"But mind you," said Alan, "it's no small thing. Ye maun lie bare and hard, and brook many an empty belly. Your bed shall be the moorcock's, and your life shall be like the hunted deer's, and ye shall sleep with your hand upon your weapons. Ay, man, ye shall taigle many a weary foot, ere we get clear! I tell ye this at the start, for it's a life that I ken well. But if ye ask what other chance ye have, I answer: Nane. Either take to the heather with me, or else hang." The above statement is made by Alan Breck Stewart, an historical character who figures prominently in Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novel Kidnapped, which is set in 18th century Scotland sometime after the 1745 Jacobite uprising. In it, the protagonist- young David Balfour- and Alan Breck Stewart are in the wrong place at the wrong time when Colin Roy Campbell is murdered (this is an actual historical event and Stewart was indeed one of the main suspects. Campbell's men assume that they are guilty of the crime, but David is naively convinced that if they tell the truth and explain their presence, their innocence will be proven. Alan, much more aware of the danger of their situation, points out that they are on Campbell land; if they are arrested and charged, their judge will be a Campbell and the men on the jury will be Campbells, and all of them will be out for blood. He tells David that their only hope of survival is to go on the run through the highlands, trying to evade their pursuers until they can escape into the lowlands. He warns David that it won't be easy, but it's their only chance.
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