KIDNAPPED
BEING
MEMOIRS OF THE ADVENTURES OF DAVID BALFOUR
IN THE YEAR 1751
HOW HE WAS KIDNAPPED AND CAST AWAY; HIS SUFFERINGS IN A DESERT ISLE; HIS JOURNEY IN THE WILD HIGHLANDS;
HIS ACQUAINTANCE WITH ALAN BRECK STEWART AND OTHER NOTORIOUS HIGHLAND JACOBITES; WITH ALL THAT HE SUFFERED AT THE
HANDS OF HIS UNCLE, EBENEZER BALFOUR OF SHAWS, FALSELY
SO CALLED
WRITTEN BY HIMSELF AND NOW SET FORTH BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
WITH A PREFACE BY MRS. STEVENSON
Contents
PREFACE TO THE BIOGRAPHICAL EDITION DEDICATION
CHAPTER I CHAPTER II CHAPTER III CHAPTER IV CHAPTER V CHAPTER VI CHAPTER VII CHAPTER VIII CHAPTER IX CHAPTER X CHAPTER XI CHAPTER XII CHAPTER XIII CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XVI
1
CHAPTER XVII CHAPTER XVIII CHAPTER XIX CHAPTER XX CHAPTER XXI CHAPTER XXII CHAPTER XXIII CHAPTER XXIV CHAPTER XXV CHAPTER XXVI CHAPTER XXVII CHAPTER XXVIII CHAPTER XXIX
CHAPTER XXX I SET OFF UPON MY JOURNEY TO THE HOUSE OF SHAWS I COME TO MY JOURNEY'S END
I MAKE ACQUAINTANCE OF MY UNCLE
I RUN A GREAT DANGER IN THE HOUSE OF SHAWS I GO TO THE QUEEN'S FERRY
WHAT BEFELL AT THE QUEEN'S FERRY
I GO TO SEA IN THE BRIG "COVENANT" OF DYSART THE ROUNDHOUSE
THE MAN WITH THE BELT OF GOLD THE SIEGE OF THE ROUNDHOUSE THE CAPTAIN KNUCKLES UNDER
I HEAR OF THE "RED FOX" THE LOSS OF THE BRIG THE ISLET
THE LAD WITH THE SILVER BUTTON: THROUGH THE ISLE OF MULL
THE LAD WITH THE SILVER BUTTON: ACROSS MORVEN
2
THE DEATH OF THE RED FOX
TALK WITH ALAN IN THE WOOD OF LETTERMORE THE HOUSE OF FEAR
THE FLIGHT IN THE HEATHER: THE ROCKS
THE FLIGHT IN THE HEATHER: THE HEUGH OF CORRYNAKIEGH THE FLIGHT IN THE HEATHER: THE MOOR
CLUNY'S CAGE
THE FLIGHT IN THE HEATHER THE QUARREL IN BALQUHIDDER
END OF THE FLIGHT: WE PASS THE FORTH I COME TO MR. RANKEILLOR
I GO IN QUEST OF MY INHERITANCE I COME INTO MY KINGDOM
GOOD-BYE
PREFACE TO THE BIOGRAPHICAL EDITION
While my husband and Mr. Henley were engaged in writing plays in Bournemouth they made a number of titles, hoping to use them in the future. Dramatic composition was not what my husband preferred, but the torrent of Mr. Henley's enthusiasm swept him
off his feet. However, after several plays had been finished, and his health seriously impaired by his endeavours to keep up with Mr. Henley, play writing was abandoned forever, and my husband returned to his legitimate vocation. Having added one of the titles, The Hanging Judge, to the list of projected plays, now thrown aside, and emboldened by my husband's offer to give me any help needed,
I concluded to try and write it myself.
