Catriona

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Catriona (A Sequel to "Kidnapped") by Robert Louis Stevenson
Scanned and proofed by David Price
ccx074@coventry.ac.uk

Catriona

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 re-
appearance to be greeted with hoots, if not with missiles. Yet, when I
remember the days of our explorations, I am not without hope. There
should be left in our native city some seed of the elect; some long-
legged, 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 these ultimate islands. And I admire and bow my head
before the romance of destiny.

R. L. S.

Vailima, Upolu,

Samoa, 1892.

CATRIONA - 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 beggar-man 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," said he; "plain, dacent claes. As for the
rapier, nae doubt it sits wi' your degree; but an I had been you, I
would has waired my siller better-gates than that." And he 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 take such a ferret to my
tails. I had three visits to make, all immediately needful: to my
kinsman Mr. Balfour of Pilrig, to Stewart the Writer that was Appin's
agent, and to William Grant Esquire of Prestongrange, Lord Advocate of
Scotland. Mr. Balfour's was a non-committal visit; and besides (Pilrig
being in the country) I made bold to find the way to it myself, with
the help of my two legs and a Scots tongue. But the rest were in a
different case. Not only was the visit to Appin's agent, in the midst
of the cry about the Appin murder, dangerous in itself, but it was
highly inconsistent with the other. I was like to have a bad enough
time of it with my Lord Advocate Grant, the best of ways; but to go to
him 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. I determined, therefore,
to be done at once with Mr. Stewart and the whole Jacobitical side of
my business, and to profit for that purpose by the guidance of the
porter at my side. But it chanced I had scarce given him the address,
when there came a sprinkle of rain - nothing to hurt, only for my new
clothes - and we took shelter under a pend at the head of a close or
alley.

Being strange to what I saw, I stepped a little farther in. The narrow
paved way descended swiftly. Prodigious tall houses sprang upon each
side and bulged out, one storey beyond another, as they rose. At the
top only a ribbon of sky showed in. By what I could spy in the
windows, and by the respectable persons that passed out and in, I saw
the houses to be very well occupied; and the whole appearance of the
place interested me like a tale.

I was still gazing, when there came a sudden brisk tramp of feet in
time and clash of steel behind me. Turning quickly, I was aware of a
party of armed soldiers, and, in their midst, a tall man in a great
coat. He walked with a stoop that was like a piece of courtesy,
genteel and insinuating: he waved his hands plausibly as he went, and
his face was sly and handsome. I thought his eye took me in, but could
not meet it. This procession went by to a door in the close, which a
serving-man in a fine livery set open; and two of the soldier-lads
carried the prisoner within, the rest lingering with their firelocks by
the door.

There can nothing pass in the streets of a city without some following
of idle folk and children. It was so now; but the more part melted
away incontinent until but three were left. One was a girl; she was
dressed like a lady, and had a screen of the Drummond colours on her
head; but her comrades or (I should say) followers were ragged gillies,
such as I had seen the matches of by the dozen in my Highland journey.
They all spoke together earnestly in Gaelic, the sound of which was
pleasant in my ears for the sake of Alan; and, though the rain was by
again, and my porter plucked at me to be going, I even drew nearer
where they were, to listen. The lady scolded sharply, the others
making apologies and cringeing before her, so that I made sure she was
come of a chief's house. All the while the three of them sought in
their pockets, and by what I could make out, they had the matter of
half a farthing among the party; which made me smile a little to see
all Highland folk alike for fine obeisances and empty sporrans.

It chanced the girl turned suddenly about, so that I saw her face for
the first time. There is no greater wonder than the way the face of a
young woman fits in a man's mind, and stays there, and he could never
tell you why; it just seems it was the thing he wanted. She had
wonderful bright eyes like stars, and I daresay the eyes had a part in
it; but what I remember the most clearly was the way her lips were a
trifle open as she turned. And, whatever was the cause, I stood there
staring like a fool. On her side, as she had not known there was
anyone so near, she looked at me a little longer, and perhaps with more
surprise, than was entirely civil.

