"Kidnapped", Being Memoirs of David Balfour at Home and Abroad
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ii =^,' v/. i?-02 \'6 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. Edinburgh : PicxunEsaUE Notes. An Inland Voyage. Teavels with a Donkey. ViEGINIBUS PUEEISaUE. Familiar Studies of Men and Booes. New Arabian Nights. Treasure Island. The Silverado Squatters. A Child's Garden of Verses. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The Black Arrow. Prince Otto. The Merry Men. Underwoods. Kidnapped. Memories ant) Portraits. The Master of Ballanteae. Father Damien : an Open Lettee. Ballads. Across the Plains. A Footnote to History. Island Nights' Entertainments. (With Mrs. Stevenson.) More New Arabian Nights: The Dynamiter. {With Mr. Lloyd Oshourne.) The Wrong Box. The Wrecker, CATPvIONA ; CATEIONA A SEQUEL TO ''KIDXAPPED" BEING MEMOIRS OF THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF DAVID BALFOUR AT HOME AND ABROAD In ivhich are set forth his Misfortunes anent the Appin Murder ; his Troubles tvith Loed Advocate Grant; Captivity on the Bass Hock Journey into Holland and France ; and singular Relations with James MoEE Deuioioxd or MacGeegoe, a Son of the notorious Bob Roy, and his Daughter Cateiona. Written by Himself, and now set forth by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON CASSELL AND COMPANY Limited LOXDOX TALIS i- MELBOURXE 1893 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ; l^' DEDICATION. CHARLES BAXTER, ^Yriter to the Sifjnet 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 Avith hoots, if not v\'itli missiles. Yet, Avhen I remember the days of our explorations, I am not Avithout 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 Avill relish the pleasure, which should have been ours, to folloAV among named streets and numbered houses the country Avalks 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 Figgatc Whins—if there be any of VI DEDICATION them left ; or to pusli (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 Avhen I last addressed you—in the venerable city Avhich I must always think of as my home. And I have come so i'ar ; 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, Va'il'ana, Ujwiu, Samoa, 1S93. ^ SUMMARY OF THE EARLIER ADVENTURES OF DAVID BALFOUR. AS SET FORTH IN "KIDNAPPED." Alexander and Ebenezer Balfour, brotliers, of the house of Shaws near Cramoiid in the Forest of Ettrick, being in love with the same lady, and she preferring the elder brotlier, Alex- ander, it was agreed between them that Alexander should take the lady, and Ebenezer, as amends for his disappointment, the estate of Shaws. Alexander and his wife removed to Essen- dean, Avhere they lived obscurely, Alexander in the character of village schoolmaster and where an only son was born to them, namely David Balfour, the hero of tliis liistory. David, brought up in ignorance of the family affairs and of his own claim on the estates, and losing both parents before he was eighteen, was left with no otlier fortune than a sealed letter from his father addressed to liis uncle Ebenezer, Avhich Avas handed Jiim by the minister of Essendean, Mr. Campbell. Proceeding to deliver it, David found his uncle living childless and a miser at Sliaws ; who received him ill, and after vainly endeavouring to compass his death, had him trepanned on board the brig Covenant, Captain Hoseason, bound to Carolina, to the end that he might be sold to labour in the plantations. But early in the voyage, the Covenant, running through the Minch, struck and sent to the bottom an open beat, from which there saved himself and came on board one Alan Breck Stewart, a Highland gentleman banislied after the '45, and now engaged in smuggling rents from his clansmen, tlio Appin Stewarts, to their chief Ardshiel, living in exile in France. ; viii EARLIER ADVENTURES OF DAVID BALFOUR Hoseason and Lis crew, learuiug that Alan liad gold about him, privy conspired to rob and murder him ; but David, being made to the plot, put Alan on his guard and promised to stand by him. Favoured by the shelter of the round-house, and by Alan's courage and skill of fence, the two got the better of their assail- j^ants in the attack which followed, killiug or maiming more than half of them ; whereby Captain Hoseason was disabled from pro- secuting his voyage, and came to terms with Alan, agreeing to land him on a part of the coast whence he miglit best make his way to his own country of Apx)in. But in attempting this the Covenant took ground and sank off the coast of Mull. Thoso on board saved themselves as they best could, David separately being first cast on the Isle of Earraid, and thence making hia way across Mull. Alan had passed before by the same road, and left word that David should follow and rejoin him in his own country at the house of his kinsman, James Stewart of the Glens, On his way to keep this tryst, David found himself in Appin on the same day when the King's Factor, Colin Roy Campbell of Glenure, came with a force of red-coats to drive out the tenants from the forfeited estates of Ardshiel, and was present when Glenure was slain upon the roadside by a shot out of a neigh- bouring wood. Suspected of complicity at the moment when he was in the act of giving chase to the unknown murderer, David betook himself to flight, and was quickly joined by Alan Brack, who, though he had not fired the shot, was lurking not far off. The two now lived the life of hunted men upon tho moors, the outcry on account of the murder being very great, and its guilt being declared to rest on James Stewart of the Glens, the already outlawed Alan Breck, and a lad unknown, being no other than DaA^d Balfour ; for whose apprehension blood-money was offered and the country scoured by soldiery. In the course of their wanderings, David and Alan visited James Stewart at Aucharn, were concealed in Cluny Macpherson's cage, and EARLIER ADVENTURES OF DAVID BALFOUR. IX 6uffcrecl to rest during' sickness ia the bouse of Duueau DJiu Mac- laren in Balwhidder, where Alan played a match upon the pipes against Robin Gig, the son of Rob Roy. At last, after much peril and suffering, they made their way down to the Highland Line and the Forth ; which, however, they dared not cross for fear of arrest until an innkeeper's daughter of Limekilns, Alison Hastie, was prevailed on to row them over to the Lothian shore under cover of niglit. Here Alan again went into hiding, while David made himself known to Mr, Hope of Raukeillor, lawyer and lately agent to the Shaws estate ; who promptly took up his cause and contrived a plan whereby, with the help of Alan, Ebenezer Balfour was compelled to recognise his nephew's title as heir to the estate, and in the meantime to make liim a suitable allowance from its income. David Balfour, lia^-ing thus come to his own, proposes to go and complete his education at the University of Leydcn; but must first satisfy the claims of friendship, by helping Alan out of Scotland, and of conscience, by testifying to the innocence of James Stewart of the Glens, now a prisoner awaiting his trial for the Appiu murder. oon^te:n^ts. Dedication Summary of "Kidnapped" PART I. THE LORD ADVOCATE. CHAPTER I. A Beggar on Horseback II. The Highland AVriter . III. I go to Pilrig IV. Lord Advocate Prestongrange . V. In the Advocate's House VI. Umquile the Master of Lovat . VII. I MAKE A Fault in Honour . A^III. The Bravo IX. The Heather on Fire . X. The Red-headed Man . XI. The "Wood by Silvermills . XII. On the March again with Alan XIII. Gillane Sands .... XIV. The Bass XV. liLACK Andie's Talk of Ton Lapraik XVI. The Missing AVitness . XVII. The Memorial XVIII. The Tee'd Ball .... XIX. I AM MUCH in the HANDS OF THE LaDI XX. I continue to move in Good Soctkty XXI. XXII. XXIII. XXIV. XXV. XXVI. XXVII. XXVIII. XXIX. XXX. CATRIONA. PAET 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.