The Waverley novels, by Sir Walter Scott, complete in 12 vol., printed from the latest English ed., embracing the author's last corrections, prefaces & notes.

ROB ROY. 193
they decently can, to be a thorn in the side of another. And then he's sic
an auld-farran lang-headed chield as never took up the trade o' cateran in
our time'; mony a daft reik he has played- mair than wad fill a book, and
a queer ane it wad be-as gude as Robin Hood, or William Wallace-a' fu'
o' venturesome deeds and escapes, sic as folk tell ower at a winter-ingle in
the daft days. It's a queer thing o' me, gentlemen, that am a man o' peace
mysell, and a peacefu' man's son-for the deacon my father quarrelled wi'
nane out o' the town-council-it's a queer thing, I say, but I think the Hieland blude o' me warms at thae daft tales, and whiles I like better to hear
them than a word o' profit, gude forgie me! But they are vanities-sinfu'
vanities-and, moreover, again the statute law-again the statute and gospel
law."
I now followed up my investigation, by inquiring what means of influence this Mr. Robert Campbell could possibly possess over my affairs, or
those of my father.
"Why, ye are to understand," said Mr. Jarvie, in a very subdued tone"I speak amang friends, and under the rose —Ye are to understand, that
the Hielands hae been keepit quiet since the year aughty-nine-that was
Killiecrankie year. But how hae they been keepit quiet, think ye? By
siller, Mr. Owen-by siller, Mr. Osbaldistone. King William caused Breadalbane distribute twenty thousand gude punds sterling amang them, and
it's said the auld Hieland Earl keepit a lang lug o't in his ain sporran.
And then Queen Anne, that's dead, gae the chiefs bits o' pensions, sae they
had wherewith to support their gillies and caterans that work nae work, as
I said afore; and they lay by quiet eneugh, saving some spreagherie on the
Lowlands, whilk is their use and wont, and some cutting o' thrapples amang
themsells, that nae civilized body kens or cares onything anent. Weel, but
there's a new warld come up wi' this King George (I say, God bless him,
for ane) —there's neither like to be siller nor pensions gaun amang them;
they haena the means o' mainteening the clans that eat them up, as ye may
guess frae what I said before; their credit's gane in the Lowlands; and a
man that can whistle ye up a thousand or feifteen hundred linking lads to
do his will, wad hardly get fifty punds on his band at the Cross o' Glasgow
-This canna stand lang-there will be an outbreak for the Stuarts-there
will be an outbreak-they will come down on the Low country like a flood,
as they did in the waefu' wars o' Maontrose, and that will be seen and heard
tell o' ere a twalmonth gangs round."
"Yet still," I said, "I do not see how this concerns Mr. Campbell, much
less my father's affairs."
"Rob can levy five hundred men, sir, and therefore war suld concern
him as muckle as maist folk," replied the Bailie; "for it is a faculty that
is far less profitable in time o' peace. Then, to tell ye the truth, I doubt
he has been the prime agent- between some o' our Hieland chiefs and the
gentlemen in the north o' England. We a' heard o' the public money that
was taen frae the chield Morris somewhere about the fit o' Cheviot by Rob
and ane o' the Osbaldistone lads; and, to tell ye the truth, word gaed that
it was yoursell, Mr. Francis,-and sorry was I that your father's son suld
hae taen to sic practices-Na, ye needna say a word about it-I see weel I
was mistaen; but I wad believe onything o' a stage-player, whilk I concluded ye to be. But now, I doubtna, it has been Rashleigh himsell or
some other o' your cousins-they are a' tarr'd wi' the same stick-rank
Jacobites and papists, and wad think the government siller and government
papers lawfu' prize. And the creature Morris is sic a cowardly caitiff, that
to this hour he daurna say that it was Rob took the portmanteau aff him;
and troth's he right, for your custom-house and excise cattle are ill liket on
a' sides, and Rob might get a back-handed lick at him, before the Board,
as they ca't, could help him."
VOL. III. - 13.