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16 - Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson · Classic Adventure Books - Daily

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  Speaker 1: Chapter sixteen, The lad with the Silver Button. Across Morven.
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  Speaker 1: There is a regular ferry from torres Say to Kinloch
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  Speaker 1: Aleeen on the mainland, both shores of the sound, or
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  Speaker 1: in the country of the strong clan of the Mcleans,
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  Speaker 1: and the people that passed the ferry with me were
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  Speaker 1: almost all of that clan. The skipper of the boat,
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  Speaker 1: on the other hand, was called neil Roy Macrob, And
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  Speaker 1: since Macrob was one of the names of Allan's clansmen,
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  Speaker 1: and Allan himself had sent me to that ferry, I
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  Speaker 1: was eager to come to private speech of neil Roy
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  Speaker 1: in the crowded boat. This was, of course impossible, and
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  Speaker 1: the passage was a very slow affair. There was no wind,
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  Speaker 1: and as the boat was wretchedly equipped, we could pull
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  Speaker 1: but two oars on one side and one on the other.
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  Speaker 1: The men gave way, however, with a good will, the
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  Speaker 1: passengers taking spells to help them, and the whole company
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  Speaker 1: giving the time in Gaelic boat's songs. And what were
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  Speaker 1: the songs and the sea and the good nature and
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  Speaker 1: spirit of all concern and the bright weather. The passage
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  Speaker 1: was a pretty thing to have seen. But there was
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  Speaker 1: one melancholy part. In the mouth of lach Aline, we
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  Speaker 1: found a great sea going ship at anchor, and this
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  Speaker 1: I supposed at first to be one of the King's cruisers,
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  Speaker 1: which were kept along that coast both summer and winter,
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  Speaker 1: to prevent communication with the French. As we got a
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  Speaker 1: little nearer, it became plain she was a ship of merchandise.
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  Speaker 1: And what still more puzzled me. Not only her decks,
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  Speaker 1: but the sea beach also were quite black with people,
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  Speaker 1: and skiffs were continually plying to and fro between them.
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  Speaker 1: Yet nearer, and there began to come to our ears
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  Speaker 1: a great sound of mourning, the people on board and
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  Speaker 1: those on the shore crying and lamenting one to another
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  Speaker 1: so as to pierce the heart. Then I understood this
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  Speaker 1: was an emigrant ship bound for the American colonies. We
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  Speaker 1: put the ferryboat alongside, and the exiles leaned over the bulwarks,
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  Speaker 1: weeping and reaching out their hands to my fellow passengers,
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  Speaker 1: among whom they counted some near friends. How long this
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  Speaker 1: might have gone on I do not know, for they
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  Speaker 1: seemed to have no sense of time. But at last
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  Speaker 1: the captain of the ship, who seemed near beside himself
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  Speaker 1: and no great wonder in the midst of this crying
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  Speaker 1: and confusion, came to the side and begged us to depart.
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  Speaker 1: Thereupon Neil sheered off, and the chief singer in our
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  Speaker 1: boat struck into a melancholy air, which was presently taken
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  Speaker 1: up both by the emigrants and their friends upon the beach,
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  Speaker 1: so that it sounded from all sides like a lament
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  Speaker 1: for the dying. I saw the tears run down the
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  Speaker 1: cheeks of the men and women in the boat, even
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  Speaker 1: as they bent at the oars. And the circumstances and
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  Speaker 1: the music of the song, which is one called lach
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  Speaker 1: Abra no More, were highly affecting, even to myself. At
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  Speaker 1: Kinloch Aleen, I got Neil Roy upon one side on
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  Speaker 1: the beach and said, I made sure he was one
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  Speaker 1: of Appin's men. And what for, no, said he. I
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  Speaker 1: am seeking somebody, said I, and it comes in my
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  Speaker 1: mind that you will have news of him. Alan breck
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  Speaker 1: Stewart is his name. And very foolishly, instead of showing
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  Speaker 1: him the button, I sought to pass a shilling in
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  Speaker 1: his hand. At this he drew back. I am very
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  Speaker 1: much affronted, he said, And this is not the way
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  Speaker 1: that one gentleman should behave to another at all. The
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  Speaker 1: man you asked for is in France, but if he
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  Speaker 1: were in my sporn, says he, and your belly full
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  Speaker 1: of shillings that would not hurt a hair upon his body.
