venth book, for I have first been eaten up
with Taine, and next have fallen head over heels into a new tale, _The
Master of Ballantrae_. No thought have I now apart from it, and I have
got along up to page ninety-two of the draft with great interest. It is
to me a most seizing tale: there are some fantastic elements; the most
is a dead genuine human problem--human tragedy, I should say rather. It
will be about as long, I imagine, as _Kidnapped_.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

(1) My old Lord Durrisdeer.

(2) The Master of Ballantrae, _and_

(3) Henry Durie, _his sons_.

(4) Clementina,[25] _engaged to the first, married to the second_.

(5) Ephraim Mackellar, _land steward at Durrisdeer and narrator of the
most of the book_.

(6) Francis Burke, Chevalier de St. Louis, _one of Prince Charlie's
Irishmen and narrator of the rest_.

Besides these, many instant figures, most of them dumb or nearly so:
Jessie Brown the whore, Captain Crail, Captain MacCombie, our old friend
Alan Breck, our old friend Riach (both only for an instant), Teach the
pirate (vulgarly Blackbeard), John Paul and Macconochie, servants at
Durrisdeer. The date is from 1745 to '65 (about). The scene, near
Kirkcudbright, in the States, and for a little moment in the French East
Indies. I have done most of the big work, the quarrel, duel between the
brothers, and announcement of the death to Clementina and my
Lord--Clementina, Henry, and Mackellar (nicknamed Squaretoes) are really
very fine fellows; the Master is all I know of the devil. I have known
hints of him, in the world, but always cowards; he is as bold as a lion,
but with the same deadly, causeless duplicity I have watched with so
much surprise in my two cowards. 'Tis true, I saw a hint of the same
nature in another man who was not a coward; but he had other things to
attend to; the Master has nothing else but his devilry. Here come my
visitors--and have now gone, or the first relay of them; and I hope no
more may come. For mark you, sir, this is our "day"--Saturday, as ever
was; and here we sit, my mother and I, before a large wood fire and
await the enemy with the most steadfast courage; and without snow and
greyness: and the woman Fanny in New York for her health, which is far
from good; and the lad Lloyd at the inn in the village because he has a
cold; and the handmaid Valentine abroad in a sleigh upon her messages;
and to-morrow Christmas and no mistake. Such is huma