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

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Speaker 1: Chapter twelve, I hear of the Red Fox. Before we
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Speaker 1: had done cleaning out the round house, a breeze sprang
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Speaker 1: up from a little to the east of north. This
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Speaker 1: blew off the rain and brought out the sun. And
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Speaker 1: here I must explain, and the reader would do well
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Speaker 1: to look at a map. On the day when the
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Speaker 1: fog fell and we ran down Allan's boat, we had
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Speaker 1: been running through the little minch at dawn after the battle,
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Speaker 1: we lay be calm to the east of the Isle
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Speaker 1: of Kenna, or between that and Isle Eriska, in the
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Speaker 1: chain of the Long Island. Now to get from there
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Speaker 1: to the Linney Lock, the straight course was to the
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Speaker 1: narrows of the Sound of Mull, but the captain had
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Speaker 1: no chart. He was afraid to trust his brig so
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Speaker 1: deep among the islands, and the wind serving well, he
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Speaker 1: preferred to go by west of Tyree and come up
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Speaker 1: under the southern coast of the great Isle of Mull.
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Speaker 1: All day the breeze held in the same point, and
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Speaker 1: rather freshened than died down, And towards afternoon a swell
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Speaker 1: began to set in from round the outer hebrides our
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Speaker 1: course to go round about the inner Aisles was to
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Speaker 1: the west of south, so that at first we had
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Speaker 1: the swell upon our beam and were much rolled about.
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Speaker 1: But after nightfall, when we had turned the end of
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Speaker 1: Tyree and began to head more to the east, the
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Speaker 1: sea came right astern. Meanwhile, the early part of the
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Speaker 1: day before the swell came up was very pleasant sailing,
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Speaker 1: as we were in a bright sunshine and with many
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Speaker 1: mountainous islands upon different sides. Allan and I sat in
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Speaker 1: the round house with the doors open on each side,
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Speaker 1: the wind being straight astern, and smoked a pipe or
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Speaker 1: two of the captain's fine tobacco. It was at this
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Speaker 1: time we heard each other's stories, which was the more
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Speaker 1: important to me, as I gained some knowledge of that
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Speaker 1: wild highland country on which I was so soon to land.
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Speaker 1: In those days, so close on the back of the
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Speaker 1: great rebellion, it was needful a man should know what
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Speaker 1: he was doing when he went upon the heather. It
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Speaker 1: was I that showed the example, telling him all my misfortune,
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Speaker 1: which he heard with great good nature. Only when I
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Speaker 1: came to mention that good friend of mine, mister Campbell,
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Speaker 1: the minister Alan fired up and cried out that he
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Speaker 1: hated all that were of that name? Why, said I?
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Speaker 1: He is a man you should be proud to give
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Speaker 1: your hand to. I know nothing. I would help a Campbell, too,
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Speaker 1: says he, unless it was a leaden bullet. I would
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Speaker 1: hunt all of that name like black Cock's. If I
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Speaker 1: lay dying, I would crawl upon my knees to my
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Speaker 1: chamber window for a shot at one. Why allan, I cried,
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Speaker 1: what ails ye at the Campbells? Well, says he, Ye
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Speaker 1: ken very well that I am an app and Stuart
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Speaker 1: and the Campbells have long harried and wasted those of
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Speaker 1: my name, aye, and got lands of us by treachery,
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Speaker 1: But never with the sword, he cried loudly, and with
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Speaker 1: the word brought down his fist upon the table. But
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Speaker 1: I've paid the less attention to this, for I knew
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Speaker 1: it was usually said by those who have the underhand.
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Speaker 1: There's more than that, he continued, In all in the
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Speaker 1: same story, lying words, lying papers, tricks fit for a peddler,
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Speaker 1: and the show of what's legal overall to make a
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Speaker 1: man the more angry. You are so wasteful of your buttons,
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Speaker 1: said I, I can hardly think you would be a
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Speaker 1: good judge of business. Ah, says he falling again the smiling.
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Speaker 1: I got my wastefulness from the same man I got
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Speaker 1: the buttons from, And that was my poor father, Duncan Stuart.
