Fiction > Serialisations > London, 1893 - David Balfour

32i
DAVID B ALFO UR.
we're safe here for the time being, and I've been
wearying to see ye, Mr. Balfour."
" How's it with Alan ? " I asked.
"Brawly," said he. "Andie picks him up at
Gillam Sands to-morrow, Wednesday. He was run
to say good-bye to ye, but the way that things were
going, I was feared the pair of ye was maybe best
apart. And that brings me to the essential : How
does your business speed ? "
" Why," said I, " I was told only this morning
that my testimony was accepted, and I was to
travel to Inverary with the Advocate, no less."
" Hout awa'. ! " cried Stewart, " I'll never believe
that."
" I have maybe a suspicion of my own," says I,
"but I would like fine to hear your reasons."
"Well, I tell ye fairly, I am horn-mad," cries
Stewart. " If my one hand could pull their Govern-
ment down I would pluck it like a rotten apple.
I'm doer for Appin and for James of the Glens ;
and, of course, it's my duty to defend my kinsman
for his life. Hear how it goes with me, and I'll
leave the judgment of it to yourself. The first
thing they have to do is to get rid of Alan. They
cannae bring in James as art and part until they've
brought in Alan first as principal ; that's sound
law : they could never put the cart before the
horse."
"And how are they to bring in Alan till they
can catch him ? " says I.
" Ah, but there is a way to evite that arrest-
ment," said he. " Sound law, too. It would be
a bonny thing if by the escape of one ill-doer
another was to go scatheless, and the remeid is to
summon the principal and put him to outlawry for
the non-compearance. Now there's four places
where a person can be summoned : at his dwelling-
house ;■ at a place where he has resided forty days ;
at the head burgh of the shire where he ordinarily
resorts ; or lastly (if there be ground to think him
forth of Scotland), at the cross of Edinburgh, and
tlie pier and shore of Leith for sixty days. The
purpose of which last provision is evident upon its
face, being that outgoing ships may have time to
carry news of the transaction, and the summonizing
be something other than a form. Now take the
case of Alan. He has no dwelling-house that ever
I could hear of; I would be obliged if any one
would show me where- he has lived forty days
together since the '45 ; there is no shire where he
resorts, whether ordinarily or extraordinarily ; if he
has a domicile at all, which I misdoubt, it must be
with his regiment in France ; and if he is not yet
forth of Scotland (as we happen to know and they
happen to guess), it must be evident to the most
dull it's what he's aiming for. Where, then, and
what way shonld he be summoned ? I ask it at
yourself, a layman."
" You have given the very words," said I.
"Here at the cross, and at the pier and shore of
Leith for sixty days."
" Ye're a sounder Scots lawyer than Preston-
grange, then ! " cries the Writer. " He has had
Alan summoned once ; that was on the twenty-fifth,
the day that we first met. Once, and done with it.
And where ? Where, but at the cross of Inverary,
the head burgh of the Campbells. A word in your
ear, Mr. Balfour — they're not seeking Alan."
" What do you mean ? " I cried. " Not seeking
him ? "
" By the best that I can make of it," said he.
" Not wanting to find him, in my poor thought.
They think perhaps he might set up a fair defence,
upon the back of which James, the man they're
really after, might climb out. This is not a case,
ye see : it's a conspiracy."
" Yet I can tell you, Prestongrange asked after
Alan keenly," said I; "though, when I come to
think of it, he was something of the easiest
put by."
"See that! "says he. "But there! I may be
right or wrong, that's guesswork at the best, and
let me get to my facts again. It comes to my ears
that James and the witnesses — the witnesses, Mr.
Balfour ! — lay in close dungeons, and shackled i
forbye, in the military prison at Fort William ;
none allowed in to them, nor they to write. The .;
witnesses, Mr. Balfour ! heard ye ever the match i
of that? I assure ye, no old, crooked Stewart of
the gang ever outfaced the law more impudently.
It's clean in the two eyes of the Act of Parliament 1
of 1700, anent wrongous imprisonment. No sooner '
did I get the news than I petitioned the Lord
Justice Clerk. I have his word to-day. There's
law for ye ! here's justice ! "
He put a paper in my hand, that same mealy-
mouthed, false-faced paper that was printed since
in the pamphlet " by a bystander," for behoof (as
the tide says) of James's "poor widow and five ;
children." '