Fiction > Serialisations > London, 1893 - David Balfour

DA VID BALFOUR.
329
"See," said Stewart, "he couldn't dare to refuse
rae access to my client, so he recommends the
commandmg officer to let me in. Recommends ! — ■
the Lord Justice Clerk of Scotland recommends.
Is not the purpose of such language plain ? They
hope the officer may be so dull, or so very much
tlie reverse, as to refuse the recommendation. I
would have to make the journey back again
betwixt here and Fort William. There would
follow a fresh delay till I got fresh authority, and
they had disavowed the officer — military men
notoriously ignorant of the law, and that — I ken
the cant of it. Then the journey a third time ;
and there we should be on the immediate heels of
the trial before I had received my first instruction.
Am I not right to call this a conspiracy ? "
" It will bear that colour," said I.
"And I'll go on to prove it you outright," said
he. "They have the right to hold James in
prison, yet they cannot deny me to visit him.
They have no right to hold the witnesses ; but am
I to get a sight of them, that should be as free as
the Lord Justice Clerk himself? See — read : For
the rest, refuses to give any orders to keepers of
prisons who are not accused of having done anything
contrary to the duties of their office. Anything
contrary ! Sirs ! Be this your law, Lord Justice
Clerk ? and the Act of seventeen hunner ! Mr.
Balfour, this makes my heart to burst. The
heather is on fire."
"And the plain English of that phrase," said I,
"is that the witnesses are still to lie in prison and
you are not to see them ? "
"And I am not to see them until Inverary, when
the court is set ! " cries he, " and then to hear
Prestongrange upon the anxious responsibilities of
Ids office and the great facilities offered to the defence !
But I'll begowk them there, Mr. David. I have a
plan to waylay the witnesses upon the road, and
see if I cannot get a little harle of justice out of
the military man fiotjriously ig?iorant of the laiv
that shall command the party."
It was actually so — it was actually on the way-
side near Tynedrum, and by the connivance of a
soldier officer, that Mr. Stewart first saw the
witnesses upon the case.
"There is nothing that would surprise me in
this business," I remarked.
"I'll surprise you ere I'm done!" cries he.
'Do ye see this?" — producing a print still wet
from the press. " This is the libel : see, there's
Prestongrange's name to the list of witnesses, and
I find no word of any Balfour. But here is not
the question. Who do ye think paid for the
printing of this paper ? "
"I suppose it would likely be King George,"
said I.
"But it happens it was me!'' he cried. "Not
but it was printed by and for themselves, for the
Grants and the Erskines, and yon thief of the
black midnight, Symon Eraser. But could /
win to get a copy? No! I was to go blindfold
to my defence ; I was to hear the charges for the
first time in court alongst tlie jury."
"Is not this against the law ?" I asked.
"I cannot say so much," he replied. "It was a
favour so natural and so constantly rendered (till
this nonesuch business) that the law has never
looked to it. And now admire the hand of Provi-
dence ! A stranger is in Fleming's printing-house,
spies a proof on the floor, picks it up, and carries
it to me. Of all things, it was just this libel.
Whereupon I had it set again — printed at the
expense of the defence : sumptibus moesti rei ;
heard ever man the like of it?— and here it is for
anybody, the muckle secret out — all may see it
now. But how do you think I would enjoy this,
that has the life of my kinsman on my conscience ? "
"Troth, I think you would enjoy it ill," said I.
" The first time that ever I saw you I talked a
lot of clavers and blethers about King George and
King James," he went on. " I was a cuif and a
coward. ^Vhat made a ceevileesed man of Charlie
Stewart ? The law and the study of it. And here
I see the law dung down into the dirt. What am
I saying ? Waur nor that ! I see it used like a
gun for a murder. And if they would cry Clay-
more ! again to-morrow, I would tramp with the
lads and take a whang at King George amongst
the first of them."
" I could not just entirely blame you," said I.
" And now you see how it is," he concluded,
"and why, when you tell me your evidence is to be
let in, I laugh aloud in your face."
It was now my turn. I laid before him in brief
Mr. Symon's threats and offers, and the whole in-
cident of the bravo, with the subsequent scene at
Prestongrange's. Of my first talk, according to
promise, I said nothing, nor indeed was it neces-
sary. All the time I was talking Stewart nodded