Appin's agent, and to William Grant Esquire of Prestongrange, Lord
Advocate of Scotland. Mr. Balfour's was a non-committal visit; and
besides (Pilrig being in the country) I made bold to find the way
to it myself, with the help of my two legs and a Scots tongue. But
the rest were in a different case. Not only was the visit to
Appin's agent, in the midst of the cry about the Appin murder,
dangerous in itself, but it was highly inconsistent with the other.
I was like to have a bad enough time of it with my Lord Advocate
Grant, the best of ways; but to go to him hot-foot from Appin's
agent, was little likely to mend my own affairs, and might prove
the mere ruin of friend Alan's. The whole thing, besides, gave me
a look of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds that
was little to my fancy. I determined, therefore, to be done at
once with Mr. Stewart and the whole Jacobitical side of my
business, and to profit for that purpose by the guidance of the
porter at my side. But it chanced I had scarce given him the
address, when there came a sprinkle of rain--nothing to hurt, only
for my new clothes--and we took shelter under a pend at the head of
a close or alley.

Being strange to what I saw, I stepped a little farther in. The
narrow paved way descended swiftly. Prodigious tall houses sprang
upon each side and bulged out, one storey beyond another, as they
rose. At the top only a ribbon of sky showed in. By what I could
spy in the windows, and by the respectable persons that passed out
and in, I saw the houses to be very well occupied; and the whole
appearance of the place interested me like a tale.

I was still gazing, when there came a sudden brisk tramp of feet in
time and clash of steel behind me. Turning quickly, I was aware of