 Introduction Part 5 of Rob Roy. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Chris Caron. Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott. Introduction Part 5. The annals of Ireland as well as those of Scotland prove the crime to have been common in the more lawless parts of both countries, and any woman who happened to please a man of spirit who came of a good house and possessed a few chosen friends and a retreat in the mountains was not permitted the alternative of saying him nay. What is more, it would seem that the woman themselves most interested in the immunities of their sex were among the lower classes accustomed to regard such marriages as that which is presently to be detailed as Pretty Fanny's way or rather the way of Donald with Pretty Fanny. It is not a great many years since a respectable woman above the lower rank of life expressed herself very warmly to the author on his taking the freedom to censure the behavior of the McGregors on the occasion in question. She said that there was no use in giving a bride too much choice upon such occasions that the marriages were the happiest long sign which had been done offhand. Finally, she averred that her own mother had never seen her father tell the night he brought her up from the Lenox with ten head of black cattle and there had not been a happier couple in the country. James Drummond and his brethren having similar opinions with the author's old acquaintance and debating how they might raise the fallen fortunes of their clan formed a resolution to settle their brother's fortune by striking up an advantageous marriage, Beowick's Robin-Oag and one Jean Key, or right, a young woman scarce twenty years old and who had been left about two months a widow by the death of her husband. Her property was estimated at only from sixteen thousand to eighteen thousand mercs but it is seen to have been sufficient temptation to these men to join in the commission of a great crime. This poor young victim lived with her mother in her own house at Indinbilly in the parish of Balfren and Shire of Stirling At this place in the night of 3rd December, 1750, the sons of Rob Roy and particularly James Mohar and Robin-Oag rushed into the house where the object of their attack was resident presented guns, swords, and pistols to the males of the family and terrified the woman by threatening to break open the doors if Jean Key was not surrendered. As said James Roy, his brother was a young fellow determined to make his fortune having at length dragged the object of their lawless purpose from her place of concealment. They tore her from her mother's arms, mounted her on a horse before one of the gang and carried her off in spite. Of her screams and cries which were long heard after the terrified spectators of the outrage could no longer see the party retreat through the darkness in her attempts to escape the poor young woman through herself from the horse on which they had placed her and in so doing wrenched her side they then laid her double over the pommel of the saddle and transported her through the mosses and moors till the pain of the injury she had suffered in her side augmented by the uneasiness of her posture made her consent to sit upright in the execution of this crime they stopped at more houses than one but none of the inhabitants dared to interrupt their proceedings amongst others who saw them was that classical and accomplished scholar the late professor William Richardson of Glasgow who used to describe as a terrible dream their violent and noisy entrance into the house where he was then reciting the Highlanders filled the little kitchen brandishing their arms demanding what they had pleased and receiving whatever they were demanded James Moore he said was a tall stern and soldier like man Robert Ogg looked more gentle dark but then ruddy in complexion a good-looking young savage their victim was so disheveled in her dress and forlorn in her appearance and demeanor that he could hardly tell whether she was alive or dead the gang carried the unfortunate woman to Warriddon where they had a priest unscrupulous enough to read the marriage surface while James Moore forcibly held the bride up before him and the priest declared the couple man and wife even while she'd protested against the infamy of his conduct under the same threats of violence which had been all along used to enforce their scheme the poor victim was compelled to reside with the pretend husband who was thus forced upon her they even dared to carry her into the public church of Bel-Culider where the office-sating clergymen the same who had been Rob Roy's pensioner only asked them if they were married persons Robert McGregor answered in the affirmative the terrified female was silent the country was now too effectually subjected to the law for this vile outrage to be followed by the adventurous proposed by the actors military parties were sent out in every direction to seize McGregor's who were for two or three weeks compelled to shift from one place to another in the mountains bearing the unfortunate Jean Key along with them in the meanwhile the Supreme Civil Court issued a warrant subquestrating the property of Jean Key or Wright which removed out of the reach of the actors in the violence the prize which they expected they had however adopted a belief of the poor woman's spirit being so far broken that she would prefer submitting to her condition and adhering to Robert Org as her husband rather than incur the disgrace of appearing in such a cause in an open court it was indeed a delicate experiment but their kinsman Glenn's vile chief of their immediate family was of a temper adverse to lawless proceedings and the captive friends having had recourse to this advice they feared that he would withdraw his protection if they refused to place the prisoner at liberty such at least was his general character for when James Moore while perpetrating the violence at Edinburgh called out in order to over opposition that Glenn's vile was lying in the moor with a hundred men to patronize his enterprise Jean Key told him he lied since he was confident Glenn's vile would never continents so scoundrelly a business the brethren resolved therefore to liberate the unhappy woman but previously had recourse to every measure which should oblige her either from fear or otherwise to own her marriage with Robert Org the caliacs old Highland hags administered drugs which were designed to have the effect of filthress but were probably deteriorous James Moore at one time threatened that if she did not acquiesce in the match she would find that there were enough of men in the Highlands to bring the heads of two of her uncles who were pursuing the civil lawsuit at another time he fell down on his knees and confessed he had been a accessory to wronging her but begged he would not ruin his innocent wife and large family she was made to swear she would not prosecute the brethren for the offence they had committed and she was obliged by threats to subscribe papers which were tendered to her imitating that she was carried off in consequence of her own previous request James Moore drum and accordally brought his pretended sister-in-law to Indeburg where for some little time she was carried about from one house to another watched by those with whom she was lodged and never permitted to go out alone or even to approach the window the court of session considering the peculiarity of the case and regarding Jean Qui as being still under some forcible restraint took her person under their own special charge and appointed her to reside in the family of Mr. Whiteman of Maldsley a gentleman of respectably who was married to one of her near relatives two centennials kept guard on their house day and night a precaution not deemed superfluous when the McGregors were in question she was allowed to go out whenever she chose and to see whoever she had a mind as well as the men of law employed in the civil suit on either side when she first came to Mr. Whiteman's house she seemed broken down with a fright and suffering so changed in features that her mother hardly knew her and so shaken in mind that she scarce could recognize her parent it was long before she could be assured that she was in perfect safely but when she at length received confidence in her situation she made a judical declaration or a fit of it telling the full history of her wrongs imputing to fear her formal silence on the subject and expressing her resolution not to prosecute those who had injured her in respect to the oath she had been compelled to take from the possible breach of such an oath through a compulsory one she was relieved by the forms of Scottish jurisprudence in that respect more etiquable than those of England prosecutors for crimes being always conducted at the expense and in charge of the king without inconvenience or cost to the private party her interests sustained the wrong but the unhappy sufferer did not live to be either accuser or witness against those who had so deeply injured her James Moore drummed and had left Edinburgh so soon as his half-dead prey had been taken from his clutches Mrs. Keyer-Ray was released from her species of confinement there and removed to Glasgow under the escort of Mr. Whiteman she passed the hill of shots her escort changed to say this is a very wild spot what if McGregor should come upon us God forbid was her immediate answer the very sight of them would kill me she continued to reside at Glasgow without venturing to return to her own house at Edinburgh her pretended husband made some attempts to attain the interview with her which she steadily rejected she died on the 4th of October 1751 the information for the crown hints her disease might be the consequence of the usage she received but there is a general report that she died of the smallpox in meantime James Moore or drummed fell into the hands of justice he was considered as the instigator of the whole affair nay the decreased had informed her friends that on the night of her being carried off Robin Oig moved by her cries and tears had partly consented to let her return when James came up with the pistol in his hand and asking whether he has such a coward as to relinquish an enterprise in which he had risked everything to procure him a fortune in a matter compelled his brother to preserve James' trial took place on the 13th of July 1752 and was conducted with the most utmost fairness and impartiality several witnesses all of the McGregor family swore that the marriage was performed with every appearance of acquaintance on the woman's part and three or four witnesses one of them share a substitute of the country swore she