Fiction > Serialisations > London, 1893 - David Balfour

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DA VI D B ALFO U R.
were covenanted to dine with the Writer after
sermon, and I was very obUgingly included of
the party. No sooner the cloth lifted, and the
first bowl very artfully compounded by Sheriff
Miller, than we fell to the subject in hand. I
made a short narration of my seizure and cap-
tivity, and was then examined and re-examined
upon the circumstance of the murder. It will
be remembered this was the first time I had
had my say out, or the matter at all handled
among lawyers ; and the consequence was very
dispiriting to the others and (I must own) dis-
appointing to myself
"To sum up," said Polton, "you prove that
Alan was on the .spot ; you have heard him proffer
menaces against Glenure ; and though you assure
us he was not the man who fired, you leave a
strong impression that he was in league with him,
and consenting, perhaps immediately assisting, in
the act. You show him besides, at the risk of
his own liberty, actively furthering the criminal's
escape. And the rest of your testimony (so far
as the least material) depends on the bare word
of Alan or of James, the two accused. In short,
you do not at all break, but oniy lengthen by one
personage, the chain that binds our client to the
murderer; and I need scarcely say that the in-
troduction of a third accomplice rather aggravates
that appearance of a conspiracy which has been
our stumbling block from the beginning.''
" I am of the same opinion," said Sheriff Miller.
" I think we may all be very much obliged to
Prestongrange for taking a most uncomfortable
witness out of our way. And ehiefly, I think,
Mr. Balfour himself might be obliged. For you
talk of a third accomplice, but Mr. Balfour (in
my view) has very much the appearance of a
fourth."
"Allow me, sirs!" interposed Stewart the Writer.
*' There is another view. Here we have a witness —
never fash whether material or not — a witness in
this cause, kidnapped by that old, lawless, bandit
crew of the Glengyle Macgregors, and sequestered
for near upon a month in a bourock of old cold
ruins on the Bass. Move that and see what dirt you
fling on the proceedings ! Sirs, this is a tale to
make the world ring with 1 It would be strange,
with such a grip as this, if we couldnae squeeze
out a pardon for my client."
" And suppose we took up Mr. Balfour's cause
to-morrow ? " said Stewart Hall. " I am much
deceived or we should find so many impediments
thrown in our path, as that James should have
been hanged before we had found a court to hear
us. This is a great scandal, but I suppose we have
none of us forgot a greater still, I mean the matter
of the Lady Grange. The woman was still in
durance ; my friend Mr. Hope of Rankeillor did
what was humanly possible ; and how did he
speed ? He never got a warrant ! Well, it'll be
the same now ; the same weapons will be used.
This is a scene, gentlemen, of clan ahimosity.
The hatred of the name which I have the honour
to bear, rages in high quarters. There is nothing
here to be viewed but naked Campbell spite and
scurvy Campbell intrigue."
You may be sure this was to touch a welcome
topic, and I sat for some time in the midst of my
learned counsel, almost deafened with their talk
but extremely little the wiser for its purport. The
Writer was led into some hot expressions; Polton
must take him up and set him right ; the rest joined
in on different sides, but all pretty noisy : the Duke
of Argyle was beaten like a blanket ; King George
came in for a few digs in the by-going, and a great
deal of rather elaborate defence : and there was
only one person that seemed to be forgotten, and
that was James of the Glens.
Through all this Mr. Miller .sat quiet. He was a
slip of an oldish gentleman, ruddy and twinkling;
he spoke in a smooth rich voice, with an infinite
effect of pawkiness, dealing out each word the way
an actor does, to give the most expression possible;
and even now, when he was silent, and sat there
with his wig laid aside, his glass in both hands, his
mouth funnily pursed, and his chin out, he seemed
the mere picture of a merry slyness. It was plain
he had a word to sav and waited for the fit
occasion.
It came presently. Polton had wound up one of
his speeches with some expression of their duty to
their client. His brother sheriff was pleased, I
suppose, with the transition. He took the table in
his confidence with a gesture and a look.
" That suggests to me a consideration which
seems overlooked," said he. "The interest of our
client goes certainly before all, but the world does
not come to an end with James Stewart." Whereat
he cocked his eye. " I might condescend, exempli
gratia, upon a Mr. George Brown, a Mr. Thomas