"Sir,"said I,"if I tell you my story,I must commit a friend's life to your discretion.Pass me your word it shall be sacred;and for what touches myself,I will ask no better guarantee than just your face."He passed me his word very seriously."But,"said he,"these are rather alarming prolocutions;and if there are in your story any little jostles to the law,I would beg you to bear in mind that Iam a lawyer,and pass lightly."
Thereupon I told him my story from the first,he listening with his spectacles thrust up and his eyes closed,so that I sometimes feared he was asleep.But no such matter!he heard every word (as I found afterward)with such quickness of hearing and precision of memory as often surprised me.Even strange outlandish Gaelic names,heard for that time only,he remembered and would remind me of,years after.Yet when I called Alan Breck in full,we had an odd scene.The name of Alan had of course rung through Scotland,with the news of the Appin murder and the offer of the reward;and it had no sooner escaped me than the lawyer moved in his seat and opened his eyes.
"I would name no unnecessary names,Mr.Balfour,"said he;"above all of Highlanders,many of whom are obnoxious to the law.""Well,it might have been better not,"said I,"but since I have let it slip,I may as well continue.""Not at all,"said Mr.Rankeillor."I am somewhat dull of hearing,as you may have remarked;and I am far from sure Icaught the name exactly.We will call your friend,if you please,Mr.Thomson --that there may be no reflections.And in future,I would take some such way with any Highlander that you may have to mention --dead or alive."By this,I saw he must have heard the name all too clearly,and had already guessed I might be coming to the murder.If he chose to play this part of ignorance,it was no matter of mine;so Ismiled,said it was no very Highland-sounding name,and consented.Through all the rest of my story Alan was Mr.
Thomson;which 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;quae regio in terris --what parish in Scotland (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 doubtless 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 I dare say you would both take an orra thought upon the gallows.Well,well,these days are fortunately,by;and Ithink (speaking humanly)that you are near the end of your troubles."As he thus moralised on my adventures,he looked upon me with so much humour and benignity that I could scarce contain my satisfaction.I had been so long wandering with lawless people,and making my bed upon the hills and under the bare sky,that to sit once more in a clean,covered house,and to talk amicably with a gentleman in broadcloth,seemed mighty elevations.Even as I thought so,my eye fell on my unseemly tatters,and I was once more plunged in confusion.But the lawyer saw and understood me.He rose,called over the stair to lay another plate,for Mr.Balfour would stay to dinner,and led me into a bedroom in the upper part of the house.Here he set before me water and soap,and a comb;and laid out some clothes that belonged to his son;and here,with another apposite tag,he left me to my toilet.
[33]Newly rough-cast.