might have made her escape if she wished and the magistrates stared away they offered her assistance if she felt desirous to do so but when asked why she in the official capacity did not arrest McGregor's he could only answer that had not forced sufficient to make the attempt the judical declaration of Gene Key or Wright stated the violent matter in which she had been carried off and they were confirmed by many of her friends from her private communications with them which the event of her death rendered good evidence the fact of her abduction to use a Scottish law term was completely proved by impartial witnesses the unhappy woman admitted that she had pretended acquiescence in her fate on several occasions because she dared not to trust such as offer to assist her to escape not even the share of substitute the jury brought in a special verdict fighting that Gene Key or Wright had been forcibly carried off from her house as charged in the addictment and that the accused had failed to show that she was herself privy and consenting to the act of outrage but they found the forcible marriage and subsequent violence was not proved and also found an alleviation of the panel's guilt in the premises that Gene Key did acquiescence in her condition eleven of the jury using the names of other four who were absent subscribed a letter to the court stating that it was their purpose and desire by such special verdict to take the panel's case out of the class of capital crimes learned in formations written arguments on the import of the verdict which must be allowed a very mild one in the circumstances were laid before the high court of just to carry this point is very learnedly debated in these pleadings by Mr. Grant solicitor for the crown and for celebrated Mr. Lockhart on the part of the prisoner but James Moore did not wait the event of the court's decision he had been committed to the castle of Edinburgh on some reports that an escape would be attempted yet he contrived to achieve his liberty even from that fortress his daughter had the address to enter the prison disguised as a cobbler bringing home work as she pretended in this cobbler's dress her father quickly arrayed himself the wife and daughter of the prisoner were heard by the centennial's scoldings suppose cobbler for having done his work ill and the man came out with his hat slouched over his eyes and grumbling as if the manner in which they had treated him in this way the prisoner passed all the guards without suspicion and made his escape to France he was afterwards outlawed by the court of just to carry which proceeded to the trial of Duncan McGregor or Drummond his brother, 15th of January 1753 the accused had unquestionably been with the party which carried off Jean Qui but no evidence being brought which applied to him individually and directly the jury found him not guilty and nothing more is known of his fate that of james McGregor who from talented and activity if not by seniority may be considered as head of the family has been a long misrepresented as it been generally arrived in the law reports as well as elsewhere that is outlawry was reversed and that he returned and died in scotland but the curious letters published in blackwoods magazine for December 1817 show this to be an error the first of these documents is a petition to Charles Edward it is dated 20th of September 1753 and pleases service to the cause of the stewards ascribing his exile to the persecution of the Hanoverian government without any illusion to the affair of Jean Qui or the court of just to carry it is stated to be forwarded by McGregor drummond of Bahaaldie whom as before mentioned James Moore acknowledged as his chief the effect which this petition produced does not appear some temporary relief was perhaps obtained but soon after the staring adventurer was engaged in a very dark intrigue against an exile of his own country and placed pretty nearly in his own circumstances a remarkable highland story must be here briefly alluded to Mr. Campbell of Glenure who had been named factor for government on the forfeited estates of Stuart of Ardachel which was shot dead by an assassin as he passed through the wood of Lettermore after crossing the ferry of Bella Chulish a gentleman named James Stuart a natural brother of Ardachel the forfeited person was tried as being accessory to the murder and condemned and executed upon very doubtful evidence the heaviest part of which only amounted to the accused person having assisted a nephew of his own called Alan Breck Stuart with money to escape after the dead was gone not satisfied with his vengeance which was obtained in the matter little of the honor of the dispensation of justice at the time the friends of the deceased Glenure were equally desirous to obtain possession of the person of Alan Breck Stuart supposed to be the actual homicide James Moir Drummond was secretly applied to Trepon, Stuart to the sea coast and bring him over to Britain to almost certain death Drummond McGregor had kindred connections with the slain Glenure and besides the McGregor's and Campbell's had been friends of late while the former clan and the Stuart's had as we have seen, been recently at feud lastly Robert Oog was now in custody of Edinburgh and James was desirous to do some service by which his brother might be saved the joint force of which this motive may in James' estimation of right and wrong have been some vindication for engaging in such an enterprise although as much be necessary suppose it could only be executed by treachery of a girl's description McGregor stipulated for a license to return to England promising to bring Alan Breck thither among with him but the intended victim was to put upon his guard by two countrymen who suspected James intentions toward him he escaped from his kidnapper after as McGregor alleged robbing his portmanteau of some clothes and four snuff boxes such as a charge it may be observed could scars have been made unless the parties have been living on a footing of intimacy and had access to each other's baggage although James Drummond had thus missed his blow in the matter of Alan Breck's Stuart he used his license to make a journey to London and had an interview as he avares with Lord Halderness his lordship and his undersecretary put many puzzling questions to him and as he says offered him a situation which would bring him bread in the government service this office was adventurous as to in the emulment but the opinion of James Drummond his acceptance of it would have been a disgrace to his birth and have rendered him a scores to his country if such attempting offer and sturdy rejection had any foundation in fact it probably relates to some plan of espionage on the Jacobites which the government might hope to carry on by means of a man who in the matter of Alan Breck's Stuart had shown no great nice city of feeling Drummond McGregor was so far accommodating to intimate with his willingness to act in any station in which other gentlemen of honor served but not otherwise an answer which compared with some passages of his past life may remind the reader of ancient pistol standing upon his reputation having thus proved intractable as he tells the story to the proposals of Lord Halderness James Drummond was ordered instantly to quit England on his return to France his condition seems to have been utterly disastrous he was seized with fever and gravel ill consequently in body and weakened and dispirited in mind Alan Breck's Stuart threatened to put him to death in revenge of the designs he had harbored against him note E. Alan Breck's Stuart the Stuart clan were in the highest degree unfriendly to him and his late expedition to London had been attended with many suspicious circumstances amongst which it was not the slightest and that he had kept his purpose secret from his chief Bajaldi his intercourse with Lord Halderness was suspicious the Jacobites were probably like Don Bernard de Castelblaze in Gilblas the little disposed to like who's who kept company with Al-Gazil's McDonald of Loughgary a man of unquestioned honor lodged an information against James Drummond before the high valley of Dunkirk accusing him of being a spy so that he found himself obliged to leave that town and come to Paris with only the sum of 13 livers subsistence and with absolute beggary staring at him staring him in the face we do not offer the convicted common thief the accomplice in McClearn's assassination or the manager of the outrage against Gene Key as an object of sympathy melancholy to look on the dying struggles even of a wolf or a tiger creatures of a species directly hostile to our own and in like matter the utter distress of this man whose faults may have sprung from a wild system of education working on a haughty temper will not be pursued without some pity in his last letter to Bajaldi dated Paris 25th of September 1754 he describes his state of destitution as absolute and expresses himself willing to exercise his talents in breaking or breeding horses or as a hunter or follower if he could only pick your employment in such an inferior capacity till something better should occur an Englishman may smile but a Scotchman will sigh at this post script in which the poor starving exile asked the loan of his patrons bagpipes that he might play over some of the melancholy tunes of his own land but the effect of music arises in a great degree from association and sounds which might jar the nerves of a Londoner or Parisian bring back to the Highlander his lofty mountain, wild lake and the deeds of his fathers of the Glen to prove McGregor's claim to our readers' compassion we here insert the last part of the letter alluded to by all appearance I am born to suffer crosses and it seems they're not at the end for such is my wretched case at present that I do not know earthly where to go or what to do that I have no subsistence to keep body and soul together all that I have carried here is about thirteen livres and have taken a room at my old quarters in Hotel St. Peary Rudy Cordier I send you the bearer begging of you to let me know if you are in that town soon that I may have pleasure of seeing you or I have none to make application to but you alone and all I want is if it was possible you could contrive where I could be employed without going to enter beckery this probably is a difficult point yet unless it's attended with some difficulty you might think nothing of it as your long head can bring about matters of much more difficulty and consequence than this if you disclose this matter to your friend Mr. Butler it's possible he might have some employ where in I could be of use as I pretend to know as