It went through my country head she might be wondering at my new
clothes; with that, I blushed to my hair, and at the sight of my
colouring it is to be supposed she drew her own conclusions, for she
moved her gillies farther down the close, and they fell again to this
dispute, where I could hear no more of it.

I had often admired a lassie before then, if scarce so sudden and
strong; and it was rather my disposition to withdraw than to come
forward, for I was much in fear of mockery from the womenkind. You
would have thought I had now all the more reason to pursue my common
practice, since I had met this young lady in the city street, seemingly
following a prisoner, and accompanied with two very ragged indecent-
like Highlandmen. But there was here a different ingredient; it was
plain the girl thought I had been prying in her secrets; and with my
new clothes and sword, and at the top of my new fortunes, this was more
than I could swallow. The beggar on horseback could not bear to be
thrust down so low, or, at least of it, not by this young lady.

I followed, accordingly, and took off my new hat to her the best that I
was able.

"Madam," said I, "I think it only fair to myself to let you understand
I have no Gaelic. It is true I was listening, for I have friends of my
own across the Highland line, and the sound of that tongue comes
friendly; but for your private affairs, if you had spoken Greek, I
might have had more guess at them."

She made me a little, distant curtsey. "There is no harm done," said
she, with a pretty accent, most like the English (but more agreeable).
"A cat may look at a king."

"I do not mean to offend," said I. "I have no skill of city manners; I
never before this day set foot inside the doors of Edinburgh. Take me
for a country lad - it's what I am; and I would rather I told you than
you found it out."

"Indeed, it will be a very unusual thing for strangers to be speaking
to each other on the causeway," she replied. "But if you are landward
bred it will be different. I am as landward as yourself; I am
Highland, as you see, and think myself the farther from my home."

"It is not yet a week since I passed the line," said I. "Less than a
week ago I was on the braes of Balwhidder."

"Balwhither?" she cries. "Come ye from Balwhither! The name of it
makes all there is of me rejoice. You will not have been long there,
and not known some of our friends or family?"

"I lived with a very honest, kind man called Duncan Dhu Maclaren," I
replied.

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

"Ay," said I, "they are fine people, and the place is a bonny place."

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

I was infinitely taken with the spirit of the maid. "I could be
wishing I had brought you a spray of that heather," says I. "And,
though I did ill to speak with you at the first, now it seems we have
common acquaintance, I make it my petition you will not forget me.
David Balfour is the name I am known by. This is my lucky day, when I
have just come into a landed estate, and am not very long out of a
deadly peril. I wish you would keep my name in mind for the sake of
Balwhidder," said I, "and I will yours for the sake of my lucky day."

"My name is not spoken," she replied, with a great deal of haughtiness.
"More than a hundred years it has not gone upon men's tongues, save for
a blink. I am nameless, like the Folk of Peace. Catriona Drummond is
the one I use."

Now indeed I knew where I was standing. In all broad Scotland there
was but the one name proscribed, and that was the name of the
Macgregors. Yet so far from fleeing this undesirable acquaintancy, I
plunged the deeper in.

"I have been sitting with one who was in the same case with yourself,"
said I, "and I think he will be one of your friends. They called him
Robin Oig."

"Did ye so?" cries she. "Ye met Rob?"

"I passed the night with him," said I.

"He is a fowl of the night," said she.

"There was a set of pipes there," I went on, "so you may judge if the
time passed."

"You should be no enemy, at all events," said she. "That was his
brother there a moment since, with the red soldiers round him. It is
him that I call father."

"Is it so?" cried I. "Are you a daughter of James More's?"

"All the daughter that he has," says she: "the daughter of a prisoner;
that I should forget it so, even for one hour, to talk with strangers!"

Here one of the gillies addressed her in what he had of English, to
know what "she" (meaning by that himself) was to do about "ta
sneeshin." I took some note of him for a short, bandy-legged, red-
haired, big-headed man, that I was to know more of to my cost.

"There can be none the day, Neil," she replied. "How will you get
'sneeshin,' wanting siller! It will teach you another time to be more
careful; and I think James More will not be very well pleased with Neil
of the Tom."