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Speaker 1: Grace be to him. He was the prettiest man of
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Speaker 1: his kindred and the best swordsman in the Highlands, David.
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Speaker 1: And that is the same as to say, in all
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Speaker 1: the world I should ken, for it was him that
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Speaker 1: taught me. He was in the Black Watch when first
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Speaker 1: it was mustered, and like other gentlemen privates, had a
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Speaker 1: gilliatus back to carry his firelock for him on the
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Speaker 1: march well. The King, it appears, was wishful to see
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Speaker 1: Highland's swordsmanship, and my father and three more were chosen
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Speaker 1: out and sent to London town to let him see
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Speaker 1: it at the best. So they were had into the
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Speaker 1: palace and showed the whole art of the sword for
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Speaker 1: two hours at a stretch before King George, and Queen Carline,
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Speaker 1: and the Butcher Cumberland, and many more of whom I
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Speaker 1: have no mind. And when they were through, the King,
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Speaker 1: for all he was a rank usurper, spoke them fair
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Speaker 1: and gave each man three guineas in his hand. Now
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Speaker 1: as they were going out of the palace, they had
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Speaker 1: a porter's lodge to go by, and it came in
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Speaker 1: on my father, as he was perhaps the first private
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Speaker 1: highland joe gentlemen that had ever gone by that door.
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Speaker 1: It was right he should give the poor porter a
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Speaker 1: proper notion of their quality. So he gives the king's
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Speaker 1: three guineas into the man's hand, as if it was
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Speaker 1: his common custom. The three others that came behind him
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Speaker 1: did the same, and there they were on the street,
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Speaker 1: never a penny the better for their pains. Some say
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Speaker 1: it was one that was the first to feed the
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Speaker 1: king's porter, and some say it was another. What the
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Speaker 1: truth of it is that it was Duncan Stuart, as
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Speaker 1: I am willing to prove with either sword or a pistol,
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Speaker 1: and that was the father I had God rest him.
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Speaker 1: I think he was not the man to leave you rich,
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Speaker 1: said I, And that's true, said Allan. He left me
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Speaker 1: my breeks to cover me and little besides. And that
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Speaker 1: was how I came to Enlist, which was a black
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Speaker 1: spot upon my character at the best of times, and
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Speaker 1: would still be a sword job for me if I
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Speaker 1: fell among the red coats. What cried I were you
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Speaker 1: in the English army, that was, I, said Allan. But
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Speaker 1: I deserted to the right side it pressed in pants,
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Speaker 1: and that's some comfort. I could scarcely share this view,
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Speaker 1: holding desertion under arms for an unpardonable fault in honor.
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Speaker 1: But for all I was so young, I was wiser
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Speaker 1: than say my thought. Dear, dear, says I. The punishment
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Speaker 1: is death, aye, said he. If they got the hands
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Speaker 1: on me, it would be a short shrift and a
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Speaker 1: long tow for Allan. But I have the King of
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Speaker 1: France's commission in my pocket, which would I be some protection?
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Speaker 1: I misdoubt it much, said I. I have doubts myself,
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Speaker 1: said Allan dryly. And good heaven, man, cried I. You
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Speaker 1: that are a condemned rebel and a deserter and a
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Speaker 1: man of the French King's what temptship back into this country?
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Speaker 1: It's a braving of providence, not, says Alan. I have
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Speaker 1: been back every year since forty six. And what brings you? Man?
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Speaker 1: Cried I? Well, you see, I weary for my friends
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Speaker 1: and country, said he. Friends is a broad place, no doubt,
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Speaker 1: But I weary for the heather and the deer. And
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Speaker 1: then I have bit things that I attend to whilst
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Speaker 1: I pick up a few lads to serve the King
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Speaker 1: of France recruits. Ye see, and that's I a little money.
