should be doing in Grant's house; I
could not conceive that he had been called to the Bar, had eaten all his
principles, and was now currying favour with the Government, even to the extent
of acting Advocate-Depute in the Appin murder.
    »Well, Mr. Balfour,« said he, »what is all this I hear of ye?«
    »It would not become me to prejudge,« said I, »but if the Advocate was your
authority he is fully possessed of my opinions.«
    »I may tell you I am engaged in the Appin case,« he went on; »I am to appear
under Prestongrange; and from my study of the precognitions I can assure you
your opinions are erroneous. The guilt of Breck is manifest; and your testimony,
in which you admit you saw him on the hill at the very moment, will certify his
hanging.«
    »It will be rather ill to hang him till you catch him,« I observed. »And for
other matters, I very willingly leave you to your own impressions.«
    »The Duke has been informed,« he went on. »I have just come from his Grace,
and he expressed himself before me with an honest freedom, like the great
nobleman he is. He spoke of you by name, Mr. Balfour, and declared his gratitude
beforehand in case you would be led by those who understand your own interests
and those of the country so much better than yourself. Gratitude is no empty
expression in that mouth: experto crede. I daresay you know something of my name
and clan, and the damnable example and lamented end of my late father, to say
nothing of my own errata. Well, I have made my peace with that good Duke; he has
intervened for me with our friend Prestongrange; and here I am with my foot in
the stirrup again and some of the responsibility shared into my hand of
prosecuting King George's enemies and avenging the late daring and barefaced
insult to his Majesty.«
    »Doubtless a proud position for your father's son,« says I.
    He wagged his bald eyebrows at me. »You are pleased to make experiments in
the ironical, I think,« said he. »But I am here upon duty; I am here to
discharge my errand in good faith; it is in vain you think to divert me. And let
me tell you, for a young fellow of spirit and ambition like yourself, a good
shove in the beginning will do more than ten years' drudgery. The