language plain? They hope the officer may be so dull, or so very much
the reverse, as to refuse the recommendation. I would have to make the
journey back again betwixt here and Fort William. There would follow a
fresh delay till I got fresh authority, and they had disavowed the
officer--military man, notoriously ignorant of the law, and that--I ken
the cant of it. Then the journey a third time; and there we should be on
the immediate heels of the trial before I had received my first
instruction. Am I not right to call this a conspiracy?"

"It will bear that colour," said I.

"And I'll go on to prove it you outright," said he. "They have the right
to hold James in prison, yet they cannot deny me to visit him. They have
no right to hold the witnesses; but am I to get a sight of them, that
should be as free as the Lord Justice Clerk himself? See--read: _For the
rest, refuses to give any orders to keepers of prisons who are not
accused as having done anything contrary to the duties of their office_.
Anything contrary! Sirs! And the Act of seventeen hunner! Mr. Balfour,
this makes my heart to burst. The heather is on fire inside my wame."

"And the plain English of that phrase," said I, "is that the witnesses
are still to lie in prison and you are not to see them?"

"And I am not to see them until Inverary, when the court is set!" cries
he, "and then to hear Prestongrange upon _the anxious responsibilities
of his office and the great facilities afforded the defence!_ But I'll
begowk them there, Mr. David. I have a plan to waylay the witnesses upon
the road, and see if I cannae get a little harle of justice out of the
_military man notoriously ignorant of the law_ that shall command the
party."