Adventure Books
12 - Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson
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And here I must explain, and the reader would do well to look at a map. On the day when the fog fell and we ran down Allen's boat, we had been running through the little minch. Had dawn after the battle, we lay becommed to the east of the Isle of Kenna, or between that and Isle Erska in the chain of the Long Island. Now to get from there to the Linney Lock, the straight course was through the narrows of the sound of Mull. But the captain had no chart. He was afraid to trust his brig so deep among the islands, and the wind serving well he preferred to go by west of Tyrean come up under the southern coast of the Great Isle of Mull. All day the breeze held in the same point, and rather freshened, then died down, and towards afternoon a swell began to set in from round the outer hebrides. Our course, to go round about the inner isles, was to the west of south, so that at first we had the swell upon our beam, and were much rolled about. But after nightfall, when we had turned the end of Tyrean and began to head more to the east, the sea came right a stern. Meanwhile, the early part of the day, before the swell came up, was very pleasant, sailing as we were in a bright sunshine, and with many mountainous islands upon different sides. One and I sat in the roundhouse with the doors open on each side, the wind being straight a stern, and smoked a pipe or two of the captain's fine tobacco. It was at this time we heard each other's stories, which was the more important to me, as I gained some knowledge of that wild Highland country on which I was so soon to land. In those days, so close on the back of the Great Rebellion, it was needful a man should know what he was doing when he went upon the heather. It was I that showed the example, telling him all my misfortune, which he heard with great good nature. Only when I came to mention that good friend of mine, Mr. Campbell, the minister, Allen fired up and cried out that he hated all that were of that name. "Why," said I, "he is a man you should be proud to give your hand to." "I know nothing I would help a Campbell to," says he, "unless it was a lead-in bullet. I would hunt all of that name like black cocks. If I laid dying, I would crawl upon my knees to my chamber window for a shot at one." "Why, Allen," I cried, "what ails you at the Campbell's?" "Well," says he, "you can very well that I am an Appen Stewart, and the Campbell's have long harried and wasted those of my name. I, and got lands of us by treachery, but never with a sword," he cried loudly, and with the word brought down his fist upon the table. "But I paid the less attention to this, for I knew it was usually said by those who have the underhand." "There's more than that," he continued, "in all in the same story. In words, lying papers, tricks fit for a pender, and the show of what's legal overall to make a man a more angry." "You are so wasteful of your buttons," said I, "I can hardly think you would be a good judge of business." "Aha," says he, falling again, the smiling, "I got my wastefulness from the same man I got the buttons from, and that was my poor father, Duncan Stewart, grace be to him. He was the prettiest man of his kindred, and the best swordsman in the Highlands, David, and that is the same as to say, in all the world I should kin, for it was him that taught me. He was in the Black Watch, when first it was mustered, and like other gentleman privates had a ghillie at his back to carry his firelock for him on the march. Well, the king, it appears, was wishful to see Highland swordsmanship, and my father and three more were chosen out and sent to London town to let him see it at the best. So they were hadn't to the palace and showed the whole art of the sword for two hours at a stretch before King George and Queen Carlisle, and the butcher Cumberland, and many more of whom I have no mind. And when they were through, the king, for all he was a rank usurper, spoke them fair and gave each man three guineas in his hand. Now as they were going out of the palace they had a porters lodge to go by, and it came in on my father as he was perhaps the first private Highland gentleman that had ever gone by that door. It was right he should give the poor porter a proper notion of their quality. So he gives the king's three guineas into the man's hand, as if it was his common custom. The three others that came behind him did the same, and there they were on the street, and there were a penny to better for their pains. Some say it was one that was the first to feed the king's porter, and some say it was another. What the truth of it is that it was dunk and steward, as I am willing to prove with either sword or a pistol, and that was the father I had. God rest him." "I think he was not the man to leave you rich," said I. "And that's true," said Dallen. "He left me my bariques to cover me, and little besides, and that was how I came to enlist, which was a black spot upon my character at the best of times, and would still be a sore job for me if I fell among the reg goats." "What?" cried I. "Were you in the English army?" "That was I," said Dallen, "but I deserted to the right side it pressed in pants, and that's some comfort." I could scarcely share this view, holding desertion under arms for an unpardonable fault in honor. But for all I was so young I was wiser than say my thought. "Dear, dear," says I, "the punishment is death." "I," said he, "if they got the hands on me, it would be a short shrift and a long toe for Allen. But I have the King of France's commission in my pocket, which would I be some protection?" "I missed out it much," said