Part 6 (2/2)
”Faith, that's easy answered,” I told him jauntily. ”I'm here by invitation of Lord Balmerino, and it seems I'm not overwelcome.”
Elphinstone interrupted impatiently.
”Gentlemen, we're at cross purposes. You're trying to drive Mr. Montagu, and I'm all for leading him. I warn you he's not to be driven. Let us talk it over reasonably.”
”Very well,” returned O'Sullivan sulkily. ”Talk as long as you please, but he doesn't get out of this room till I'm satisfied.”
”We are engaged on a glorious enterprise to restore to these islands their ancient line of sovereigns. You say you do not care for the Hanoverians.
Why not then strike a blow for the right cause?” asked Leath.
”Right and wrong are not to be divided by so clean a cut,” I told him. ”I am no believer in the divine inheritance of kings. In the last a.n.a.lysis the people shall be the judge.”
”Of course; and we are going to put it to the test.”
”You want to set the clock back sixty years. It will not do.”
”We think it will. We are resolved at least to try,” said Balmerino.
I shrugged my shoulders. ”The times are against you. The Stuarts have dropped out of the race. The mill cannot grind with the water that is past.”
”And if the water be not past?” asked Leath fiercely.
”Mar found it so in the '15, and many honest gentlemen paid for his mistake with their heads. My father's brother for one.”
”Mar bungled it from start to finish. He had the game in his own hands and dribbled away his chances like a coward and a fool.”
”Perhaps, but even so, much water has pa.s.sed under London Bridge since then. It is sixty years since the Stuarts were driven out. Two generations have slept on it.”
”Then the third generation of sleepers shall be wakened. The stream is coming down in spate,” said Balmerino.
”I hear you say it,” I answered dryly.
”And you shall live to see us do it, Mr. Montagu. The heather's in a blaze already. The fiery cross will be speeding from Badenoch to the Braes of Balwhidder. The clans will all rise whatever,” cried Donald Roy.
”I'm not so sure about Mr. Montagu living to see it. My friends O'Sullivan and De Vallery seem to think not,” said Creagh, giving me his odd smile.
”Now, I'll wager a crown that----”
”Whose crown did you say?” I asked politely, handing him back his smile.
”The government cannot stand out against us,” argued Balmerino. ”The Duke of Newcastle is almost an imbecile. The Dutch usurper himself is over in Hanover courting a new mistress. His troops are all engaged in foreign war. There are not ten thousand soldiers on the island. At this very moment the King of France is sending fifteen thousand across in transports. He will have no difficulty in landing them and London cannot hold out.”
”Faith, he might get his army here. I'm not denying that. But I'll promise him trouble in getting it away again.”
”The Highlands are ready to fling away the scabbard for King James III,”
said Donald Roy simply.
”It is in my mind that you have done that more than once before and that because of it misguided heads louped from st.u.r.dy shoulders,” I answered.
”Wales too is full of loyal gentlemen. What can the Hanoverians do if they march across the border to join the Highlanders rolling down from the North and Marshal Saxe with his French army?”
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