much of breeding and riding of horse as any in France besides that I am good hunter either on horseback or by footing you may judge my reduction as I propose the meanest things to lend a turn to better cast up I am sorry that I am obliged to give you so much trouble but I hope you are very well assured that I am grateful for what you have done for me and I leave you to judge of my present wretched case I am and shall forever continue dear chief your own to command Jazz McGregor Post script if you send your pipes by the bear and all the other little trinkets belonging to it I would put them in order and place some melancholy tunes which I may now with safety and in real truth forgive my not going directly to you for if I could have born the seeing of yourself I could not choose to be seen by my friends in my wretchedness nor by any of my acquaintance while McGregor wrote in this disconsolent manner death the sad but sure renemy for mortal evils and decider of all doubts and uncertainty was hovering near him a memorandum on the back of the letter says the writer died about a week after in October 1754 it now remains to mention the fate of Robin Oeg for other reasons of Rob Roy seem to have been no way distinguished Robin was apprehended by a party of military from the fort of Ivernisade at the foot of Guatmore and was converted to Edinburgh 26th of May 1753 after a delay which may have been protracted by the negotiations of James for delivering up Alan Breck Stewart upon promise of his brother's life Robin Oeg on the 24th of December 1753 was brought up to the bar of the High Court of Justicari indicted by the name of Robert McGregor Alias Campbell Alias Drummond and Alias Robert Oeg and the evidence led against him resembled exactly that which was brought by the clown on the formal trial Robert's case was in some degree more favourable than his brother's for though the principal in the forcible marriage he had yet to plead that he had shown symptoms of relenting while they were carrying Jean Kiev which were silenced by the remonstrances and the threats of his harder nature Brother James a considerable space of time had also elapsed since the poor woman died which is always a strong circumstance in favour of the accused for there is a sort of perspective in guilt and crimes of an old date seem less audious than those of recent occurrence but notwithstanding those considerations the jury in Robert's case did not express any solicitude to save his life as they had done that of James they found him guilty of being art and part in the forcible abduction of Jean Kiev from her own dwelling the trials of the sons of Rob Roy with ancestotes of himself and family were published at Edinburgh 1818 in the 12th month Robin Oeg was condemned to death and executed on the 14th of February 1754 at the place of execution he behaved with great decency and professing himself a Catholic imputed all his misfortunes to his swerving from the true church two or three years before he confessed the violent methods he had used to gain Mrs. Key or right and hoped his fate would stop further proceedings against his brother James James died near three months before his family might easily remain a long time without the news of that event the newspapers observed that his body after hanging the usual time was delivered to his friends to be carried to the Highlands to this the recollection of a venerable friend recently taken from us in the fullness of years then a schoolboy at Lithengau enables the author to add a much larger body of McGregor's then had carried to advance to Edinburgh received the corpse at that place with the cordonok and other wild emblems of Highland mourning and so escorted it to bell quitter thus we may conclude this long account of Rob Roy and his family with the classic phrase Eitzkangklammantum est I have only to add that I have selected the above from many antidotes of Rob Roy which were and may still be current among the mountains where he flourished and I am far from warranting their exact authenticity, clannish partialities where very apt to guide the tongue and pen as well as the pistol and claymore and the features of an antidote are wonderfully softened or exaggerated as the story is told by a McGregor or a campel Appendix to introduction number one advertisement for the apprehension of Rob Roy from the Edinburgh in Evening, Courant, June 18 to June 21 AD 1732, number 1058 that Robert Campbell, commonly known by the name of Rob Roy McGregor being lately entrusted by several noblemen and gentlemen with considerable sums for buying cows for them in the Highlands as treacherously gone off with the money to the value of L1000 Sterling which he carries along with him all magistrates and officers of the Majesty's forces are entreated to seize upon said Rob Roy and the money which he carries with him until the persons concerned in the money he heard against him and that notice to be given when he is apprehended to the keepers of the exchange coffee house at Edinburgh and the keeper of the coffee house at Glasgow the party's concerned will be advertised and the Caesar shall be very reasonably rewarded for their plans it is unfortunate that this hue and cry which is after words repeated in the same paper contains no description of Rob Roy's person which of course we much suppose to have been pretty generally known as it is directed against Rob Roy personality personally it would seem to exclude the idea of the cattle being carried off by his partner McDonald who would certainly have been mentioned in the advertisement if the creditors concerned had supposed him to be in possession of the money End of Introduction Part 5 Recording by Chris Caron, Ham Lake, Minnesota Volume 1 Introduction Part 6 of Rob Roy This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Mike Harris Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott, Volume 1 Introduction Part 6 Section 6 Number 2 Letters From and to the Duke of Montrose respecting Rob Roy's arrest of Mr Graham of Killian the Duke of Montrose to it does not appear to whom this letter was addressed certainly from its style and tenor it was designed for some person of high rank and office perhaps the king's advocate for the time dated Glasgow the 21st of November 1716 My Lord I was surprised last night with the account of a very remarkable instance of the insolence of that very notorious rogue Rob Roy whom your lordship has often heard named the honour of his majesty's government being concerned and I thought it my duty to acquaint your lordship of the particulars by an express Mr Graham of Killian whom I have had occasion to mention frequently to you for the good service he did last winter during the rebellion having the charge of my Highland estate went to Monteith which is a part of it on Monday last to bring in my rents it being usual for him to be there for two or three nights together at this time of the year in a country house for the convenience of meeting the tenants upon that account the same night about nine o'clock Rob Roy with a party of those ruffians whom he still keeps about him and has since the last rebellion surrounded the house where Mr Graham was with some of my tenants doing his business ordered his men to present their guns in at the windows of the room where he was sitting while he himself the same time with others entered at the door with cocked pistols and made Mr Graham prisoner carrying him away to the hills with the money he had got his books and papers and my tenant's bonds for their fines amounting to above a thousand pounds sterling where the one-and-a-half had been paid last year and the other was to have been paid now and at the same time had the insolence to cause him to write a letter to me the copy of which is enclosed offering me terms of a treaty that your lordship may have the better view of this matter it will be necessary that I should inform you that this fellow has now of a long time put himself at the head of the clan McGregor a race of people who in all ages have distinguished themselves beyond others by robberies, depredations and murders and have been the constant harbors and entertainers of vagabonds and loose people from the time of the revolution he has taken every opportunity to appear against the government acting rather as a robber than doing any real service to those whom he pretended to appear for and has really done more mischief to the country than all the other Highlanders have done some three or four years before the last rebellion broke out being overburdened with debts he quitted his ordinary residence and removed some twelve or sixteen miles farther into the Highlands putting himself under the protection of the Earl of Bredelbyn when my lord Cadogan was in the Highlands he ordered his house at this place to be burnt which your lordship sees he now places to my account this obliges him to return to the same country he went from being a most rugged inaccessible place where he took up his residence and knew amongst his own friends and relations but well judging that it was possible to surprise him he with about forty-five of his followers went to Inverari made a sham surrender of their arms to the Finab, commander of one of the independent companies and returned home with his men each of them having the colonel's protection this happened in the beginning of summer last yet not long after he appeared with his men twice in arms in opposition to the king's troops and one of those times attacked them rescued a prisoner from them and all this while sent abroad his party through the country plundering the country people and amongst the rest some of my tenants being informed of these disorders after I came to Scotland I applied to Lieutenant General Carpenter who ordered three parties from Glasgow's Sterling and Finlareg to march in the night by different routes in order to surprise him and his men in their houses which would have its effect certainly if the great rains that happened to fall at very night had not retarded the march of the troops so as some of the parties came too late to the stations that they were ordered for all it could be done upon the occasion was to burn a country house where Rob Roy then resided after some of his clan had from the rocks fired upon the king's troops by which a grenadier was killed Mr. Graham of Killand being my deputy sheriff in that country went along with the party that marched from Sterling and doubtless will now meet with the worst treatment from that barbarous people on that account besides that he is my relation and that they know how active he has been in the service of the government all which your lordship may believe is a very great concern