Robert Louis Stevenson

Kidnapped

KIDNAPPED

BEING

MEMOIRS OF THE ADVENTURES OF

DAVID BALFOUR

IN THE YEAR 1751

HOW HE WAS KIDNAPPED AND CAST AWAY; HIS SUFFERINGS IN

A DESERT ISLE; HIS JOURNEY IN THE WILD HIGHLANDS;

HIS ACQUAINTANCE WITH ALAN BRECK STEWART

AND OTHER NOTORIOUS HIGHLAND JACOBITES;

WITH ALL THAT HE SUFFERED AT THE

HANDS OF HIS UNCLE, EBENEZER

BALFOUR OF SHAWS, FALSELY

SO CALLED

WRITTEN BY HIMSELF AND NOW SET FORTH BY

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

WITH A PREFACE BY MRS. STEVENSON

PREFACE TO THE BIOGRAPHICAL EDITION

While my husband and Mr. Henley were engaged in writing plays in

Bournemouth they made a number of titles, hoping to use them in the

future. Dramatic composition was not what my husband preferred, but

the torrent of Mr. Henley's enthusiasm swept him off his feet. However,

after several plays had been finished, and his health seriously impaired

by his endeavours to keep up with Mr. Henley, play writing was abandoned

forever, and my husband returned to his legitimate vocation. Having

added one of the titles, The Hanging Judge, to the list of projected

plays, now thrown aside, and emboldened by my husband's offer to give me

any help needed, I concluded to try and write it myself.

As I wanted a trial scene in the Old Bailey, I chose the period of 1700

for my purpose; but being shamefully ignorant of my subject, and my

husband confessing to little more knowledge than I possessed, a London

bookseller was commissioned to send us everything he could procure

LIBRARY