I would have to make the journey back again
betwixt here and Fort William. Then 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.
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