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  Speaker 1: I saw I had gone the wrong way to work,
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  Speaker 1: and without wasting time upon apologies, showed him the button
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  Speaker 1: lying in the hollow of my palm. Hahuil. Wuil said Neil,
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  Speaker 1: and I think you might have begun with that end
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  Speaker 1: of the stick whatever. But if you are the lad
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  Speaker 1: with silver button, all is well, and I have the
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  Speaker 1: word to see that you come safe. But if you
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  Speaker 1: will pardon me to speak plainly, says he, there is
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  Speaker 1: a name that you should never take into your mouth,
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  Speaker 1: and that is the name of Alan Breck. And there
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  Speaker 1: is a thing that you would never do, and that
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  Speaker 1: is to offer your dirty money to a heilen gentleman.
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  Speaker 1: It was not very easy to apologize, for I could
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  Speaker 1: scarce tell him what was the truth that I had
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  Speaker 1: never dreamed he would set up to be a gentleman
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  Speaker 1: until he told me so. Neil, on his part, had
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  Speaker 1: no wish to prolong his dealings with me, only to
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  Speaker 1: fulfill his orders and be done with it, and he
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  Speaker 1: made haste to give me my route. This was to
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  Speaker 1: lie the Knight in king Lacheleen and the public inn,
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  Speaker 1: to cross Morvan the next day to Ardgour, and lie
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  Speaker 1: the Knight in the house of one John of the Claymore,
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  Speaker 1: who was warned that I might come the third day
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  Speaker 1: to be set across one lock at Korn and another
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  Speaker 1: at Balak foolish, and then asked my way to the
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  Speaker 1: house of James of the Glens at Okhrn Endure of Appen.
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  Speaker 1: There was a good deal of faring, as you hear
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  Speaker 1: the sea in all this part, running deep into the
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  Speaker 1: mountains and winding about their roots. It makes the country
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  Speaker 1: strong to hold and difficult to travel, but full of prodigious,
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  Speaker 1: wild and dreadful prospects. I had some other advice from
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  Speaker 1: Neil to speak with no one by the way, to
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  Speaker 1: avoid Whigs, Campbell's and the Red soldiers. To leave the
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  Speaker 1: road and lie in a bush if I saw any
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  Speaker 1: of the latter coming, for it was never chancey to
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  Speaker 1: meet in with them, And in brief to conduct myself
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  Speaker 1: like a robber or a Jacobite agent, as perhaps Neil
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  Speaker 1: thought me. The inn at Kinloch Aleen was the most
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  Speaker 1: beggarly vile place that ever. Pigs were stied in, full
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  Speaker 1: of smoke, vermin and silent highlanders. I was not only
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  Speaker 1: discontented with my lodging, but with my for my mismanagement
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  Speaker 1: of Neil, and thought I could hardly be worse off,
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  Speaker 1: but very wrongly, as I was soon to see. For
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  Speaker 1: I had not been half an hour at the inn,
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  Speaker 1: standing in the door most of the time to ease
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  Speaker 1: my eyes from the peat smoke. When a thunder storm
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  Speaker 1: came close by, the springs broke in the little hill
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  Speaker 1: on which the inn stood, and one end of the
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  Speaker 1: house became a running water. Places of public entertainment were
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  Speaker 1: bad enough all over Scotland in those days. Yet it
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  Speaker 1: was a wonder to myself when I had to go
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  Speaker 1: from the fireside to the bed in which I slept,
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  Speaker 1: weeding over the shoes. Early in my next day's journey,
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  Speaker 1: I overtook a little stout solemn man, walking very slowly
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  Speaker 1: with his toes turned out, sometimes reading in a book
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  Speaker 1: and sometimes marking the place with his finger, and dressed
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  Speaker 1: decently and plainly in something of a clerical style. This
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  Speaker 1: I found to be another Catechist, but of a different
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  Speaker 1: order from the blind Man of Mull, being indeed one
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  Speaker 1: of those sent out by the Edinburgh Society for propagating
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  Speaker 1: Christian knowledge to evangelize the more savage places of the Highlands.
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  Speaker 1: His name was Henderlund. He spoke with a broad South
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  Speaker 1: country tongue, which I was beginning to weary for the
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  Speaker 1: sound of. And besides common country ship, we soon found
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  Speaker 1: we had a more particular bond of interest. For my
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  Speaker 1: good friend, the Minister of Essendean had translated into the
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  Speaker 1: Gaelic in his by time a number of hymns and
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  Speaker 1: pious books, which Henderlund used in his work and held
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  Speaker 1: in great esteem. Indeed, it was one of these he
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  Speaker 1: was carrying and reading when we met. We fell in
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  Speaker 1: company at once, our ways, lying together as far as
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  Speaker 1: to Kingerloch. As we went, he stopped and spoke with
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  Speaker 1: all the wayfarers and workers that we met or passed.