As I wanted a trial scene in the Old Bailey, I chose the period of 1700 for my purpose; but being shamefully ignorant of my subject, and my husband confessing to little more knowledge than I possessed, a London bookseller was commissioned to send us everything he could procure bearing on Old Bailey trials. A great package came in response to our order, and very soon we were both absorbed, not so much in the trials as in following the brilliant career of a Mr. Garrow, who appeared as counsel in many of the cases. We sent for more books, and yet more, still intent on Mr. Garrow, whose subtle cross-examination of witnesses and masterly, if sometimes startling, methods of arriving at the truth seemed more thrilling to us than any novel.
Occasionally other trials than those of the Old Bailey would be included in the package of books we received from London; among
these my husband found and read with avidity:--
THE, TRIAL OF
3
JAMES STEWART
in Aucharn in Duror of Appin
FOR THE
Murder of COLIN CAMPBELL of Glenure, Efq; Factor for His Majefty on the forfeited
Estate of Ardfhiel.
My husband was always interested in this period of his country's history, and had already the intention of writing a story that should turn on the Appin murder. The tale was to be of a boy, David Balfour, supposed to belong to my husband's own family, who should travel in Scotland as though it were a foreign country, meeting with various adventures and misadventures by the way. From the trial of James Stewart my husband gleaned much valuable material for his novel, the most important being the character of Alan Breck. Aside from having described him as "smallish in stature," my husband seems to have taken Alan Breck's personal appearance, even to his clothing, from the book.
A letter from James Stewart to Mr. John Macfarlane, introduced as evidence in the trial, says: "There is one Alan Stewart, a distant friend of the late Ardshiel's, who is in the French service, and came over in March last, as he said to some, in order to settle at home; to others, that he was to go soon back; and was, as I hear, the day that the murder was committed, seen not far from the place where it happened, and is not now to be seen; by which it is believed he was the actor. He is a desperate foolish fellow; and if he is guilty, came to the country for that very purpose. He is a tall, pock-pitted lad, very black hair, and wore a blue coat and metal buttons, an
old red vest, and breeches of the same colour." A second witness testified to having seen him wearing "a blue coat with silver buttons, a red waistcoat, black shag breeches, tartan hose, and a feathered hat, with a big coat, dun coloured," a costume referred to by one of the counsel as "French cloathes which were remarkable."
There are many incidents given in the trial that point to Alan's fiery spirit and Highland quickness to take offence. One witness "declared also That the said Alan Breck threatened that he would challenge Ballieveolan and his sons to fight because of his removing the declarant last year from Glenduror." On another page: "Duncan Campbell, change-keeper at Annat, aged thirty-five years, married, witness cited, sworn, purged and examined ut supra, depones, That, in the month of April last, the deponent met with Alan Breck Stewart, with whom he was not acquainted, and John Stewart, in Auchnacoan, in the house of the walk miller of Auchofra-gan, and went on with them to the house: Alan Breck Stewart said, that he hated all the name of Campbell; and the deponent said,
he had no reason for doing so: But Alan said, he had very good reason for it: that thereafter they left that house; and, after drinking a dram at another house, came to the deponent's house, where they went in, and drunk some drams, and Alan Breck renewed the former Conversation; and the deponent, making the same answer, Alan said, that, if the deponent had any respect for his friends, he would tell them, that if they offered to turn out the possessors of Ardshiel's estate, he would make black cocks of them, before they entered into possession by which the deponent understood shooting them, it being a common phrase in the country."
Some time after the publication of Kidnapped we stopped for a short while in the Appin country, where we were surprised and interested to discover that the feeling concerning the murder of Glenure (the "Red Fox," also called "Colin Roy") was almost as keen as though the tragedy had taken place the day before. For several years my husband received letters of expostulation or commendation from members of the Campbell and Stewart clans. I have in my possession a paper, yellow with age, that was sent soon after
the novel appeared, containing "The Pedigree of the Family of Appine," wherein it is said that "Alan 3rd Baron of Appine was not killed at Flowdoun, tho there, but lived to a great old age. He married Cameron Daughter to Ewen Cameron of Lochiel." Following this is a paragraph stating that "John Stewart 1st of Ardsheall