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Speaker 1: But the heart of the matter is the business of
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Speaker 1: my chief, Ardshield. I thought they called your chief Appen,
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Speaker 1: said I aye. But Ardshield is a captain of the clan,
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Speaker 1: said he which scarcely cleared my mind. Yes, say David,
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Speaker 1: He that was all his life so great a man,
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Speaker 1: and come of the blood in bearing the name of kings,
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Speaker 1: is now brought down to live in a French town
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Speaker 1: like a poor and private person. He that had four
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Speaker 1: hundred swords at his whistle. I have seen with these
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Speaker 1: eyes of mine buying butter in the market place and
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Speaker 1: taking it home in a keil leaf. This is not
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Speaker 1: only a pain, but a disgrace to us of his
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Speaker 1: family and clan. There are the barns foreby the children
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Speaker 1: and the hope of Appen, that must be learned their
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Speaker 1: letters and how to hold a sword. In that far country.
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Speaker 1: Now the tenants of Appin have to pay a rent
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Speaker 1: to King George. But their hearts are staunch, they are
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Speaker 1: true to their chief, and what with love and a
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Speaker 1: bit of pressure. It may be a thread or two.
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Speaker 1: The poor folks scrape up a second rent for Ardshield. Well, David,
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Speaker 1: I'm the hand that carries it. And he struck the
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Speaker 1: belt about his body so that the guineas rang. Do
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Speaker 1: they pay? Both cried I aye, David, Both says he
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Speaker 1: what two rents? I repeated I David said he. I
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Speaker 1: told a different tale, the ung captain man. But this
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Speaker 1: is the truth of it, and it's wonderful to me
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Speaker 1: how little pressure is needed. But that's the handiwork of
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Speaker 1: my good kinsman and my father's friend, James of the Glens,
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Speaker 1: James Stewart, that is Ardshield's half brother. He it is
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Speaker 1: that gets the money in and does the management. This
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Speaker 1: was the first time I heard the name of that
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Speaker 1: James Stuart, who was afterwards so famous at the time
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Speaker 1: of his hanging. But I took little heed at the moment,
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Speaker 1: for all my mind was occupied with the generosity of
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Speaker 1: these poor highlanders. I call it noble, I cried. I'm
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Speaker 1: a whig or little better, but I call it noble.
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Speaker 1: Ay said he you're a whig, but you're a gentleman.
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Speaker 1: And that's what does it now? If you are one
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Speaker 1: of the cursed race of Campbell. You had nash your
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Speaker 1: teeth to hear tell of it if ye were the
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Speaker 1: red Fox. And at that name his teeth shut together,
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Speaker 1: and he ceased speaking. I've seen many a grim face,
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Speaker 1: but never a grimmer than Allan's when he had named
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Speaker 1: the red Fox. And who is the red Fox? I asked,
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Speaker 1: daunted but still curious, who is? He cried Allan? Well,
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Speaker 1: And I tell you that when the men of the
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Speaker 1: clans were broken at Cladden, and the good cause went down,
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Speaker 1: and the horses rode over the fetlocks, and the best
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Speaker 1: blood of the north Guardshield had to flee like a
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Speaker 1: poor deer upon the mountains. He and his lady and
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Speaker 1: his bairns. A sad job we had of it before
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Speaker 1: we got him shipped. And while he still lay in
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Speaker 1: the heather, the English rogues that couldn't come at his
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Speaker 1: life were striking at his rights. They stripped him of
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Speaker 1: his powers, they stripped him of his lands. They plucked
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Speaker 1: the weapons from the hands of his klansmen that had
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Speaker 1: borne arms for thirty centuries ay, and the very clothes
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Speaker 1: off their backs, so that it's now a sin to
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Speaker 1: wear a tartan plaid and a man may be cast
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Speaker 1: into a jail if he has but a kilt about
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Speaker 1: his legs. One thing that couldn't kill that was the
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Speaker 1: love the clans membore their chief. These guineas are the
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Speaker 1: proof of it. And now in their steps a man,
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Speaker 1: a campbell, red headed colon of Glenure. Is that him
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Speaker 1: you called the red fox? Said I, oh, you bring
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Speaker 1: me his brush, cried Allan fiercely. Aye. That's the man.
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Speaker 1: In he steps and gets papers from King George to
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Speaker 1: be so called King's factor on the lands of Appen.
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Speaker 1: And at first he sings small and his hail fellow,
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Speaker 1: well met with Seamus. That's James of the Glens, my
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Speaker 1: chieftain's agent. But by the bye that came to his
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Speaker 1: ears that I have just told you how the poor
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Speaker 1: commons of Appin, the farmers and the crofters and the
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Speaker 1: bowmen were ringing the very plaids to get a second
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Speaker 1: rent and send it overseas for Ardshield and his poor barons.
