my letter
on the Leyden merchant; and there was now but the one way to get to
Leyden, and that was to walk on our two feet.
"Catriona," said I, "I know you're brave and I believe you're
strong--do you think you could walk thirty miles on a plain road?"
We found it, I believe, scarce the two-thirds of that, but such was
my notion of the distance.
"David," she said, "if you will just keep near, I will go anywhere
and do anything. The courage of my heart, it is all broken. Do
not be leaving me in this horrible country by myself, and I will do
all else."
"Can you start now and march all night?" said I.