Rob Roy

Roy, Complete, Illustrated, by
Sir Walter Scott

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Title: Rob Roy, Complete, Illustrated
Author: Sir Walter Scott
Release Date: October 25, 2006 [EBook #7025]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROB ROY,
COMPLETE, ILLUSTRATED ***

Produced by David Widger

ROB ROY
COMPLETE
BY SIR WALTER SCOTT

[Illustration: Frontispiece]
[Illustration: Titlepage]

For why? Because the good old rule Sufficeth them; the simple plan,
That they should take who have the power, And they should keep who
can.
Rob Roy's Grave--Wordsworth

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIRST EDITION
When the Editor of the following volumes published, about two years
since, the work called the "Antiquary," he announced that he was, for
the last time, intruding upon the public in his present capacity. He
might shelter himself under the plea that every anonymous writer is,
like the celebrated Junius, only a phantom, and that therefore, although
an apparition, of a more benign, as well as much meaner description, he
cannot be bound to plead to a charge of inconsistency. A better apology
may be found in the imitating the confession of honest Benedict, that,
when he said he would die a bachelor, he did not think he should live to
be married. The best of all would be, if, as has eminently happened in
the case of some distinguished contemporaries, the merit of the work
should, in the reader's estimation, form an excuse for the Author's
breach of promise. Without presuming to hope that this may prove the
case, it is only further necessary to mention, that his resolution, like
that of Benedict, fell a sacrifice, to temptation at least, if not to
stratagem.
It is now about six months since the Author, through the medium of his
respectable Publishers, received a parcel of Papers, containing the
Outlines of this narrative, with a permission, or rather with a request,
couched in highly flattering terms, that they might be given to the
Public, with such alterations as should be found suitable.*

* As it maybe necessary, in the present Edition(1829), to speak upon
the square, the Author thinks it proper to own, that the communication
alluded to is entirely imaginary.
These were of course so numerous, that, besides the suppression of
names, and of incidents approaching too much to reality, the work may
in a great measure be, said to be new written. Several anachronisms
have probably crept in during the course of these changes; and the
mottoes for the
Chapters
have been selected without any reference to the supposed date of the
incidents. For these, of course, the Editor is responsible. Some others
occurred in the original materials, but they are of little consequence. In
point of minute accuracy, it may be stated, that the bridge over the
Forth, or rather the Avondhu (or Black River), near the hamlet of
Aberfoil, had not an existence thirty years ago. It does not, however,
become the Editor to be the first to point out these errors; and he takes
this public opportunity to thank the unknown and nameless
correspondent, to whom the reader will owe the principal share of any
amusement which he may derive from the following pages.
1st December 1817.

INTRODUCTION---(1829)
When the author projected this further encroachment on the patience of
an indulgent public, he was at some loss for a title; a good name being
very nearly of as much consequence in literature as in life. The title of
Rob Roy was suggested by the late Mr. Constable, whose sagacity and
experience foresaw the germ of popularity which it included.
No introduction can be more appropriate to the work than some account
of the singular character whose name is given to the title-page, and who,
through good report and bad report, has maintained a wonderful degree

of importance in popular recollection. This cannot be ascribed to the
distinction of his birth, which, though that of a gentleman, had in it
nothing of high destination, and gave him little right to command in his
clan. Neither, though he lived a busy, restless, and enterprising life,
were his feats equal to those of other freebooters, who have been less
distinguished. He owed his fame in a great measure to his residing on
the very verge of the Highlands, and playing such pranks in the
beginning of the 18th century, as are usually ascribed to Robin Hood in
the middle ages,--and that within forty miles of Glasgow, a great
commercial city, the seat