Fiction > Book editions > London, 1886 - Kidnapped

284                                   KIDNAPPED.
amused me the more, as it was a piece of policy after
his own heart. James Stewart, in like manner, was
mentioned under the style of Mr. Thomson's kinsman;
Colin Campbell passed as a Mr. Glen; and to Cluny,
when I came to that part of my tale, I gave the name
of "Mr. Jameson, a Highland chief." It was truly the
most open farce, and I wondered that the lawyer should
care to keep it up; but after all it was quite in the taste
of that age, when there were two parties in the state,
and quiet persons, with no very high opinions of their
own, sought out every cranny to avoid offence to either.
"Well, well," said the lawyer, when I had quite
done, "this is a great epic, a great Odyssey of yours.
You must tell it, sir, in a sound Latinity when your
scholarship is riper; or in English if you please, though
for my part I prefer the stronger tongue. You have
rolled much; qua regio in terris�what parish in Scot-
land (to make a homely translation) has not been filled
with your wanderings? You have shown, besides, a
singular aptitude for getting into false positions; and,
yes, upon the whole, for behaving well in them. This
Mr. Thomson seems to me a gentleman of some choice
qualities, though perhaps a trifle bloody-minded. It
would please me none the worse, if (with all his merits)
he were soused in the North Sea; for the man, Mr.
David, is a sore embarrassment. But you are doubt-
less quite right to adhere to him; indubitably, he
adhered to you. It comes�we may say�he was your
true companion; nor less, paribus curis vestigia figit, for