for the gentleman while at the same time I can foresee no manner of way how to relieve him other than to leave him to chance and his own management I had my thoughts before proposing to government the building of some barracks as the only expedient for suppressing these rebels and securing the peace of the country in that view I spoke to General Carpenter who has now a scheme of it in his hands and I am persuaded that will be the true method of restraining them effectually but in the meantime it will be necessary to lodge some of the troops in those places upon which I intend to write to the general I am sensible I have troubled your lordship with a very long letter which I should be ashamed of where I myself singly concerned but where the honor of the king's government is touched I need make no apology and I shall only beg leave to add that I am with great respect and truth my lord your lord's most humble and obedient servant copy of Graham of Calerne's letter enclosed in the preceding Chavallarak, November 19th, 1716 may it please your grace I am obliged to give your grace the trouble of this by Robert Roy's commands being so unfortunate at present as to be his prisoner I refer the way in manner I was apprehended to the bearer and shall only in short acquaint your grace with the demands which are that your grace shall discharge him of all sums he owes your grace and give him the sum of 3400 marks for his loss and damages sustained by him both at Kregorstown and at his house Achengasallan and that your grace shall give your word not to trouble or prosecute him afterwards till which time he carries me all the money I receive this day my books and bonds for interest not yet paid along with him with assurance of hard usage if any party are sent after him the sum I receive this day conformed to the nearest computation I can make before several of the gentlemen is 3227 pounds two shillings, eight fence, scots of which I gave them notes I shall wait your grace's return and ever am your grace's most obedient faithful humble servant six subscript your honor John Graham the Duke of Montrose to unknown dated 28th November 1716 Killian's release Blazgau 28th November 1716 Sir, having acquainted you by my last of the 21st instant of what had happened to my friend Mr. Graham of Killian I'm very glad now to tell you that last night I was very agreeably surprised with Mr. Graham's coming here himself and giving me the first account I had had of him from the time of his being carried away it seems Rob Roy when he came to consider a little better of it found that he could not mend his matters by retaining Killian his prisoner which could only expose him still the more to the justice of the government and therefore thought fit to dismiss him on Sunday evening last having kept him from the Monday night before under a very uneasy kind of restraint being obliged to change continually from place to place he gave him back the books, papers and bonds but kept the money I am with great truth sir your most humble servant Montrose some papers connected with Rob Roy McGregor signed Row Campbell in 1711 were lately presented to the Society of Antiquaries one of these is a kind of contract between the Duke of Montrose and Rob Roy by which the letter undertakes to deliver within a given time 60 good and sufficient Quintale Highland cows betwixt the age of 5 and 9 years at 14 pounds scots per piece with a bull to the bargain and that at the head dykes of Buchanan upon the 28th day of May next dated December 1711 see proceedings volume 7, page 253 number 3, Challenge by Rob Roy Rob Roy to Ain High and Mighty Prince James Duke of Montrose insurentate your grace's courage and conduct please know the only way to retrieve both is to treat Rob Roy like himself in a pointing time, place and choice of arms that at once you may extirpate your inveterate enemy or put a period to your puny life in failing gloriously by his hands that impertinent critics or flatterers may not brand me for challenging a man that's repute of a poor dastardly soul let such know that I admit of the two great supporters of his character and the captain of his bands to join with him in the combat then sure your grace won't have the impudence to clamor at court for multitudes to hunt me like a fox under pretence that I am not to be found above ground this saves your grace and the troops any further trouble of searching that is if your ambition of glory press you to embrace the unequaled venture offered of Rob's head but if your grace's piety, prudence and cowardice forbids hazarding this gentlemanly expedient then let your desire of peace restore what you have robbed from me by the tyranny of your present situation otherwise your overthrow as a man is determined and advertise your friends never more to look for the frequent civility paid them of sending them home without their arms only even their former cravings won't purchase that favor so your grace by this has peace in your offer if the sound of wax be frightful and choose your wilk your good friend or mortal enemy this singular rodimentade is enclosed in a letter to a friend of Rob Roy probably a retainer of the Duke of Argyle in Isle which is in these words sir, receive the enclosed paper when you are taking your bottle it'll divert yourself and comrades I got no news since I seed you only that we had before about the Spaniards is likely to continue if I'll get any further account about them I'll be sure to let you know of it until then I will not write any more till I'll have more sure account and I am, sir, your most affectionate cousin and most humble servant Rob Roy April 16th, 1719 to Mr. Patrick Anderson at Hades the seal, a stag no bad emblem of a wild Catherine it appears from the envelope that Rob Roy still continue to act as intelligence to the Duke of Argyle and his agents the war he alludes to is probably some vague report of invasion from Spain such rumors were likely enough to be a float in consequence of this embarkation of the troops who were taken at Glen Shield in the preceding year, 1718 number four, letter from Robert Campbell alias McGregor commonly called Rob Roy to Field Marshal Wade then receiving the submission of disaffected chieftains and clans this curious epistle is copied from an authentic narrative of Marshal Wade's proceedings in the Highland communicated by the late eminent antiquerate George Chalmers Esquire to Mr. Robert Jamison of the Register House, Edinburgh and published in the appendix to an edition of Bert's Letters from the North of Scotland two volumes, 8 folio, Edinburgh 1818 sir, the great humanity with which you have constantly acted in the discharge of the trust imposed in you and your ever having made use of the great powers with which you were vested as the means of doing good in charitable offices to such as you found proper objects of compassion will I hope excuse my importity in endeavouring to approve myself not absolutely unworthy of that mercy and favour which your Excellency has so generously procured from His Majesty for others in my unfortunate circumstances I am very sensible nothing can be alleged sufficient to excuse a greater crime as I have been guilty of it that of rebellion but I humbly beg leave to lay before your Excellency some particulars in the circumstance of my guilt which I hope will extenuate it in some measure it's my misfortune at the time the rebellion broke out to be liable to legal diligence and caption at the Duke of Montrose's instance for debt alleged to him to avoid being flung into prison as I must certainly have been and I followed my real inclinations in joining the King's troops at Sterling I was forced to take party with the adherents of the pretender for the country being all in arms it was neither safe nor indeed possible for me to stand new to her I should not however plead my being forced into that unnatural rebellion against His Majesty King George if I could not at the same time assure your Excellency that I not only avoided acting offensively against His Majesty's forces upon all occasions but on the contrary sent His Grace the Duke of Argyle all the intelligence I could from time to time of the strength and situation of the rebels which I hope His Grace will do me the justice to acknowledge as to the debt to the Duke of Montrose I have discharged it to the utmost farling I beg your Excellency would be persuaded that had it been as it was in my inclination I should always have acted for the service of His Majesty King George and that one reason of my begging the favor of your intercession with His Majesty for the pardon of my life is the earnest desire I have to employ it in His service whose goodness justice and humanity are so conspicuous to all mankind I am with all duty and respect your Excellency's most humble and obedient servant Robert Campbell a letter escape of Rob Roy from the Duke of Athol the following copy of a letter which passed from one clergyman of the Church of Scotland to another was communicated to me by John Gregorson the Esquire of our Tornish the escape of Rob Roy is mentioned like other interesting news of the time with which it is intermingled the disagreement between the dukes of Athol and Argyle seems to have animated the former Argyle's partisans Reverend and dear brother yours of the 28th of June I had by the bearer I am pleased you have got back again your delinquent which may probably save you of the trouble of a child I am sorry I have yet very little of certain news to give you from the court though I have seen all the weeks prints only I find in them a passage which is all the account I can give you of the indemnity yet when the estates of four-folded rebels comes to be sold all just debts documented ought to be preferred to officers of the court of inquiring the villain favors of that court against the lords obsession in Scotland in past the House of Commons and come before the lords which is thought to be considerably more ample informally with respect to the disposing of estates canvassing and paying of debts it's said yet the examinations is dropped but it wants confirmations here is yet Oxford's trial should be entered upon Saturday last we hear that the Duchess of Argyle is with child I do not hear yet the divisions at court are anything abated or of any appearance of the Dukes having anything of his major favor I hardly wish the present humans at court may not prove an encouragement to watchful and restless enemies Rob Roy his escape yet after several embassies between his grace who I hear did correspond with some at court about it and Rob he had length upon promise of protection came to wait upon the Duke and being presently secured his graces