The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Billow and the Rock, by Harriet Martineau

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Title: The Billow and the Rock

Author: Harriet Martineau

Illustrator: E.J. Wheeler

Release Date: October 20, 2007 [EBook #23115]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BILLOW AND THE ROCK ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

The Billow and the Rock, by Harriet Martineau.

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It is the time of the 1745 Rebellion, when the adherents of Prince
Charles, the Pretender to the Throne, landed in Scotland, and started to
march towards London.

Lord Carse, and his friend Lord Lovat, are fearful that Lady Carse, who
has some knowledge and evidence of their political beliefs, may betray
them. So they abduct her from her home in Edinburgh and have her taken
away to a remote island in the Outer Hebrides. She was at first a most
unwilling prisoner, but gradually an instinct for survival let her eat
and drink, and ride pillion, and so survive the journey.

The Edinburgh newspapers are fed a story of her illness, then of her
death, and finally of her burial. So there is no hue and cry.

The story is well-written as one would hope from such an accomplished
writer. It makes a good audiobook, but probably you will need to listen
to it twice before the story and its background become clear to you.

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THE BILLOW AND THE ROCK, BY HARRIET MARTINEAU.

CHAPTER ONE.

LORD AND LADY CARSE.

Scotland was a strange and uncomfortable country to live in a hundred
years ago. Strange beyond measure its state of society appears to us
when we consider, not only that it was called a Christian country, but
that the people had shown that they really did care very much for their
religion, and were bent upon worshipping God according to their
conscience and true belief. Whilst earnest in their religion, their
state of society was yet very wicked: a thing which usually happens when
a whole people are passing from one way of living and being governed to
another. Scotland had not long b