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Speaker 1: What was it you called it? When I told you?
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Speaker 1: I called it noble, Allan said, I I knew little
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Speaker 1: better than a common wig, cries Allan. And when it
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Speaker 1: came to Colin Roy the black campbell blood in him
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Speaker 1: ran wild. He sat gnashing his teeth at the wine table.
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Speaker 1: What should a steward get a bite of bread and
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Speaker 1: him not be able to prevent it? A red fox?
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Speaker 1: If ever I hold you at the guns in the
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Speaker 1: Lord have pity upon ye. Alan stopped to swallow down
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Speaker 1: his anger. Well, David, what does he do? He declares
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Speaker 1: all the farms to let, and thinks he, in his
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Speaker 1: black heart, I'll soon get other tenants that are overbid,
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Speaker 1: these Stuarts and that Calls and the crubs, while these
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Speaker 1: are all names in my clan, David, And then thinks
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Speaker 1: he Ardshield will have to hold his bonnet on a
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Speaker 1: French road side. Well, said I What followed? Allan laid
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Speaker 1: down his pipe, which he had long since suffered to
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Speaker 1: go out, and set his two hands upon his knees.
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Speaker 1: Aye said he. You never guess that for these same
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Speaker 1: Stuarts and Maccalls and mac crumbs, that had two grants
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Speaker 1: to pay, one to King George by stark force and
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Speaker 1: one to Ardshield by natural kindness, offered him a better
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Speaker 1: price than any Campbell in all broad Scotland. And far
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Speaker 1: he sent seeking them as far as to the sides
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Speaker 1: of Clyde and the cross of Edinburgh, seeking and fleeching
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Speaker 1: and begging them to come where there was a stewart
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Speaker 1: to be starved and a red headed hound mc Campbell
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Speaker 1: to be pleasured. Well, Allan said, I that is a
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Speaker 1: strange story, and a fine one too, And whig as
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Speaker 1: I may be, I am glad the man was beaten,
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Speaker 1: him beaten, echoed Allan. It's little ye ken of Camble's
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Speaker 1: and less of the red fox him beaten, no, nor
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Speaker 1: will be till his blood's on the hillside. But if
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Speaker 1: the day comes, David, man that I can find time
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Speaker 1: and leisure for a bit of hunting that grows not
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Speaker 1: enough heather in all Scotland to hide him from my vengeance.
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Speaker 1: Man Allan said, I you are neither very wise nor
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Speaker 1: very Christian to blow off so many words of anger.
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Speaker 1: They will do the man you call the fox no harm,
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Speaker 1: and yourself no good. Tell me your tale plainly out
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Speaker 1: what did he next? And that's a good observed David,
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Speaker 1: said Allan. Troth and indeed they will do him no harm.
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Speaker 1: The more's the pity. And barring that about Christianity on
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Speaker 1: which my opinion is quite otherwise, or I would be
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Speaker 1: no Christian. I am much of your mind, opinion here
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Speaker 1: or or opinion there, said I. It's a kent thing
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Speaker 1: that Christianity forbids revenge, Aye, said he. It's well seen.
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Speaker 1: It was a Campbell toccia. It would be a convenient
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Speaker 1: world for them and their sort if there were no
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Speaker 1: such thing as a lad and a gun behind a
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Speaker 1: heather bush. But that's nothing to the point. This is
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Speaker 1: what he did, Ay said, I come to that well,
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Speaker 1: David said he. Since he couldn't be read of the
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Speaker 1: loyal commons by fair means, he's swoar, he will be
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Speaker 1: rid of them by fowl hardshield was the star. That
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Speaker 1: was the thing he aimed at. And since them that
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Speaker 1: fed him in his exile wouldn't be brought out right
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Speaker 1: or wrong, he would drive them out. Therefore he sent
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Speaker 1: for lawyers, papers and redcoats to stand at his back.