and post to Edinburgh to acquaint the court of his being apprehended and call his friends at Edinburgh and to desire a party from General Carpenter to receive and bring him to Edinburgh which party came the length of Ken Ross in fight he was to be delivered to them by a party his grace had demanded from the governor at birth who then upon their march toward Dunkel to receive him were met by and returned by his grace having resolved to deliver him by a party of his own men and left Rob at loggerate under a strong guard till yet party could be ready to receive him this space by taking the other drum hardly with the guard and when all were pretty hot a rob is delivering a letter for his wife to a servant to whom he most needs to deliver some private instructions at the door for his wife when he's attended with on the guard when serious in this private conversations he is making some few steps carelessly from the door about the house till he comes close by this watch which he gives to the guard because of the day it gives to their hopes of a considerable additional charge against John Roy John the red John Duke of Argyle so called for his complexion more commonly styled red John the waterer my wife was upon Thursday last delivered of a son after sore travail of which she still continues very poorly I give you a lady hearty thanks it's a good cloth but it does not answer the set I sent some time ago with MacArthur and though it had I told in my last yet my wife was obliged to provide herself to finish her bed before she was lighted but I know your letter came not timely to your hand I'm sorry I had not money to send by the bearer having no thought of it and being exposed to some little expenses last week but I expect some sure occasion when order by a letter to receive it excuse this freedom from etc etc etc Manson comrade July 2nd 17 17 I salute your lady I wish my blank her daughter much joy Highland wooing There are many productions of the Scots ballad poets upon the lion like mode of wooing practiced by the ancient Highlanders when they had a fancy for the person or property of a lowland damsel one example is founded Mr. Robert Jameson's popular Scottish songs Bonnie by the Livingstone gate out to see the K. and she was met with Glenn Leon who has stolen her away he took free her her satin coat but on her silken gown sin round him his tartan plaid and happed around and round in another ballad we're told how 4 and 20 Highland men came down by Phidic bead and they have sworn a deadly earth she and Maya should be a breed and they have sworn a deadly earth men upon his dark that she should wed with Duncan Gara they'd make bloody works this last we have from tradition but there are many others in the collections of Scottish ballads to the same purpose the achievement of Robert Oig or young Rob Roy as the lowlands call him was celebrated in a ballad of which there are 20 different Scottish editions the tune is lively and wild and we select the following words from memory Rob Roy is free the Highlands come down to the lowland border and he has stolen that lady away to hide his horse in order he sat her on a milk white steed of none he stood in awe until they reached the Highland hills abound the Balmaha that's a pass on the eastern margin of Loch Lomond to the Highlands send be content be content be content with me lady where will you find in Lenox land a brah man as me lady Rob Roy he was my father called McGregor was his name lady other country far and near have heard McGregor's fame lady he was a hedge about his friends a heckle to his foes lady if any man did him gain say he felt his deadly blows lady I am as bold I am as bold I am as bold and more lady any man that doubts my word may try my good claim or lady then be content be content be content with me lady for now you are my wedded wife until the day you die lady number six Grindu the following notices concerning this chief fell under the author's eye while the sheets were in the act of going through the press the author in manuscript memoirs written by a person intimately acquainted with the incidents of 1745 this chief had the important task entrusted to him of defending the castle of Dome in which the Chevalier placed a garrison to protect his communication with the Highlands and to repel any sallies which might be made from sterling castle Grindu distinguished himself by his good conduct in this charge Grindu is thus described Glengyle is in person a tall handsome man and has more of the mean of the ancient heroes than our modern fine gentlemen are possessed of he's honest and disinterested to a proverb extremely modest brave and intrepid and born one of the best partisans in Europe in short the whole people of that country declared that never did men live under so mild a government not a man having so much as lost a chicken while he continued there it would appear from this curious passage that Glengyle not steward of Balak as a very good note on Waverly commanded the garrison of Dome Balak might no doubt succeed McGregor in the situation editor's introduction to Rob Roy in a magnum opus the author's final edition of the Waverly novels Rob Roy appears out of its chronological order and comes next after the antiquary in this as in other matters the present edition follows that of 1829 the antiquary as we said contained in its preface the author's farewell to his art this felidiction was meant as prelude to a fresh appearance in a new disguise Constable would brought out the earlier works did not publish the tales of my landlord the black dwarf and old mortality which Scott had nearly finished by November 12th, 1816 the four volumes appeared from the houses of Mr. Murray and Mr. Blackwood on December 1st, 1816 within less than a month came out Harold the Dauntless by the author of The Bridal of Traremaine Scott's work on the historical part of the annual register had also been unusually arduous at Abertsford or at Ashdale the commode of life was particularly healthy in Edinburgh between the claims of the courts of literature and of society he was scarcely ever in the open air thus hard sedentary work caused between the publication of old mortality and that of Rob Roy the first of those alarming illnesses which overshadowed the last 15 years of his life the earliest attack of cramp in the stomach occurred on March 5th, 1817 and he retired from the room with a scream of agony which electrified his guests living on Parich as he tells Miss Bailey for his national spirit rejected Arrowroot Scott had yet energy enough to plan a dramatic piece for Terry the Doom of Devergoyle but in April he announced to John Valentine a good subject for a novel and on May 6th John after a visit to Abertsford with Constable he claimed to James Valentine the advent of Rob Roy the anecdote about the title is well known Constable suggested it and Scott was at first wisely reluctant to write up to a title names like Rob Roy Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, Cleopatra and so forth tell the reader too much and Scott imagined often excite hopes which cannot be fulfilled however in the geniality of an after dinner hour at Abertsford Scott allowed Constable to be sponsored many things had lately brought Rob into his mind in 1812 Scott had acquired Rob Roy's gun a long Spanish barrel piece with his initials RMC C standing for Campbell a name assumed in complement to the Argyle family Rob's Blucan had also been presented by Mr. Train to Sir Walter in 1816 and may have directed his thoughts to this popular freebooter the Rob flourished in the 15 he was really a character very near Scott whose friend Invernail had fought Rob with broadsword and target a courteous combat like that between Ajax and Hector a telebody Scott had met in 1793 a gentleman who once visited Rob and arranged to pay him blackmail Mr. William Adam had mentioned to Scott in 1816 the use of the word Curly Worlies for highly decorated architecture and recognized the phrase next year in the mouth of Andrew Fair service in the meeting at Abertsford May 2nd, 1817 Scott was very communicative sketched Bailey, Nicole, Jarvie and improvised a dialogue between Rob and the magistrate a week later he quoted to Southie with Swift's lines too bad for a blessing too good for a curse which probably suggested Andrew Fair service's final estimate of Scott's hero overband for blessing and are good for banning these are the trifles which show the bent of Scott's mind at this period the summer of 1817 he spent in working at the annual register and at the border antiquities when the courts rose he visited Rob's cave at the head of Loch Lomond which too have been gossiped about as literary people hearing of the new novel expected the cave to be a very prominent feature he also went to Glasgow and refreshed his memory of the cathedral nor did he neglect old books such as A Tour Through Great Britain by a gentleman 4th edition 1748 this yielded him the Bailey's account of Glasgow commerce in Musselberg's Stuffs and Edinburgh Shallons and the phrase Assortable Cargoats hence too Scott took the description of the rise of Glasgow thus Scott was taking pains with his preparations the book was not written in post-haste announced it to Constable early in May the last sheet was not corrected till about December 21st when Scott wrote to Ballantine Dear James with great joy I send you Roy it was a tough job but we're done with Rob Rob Roy was published on the last day of 1817 the toughness of the job was caused by constant pain and by struggles with the lassitude of opium so seldom sentimental so rarely given to expressing his melancholy moods at first Scott while composing Rob Roy wrote the beautiful poem The Sun Upon the Weird Law Hill in which for this once pity of self through all makes broken moan some stress may be laid on the state of Sir Walter's health at this moment because a living critic has tried to show that in his case every pang of the stomach paralyzes the brain that he never had a fit of the cramp without spoiling a chapter Mr. Ruskin's Fiction, Fair and Foul 19th Century 1880 page 955 Rob Roy is a sufficient answer to these theories the mind of Scott was no slave to his body the success of the story is pleasantly proved by a sentence in a review of the day it's an event unprecedented in the annals either of literature or of the custom house that the entire cargo of a packet or smack bound from Leith to London should be the impression of a novel for which the public curiosity was so much upon the tremendous importation to satisfy 10,000 copies of a three-volume novel are certainly ponderous cargo and Constable printed no fewer in his first edition Scott was assured of his own