'With your usual penetration, you guessed right. An
Englishman brought it me. It reached me, through the hands of his
English solicitor, from my great-uncle, the Comte de Keroual de
Saint-Yves, I believe the richest emigre in London.'
'I can do no more than take your word for it,' said she.
'And I trust, madam, not less,' said I.
'Well,' said she, 'at this rate the matter may be feasible. I will
cash one of these five-guinea bills, less the exchange, and give
you silver and Scots notes to bear you as far as the border.
Beyond that, Mosha the Viscount, you will have to depend upon
yourself.'
I could not but express a civil hesitation as to whether the amount
would suffice, in my case, for so long a journey.
'Ay,' said she, 'but you havenae heard me out. For if you are not
too fine a gentleman to travel with a pair of drovers, I believe I
have found the very thing, and the Lord forgive me for a
treasonable old wife! There are a couple stopping up by with the
shepherd-man at the farm; to-morrow they will take the road for
England, probably by skriegh of day--and in my opinion you had best
be travelling with the stots,' said she.
'For Heaven's sake do not suppose me to be so effeminate a
character!' I cried. 'An old soldier of Napoleon is certainly
beyond suspicion.
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