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Speaker 1: And the kindly folk of that country must all pack
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Speaker 1: and trap every father's son out of his father's house
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Speaker 1: and out of the place where he was bred and
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Speaker 1: fed and played when he was a callant, and who
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Speaker 1: ought to succeed them bear legged beggars. King George's to
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Speaker 1: whistle for his rents. He mount do with less. He
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Speaker 1: can spread his butter thinner. What cares Red Collin? If
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Speaker 1: he can hurt hard shield, he has his wish. If
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Speaker 1: he can pluck the meat from my chieftain's table and
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Speaker 1: the bit toys out of his children's hands, he will
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Speaker 1: gang home singing to Gleneur. Let me have a word,
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Speaker 1: said I be sure if they take less rents, be
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Speaker 1: sure government has a finger in the pie. It's not
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Speaker 1: this Campbell's fault, man, it's his orders. And if he
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Speaker 1: killed this colin to morrow, what better would ye be?
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Speaker 1: There would be another factor in his shoes. As fast
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Speaker 1: as spur can drive. Here a good lad at a fight,
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Speaker 1: said Allan. But man, yo have wig blood in ye.
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Speaker 1: He spoke kindly enough, but there was so much anger
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Speaker 1: under his contempt that I thought it was wise to
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Speaker 1: change the conversation. I expressed my wonder how with the
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Speaker 1: highlands covered with troops and guarded like a city in
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Speaker 1: a siege, a man in his situation could come and
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Speaker 1: go without a rest. It's easier than you would think,
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Speaker 1: said Allan. A bare hills side, you see, is like
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Speaker 1: all one road. If there's a sentry at one place,
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Speaker 1: you'd just go by another. And then the heather's a
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Speaker 1: great hill, And everywhere there are friends, houses and friends,
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Speaker 1: buyers and haystacks. And besides, when folk talk of a
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Speaker 1: country covered with troops, it's but a kind of a byword.
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Speaker 1: At the best. A soldier covers no more of it
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Speaker 1: than his boots soles. I have fished a water with
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Speaker 1: a sentry on the other side of the bray and
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Speaker 1: killed a fine trout. And I have sat in a
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Speaker 1: heather bush within six feet of another and learned a
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Speaker 1: real bunny tune from his whistling. This was it, said he,
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Speaker 1: and whistled me. And then besides, he continued, is no
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Speaker 1: so bad now as it was in forty six? The
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Speaker 1: highlands are what they call pacified, small wonder, with never
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Speaker 1: a gun or a sword left from Cantire to Cape Wrath.
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Speaker 1: But what tentyfolk have hidden in the thatch. But what
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Speaker 1: I would like to ken, David, is just how long
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Speaker 1: not long, you would think, with men like hard Shiel
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Speaker 1: in exile and men like the Red Fox sitting burling
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Speaker 1: the wine and oppressing the poor at home. But it's
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Speaker 1: a kittle thing to decide what folks will bear and
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Speaker 1: what they will not, And why would Red Colin be
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Speaker 1: ride in his horse all over my poor country of Appen,
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Speaker 1: and never a pretty lad to put a bullet in in?
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Speaker 1: And with this Alan fell into a muse, and for
18:48
Speaker 1: a long time sat very sad and silent. I will
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Speaker 1: add the rest of what I have to say about
18:54
Speaker 1: my friend, that he was skilled in all kinds of music,
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Speaker 1: but principally pipe music. Was a well considered poet in
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Speaker 1: his own tongue, had read several books, both in French
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Speaker 1: and English, was a dead shot, a good angler, and
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Speaker 1: an excellent fencer with the small sword as well as
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Speaker 1: with his own particular weapon. For his faults, they were
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Speaker 1: on his face, and I now knew them all, but
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Speaker 1: the worst of them, his childish propensity to take offense
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Speaker 1: and to pick quarrels, he greatly laid aside, in my case,
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Speaker 1: out of regard for the Battle of the round House.
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Speaker 1: But whether it was because I had done well myself
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Speaker 1: or because I had been a witness of his own
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Speaker 1: much greater prowess, is more than I can tell. For
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Speaker 1: though he had a great taste for courage and other men,
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Speaker 1: yet he admired it most in Alan breck end of
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Speaker 1: chapter