s 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."

It was actually so--it was actually on the wayside near Tynedrum, and by
the connivance of a soldier officer, that Mr. Stewart first saw the
witnesses upon the case.

"There is nothing that would surprise me in this business," I remarked.

"I'll surprise you ere I'm done!" cries he. "Do ye see this?"--producing
a print still wet from the press. "This is the libel: see, there's
Prestongrange's name to the list of witnesses, and I find no word of any
Balfour. But here is not the question. Who do ye think paid for the
printing of this paper?"

"I suppose it would likely be King George," said I.

"But it happens it was me!" he cried. "Not but it was printed by and for
themselves, for the Grants and the Erskines, and yon thief of the black
midnight, Symon Fraser. But could _I_ win to get a copy? No! I was to go
blindfold to my defence; I was to hear the charges for the first time in
court alongst the jury."

"Is not this against the law?" I asked.

"I cannot say so much," he replied. "It was a favour so natural and so
constantly rendered (till this nonesuch business) that the law has never
looked to it. And now admire the hand of Providence! A stranger is in
Fleming's printing house, spies a proof on the floor, picks it up, and
carries it to m