triumph in February 1819 when a dramatized version of his novel was acted in Edinburgh by the company of Mr. William Murray a descendant of the Trader Murray of Broughton Mr. Charles McKay made a capital of the piece remains a favorite with scotch audiences it's plain from the reviews that in one respect Rob Roy rather disappointed the world they had expected Rob to be a much more imposing and majestic cataract and complained that his foot was set too late on his native Heather they found too much of the drover and intrigue too little of the traditional driver of the spoil this was what Scott foresaw that he needed to writing up to a title in fact he did not write up to it and as the scotch magazine said shaped his story in such a manner as to throw busybodies out in their chase with a slight degree of malicious finesse all the expeditions to the wonderful cave have been thrown away but the said cave is not once we think mentioned from beginning to end Rob Roy equals Waverly in its pictures of Highland society and character Scott had clearly sent himself to state his opinions about the Highlands as they were under the patriarchal system of government the Highlanders were then a people not lawless indeed but all their law was the will of their chief Bailey and Nicol Jarvis makes a statement of their economic and military condition as accurate as it is humorous the modern Highland question may be studied as well in the Bailey's as in volumes of history and wildernesses of blue books a people patriarchal and military as the Arabs of the desert were suddenly dragged into modern commercial and industrial society all old bonds were snapped in a moment emigration that first opposed by some of the chiefs and the French wars depleted the country of its long legged callants gone wanting the beaks cattle took the place of men the sheep of cattle dear of sheep and in the long piece a population grew up again a population destitute of employment even more than of old because war and robbery it ceased to be outlets for its energy some chiefs as Dr. Johnson said treated their lands as an attorney treats its row of cheap houses in a town hence the Highland question a question in which Scott's sympathies were with the Highlanders Rob Roy naturally is no mere novel with a purpose no economic tract in disguise among Scott's novels it stands alone as regards its pictures of passionate love the love of Diana Vernon is no less passionate for its admirable restraint here Scott displays without affectation a true Greek reserves in his art the deep and strong affection of Diana Vernon would not have been otherwise handled by him who drew the more immortal picture of antiquity unlike modern novelists so Walter deals neither in analysis nor in rapturous effusions we can unfortunately imagine but too easily how some writers would peep in pride of the concealed emotions of that maiden art how others would revel in tears kisses and caresses in place of all these Scott writes she extended her hand but I clasped her to my bosom she sighed as she extricated herself from the embrace which she permitted escaped to the door which led to her own apartment and I saw her no more months pass in a mist of danger and intrigue before the lovers meet again in the dusk and the solitude Mr. Francis Oswaldistan cries the girl's voice through the moonlight should not whistle his favorite airs when he wishes to remain undiscovered and Diana Vernon for she wrapped in a horseman's cloak was the last speaker whistled in playful mimicry the second part of the tune which was on my lips when they came up surely there was never in story or in song a lady so loving and so light of heart save Rosalind alone her face touches Frank's as she says goodbye forever it was a moment never to be forgotten inexpressibly bitter yet mixed with a sensation of pleasure soothing and affecting as it wants to unlock all the floodgates of the heart she rides into the night her lover knows the hysterica passio of poor Lear but I had scarce given vent to my feelings and its panics as an era I was ashamed of my feelings these were men and women who knew how to love and how to live all men who read Rob Roy are innocent rivals of Frank Oswaldistan Divernon holds her place in the hearts with Rosalind and these airy affections like the actual emotions which they mimic are not matters for words this lady so gay so brave so witty and fearless so tender and true who endured trials which might have dignified the history of a martyr who spent the day in darkness and the night in vigil and never breathed a murmur of weakness or complaint is as immortal in men's memories as the actual heroine of the white rose Flora MacDonald her place is with Helen and Antigone with Rosalind and Imogen the deathless daughters of dreams she brightens the world as she passes and our own hearts tell us all the story when Oswaldistan says you know how I lamented her in the central interest which for once is the interest of love Rob Roy attains the nobility the reserve the grave dignity of the highest art it's not easy to believe that Frank Oswaldistan is worthy of his lady but here no man is a fair judge in the four novels Waverly, Guy Manoring the antiquarian Rob Roy which we have studied the hero has always been a young poet Waverly versified so did Manoring Lovell headed to the few lyrical pieces and in Oswaldistan's rhymes Scott parodied his own Blast of that red horn on the Fontarabian echoes born All the heroes then have been poets and Oswaldistan's youth may have been suggested by Scott's memories of his own and of the father who feared that he would never be better than a gangeral scapegoat like Henry Morton in Old Mortality Frank Oswaldistan is on the political side taken by Scott's judgment not by his emotions to make Guy Vernon convert him to Jacobitism would have been to repeat the story of Waverly still he would have been more sympathetic if he had been converted he certainly does not lack spirit as a sportsman or on an occasion as Sir William Hope says in the Scott's Fencing Master when he encounters Rashley in the college gardens Frank in short is all that a hero should be and is glorified by his affection of the other characters perhaps Rob Roy is too sympathetically drawn the materials for a judgment are afforded by Scott's own admirable historical introduction the Rob Roy who so calmly played booty and kept a foot in either camp certainly falls below the aroic his language has been criticized in late years and it's been insisted that the Highlanders never talked to Lowland, Scotch but Scott has anticipated these covies in the 18th chapter and volume certainly no Lowlander knew the Highlanders better than he did and his ear for dialect was as keen as his musical ear was confessedly up to Scott had the best means of knowing whether Helen McGregor would be likely to soar into heroics as she is apt to do in fact here we may trust the artist the novel is as rich as any in subordinate characters full of life and humor Morris is one of the few utter cowards of the passionate impulses toward courage of the hapless hero in the fair made of birth the various Osvaldo stones are nicely discriminated by Diana Vernon in one of those Beatrix moods which Scott did not always admire when they were displayed by Lady Anne and other girls of flesh and blood Rashley is of a nature unusual in Scott he is perhaps Sir Walter's nearest approach for malignant egotism to an eogel of Bailey and Nicol Jarvie commendation were impertinent all Scotland arose called him hers laughed at an applaud at her civic child concerning Andrew fair service the first edition tells us what the final edition leaves us to guess that Tresham may recollect him as gardener at Osvaldo Stone Hall Andrew was not a friend who could be shaken off Diana may have ruled the hall but Andrew must have remained absolute in the gardens with something to maw that he would like to see mawn or something to saw that he would like to see sawn or something to ripe that he would like to see ripen and say he ain't dickered and with a family for a year is end to end and life's end his master needed some care for body to look after him only Shakespeare and Scott could have given us medicines to make us like this cowardly conceited a very imponious fellow Andrew fair service who just escapes being a hypocrite by dint of some sincere old covenanting leaven in his veins we make bold to say that the creator of Parales and Lucy and many another lax and lovable name would had even as Scott have drawn Andrew fair service thus and not otherwise the critics of the hour censured as they were certain to censure the construction of the no doubt the critics were right in both Scott and Shakespeare there is often seen a perfect disregard of the denouement any moderately intelligent person can remark on the huddled up ends and hasty marriages in many of Shakespeare's comedies Molière has been charged with the same offense and if blame there be Scott is almost always to blame Thackery is a little better there must be some reason that explains why men of genius go wrong where every newspaper critic every milliner's girl acquainted with circulating libraries can detect the offense in the closing remarks of Old Mortality Scott expresses himself humorously on this matter of the denouement his schoolmaster author takes his proof sheets to miss Martha Busk body who was the literary set in Gander clue having read through the whole stock of three circulating libraries miss Busk body criticizes the Dominic as Lady Louisa's steward habitually criticized Sir Walter your plan of admitting a formal conclusion will never do the Dominic reply really madam you must be aware that every volume of the narrative turns less and less interesting as the author draws to a conclusion just like your tea which though excellent his son is necessarily weaker and more insipid in the last column he compares the orthodox happy ending to the luscious lump of half dissolved sugar usually found at the bottom of the cup this topic might be discussed and indeed has been discussed endlessly in our actual lives it's probable that most of us have found ourselves living for a year a month or a week in a chapter or half a volume of a novel and these have been our least happy experiences but we've also found that the romance vanishes away like a ghost dwindles out closes with ragged ends and has no denouement then the question presents itself as art is imitation should not novels as a rule close thus the experiment has frequently been tried especially by the modern geniuses who do not conceal their belief that their art is altogether finer than Scott's or perhaps than Shakespeare's practice