human
We'll have to sit upon the floor, said he;
gpt
How's it with Alan?'
human
Brawly, said he.
gpt
Andie picks him up at Gillane Sands to-morrow, Wednesday. He was keen to say good-by to ye, but the way that things were going, I was feared the pair of ye was maybe best apart. And that brings me to the essential: how does your business speed?
human
Why, said I,
gpt
I was told only this morning that my testimony was accepted, and I was to travel to Inverary with the Advocate, no less.
human
Hout awa! cried Stewart.
gpt
I'll never believe that.
human
I have maybe a suspicion of my own, says I,
gpt
Well, I tell ye fairly, I'm horn-mad, cries Stewart.
human
If my one hand could pull their Government down I would pluck it like a rotten apple. I'm doer for Appin and for James of the Glens; and, of course, it's my duty to defend my kinsman for his life. Hear how it goes with me, and I'll leave the judgment of it to yourself. The first thing they have to do is to get rid of Alan. They cannae bring in James as art and part until they've brought in Alan first as principal; that's sound law: they could never put the cart before the horse.
gpt
And how are they to bring in Alan till they can catch him?
human
Ah, but there is a way to evite that arrestment, said he.
gpt
Sound law, too. It would be a bonny thing if, by the escape of one ill-doer another was to go scatheless, and the remeid is to summon the principal and put him to outlawry for the non-compearance. Now there's four places where a person can be summoned: at his dwelling-house; at a place where he has resided forty days; at the head burgh of the shire where he ordinarily resorts; or lastly (if there be ground to think him forth of Scotland), _at the cross of Edinburgh, and the pier and shore of Leith, for sixty days_. The purpose of which last provision is evident upon its face: being that outgoing ships may have time to carry news of the transaction, and the summonsing be something other than a form. Now take the case of Alan. He has no dwelling-house that ever I could hear of; I would be obliged if anyone would show me where he has lived forty days together since the '45; there is no shire where he resorts whether ordinarily or extraordinarily; if he has a domicile at all, which I misdoubt, it must be with his regiment in France; and if he is not yet forth of Scotland (as we happen to know and they happen to guess) it must be evident to the most dull it's what he's aiming for. Where, then, and what way should he be summoned? I ask it at yourself, a layman.
human
You have given the very words, said I.
gpt
Here at the cross, and at the pier and shore of Leith, for sixty days.
human
Ye're a sounder Scots lawyer than Prestongrange, then! cries the Writer.
gpt
He has had Alan summoned once; that was on the twenty-fifth, the day that we first met. Once, and done with it. And where? Where, but at the cross of Inverary, the head burgh of the Campbells. A word in your ear, Mr. Balfour--they're not seeking Alan.
human
What do you mean? I cried.
gpt
Not seeking him?
human
By the best that I can make of it, said he.
gpt
Not wanting to find him, in my poor thought. They think perhaps he might set up a fair defence, upon the back of which James, the man they're really after, might climb out. This is not a case, ye see, it's a conspiracy.
human
Yet I can tell you Prestongrange asked after Alan keenly, said I;
gpt
See that! says he.
human
But there! I may be right or wrong, that's guesswork at the best, and let me get to my facts again. It comes to my ears that James and the witnesses--the witnesses, Mr. Balfour!--lay in close dungeons, and shackled forbye, in the military prison at Fort William; none allowed in to them, nor they to write. The witnesses, Mr. Balfour; heard ye ever the match of that? I assure ye, no old, crooked Stewart of the gang ever outfaced the law more impudently. It's clean in the two eyes of the Act of Parliament of 1700, anent wrongous imprisonment. No sooner did I get the news than I petitioned the Lord Justice Clerk. I have his word to-day. There's law for ye! here's justice!
gpt
for behoof (as the title says) of James's
human
See, said Stewart,
gpt
It will bear that colour,
human
And I'll go on to prove it you outright, said he.
gpt
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 as having done anything contrary to the duties of their office_. Anything contrary! Sirs! And the Act of seventeen hunner! Mr. Balfour, this makes my heart to burst. The heather is on fire inside my wame.
human
And the plain English of that phrase, said I,
gpt
And I am not to see them until Inverary, when the court is set! cries he,