I. "I have doubts myself," said Allen dryly. "And good heaven, man," cried I, "you that are a condemned rebel and a deserter and a man of the French kings, what tempts you back into this country? It's a braving of providence." "But," says Allen. "I have been back every year since forty-six." "And what brings you, man?" cried I. "Well, you see, I weary for my friends and country," said he. "Friends is a bra place, no doubt, but I weary for the heather and the deer, and then I have bit things that I attend to. Whilst I pick up a few lads to serve the King of France, recruits, you see, and that's I a little money. But the heart of the matter is the business of my chief, Arjil." "I thought they called your chief, Appen," said I. "I, but Arjil is a captain of the clan," said he, which scarcely cleared my mind. "You see, David, he that was all his life so great a man, and come of the blood in bearing the name of kings, is now brought down to live in a French town like a poor and private person. You see, that had four hundred swords at his whistle? I have seen, with these eyes of mine, buying butter in the marketplace and taking it home in a kale leaf. This is not only a pain but a disgrace to us of his family and clan. There are the barns far by, the children and the hope of Appen, that must be learned the letters and how to hold a sword in that far country. Now, the tenets of Appen have to pay a rent to King George, but their hearts are staunch. They are true to their chief, and what with love and a bit of pressure, and may be a threat or two. The poor folks scrape up a second rent for Arjil." "Well, David, I am the hand that carries it," and he struck the belt about his body so that the guineys rang. "Do they pay both?" cried I. "I, David, both," says he. "What? Two rents?" I repeated. "I, David," said he. "I told a different-tailed young Captain-man, but this is the truth of it, and it's wonderful to me how little pressure is needed. But that's the handiwork of my good kinsman and my father's friend, James of the Glens. James Stewart, that is, Arjil's half-brother. He it is that gets the money in and does the management. This was the first time I heard the name of that James Stewart who was afterward so famous at the time of his hanging, but I took little heed at the moment, for all my mind was occupied with the generosity of these poor highlanders." "I call it noble," I cried. "I'm a wig, or a little better, but I call it noble." "I," said he, "you're a wig, but you're a gentleman, and that's what does it. Now, if you were one of the cursed race of Campbell, you had nashed your teeth to hear tell of it. If you were the Red Fox, and at that name his teeth shut together, and he ceased speaking, I've seen many a grim face, but never a grimmer than Allen's when he had named the Red Fox. And who is the Red Fox?" I asked, daunted, but still curious. "Who is he?" cried Allen. "Well, and I tell you that. When the men of the clans were broken at Clodden, and the good cause went down, and the horses rode over the fetlocks, and the best blood of the north. Arjil had to flee like a poor deer upon the mountains, he and his lady and his barns. A sad job we had before we got him shipped, and while he still lay in the heather, the English rogues, they couldn't come at his life, were striking at his rights. They stripped him of his powers, they stripped them of his lands, they plucked the weapons from the hands of his cleansemen, that had borne arms for thirty centuries, I and the very clothes off their backs, so that it's now a sin to wear a tartan plaid, and a man may be cast into a jail if he has but a kilt about his legs. One thing that couldn't kill, that was the love that clansmen bore their chief. These guineas are the proof of it, and now, in their steps a man, a Campbell, redheaded colon of Glenheur, "Is that him you called the red fox?" said I. "Well, you bring me his brush?" cried Allen fiercely. "I, that's the man, in he steps and gets papers from King George, to be so called King's factor on the lands of Appen, and at first he sings small, in his hailfellow well met with Sheamus. That's James of the Glens, my chieftains agent. But by the by, that came to his ears that I have just told you, how the poor commons of Appen, the farmers and the crafters and the bowmen, were ringing the very plaids to get a second rent, and sent it overseas for Ardsheil and his poor burns. What was it you called it, when I told you?" "I called it Noble, Allen," said I. "I knew little better than a common wig," cried Allen, "and when it came to Colin Roy, the black Campbell blood in him rent wild. He sat gnashing his teeth at the wine-table. What? Should a steward get a bite of bread, and him not be able to prevent it? Ha! Red fox, if ever I hold you with a gun's end, the Lord had pity upon you." Allen stopped to swallow down his anger. "Well, David, what does he do? He declares all the farms to let, and thinks he and his black heart. I'll soon get other tenants that are overbid these stewards, and that calls and the crubs. But these are all names in my clan, David. And then, thinks he, Ardsheil will have to hold his bonnet on the French roadside." "Well," said I, "what followed?" Allen laid down his pipe, which he had long since suffered to go out, and set his two hands upon his knees. "Aye," said he, "you'll never guess that. All these same stewards, and the calls and the crubs that had two rents to pay, one to King George by stark force, and one to Ardsheil by natural kindness, offered him a better price than any Campbell in all broad scutman, and far he sent seeking them, as far as to the sides of Clyde and the cross of Edinburgh, seeking and fleeching, and beckoning them to come, where there was a