, and held
myself bound upon my vanity to make good that boastfulness. Nay, and he
hit me with the other end of the stick; for he accused me of a kind of
artful cowardice, going about at the expense of a little risk to
purchase greater safety. No doubt, until I had declared and cleared
myself, I might any day encounter Mungo Campbell or the sheriff's
officer, and be recognised, and dragged into the Appin murder by the
heels; and, no doubt, in case I could manage my declaration with
success, I should breathe more free for ever after. But when I looked
this argument full in the face I could see nothing to be ashamed of. As
for the rest, "Here are the two roads," I thought, "and both go to the
same place. It's unjust that James should hang if I can save him; and it
would be ridiculous in me to have talked so much and then do nothing.
It's lucky for James of the Glens that I have boasted beforehand; and
none so unlucky for myself, because now I'm committed to do right. I
have the name of a gentleman and the means of one; it would be a poor
discovery that I was wanting in the essence." And then I thought this
was a Pagan spirit, and said a prayer in to myself, asking for what
courage I might lack, and that I might go straight to my duty like a
soldier to battle, and come off again scatheless as so many do.

This train of reasoning brought me to a more resolved complexion; though
it was far from closing up my sense of the dangers that surrounded me,
nor of how very apt I was (if I went on) to stumble on the ladder of the
gallows. It was a plain, fair morning, but the wind in the east. The
little chill of it sang in my blood, and gave me a feeling of the
autumn, and the dead leaves, and dead folks' bodies in their graves. It
seemed the devil was in it, if I was to die in that tide of my fortunes
and for other folks' affairs. On the top of the Calton Hill, though it
was not the customary time of year for that diversion, some children
were crying and running with their kites. These toys appeared very plain
against the sky; I remarked a great one soar on the wind to a high
altitude and then plump among the whins; and I thought to myself at
sight of it, "There goes Davie."

My way lay over Mouter's Hill, and through an end of a clachan on the
braeside among fields. There was a whirr of looms in it went from house
to house; bees bummed in the gardens; the neighbours that I saw at the
doorsteps talked in a strange tongue; and I fou