David Balfour: Second Part Page 01
David Balfour
Being Memoirs of his Adventures at home and Abroad
THE SECOND PART: In which are set forth his Misfortunes anent the APPIN Murder; his Troubles with Lord Advocate GRANT; Captivity on the Bass Rock; Journey into Holland and France; and Singular Relations with JAMES MORE DRUMMOND or MACGREGOR, a Son of the notorious ROB ROY, and his Daughter CATRIONA
WRITTEN BY HIMSELF AND NOW SET FORTH BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1905
COPYRIGHT, 1893, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
* * * * *
DEDICATION TO CHARLES BAXTER, WRITER TO THE SIGNET.
MY DEAR CHARLES,
It is the fate of sequels to disappoint those who have waited for them; and, my David having been left to kick his heels for more than a lustre in the British Linen Company's office, must expect his late reappearance to be greeted with hoots, if not with missiles. Yet, when I remember the days of our explorations, I am not without hope. There should be left in our native city some seed of the elect; some long-legged, hot-headed youth must repeat to-day our dreams and wanderings of so many years ago; he will relish the pleasure, which should have been ours, to follow among named streets and numbered houses the country walks of David Balfour, to identify Dean, and Silvermills, and Broughton, and Hope Park and Pilrig, and poor old Lochend--if it still be standing, and the Figgate Whins--if there be any of them left; or to push (on a long holiday) so far afield as Gillane or the Bass. So, perhaps, his eye shall be opened to behold the series of the generations, and he shall weigh with surprise his momentous and nugatory gift of life.
You are still--as when first I saw, as when I last addressed you--in the venerable city which I must always think of as my home. And I have come so far; and the sights and thoughts of my youth pursue me; and I see like a vision the youth of my father, and of his father, and the whole stream of lives flowing down there, far in the north, with the sound of laughter and tears, to cast me out in the end, as by a sudden freshet, on those ultimate islands. And I admire and bow my head before the romance of destiny.
R.L.S.
VAILIMA, UPOLU, SAMOA, 1902.
* * * * *
CONTENTS
Part I
THE LORD ADVOCATE
I. A BEGGAR ON HORSEBACK II. THE HIGHLAND WRITER III. I GO TO PILRIG IV. LORD ADVOCATE PRESTONGRANGE V. IN THE ADVOCATE'S HOUSE VI. UMQHILE THE MASTER OF LOVAT VII. I MAKE A FAULT IN HONOUR VIII. THE BRAVO IX. THE HEATHER ON FIRE X. THE RED-HEADED MAN XI. THE WOOD BY SILVERMILLS XII. ON THE MARCH AGAIN WITH ALAN XIII. GILLANE SANDS XIV. THE BASS XV. BLACK ANDIE'S TALE OF TOD LAPRAIK XVI. THE MISSING WITNESS XVII. 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
Part II
FATHER AND DAUGHTER
XXI. THE VOYAGE INTO HOLLAND XXII. HELVOETSLUYS XXIII. TRAVELS IN HOLLAND XXIV. FULL STORY OF A COPY OF HEINECCIUS XXV. THE RETURN OF JAMES MORE XXVI. THE THREESOME XXVII. A TWOSOME XXVIII. IN WHICH I AM LEFT ALONE XXIX. WE MEET IN DUNKIRK XXX. THE LETTER FROM THE SHIP XXXI. CONCLUSION
* * * * *
PART I
THE LORD ADVOCATE
* * * * *
CHAPTER I
A BEGGAR ON HORSEBACK
The 25th day of August, 1751, about two in the afternoon, I, David Balfour, came forth of the British Linen Company, a porter attending me with a bag of money, and some of the chief of these merchants bowing me from their doors. Two days before, and even so late as yestermorning, I was like a beggarman by the wayside, clad in rags, brought down to my last shillings, my companion a condemned traitor, a price set on my own head for a crime with the news of which the country rang. To-day I was served heir to my position in life, a landed laird, a bank porter by me carrying my gold, recommendations in my pocket, and (in the words of the saying) the ball directly at my foot.
There were two circumstances that served me as ballast to so much sail. The first was the very difficult and deadly business I had still to handle; the second, the place that I was in. The tall, black city, and the numbers and movement and noise of so many folk, made a new world for me, after the moorland braes, the sea-sands, and the still country-sides that I had frequented up to then. The throng of the citizens in particular abashed me. Rankeillor's son was short and small in the girth; his clothes scarce held on me; and it was plain I was ill qualified to strut in the front of a bank-porter. It was plain, if I did so, I should but set folk laughing, and (what was worse in my case) set them asking questions. So that I behooved to come by some clothes of my own, and in the meanwhile to walk by the porter's side, and put my hand on his arm as though we were a pair of friends.
At a merchant's in the Luckenbooths, I had myself fitted out: none too fine, for I had no idea to appear like a beggar on horseback; but comely and responsible, so that servants should respect me. Thence to an armourer's, where I got a plain sword, to suit with my degree in life. I felt safer with the weapon, though (for one so ignorant of defence) it might be called an added danger. The porter, who was naturally a man of some experience, judged my accoutrement to be well chosen.
"Naething kenspeckle,"[1] said he, "plain, dacent claes. As for the rapier, nae doubt it sits wi' your degree; but an I had been you, I would hae waired my siller better-gates than that." And proposed I should buy winter-hosen from a wife in the Cowgate-back, that was a cousin of his own, and made them "extraordinar endurable."
But I had other matters on my hand more pressing. Here I was in this old, black city, which was for all the world like a rabbit-warren, not only by the number of its indwellers, but the complication of its passages and holes. It was indeed a place where no stranger had a chance to find a friend, let be another stranger. Suppose him even to hit on the right close, people dwelt so thronged in these tall houses, he might very well seek a day before he chanced on the right door. The ordinary course was to hire a lad they called a caddie, who was like a guide or pilot, led you where you had occasion, and (your errands being done) brought you again where you were lodging. But these caddies, being always employed in the same sort of services, and having it for obligation to be well informed of every house and person in the city, had grown to form a brotherhood of spies; and I knew from tales of Mr. Campbell's how they communicated one with another, what a rage of curiosity they conceived as to their employer's business, and how they were like eyes and fingers to the police. It would be a piece of little wisdom, the way I was now placed, to tack such a ferret to my tails. I had three visits to make, all immediately needful: to my kinsman Mr. Balfour of Pilrig, to Stewart the Writer that was Appin's agent, and to William Grant Esquire of Prestongrange, Lord Advocate of Scotland. Mr. Balfour's was a non-committal visit; and besides (Pilrig being in the country) I made bold to find way to it myself, with the help of my two legs and a Scots tongue. But the rest were in a different case. Not only was the visit to Appin's agent, in the midst of the cry about the Appin murder, dangerous in itself, but it was highly inconsistent with the other. I was like to have a bad enough time of it with my Lord Advocate Grant, the best of ways; but to go to him hot-foot from Appin's agent, was little likely to mend my own affairs, and might prove the mere ruin of friend Alan's. The whole thing, besides, gave me a look of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds that was little to my fancy.