steward to be starved and a red-headed hound of a Campbell to be pleasured." "Well, Allen," said I, "that is a strange story, and a fine one too, and wig as I may be I am glad the man was beaten." "Him, beaten," echoed Allen. "It's little you can of Campbell's, and less of the red fox. Him, beaten?" "No, nor will be, till his blood's on the hillside. But if the day comes, David-Man, that I can find time and leisure for a bit of hunting, that grows not enough heather and all Scotland to hide him from my vegents." "Man, Allen," said I, "you're neither very wise nor very Christian to blow off so many words of anger. They will do the man you call the fox no harm and yourself no good. Tell me your tale plainly out. What did he next?" "And that's a good observe, David," said Allen. "Troughton indeed. They will do him no harm, the mores the pity, in barring that about Christianity, of which my opinion is quite otherwise, or I would be a Christian. I am much of your mind." "Appinion here, or opinion there," said I, "it's a Kent thing that Christianity forbids revenge." "I," said he, "it's well seen it was a Campbell touch ya. It would be a convenient world for them and their sort, if there were no such thing as a lad and a gun behind a heather bush. But that's nothing to the point. This is what he did." "I," said I, "come to that." "Well, David," said he, "since he couldn't be read of the loyal commons by fair means, his worry will be rid of them by foul. Arjul was the star. That was the thing he aimed at. And since them that fed him in his exile wouldn't be brought out, right or wrong he would drive them out. Therefore he sent for lawyers, papers, and redcoats to stand at his back. And the kindly folk of that country must all pack and trap every father's son out of his father's house, and out of the place where he was bred and fed, and played when he was a-calent. And who ought to succeed them? Bear lek it beggars!" In Georges to whistle for his rents, he mondue with less. He can spread his butter thinner. What cares red-colon? If he can hurt Arjul, he has his wish. If he can pluck the meat from my chieftain's table, and the bit toy is out of his children's hands, he will gang home singing to Glenuer. "Let me have a word," said I. "Be sure, if they take less rents, be sure government has a finger in the pie. It's not this Campbell's fault-man. It's his orders. And if he killed this colon tomorrow, what better would you be? There would be another factor in his shoes, as fast as spur can drive?" "Here, a good lad at a fight," said Alan, "but man, you have wig blood in you." He spoke kindly enough, but there was so much anger under his contempt that I thought it was wise to change the conversation. I expressed my wonder how, with the highlands covered with troops, and guarded like a city in a siege, a man in his situation could come and go without a rest. "It's easier than you would think," said Alan, "a bare hillside, you see. It's like all one road. If there's a century at one place, you'd just go by another. And then the head is a great hill. And everywhere there are friends' houses and friends' buyers and haystacks. And besides, when folk talk of a country covered with troops, it's but a kind of a bi-word at the best. A soldier covers near more of it than his boot-soles. I have fished the water with a century on the other side of the braid, and killed a fine trout, and I have sat in a heather bush within six feet of another, and learned a real bunny-tune from his whistling. This was it," said he, and whistled me the air. "And then besides," he continued, "it's no say bad now as it was in forty-six. The highlands are what they call pacified. Small wonder what never a gun or a sword left from can tire to keep wrath, but what tenty folk have hidden in the thatch. But what I would like to can, David, is just how long. Not long you would think, with men like hard-shield and exile, and men like the red flocks sitting burling the wine and oppressing the poor at home. But it's a kiddle thing to decide what folks will bear, and what they will not. And why would Red Colin be riding his horse all over my poor country of Appen, and never a pretty lad to put a bullet in him? And with this Alan fell into a muse, and for a long time sat very sad and silent. I will add the rest of what I have to say about my friend, that he was skilled in all kinds of music, but principally pike music, was a well-considered poet in its own tongue, had read several books both in French and English, was a dead shot, a good angler, and an excellent fencer with a small sword, as well as with his own particular weapon. For his faults they were on his face, and I now knew them all. But the worst of them, his childish propensity to take offense and to pick quarrels, he greatly laid aside, in my case, out of regard for the Battle of the Roundhouse. But whether it was because I had done well myself, or because I had been a witness of his own much greater prowess, is more than I can tell. For though he had a great taste for courage in other men, yet he admired it most in Alan Breck. Like our new brand Amazon Saver, 365 by Whole Foods Market, a plenty and more. Come back for new deals rotating every week. Don't miss out on savings. Try and exclusive deals at Amazon Fresh. Select varieties. Hi, I'm Devin Whitmire. People from South Carolina, like myself, are proud of their state, but even we don't know every nook and cranny, or every piece of culture or history. To explore places that are off the beaten path, you have to talk to the people there, because their stories, their ideas make everything come together. And Discover South Carolina, it's the Palmetto porch. To learn more, visit scpalmetto porch.com. [MUSIC PLAYING]