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  Speaker 1: And though of course I could not tell what they
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  Speaker 1: discoursed about, yet I judge mister Hendelin must be well
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  Speaker 1: liked in the country, for I observed many of them
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  Speaker 1: to bring out their mulls and share a pinch of
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  Speaker 1: snuff with him. I told him as far in my affairs,
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  Speaker 1: as I judge wise, as far that is, as they
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  Speaker 1: were none of Allan's, and gave balicoulish as the place
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  Speaker 1: I was traveling to to meet a friend, for I
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  Speaker 1: thought Akharan or even Duror would be too particular and
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  Speaker 1: might put him on the scent. On his part, he
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  Speaker 1: told me much of his work and the people he
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  Speaker 1: worked among, the hiding priests and Jacobites, the Disarming Act,
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  Speaker 1: the dress, and many other curiosities of the time and place.
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  Speaker 1: He seemed moderate, blaming Parliament in several points, and especially
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  Speaker 1: because they had framed the act more severely against those
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  Speaker 1: who wore the dress than against those who carried weapons.
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  Speaker 1: This moderation put it in my mind to question him
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  Speaker 1: of the red Fox and the app and tenants, questions
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  Speaker 1: which I thought would seem natural enough in the mouth
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  Speaker 1: of work one traveling to that country. He said it
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  Speaker 1: was a bad business. It's wonderful, said he. Where the
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  Speaker 1: tenants find the money for their life is mere starvation.
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  Speaker 1: You don't carry such a thing as snuff, do you,
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  Speaker 1: mister Balfour. No, well, I'm better wanting it. But these tenants,
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  Speaker 1: as I was saying, are doubtless partly driven to it.
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  Speaker 1: James Stewart Endure, that's him. They call James of the Glens,
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  Speaker 1: his half brother to Ardshield, the captain of the clan,
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  Speaker 1: and he is a man much looked up to and
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  Speaker 1: drives very hard. And then this one they call Alan Breck. Ah,
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  Speaker 1: I cried, what of him? What of the wind that
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  Speaker 1: bloweth where it listeth? Said Henderlen. He's here in a way,
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  Speaker 1: here to day and gone tomorrow a fair heather cat.
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  Speaker 1: He might be glowering at the two of us out
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  Speaker 1: of yon Windbush. And I wouldn't wonder you now carry
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  Speaker 1: such a thing a snuff? Will you told him now?
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  Speaker 1: And that he had asked the same thing more than once.
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  Speaker 1: It's highly possible, said he, sighing. But it seems strange
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  Speaker 1: you shouldn't carry it. However, I was saying this. Alan
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  Speaker 1: Breck is a bold, desperate customer, and well kent to
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  Speaker 1: be James's right hand. His life is forfoot already. He
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  Speaker 1: would boggle at nehin and maybe if a tenant body
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  Speaker 1: were to hang back, he would get a dirk in
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  Speaker 1: his way. You make a poor story of it all,
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  Speaker 1: mister Hendlen, said I if it is all fear upon
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  Speaker 1: both sides. I care to hear no more of it, nah,
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  Speaker 1: said mister Henderlen. But there's love too, and self denial
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  Speaker 1: that should put the like of you and meat to shame.
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  Speaker 1: There's something fine about it, No, perhaps Christian, but humanly fine.
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  Speaker 1: Even Alan Breck by all that I hear, is a
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  Speaker 1: chield to be respected. There's many a lion's snack draw
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  Speaker 1: sits closing kirk in our own part of the country,
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  Speaker 1: and stands well in the world's eye. And maybe he
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  Speaker 1: is a far worse man, mister Balfour, than yon misguided
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  Speaker 1: shadder of man's blood. II II we might take a
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  Speaker 1: lesson by them. You'll perhaps think I've been too long
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  Speaker 1: in the highlands, he added, smiling to me. I told
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  Speaker 1: him not at all, that I had seen much to
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  Speaker 1: admire among the highlanders. And if he came to that,
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  Speaker 1: mister Campbell himself was a highlander, I said he that's true.
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  Speaker 1: It's a fine blood. And what is the King's agent about,
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  Speaker 1: I asked Colin Campbell, says Handelen, putting his head in
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  Speaker 1: a bees bike. He is to turn the tenants out
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  Speaker 1: by force, I hear, said, I, yes, says he. But
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  Speaker 1: the business is gone back and forth, as folks say.
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  Speaker 1: First James of the Glens rode to Edinburgh and got
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  Speaker 1: some lawyer, a Stewart. In no doubt they all hang
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  Speaker 1: together like bats and a steeple, and had the proceedings staid.
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  Speaker 1: And then Colin Campbell came in again and had the
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  Speaker 1: upper hand before the barons of Exchequer. And now they
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  Speaker 1: tell me the first of the tenants are to flit tomorrow.