"Miss Drummond," I said, "I told you I was in my lucky day. Here I am,
and a bank-porter at my tail. And remember I have had the hospitality
of your own country of Balwhidder."

"It was not one of my people gave it," said she.

"Ah, well." said I, "but I am owing your uncle at least for some
springs upon the pipes. Besides which, I have offered myself to be
your friend, and you have been so forgetful that you did not refuse me
in the proper time."

"If it had been a great sum, it might have done you honour," said she;
"but I will tell you what this is. James More lies shackled in prison;
but this time past they will be bringing him down here daily to the
Advocate's. . . ."

"The Advocate's!" I cried. "Is that . . . ?"

"It is the house of the Lord Advocate Grant of Prestongrange," said
she. "There they bring my father one time and another, for what
purpose I have no thought in my mind; but it seems there is some hope
dawned for him. All this same time they will not let me be seeing him,
nor yet him write; and we wait upon the King's street to catch him; and
now we give him his snuff as he goes by, and now something else. And
here is this son of trouble, Neil, son of Duncan, has lost my four-
penny piece that was to buy that snuff, and James More must go wanting,
and will think his daughter has forgotten him."

I took sixpence from my pocket, gave it to Neil, and bade him go about
his errand. Then to her, "That sixpence came with me by Balwhidder,"
said I.

"Ah!" she said, "you are a friend to the Gregara!"

"I would not like to deceive you, either," said I. "I know very little
of the Gregara and less of James More and his doings, but since the
while I have been standing in this close, I seem to know something of
yourself; and if you will just say 'a friend to Miss Catriona' I will
see you are the less cheated."

"The one cannot be without the other," said she.

"I will even try," said I.

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

"I am thinking nothing but that you are a good daughter," said I.

"I must not be without repaying it," 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 you will give me your direction, I will
he no bold as come seeking my sixpence for myself."

"Will I can trust you for that?" she asked.

"You need 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. Drummond-
Ogilvy of Allardyce, who is my near friend and will be glad to thank
you."

"You are to see me, then, so soon as what I have to do permits," said
I; and, the remembrance of Alan rolling 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 more backward. I think it was the bank-porter that
put me from this ungallant train of thought.

"I thoucht ye had been a lad of some kind o' sense," he began, shooting
out his lips. "Ye're no likely to gang far this gate. A fule and his
siller's shune parted. Eh, but ye're a green callant!" he cried, "an'
a veecious, tae! Cleikin' up wi' baubeejoes!"

"If you dare to speak of the young lady. . . " I began.

"Leddy!" he cried. "Haud us and safe us, whatten leddy? Ca' THON a
leddy? The toun's fu' o' them. Leddies! Man, its weel seen ye're no
very acquant in Embro!"

A clap of anger took me.

"Here," said I, "lead me where I told you, and keep your foul mouth
shut!"

He did not wholly obey me, for, though he no more addressed me
directly, he very impudent sang at me as he went in a manner of
innuendo, and with an exceedingly ill voice and ear -

"As Mally Lee cam doun the street, her capuchin did flee,
She cuist a look ahint her to see her negligee.
And we're a' gaun east and wast, we're a' gann ajee,
We're a' gaun east and wast courtin' Mally Lee."

CHAPTER II - THE HIGHLAND WRITER

MR. CHARLES STEWART the Writer dwelt at the top of the longest stair
ever mason set a hand to; fifteen flights of it, no less; and when I
had come to his door, and a clerk had opened it, and told me his master
was within, I had scarce breath enough to send my porter packing.

"Awa' east and west wi' ye!" said I, took the money bag out of his
hands, and followed the clerk in.

The outer room was an office with the clerk's chair at a table spread
with law papers. In the inner chamber, which opened from it, a little
brisk man sat poring on a deed, from which he scarce raised his eyes on
my entrance; indeed, he still kept his finger in the place, as though
prepared to show me out and fall again to his studies. This pleased me
little enough; and what pleased me less, I thought the clerk was in a
good posture to overhear what should pass between us.

I asked if he was Mr. Charles Stewart the Writer.

"The same," says he; "and, if the question is equally fair, who may you
be yourself?"