and in his Domini's critical remarks Sir Walter appears inclined to agree with him he was just as well aware as his reviewers or as Lady Louisa Stewart that the conclusion of Rob Roy is huddled up that the sudden demise of all the embalmed stones is a high-handed measure he knew that in real life Frank and Divern would never have met again after that farewell on the moonlit road but he yielded to Miss Busk body's demand for a glimpse of sunshine in the last chapter he understood the human liking for the final lump of sugar after all fiction is not any more than any other art a mere imitation of life its arrangement, a selection Scott was too kind and too humane to disappoint us the crowd of human beings would find much of our happiness and dreams he could not keep up his own interest in his characters after he had developed them he could take pleasure in giving them life he had little pleasure in ushering them into an earthly paradise so that part of his business he did carelessly as his only rival's literature have also done it the critics censured not unjustly the machinery of the story these mysterious assets of Oswald Stone and Tresham whose absence was to precipitate the rising of 1715 the Edinburgh Review lost its heart Geoffrey's heart was all was being lost to Dive, aren't it? but it pronounces that a king with legs of marble or a youth with an ivory shoulder heroes of the Arabian knights in that kindre was probable compared with the wit and accomplishments of Diana this is hyper-criticism Diana's education under Rashi had been elaborate her acquaintance with Shakespeare her main strength is unusual in women but not beyond the limits of belief here she is with an agreeable contrast to Rose Bradwedine who had never heard of Aromio and Juliet in any case Diana compels belief as well as wins affection while we are fortunate enough to be in her delightful company as long as we believe in her it's not a moment to consider whether her charms are incompatible with probability Rob Roy was finished in spite of a very bad touch of the cramp for about three weeks in November which with its natural attendance of dullness and weakness made me unable to get our matters forward to last week says Scott DeConstable but adds the unconquerable author I'm resting myself here a few days before commencing my new labours which will be untrodden ground and I think pretty likely to succeed the new labours were The Heart of Midlothian this by Andrew Lang Volume 1 Chapter 1 of Rob Roy This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott Volume 1 Chapter 1 Chapter 1 How have I sinned that this affliction has light so heavy on me I have no more sons and this no more mine own My grand curse hang over his head that thus transform thee Travel, I'll send my horse to travel next M. Thomas You have requested me, my dear friend to bestow some of that leisure with which Providence has blessed the decline of my life in registering the hazards and difficulties which attend in its commencement The recollection of those adventures as you are pleased to term them has indeed left upon my mind a checkered and varied feeling of pleasure and pain mingled, I trust, with no slight gratitude and veneration to the disposer of human events who guided my early course through much risk and labour that the ease with which he has blessed my prolonged life might seem softer from remembrance in contrast Neither is it possible for me to doubt which you have often affirmed that incidents which befell me among a people singularly primitive in their government and manners have something interesting and attractive for those who love to hear an old man's stories of a past age Still, however, you must remember that the tale told by one friend and listened to by another loses half its charms when committed to paper and that the narratives to which you have attended with interest as heard from the voice of him to whom they occurred will appear less deserving of attention when perused in the seclusion of your study but your greener age and robust constitution promise longer life than will in all human probability be the lot of your friend Throw then these sheets into some secret drawer of your escatois till we are separated from each other's society by an event which may happen at any moment and which must happen within the course of a few a very few years When we are parted in this world to meet, I hope, in a better you will, I am well aware wish more than it deserves the memory of your departed friend and will find in those details which I am now to commit to paper matter for melancholy but not unpleasing reflection Others bequeath to the confidence of their bosoms portraits of their external failures I put into your hands a faithful transcript of my thoughts and feelings of my virtues and of my failings with the assured hope that the follies and headstrong impetuosity of my youth will meet the same kind construction and forgiveness which have so often attended the faults of my matured age One advantage among the many of addressing my memoirs if I may give these sheets a name so imposing to a dear and intimate friend is that I may spare some of the details in this case unnecessary with which I must need to have detained a stranger from what I have to say of greater interest Why should I bestow all my tediousness upon you because I have you in my power and have ink, paper and time before me At the same time I dare not promise that I may not abuse the opportunity so temptingly offered me to treat of myself and my own concerns even though I speak of circumstances as well known to you as to myself The seductive love of narrative when we ourselves are the heroes of the events which we tell often disregards the attention due to the time and patience of the audience and the best and wisest have yielded to its fascination I need only remind you of the singular instance events by the form of that rare and original edition of Sully's memoirs which you, with the fond vanity of a book collector insist upon preferring to that which is reduced to the useful and ordinary form of memoirs but which I think curious Sully is illustrating how far so great a man as the author was accessible to the foyables of self-importance If I recollect rightly that venerable peer and great statesman had appointed no fewer than four gentlemen of his household to draw up the events of his life under the title of memoirs of sage and royal affairs of state domestic, political and military transacted by Henry IV and so forth these grave recorders having made their compilation reduced the memoirs containing all the remarkable events of their master's life into a narrative addressed to himself in appropriate persona and thus instead of telling his own story to a third person like Julius Caesar or in the first person, like most who in the hall or the study undertake to be the heroes of their own tale Sully enjoyed the refined, though whimsical pleasure of having the events of his life told to him over by his secretaries being himself the auditor as he was also the hero and probably the author of the whole book it must have been a great sight to have seen the ex-minister as bolt upright as a starch rough and lace cassock could make him stay beneath his canopy enlisting to the recitation of his compilers while standing bare in his presence they informed him gravely thus said the Duke so did the Duke infer such as were Grace's sentiments upon this important point such were your secret counsels to the king on that other emergency circumstances, all of which must have been better known to their hero than to themselves and most of which could only be derived from his own special communication my situation is not quite so ludicrous as that of the great Sully and yet there would be something whimsical in Franka's Balderstone giving wealth rushum, a formal account of his birth education and connections in the world I will therefore wrestle with a tempting spirit of pp clerk of our parish, as best I may and endeavour to tell you nothing that is familiar to you already some things however I must recall to your memory because, though formally well known to you they may have been forgotten through lapse of time and they afford the groundwork of my destiny you must remember my father well for as your own was a member of the mercantile house, you knew him from infancy yet you hardly saw him in his best days before age and infirmity had quenched his ardent spirit of enterprise and speculation he would have been a poorer man indeed but perhaps as happy had he devoted to the extension of science those active energies and acute powers of observation for which commercial pursuits found occupation yet in the fluctuation of mercantile speculation there is something captivating to the adventurer even independent of the hope of gain he who embarks on that fickle sea requires to possess the skill of the pilot and the fortune of the navigator and after all may be wrecked and lost unless the gales of fortune breathe in his favour this mixture of necessary attention is a inevitable hazard the frequent and awful uncertainty whether prudence shall overcome fortune or fortune baffle the schemes of prudence affords full occupation for the powers as well as for the feelings of the mind and trade has all the fascination of gambling without its moral guilt early in the 18th century when I, heaven help me was a youth of some 20 years old I was summoned suddenly from Bordeaux to attend my father on business of importance I shall never forget our first interview you recollect the brief abrupt and somewhat stern mode in which he was once to communicate his pleasure to those around him me thinks I see him even now in my mind's eye the firm and upright figure the step quick and determined the eye which shot so keen in penetrating a glance the features on which care had already planted wrinkles and hear his language in which he never wasted a word in vain a voice which had sometimes an occasional harshness far from the intention of the speaker when I dismounted from my post horse I hastened to my father's apartment he was traversing it with an air of composed and steady deliberation which even my arrival although an only son unseen for four years was unable to discompose I threw myself into his arms he was a kind though not a fond father and the tear twinkled in his dark eye but it was only for a moment DuBourg writes me that he is satisfied with you Frank I am happy sir but I have less reason to be so he added sitting down at his bureau I am sorry sir sorry and happy Frank are words that on most occasions signify little or nothing here is your last letter he took it out from a number of others