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  Speaker 1: It's to begin at Durer under James's very windows, which
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  Speaker 1: doesna seem wise by my humble way of it. Do
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  Speaker 1: you think they'll fight? I asked, Well, says Henderland. They're disarmed,
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  Speaker 1: or supposed to be, for there's still a good deal
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  Speaker 1: of cold iron lying by in quiet places. And then
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  Speaker 1: Colin Campbell has the soldiers coming. But for all that,
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  Speaker 1: if I was his lady wife, I wouldn't be well
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  Speaker 1: pleased till I got him home again. They're queer customers,
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  Speaker 1: the appen Stuarts. I asked if they were worse than
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  Speaker 1: their neighbors. No, they said he And that's the worst
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  Speaker 1: part of it. For if Colin Roy can get his
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  Speaker 1: business done and appen, he has it all to begin
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  Speaker 1: again in the next country which they call Memoir, and
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  Speaker 1: which is one of the countries of the Camerons. He's
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  Speaker 1: King's factor upon both, and from both he has to
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  Speaker 1: drive out the tenants. And indeed, mister Balfour, to be
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  Speaker 1: open with you, it's my belief that if he escapes
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  Speaker 1: the one lot, he'd get his death by the other.
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  Speaker 1: So we continued talking and walking the great part of
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  Speaker 1: the day, until at last mister Hendelen, after expressing his
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  Speaker 1: delight in my company and satisfaction at meeting with a
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  Speaker 1: friend of mister Campbell's, whom says he and would make
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  Speaker 1: the bold to call that sweet singer of our confident
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  Speaker 1: in Zion, propose that I should make a short stage
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  Speaker 1: and lie the night in his house a little beyond Kingerloch.
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  Speaker 1: To say truth, I was overjoyed, for I had no
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  Speaker 1: great desire for John of the Claymore, and since my
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  Speaker 1: double misadventure first with a guide and next with the
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  Speaker 1: gentleman's skipper, I stood in some fear of any highland stranger. Accordingly,
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  Speaker 1: we shook hands upon the bargain and came in the
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  Speaker 1: afternoon to a small house standing alone by the shore
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  Speaker 1: of the line Loch. The sun was already gone from
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  Speaker 1: the desert mountains of Ardgour upon the hither side, but
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  Speaker 1: shone on those of append On the farther. The loch
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  Speaker 1: lay as still as a lake. Only the gulls were
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  Speaker 1: crying round the sides of it, and the whole place
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  Speaker 1: seemed solemn and uncouth. We had no sooner come to
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  Speaker 1: the door of mister Henderlen's dwelling than, to my great surprise,
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  Speaker 1: for I was now used to the politeness of Highlanders.
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  Speaker 1: He burst rudely past me, dashed into the room, bought
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  Speaker 1: up a jar in a small horn spoon, and began
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  Speaker 1: ladling snuff into his nose in most excessive quantities than
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  Speaker 1: he had a hearty fit of sneezing, and looked round
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  Speaker 1: upon me with a rather silly smile. It's a vow
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  Speaker 1: I took, says he. I took a vow upon me
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  Speaker 1: that I would not carry it. Doubtless it's a great privation.
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  Speaker 1: But when I think upon the martyrs, not only to
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  Speaker 1: the Scottish Covenant, but to other points of Christianity, I
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  Speaker 1: think shame to mind it. As soon as we had
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  Speaker 1: eaten and porridge, and why were the best of the
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  Speaker 1: good Man's diet. He took a grave face and said
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  Speaker 1: he had a duty to perform by mister Campbell, and
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  Speaker 1: that was to inquire into my state of mind towards God.
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  Speaker 1: I was inclined to smile at him since the business
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  Speaker 1: of the snuff, but he had not spoken long before
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  Speaker 1: he brought the tears into my eyes. There are two
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  Speaker 1: things that men should never weary of goodness and humility.
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  Speaker 1: We get none too much of them in this rough
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  Speaker 1: world among cold, proud people. But mister Henderland had their
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  Speaker 1: very speech upon his tongue. And though I was a
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  Speaker 1: good deal puffed up with my adventures and with having
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: come off, as the saying is, with flying colors, yet
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  Speaker 1: he soon had me on my knees beside, a simple,
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  Speaker 1: poor old man, and both proud and glad to be there.
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  Speaker 1: Before we went to bed, he offered me sixpence to
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  Speaker 1: help me on my way out of a ganty's store
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  Speaker 1: he kept in the turf wall of his house, at
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  Speaker 1: which excess of goodness I knew not what to do.
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  Speaker 1: But at last he was so earnest with me that
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  Speaker 1: I thought it the more mannerly part to let him
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  Speaker 1: have his way, and so left him poorer than myself.
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  Speaker 1: End of chapter