"You never heard tell of my name nor of me either," said I, "but I
bring you a token from a friend that you know well. That you know
well," I repeated, lowering my voice, "but maybe are not just so keen
to hear from at this present being. And the bits of business that I
have to propone to you are rather in the nature of being confidential.
In short, I would like to think we were quite private."

He rose without more words, casting down his 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 misgives me!
I tell you beforehand, ye're either a Stewart or a Stewart sent ye. A
good name it is, and one it would ill-become my father's son to
lightly. But I begin to grue at the sound of it."

"My name is called Balfour," said I, "David Balfour of Shaws. As for
him that sent me, I will let his token speak." And I showed the silver
button.

"Put it in your pocket, sir!" cries he. "Ye need name no names. The
deevil's buckie, I ken the button of him! And de'il hae't! Where is
he now!"

I told him I knew not where Alan was, but he had some sure place (or
thought he had) about the north side, where he was to lie until a ship
was found for him; and how and where he had appointed to be spoken
with.

"It's been always my opinion that I would hang in a tow for this family
of mine," he cried, "and, dod! I believe the day's come now! Get a
ship for him, quot' he! And who's to pay for it? The man's daft!"

"That is my part of the affair, Mr. Stewart," said I. "Here is a bag
of good money, and if more be wanted, more is to be had where it came
from."

"I needn't ask your politics," said he.

"Ye need not," said I, smiling, "for I'm as big a Whig as grows."

"Stop a bit, stop a bit," says Mr. Stewart. "What's all this? A Whig?
Then why are you here with Alan's button? and what kind of a black-foot
traffic is this that I find ye out in, Mr. Whig? Here is a forfeited
rebel and an accused murderer, with two hundred pounds on his life, and
ye ask me to meddle in his business, and then tell me ye're a Whig! I
have no mind of any such Whigs before, though I've kent plenty of
them."

"He's a forfeited rebel, the more's the pity," said I, "for the man's
my friend. I can only wish he had been better guided. And an accused
murderer, that he is too, for his misfortune; but wrongfully accused."

"I hear you say so," said Stewart.

"More than you are to hear me say so, before long," said I. "Alan
Breck is innocent, and so is James."

"Oh!" says he, "the two cases hang together. If Alan is out, James can
never be in."

Hereupon I told him briefly of my acquaintance with Alan, of the
accident that brought me present at the Appin murder, and the various
passages of our escape among the heather, and my recovery of my estate.
"So, sir, you have now the whole train of these events," I went on,
"and can see for yourself how I come to be so much mingled up with the
affairs of your family and friends, which (for all of our sakes) I wish
had been plainer and less bloody. You can see for yourself, too, that
I have certain pieces of business depending, which were scarcely fit to
lay before a lawyer chosen at random. No more remains, but to ask if
you will undertake my service?"

"I have no great mind to it; but coming as you do with Alan'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 smuggle Alan forth of this country," said I,
"but I need not be repeating that."

"I am little likely to forget it," said Stewart.

"The next thing is the bit money I am owing to Cluny," I went on. "It
would be ill for me to find a conveyance, but that should be no stick
to you. It was two pounds five shillings and three-halfpence farthing
sterling."

He noted it.

"Then," said I, "there's a Mr. Henderland, a licensed preacher and
missionary in Ardgour, that I would like well to get some snuff into
the hands of; and, as I daresay you keep touch with your friends in
Appin (so near by), it's a job you could doubtless overtake with the
other."

"How much snuff are we to say?" he asked.

"I was thinking of two pounds," said I.

"Two," said he.

"Then there's the lass Alison Hastie, in Lime Kilns," said I. "Her
that helped Alan and me across the Forth. I was thinking if I could
get her a good Sunday gown, such as she could wear with decency in her
degree, it would be an ease to my conscience; for the mere truth is, we
owe her our two lives."

"I am glad so see you are thrifty, Mr. Balfour," 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 compute the outlay 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 Alan safe; it's
not that I lack more; but having drawn so much the one day, I think it
would have a very ill appearance if I was back again seeking, the next.
Only be sure you have enough," I added, "for I am very undesirous to
meet with you again."

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