tied up in a parcel of red tape and curiously labeled and filed there lay my poor epistle written on the subject the nearest to my heart at the time and couched in words which I had thought would work compassion if not conviction there I say it lay squeezed up among the letters on miscellaneous business in which my father's daily affairs had engaged him I cannot help smiling internally when I recollect the mixture of hurt vanity and wounded feeling with which I regarded my remonstrance to the pinning of which there had gone I promise you some trouble from amongst the letters of advice of credit in all the commonplace lumber as I then thought of them of a merchant's correspondence surely thought I a letter of such importance I dare not say even to myself so well written deserved a separate place as well as more anxious consideration to those on ordinary business of the counting house but my father did not observe my dissatisfaction and would not have minded it if he had he proceeded with the letter in his hand this Frank is yours of the 21st Ultimo in which you advise me reading from my letter that in the most important business of forming a plan and adopting a profession for life you trust my paternal goodness will hold you entitled to at least a negative voice that you have an insuperable I insuperable is the word I wish by the way you would write a more distinct current hand draw a score through the tops of your T's and open the loops of your L's insuperable objections to the arrangements which I have proposed for you there is much more to the same effect occupying four good pages of paper which a little attention to perspicuity and the stickness of expression might have comprised within as many lines for after all Frank and amounts but to this that you will not do as I would have you that I cannot sir in the present instance not that I will not words avail very little with me young man said my father whose inflexibility always possess the air of a most perfect calmness of self-possession cannot maybe a more civil phrase than will not but the expressions are synonymous where there is no moral impossibility but I am not a friend to doing business hastily we will talk of this matter over dinner Owen Owen appeared not with the silver locks which you were used to venerate for he was then little more than fifty but he had the same or an exactly similar uniform suit of light brown clothes the same pearl grey silk stockings the same stock with its silver buckle the same plated cambrick ruffles drawn down over his knuckles in the parlor but in the county house carefully folded back under the sleeves that they might remain unstained by the ink which he daily consumed in a word the same grave formal yet benevolent cast of features which continue to his death to distinguish the head clerk of the great house of Osbaldestone and Tresham Owen said my father as the kind old man shook me affectionately by the hand you must dine with us today and hear the news Frank has brought us from our friends in Bordeaux Owen made one of his stiff bowels of respectful gratitude for in those days when the distance between superiors and inferiors was enforced in a manner to which the present times are strangers such an invitation was a favor of some little consequence I shall long remember that dinner party deeply affected by feelings of anxiety not unmingled with displeasure I was unable to take that active share in the conversation which my father seemed to expect from me and I too frequently gave unsatisfactory answers to the questions with which he assailed me Owen hovering between his disrespect for his patron and his love for the youth he had dented on his knee in childhood anxious ally of an invaded nation endeavored at every blunder I made to explain my no meaning and to cover my retreat maneuvers which added to my father's petish displeasure and brought a share of it upon my kind advocate instead of protecting me I had not while residing in a house of deborg absolutely conducted myself like a clerk condemned his father's soul to cross who penned a stanza when he should engross but to say truth was a counting house no more than I thought absolutely necessary to secure the good report of the Frenchman a long correspondent of our firm to whom my father had trusted for initiating me into the mysteries of commerce in fact my principal attention had been dedicated to literature and manly exercises my father did not altogether discourage such requirements whether mental or personal he had too much good sense not to perceive that they say gracefully upon every man and he was sensible they relieved and dignified the character which he wished me to aspire but his chief ambition was that I should succeed not merely to his fortune but to the views and plans by which he imagine he could extend and perpetuate the wealthy inheritance which he designed for me love of his profession was the mode of which he chose should be most ostensible when he urged me to tread the same path but he had others with which I only became acquainted at a later period impetuous in his schemes as well as skillful and daring each new adventure when successful became at once the incentive and furnished the means for further speculation it seemed to be necessary to him as an ambitious conqueror to push on from achievement to achievement without stopping to secure far less to enjoy the acquisitions which he made accustomed to see his whole fortune trembling in the scales of chance and dexterous at adopting expedience for casting the balance in his favor his health and spirits and activity seemed ever to increase with the animating hazards on which he staked his wealth and he resembled the sailor accustomed to brave the billows and the foe whose confidence rises on the eve of tempest or of battle he was not however insensible to the changes which increasing age or supervening malady might make in his own constitution and was anxious and good time to secure in me an assistant who might take the helm when his hand grew weary and keep the vessels way according to counsel and instruction paternal affection as well as further to his own plans determined him to the same conclusion your father though his fortune was vested in the house was only a sleeping partner as the commerce phrase goes and Owen whose probity and skill and the details of arithmetic rendered his services invaluable as a head clerk was not possessed either of information or talent sufficient to conduct the mysteries of the principal management if my father were suddenly summoned from life what would become of the world of schemes which he had formed unless his son were molded into a commercial Hercules fit to sustain the weight when relinquished by the failing atlas and what would become of that son himself if a stranger to business of this description he found himself at once involved in the labyrinth of mercantile concerns without the clue of knowledge necessary for his extraction for all these reasons avowed in secret my father was determined I should embrace his profession and when he was determined the resolution of no man was more immovable I however was also a party to be consulted and with something of his own pertinacity I had formed a determination precisely contrary it may I hope be some palliative for the resistance which on this occasion I offered to my father's wishes that I did not fully understand upon what they were founded or how deeply his happiness was involved in them imagining myself certain of a large succession and future and ample maintenance in the meanwhile it never occurred to me that it might be necessary in order to secure these blessings to submit to labor and limitations unpleasant to my taste and temper I only saw on my father's proposal for my engaging in business a desire that I should add to those heaps of wealth which he had himself acquired and imagining myself the best judge of the path to my own happiness I did not concede that I should increase that happiness by augmenting a fortune which I believed was already sufficient and more than sufficient for every use, comfort and elegant enjoyment accordingly I am compelled to repeat that my time at Bordeaux had not been spent as my father had proposed to himself what he considered as the chief end of my resonance in that city I had postponed for every other and would had I dared had neglected altogether Duborg a favored and benefited correspondent of our mercantile house was too much of a shrewd politician to make such reports to the head of the firm concerning his only child as would excite the displeasure of both and he might also, as you will presently hear have views of selfish advantage in suffering me to neglect the purposes for which I was placed under his charge my conduct was regulated by the bounds of decency in good order and thus far he had no evil report to make supposing him so disposed but perhaps the crafty Frenchman would have been equally complacent had I been in the habit of indulging worse feelings than those of indolence and aversion to mercantile business as it was while I gave a decent portion of my time to the commercial studies he recommended he was by no means envious of the hours which I dedicated to other and more classical attainments nor did he ever find fault with me for dwelling upon Cornelon Boyleau in preference to Pothlitwaith supposing his folio to have then existed and matured Duborg able to have pronounced his name or Savory or any other writer on commercial economy he had picked up somewhere a convenient expression with which he rounded off every letter to his correspondence I was all, he said that a father could wish my father never quarreled with a phrase however frequently repeated provided it seemed to him distinct and expressive and Addison himself could not have found expression so satisfactory to him as yours received and duly honored the bills as opposed as per margin knowing therefore very well what he desired me to be Mr. Oswaldestone made no doubt from the frequent repetition of Duborg's favorite phrase that I was the very thing he wished to see me when, in an evil hour he received my letter containing my eloquent and detailed apology for declining a place in the firm and a desk and a stool in the corner of the dark counting house in Crane Alley surmounting in height those of Owen and the other clerks and only inferior to the tripod of my father himself all was wrong from that moment Duborg's reports became a suspicious as if his bills have been noted for dishonor I was summoned home in all haste and received in the manner I've already communicated to you end of volume 1 chapter 1 recording by James Christopher JxChristopher at yahoo.com