Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History CatrionaThe Project Gutenberg eBook of Catriona This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title: Catriona Author: Robert Louis Stevenson Release date: July 1, 1996 [eBook #589] Most recently updated: June 6, 2021 Language: English Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/589 Credits: David Price *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CATRIONA *** Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson Contents PART I. THE LORD ADVOCATE CHAPTER I. A BEGGAR ON HORSEBACK CHAPTER II. THE HIGHLAND WRITER CHAPTER III. I GO TO PILRIG CHAPTER IV. LORD ADVOCATE PRESTONGRANGE CHAPTER V. IN THE ADVOCATE'S HOUSE CHAPTER VI. UMQUILE THE MASTER OF LOVAT CHAPTER VII. I MAKE A FAULT IN HONOUR CHAPTER VIII. THE BRAVO CHAPTER IX. THE HEATHER ON FIRE CHAPTER X. THE RED-HEADED MAN CHAPTER XI. THE WOOD BY SILVERMILLS CHAPTER XII. ON THE MARCH AGAIN WITH ALAN CHAPTER XIII. GILLANE SANDS CHAPTER XIV. THE BASS CHAPTER XV. BLACK ANDIE'S TALE OF TOD LAPRAIK CHAPTER XVI. THE MISSING WITNESS CHAPTER XVII. THE MEMORIAL CHAPTER XVIII. THE TEE'D BALL CHAPTER XIX. I AM MUCH IN THE HANDS OF THE LADIES CHAPTER XX. I CONTINUE TO MOVE IN GOOD SOCIETY PART II. FATHER AND DAUGHTER CHAPTER XXI. THE VOYAGE INTO HOLLAND CHAPTER XXII. HELVOETSLUYS CHAPTER XXIII. TRAVELS IN HOLLAND CHAPTER XXIV. FULL STORY OF A COPY OF HEINECCIUS CHAPTER XXV. THE RETURN OF JAMES MORE CHAPTER XXVI. THE THREESOME CHAPTER XXVII. A TWOSOME CHAPTER XXVIII. IN WHICH I AM LEFT ALONE CHAPTER XXIX. WE MEET IN DUNKIRK CHAPTER XXX. THE LETTER FROM THE SHIP DEDICATION. To CHARLES BAXTER, _Writer to the Signet_. My Dear Charles, It is the fate of sequels to disappoint those who have waited for them; and my David, having been left to kick his heels for more than a lustre in the British Linen Company's office, must expect his late re-appearance to be greeted with hoots, if not with missiles. Yet, when I remember the days of our explorations, I am not without hope. There should be left in our native city some seed of the elect; some long-legged, hot-headed youth must repeat to-day our dreams and wanderings of so many years ago; he will relish the pleasure, which should have been ours, to follow among named streets and numbered houses the country walks of David Balfour, to identify Dean, and Silvermills, and Broughton, and Hope Park, and Pilrig, and poor old Lochend-if it still be standing, and the Figgate Whins-if there be any of them left; or to push (on a long holiday) so far afield as Gillane or the Bass. So, perhaps, his eye shall be opened to behold the series of the generations, and he shall weigh with surprise his momentous and nugatory gift of life. You are still-as when first I saw, as when I last addressed you-in the venerable city which I must always think of as my home. And I have come so far; and the sights and thoughts of my youth pursue me; and I see like a vision the youth of my father, and of his father, and the whole stream of lives flowing down there far in the north, with the sound of laughter and tears, to cast me out in the end, as by a sudden freshet, on these ultimate islands. And I admire and bow my head before the romance of destiny. R. L. S. _Vailima_, _Upolu_, _Samoa_, 1892. CATRIONA PART I. THE LORD ADVOCATE CHAPTER I. A BEGGAR ON HORSEBACK The 25th day of August, 1751, about two in the afternoon, I, David Balfour, came forth of the British Linen Company, a porter attending me with a bag of money, and some of the chief of these merchants bowing me from their doors. Two days before, and even so late as yestermorning, I was like a beggar-man by the wayside, clad in rags, brought down to my last shillings, my companion a condemned traitor, a price set on my own head for a crime with the news of which the country rang. To-day I was served heir to my position in life, a landed laird, a bank porter by me carrying my gold, recommendations in my pocket, and (in the words of the saying) the ball directly at my foot. There were two circumstances that served me as ballast to so much sail. The first was the very difficult and deadly business I had still to handle; the second, the place that I was in. The tall, black city, and the numbers and movement and noise of so many folk, made a new world for me, after the moorland braes, the sea-sands and the still country-sides that I had frequented up to then. The throng of the citizens in particular abashed me. Rankeillor's son was short and small in the girth; his clothes scarce held on me; and it was plain I was ill qualified to strut in the front of a bank-porter. It was plain, if I did so, I should but set folk laughing, and (what was worse in my case) set them asking questions. So that I behooved to come by some clothes of my own, and in the meanwhile to walk by the porter's side, and put my hand on his arm as though we were a pair of friends. At a merchant's in the Luckenbooths I had myself fitted out: none too fine, for I had no idea to appear like a beggar on horseback; but comely and responsible, so that servants should respect me. Thence to an armourer's, where I got a plain sword, to suit with my degree in life. I felt safer with the weapon, though (for one so ignorant of defence) it might be called an added danger. The porter, who was naturally a man of some experience, judged my accoutrement to be well chosen. "Naething kenspeckle,"[1] said he; "plain, dacent claes. As for the rapier, nae doubt it sits wi' your degree; but an I had been you, I would has waired my siller better-gates than that." And he proposed I should buy winter-hosen from a wife in the Cowgate-back, that was a cousin of his own, and made them "extraordinar endurable." But I had other matters on my hand more pressing. Here I was in this old, black city, which was for all the world like a rabbit-warren, not only by the number of its indwellers, but the complication of its passages and holes. It was, indeed, a place where no stranger had a chance to find a friend, let be another stranger. Suppose him even to hit on the right close, people dwelt so thronged in these tall houses, he might very well seek a day before he chanced on the right door. The ordinary course was to hire a lad they called a _caddie_, who was like a guide or pilot, led you where you had occasion, and (your errands being done) brought you again where you were lodging. But these caddies, being always employed in the same sort of services, and having it for obligation to be well informed of every house and person in the city, had grown to form a brotherhood of spies; and I knew from tales of Mr |